Manchester is a city that is known for its spectacular and historic football club, Manchester United F.C. But is it the only thing that makes this city valuable?
A rich history of textiles and culture has been cultivated on the lands of Manchester, making it an asset to England.
The best way to discover this hidden side of Manchester is to explore the amazing museums here.
1. Manchester Museum
Location – The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL.
Manchester Museum is a gigantic museum displaying incredible works of archaeology, anthropology, and the history of the Industrial Revolution.
This museum is owned by the University of Manchester and is located at the heart of the university’s group of neo-Gothic buildings.
This museum in Manchester showcases about 4.5 million items from every continent.
Manchester Museum is the United Kingdom’s largest university museum. This museum is a prime visitor attraction and is extensively used to explore resources for academic research and teaching.
1.1. Archaeology
The chief collections in archaeology have been sourced from Western Europe, the Mediterranean, Western Asia, and Egypt. Huge accessions of historic pieces from Western Asia and Egypt came from the excavations of Sir Flinders Petrie.
The priceless Egyptological collections include historical pieces from Kahun and Gurob, presented in the year 1890 by Jesse Haworth and Martyn Kennard.
A bog body, Worsley Man and Lindow Man, had been a part of this museum’s spectacular display.
1.2. Anthropology
The museum exhibits a vast collection of over 16,000 historic artifacts, with close to half of them being sourced from Africa. Additionally, the museum also showcases significant materials from Oceania.The Lloyd collection of fine Japanese metalwork, beautiful carvings, and ceramics was the donation of R. W. Lloyd.
1.3. Archery
The heart of the archery collection of approximately 2,000 exhibits was formed by Ingo Simon and donated to this museum in 1946.
1.4. Botany
The Manchester Herbarium comprises upwards of 950,000 specimens collected during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, representing most of the countries.
This museum contains important contributions from Charles Bailey and James Cosmo Melvill, specimens from Carolus Linnæus, and the expeditions of Charles Darwin and Admiral Sir John Franklin.
1.5. Earth Sciences
Historic specimens include the fossilized plants of the Coal Measures, the fine S. S. Buckman collection of ammonites, an ichthyosaur from Whitby, and 40,000 mammalian bones from an amazing excavation at Creswell Crags, Derbyshire.
The priceless David Forbes World Collection of minerals is also present at this museum.
2. Science and Industry Museum
Location– Liverpool Road, Manchester M3 4FP.
The phenomenal Science and Industry Museum in Manchester traces the growth of science, technology, and industry with stress on the city’s accomplishments in these fields.
The museum is a portion of the Science Museum Group, a non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
There are wide-ranging displays on the theme of transport (cars, rolling stock, and railway locomotives ), power (water, electricity, steam, and gas engines), Manchester’s history of sewerage and sanitation, textiles, communications, and computing.
The museum is an Anchor Point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage.
This museum is located on the world’s first passenger railway station – Manchester Liverpool Road – which was inaugurated as part of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in 1830.
The railway station frontage and 1830 warehouse are the Grades I listed.
2.1. Computing and Communications
A fascinating replica of the Manchester Baby
A Connected Earth gallery that tells the intriguing history of communications in Manchester and the North West of England.
2.2. Locomotives
- NS 1505 Ariadne – The spectacular NS 1505 Ariadne is grandly displayed outside the museum.
Ericsson’s Novelty – A beautiful replica incorporating parts from the original locomotive 1829.
South African Railways GL class Garratt No. 2352 was built in 1929 by Beyer, Peacock & Company.
Pakistan Railways 4–4–0 No. 3157 (broad gauge) -Originally constructed for North Western Railway of India by Vulcan Foundry, Newton-le-Willows.
3. National Football Museum
Location– Cathedral Gardens, Manchester, M4 3BG.
The remarkable National Football Museum is England’s national museum dedicated to football. It is located in the Urbis building in Manchester City Center.
This museum in Manchester is dedicated to the preservation, conservation, and display of significant collections of football memorabilia.
This museum is a paradise for die-hard fans of football. Some of the eye-catching aspects of this museum laid out over four floors are,
3.1. Pitch Gallery
The largest floor, comprising the zones:
- Trophies – The fantastic replicas of the FA Cup and Premier League trophies are majestically on display.
- Hall of Fame – A full list of the National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame inductees.
3.2. Match Gallery
This floor comprises many zones with one being England on the World Stage a section devoted to England’s national Men and Women’s teams, highlighting the Jules Rimet Trophy, the match ball from the 1966 World Cup Final, and Diego Maradona’s historic “Hand of God” shirt.
3.3. Play Gallery
This zone features numerous paid-for football interactive games, as well as the following zones:
- Football for All – A showcase of how the fantastic game of football is played by people of all capabilities.
- Laws – Interactive screens elucidating the original rules of football and referees’ roles in the game.
4. Manchester Art Gallery
Location– Mosley Street, Manchester, M2 3JL.
Manchester Art Gallery, formerly known as Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned majestic art museum located on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre.
It comprises numerous works of local and international importance with a fantastic collection of more than 25,000 objects.
The priceless gallery has a fine art collection comprising more than 2,000 oil paintings, 3,000 watercolours and drawings, 90 miniatures, and approximately 1,000 prints.
It showcases over 13,000 decorative art objects with ceramics, glass, furniture, metalwork, arms and armor, doll houses, and wallpapers.
The most ancient object is an Egyptian canopic jar sourced from circa 1100 BC.
Thomas Coglan Horsfall’s wide-ranging collection from the Manchester Art Museum in Ancoats Hall was added to the gallery in the year 1953.
Manchester Art Gallery is most magnificent in its collection of eye-catching Victorian art, particularly that of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and Victorian decorative arts.
The art galleries have beautiful paintings by William Etty and William Holman Hunt.
5. Greater Manchester Police Museum
Location– 57a Newton Street, Manchester, M1 1ET.
The unique Greater Manchester Police Museum is a former police station transformed into a museum possessing archives listing the history of policing in Greater Manchester.
The text describes the history of policing in Manchester from 1879 to 1979.
The interior depicts Victorian policing. The building was Grade II, listed in the year 1994 as the Former Newton Street Police Station.
The Roll of Honor commemorates the members of Greater Manchester Police and the earlier constituent forces, highlighting all those who have sacrificed their lives due to criminal acts, enemy action, mishap, accident, natural causes, and unidentified causes whilst on duty.
Last Updated on May 7, 2024 by Arnab Nandi
