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A look inside Manchester Museum’s £15 million transformation

19 Aug 2022

Manchester Museum has released new footage from its ambitious capital development project, hello future

Museum under construction

The Museum is currently closed to the public while construction work is completed, and it is on schedule to reopen in February 2023.

The original neo-Gothic building, designed by renowned architect Alfred Waterhouse (1830–1905), is home to around 4.5 million objects from natural sciences and human cultures.

A modern two-storey extension increases the building’s footprint and comprises a new Exhibition Hall on the ground floor, and on the first floor is a South Asia Gallery, which is a British Museum Partnership.

The extension is clad in stunning, green-glazed terracotta tiles to pay homage to Victorian and Edwardian period buildings across Manchester.

Golden Mummies of Egypt will be the opening show in the Exhibition Hall following a hugely successful tour across the USA and China. It features eight mummies and more than a hundred objects from the Museum’s world-class Egyptology collection.

An accessible entrance from Oxford Road is currently being built and visitors will arrive at a new welcome area that will feature breathtaking objects to inspire wonder and imagination.

Galleries and facilities are being uniquely co-created so that the Museum becomes more inclusive, imaginative and caring for the diverse communities it serves.  Facilities will include a Changing Places toilet, picnic area, prayer space and quiet room.

Over eighteen thousand objects have had to be moved or protected from building work and the Museum is also recycling and reusing as much material as possible.

Esme Ward, Manchester Museum Director, said: “We are extending the building, making room for more joy and learning and evolving into the Museum Manchester needs. Galleries and exhibitions will showcase the best of the museum’s historic collections, as well as addressing the urgencies of the present day.

"We can’t wait to reopen our doors in just six months’ time. Until then, we will continue to bring updates on our progress.”

More information:

  • Follow @mcrmuseum on social media for plenty of behind-the-scenes content.
  • To find out more about this transformation, visit www.mmfromhome.com/hellofuture.