Extension plans for the Science and Industry Museum include a ‘Wonderlab’ and a ‘rail experience’

The Science and Industry Museum has unveiled further extension plans that will include new permanent galleries and improvements to the globally significant site.

As the museum’s first phase of repair and improvement nears completion, including the reopening of the Power Hall this summer, the team has confirmed they are now seeking an architect and lead designer for a new Wonderlab gallery ahead of a proposed 2027 opening.

This new Wonderlab space is being planned to inspire children to imagine, experiment and play like an inventor, becoming one of the ‘most spectacular, interactive science galleries of its kind’.

An open competition to design Wonderlab opened last month, with architectural and exhibition design practices invited to submit first-stage tender returns by Mon 24 Mar on the Science Museum Group’s Tenders website.

Feasibility work will also begin this year on a new free Technicians interactive gallery for 11-16-year-olds to inspire tomorrow’s technicians. Should the feasibility work prove positive, this gallery would provide an interactive space for kids to have a go at real-life technician jobs that are vital to Manchester’s industries.

Should the project proceed, the gallery would open towards the end of this decade and be housed within the historic arches of the viaduct in the lower courtyard of the museum (also known as the Pineapple Line). Boasting monumental round cast iron and square sandstone pillars, this space would be used as public galleries for the first time and would help open the lower end of the museum’s historic site for all to explore.

Following extensive external repairs, feasibility work will also begin this year on a new gallery and static rail experience for the historic 1830 station — the world’s first inter-urban passenger railway and world’s oldest surviving passenger railway station — which is set to re-open ahead of the Liverpool-Manchester railway bicentenary in 2030.

Other proposed work includes the landscaping and improvement of access in and around the museum’s Lower Yard to enable a landmark science playground, and to connect to Manchester and Salford via Water Street and through Aviva Studios, Liverpool Road and Castlefield.

Science and Industry Museum Director Sally MacDonald OBE says: “Ahead of the Power Hall re-opening 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.”