Manchester's Science and Industry Museum moves forward with Wonderlab

A Wonderlab children’s gallery is among several new spaces being planned for the next phase of the Science and Industry Museum’s transformation, according to the Museums Association.

It reports that the Manchester museum is seeking an architect and lead designer for the interactive science gallery – a popular feature at other Science Museum Group sites – via an open design competition, with architectural and exhibition design practices invited to submit first stage tender returns by 24 March

The new gallery will explore Manchester’s history of science and invention, drawing on the architectural features and history of the site to reflect the city’s creativity and innovation. It will be aimed at a target audience of ages four to 10, plus access for early years.

The institution revealed the plans this week in an announcement that it is extending its ongoing transformation project. The museum is currently nearing the end of the first phase of the redevelopment, which will see the reopening of the Power Hall this summer following extensive repairs and improvements.

In addition to the Wonderlab gallery, the museum will begin a feasibility study this year on a new free Technicians interactive gallery for 11-16-year-olds.

Feasibility work will also take place this year on a new gallery and static rail experience for the museum’s 1830 station building, which has now been restored. The building housed the world’s first inter-urban passenger railway and world’s oldest surviving passenger railway station. It will reopen ahead of the Liverpool-Manchester railway bicentenary in 2030.

Feasibility work will also commence in the near future on landscaping and improving access in and around the museum’s Lower Yard for a science playground. The museum plans to open the site to connect to neighbouring roads.

By the end of 2025, half of the museum’s site will have been restored over the last five years, following an investment of more than £40m from national government, charitable trusts and foundations, and philanthropists.

A Special Exhibitions Gallery is now hosting science experiences, while the Grade I listed Station Agent’s House has been restored and opened as a new holiday property with the Landmark Trust.

The Grade II listed Power Hall and public realm in the upper half of the site will open later this year. Meanwhile, the historic roofs of the listed New Warehouse and 1830 station, as well as with the museum’s gantry, have been repaired and future proofed. Significant work has also been undertaken to decarbonise the site.

Director Sally MacDonald said: “Ahead of the Power Hall reopening this summer and the completion of a mammoth amount of repair work to our wonderful historic buildings, we can now look forward to future compelling galleries that will help us tell the stories of the world’s first industrial city and ideas that change the world.

“It’s our mission to open the potential of the whole of this globally significant industrial heritage site - to bring all of it back into use and to celebrate it through a journey that allows visitors to explore and understand how the buildings and structures that the museum cares for connect to the collections and stories they contain. 

“We want to create more access through the site and make the most of the museum’s outdoor spaces for everyone who lives in and visits Manchester and provide more opportunities to inspire the next generation of innovators, thinkers, creators, technicians and scientists whose ideas will continue to change the world.”

Below: Science and Industry Museum Manchester campus with world's first passenger railway station - photographed in June 2022