Science and Industry Museum facts for kids
Entrance structure reflecting its science/industrial themes
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| Established | 15 September 1983 |
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| Location | Liverpool Road, Manchester, England |
| Type | Science museum |
| Visitors | 556,523 (2019) |
| Public transit access | Metroshuttle  – Green Route |
| National Museum of Science and Industry | |
| National Media Museum · National Railway Museum (Shildon Locomotion Museum) · Science Museum (Dana Centre, Science Museum Swindon) | |
The Science and Industry Museum in Manchester, England, is a fantastic place to explore how science, technology, and industry have grown. It especially highlights Manchester's amazing contributions in these areas. This museum is part of the Science Museum Group, which means it's connected to other big science museums across the UK.
The museum has many cool exhibits. You can see different types of transport like cars and old railway locomotives. There are also displays about how we get power, from water and steam to electricity and gas engines. You can learn about Manchester's sewerage system, textiles, communications, and even computing.
This museum is a special spot on the European Route of Industrial Heritage. It's built on the site of the world's very first passenger railway station, Manchester Liverpool Road. This station opened way back in 1830 as part of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. The original station building and a nearby warehouse from 1830 are both very important historical buildings.
Contents
Discovering the Museum's Past
The museum first opened its doors in 1969. Back then, it was called the North Western Museum of Science and Industry. It started in a temporary spot on Grosvenor Street in Chorlton-on-Medlock. The museum had strong connections with the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology (UMIST). Many of its early exhibits came from UMIST's history of science and technology department.
In 1978, the local council bought the oldest part of the former Liverpool Road station. This station had closed in 1975. The council paid a tiny amount for the site – just £1! The museum officially opened at this historic railway station site on September 15, 1983. Over time, it grew to include the entire old station.
Since 2007, the museum has hosted an exciting annual science festival in Manchester. This festival brings science to life with fun activities and shows for everyone.
In 2021, the museum announced that its Air and Space Hall would close permanently. The aircraft and space items were either returned to their owners or moved to be shown in other parts of the museum in the future.
Exciting Museum Exhibits
The Science and Industry Museum has many fascinating exhibits for you to explore:
Computing and Communication History
- You can see a working replica of the Manchester Baby. This was one of the world's very first electronic computers!
- The Connected Earth gallery, which opened in 2007, tells the story of how people communicated in Manchester and the North West of England over time.
Amazing Locomotives on Display
- Ericsson's Novelty – This is a replica of a famous locomotive from 1829. It even includes some parts from the original train!
- British Rail Class 77 No. 27001, also known as Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch Railways) No. 1505, Ariadne. This is a powerful electric locomotive built in 1953.
- South African Railways GL class Garratt No. 2352 – This huge steam engine was built in Manchester in 1929.
- Pakistan Railways 4–4–0 No. 3157 – This broad-gauge train was originally built for the North Western Railway of India around 1911–1914.
Past Exhibitions to Remember
Some galleries that were once permanent exhibits at the museum include:
- The Electricity Gallery, which showed how electricity is made, sent out, and used.
- The Gas Gallery, which looked at the gas industry from the past to the present.
- Underground Manchester, which explored the city's sanitation and water supply systems.
- A space-themed gallery, which used to be on the upper level of the Air and Space hall. It featured historical space travel, space science, and even science fiction.
Special Past Shows
- Body Worlds 4 was a unique exhibition that showed the human body in detail. It was at the museum from February to June 2008.
- LMR 57 Lion – This is one of Britain's oldest steam locomotives that can still run. It was at the museum but moved to the Museum of Liverpool in 2007.
- Stephenson's Rocket – This incredibly famous steam locomotive was on display at the museum from September 2018 to September 2019.
The Museum's Railway Line
Until 2018, the museum used to run special demonstration passenger trains within its grounds. These trains were pulled by the museum's two working steam locomotives:
- Planet – This is a replica of Robert Stephenson & Company's Planet class locomotive. It was built in 1992 by the Friends of the Museum. The original Planet was built in 1830 and pulled trains on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
- Agecroft No. 1 – This steam engine was built in 1948 for use at Agecroft Power Station. It was restored and started running again in 2011.
The museum's railway line used to connect to the main national rail network. However, a new railway link called the Ordsall Chord was built in 2017. This construction cut off the museum's connection to the main lines and made its own railway track much shorter.
Because of these changes, the museum's railway operations were stopped indefinitely in 2019. In June 2024, the museum confirmed that the trains would not run again. This was due to the shortened track and concerns about how much weight the old historical buildings on the site could hold. The railway tracks will now become part of a new plan to make the museum area even better and easier to access.
Amazing Industrial Machines
The museum has a huge collection of large industrial machines. These include stationary steam engines, hot air engines, diesel engines, hydraulic pumps, and big electric generators. Many of these machines still work and are sometimes run for visitors to see! This collection even includes the very last stationary steam engine ever built to power a mill.
There's also a special exhibit of spinning and weaving machines. These machines show you every step of how wool is turned into fabric. You can often see these machines running for a few minutes at scheduled times.
The Area Around the Museum
The museum is located next to a huge redevelopment area called St John's Quarter. This area used to be the site of Granada Studios. A new venue for the Manchester International Festival called Factory opened right next to the museum in 2023. This new venue is part of the exciting changes happening in the area.
The museum has plans to build a new Special Exhibition Gallery on the ground floor of its New Warehouse building. This new gallery will bring even more amazing shows to the museum. The museum is working with the city council to make the whole area around it a creative and fun place to visit.
See also
- Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester
- List of museums in Greater Manchester
- List of transport museums
- List of aerospace museums
