The Science and Industry Museum has announced the reopening of one of its most iconic spaces. From Fri 17 Oct, Power Hall: The Andrew Law Gallery will welcome visitors once again after an extensive refurbishment, offering the chance to step back inside one of the UK’s most significant industrial heritage buildings and explore a pioneering space with sustainability, technology and accessibility at its core.
Free to visit, the reimagined gallery will transport guests through Manchester’s industrial history with the sights, sounds and smells of the city’s past. Visitors can see a collection of working steam engines from the 19th and 20th centuries, some running for the first time in nearly a decade, alongside a host of new interactive displays designed to get all ages building, testing and tinkering.
Power Hall: The Andrew Law Gallery will showcase machines like Pender, a steam locomotive that once ferried Victorian holidaymakers around the Isle of Man, and the Durn Mill engine, which powered weaving machinery in Rochdale during the 1800s. Returning favourites include the replica of the Planet steam locomotive, originally built in Manchester – and one of the first engines to run between Liverpool and Manchester in the 1830s.
Alongside the engines, new and inspiring stories shed light on the incredible people behind the mechanisms, from early women engineers and cotton pickers on American plantations to today’s designers of wind turbines and digital systems. A wide array of hands-on activities will invite visitors to pump, hammer and build their way through challenges that bring STEM to life in an engaging, insightful way.
The reopening is part of the museum’s ongoing multi-million pound transformation, which has restored the Power Hall’s grand architecture and revealed new public space through the landscaped Upper Yard. Visitors will enter through a brand-new central entrance before exploring 2,500 square metres of history brought up to date with cutting-edge sustainable technology.
Power Hall: The Andrew Law Gallery will reopen on Friday 17 October. Visits to Power Hall are included as part of a free museum ticket.
More information about Power Hall: The Andrew Law Gallery can be found on the museum’s website.
- Words:
- Wolf McFarlane
- Published on:
- Fri 17 Oct 2025
