Restoration work on the Gantry, an iconic piece of Manchester’s industrial heritage near completion.
Over 140 years after the gantry outside of the museum’s Power Hall was first built, visitors will be able to see it fully repaired in the lead up to the reopening of Power Hall: The Law Family Gallery in Summer 2025.
Over the coming weeks, visitors at the Science and Industry Museum will be able to see glimpses of the essential repairs that have taken place to the towering outdoor gantry crane outside of Power Hall. Painstaking and careful shotblasting to remove historic water damage and rust, specialist conservation treatment and paint analysis have allowed the museum to repaint it in keeping with its history.
The historic Grade II listed gantry in the museum’s Upper Yard is one of the most striking features of the museum site. It runs almost the full length of the Power Hall (formerly the Shipping Shed for the Liverpool Road Station) –and provides a unique sculptural feature in the city’s historic Castlefield area.
Essential repair works have included shot blasting the 72m long and 8m high metal structure to remove historic weather damage before carefully removing each layer of corrosion and rust, a painstaking process which took four months to complete under the care of specialist teams.
The restoration of the gantry is part a larger initiative to make essential repairs across the museum’s site, including the New Warehouse’s 150-year-old roof, the 1830 Viaduct and Station and our iconic Power Hall. These works have been made possible by the museum's current £14.2 million worth of national capital funding by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to complete urgent repairs across New Warehouse, the gantry and the 1830 Viaduct.
The gantry on the Science and Industry Museum’s site is a vital part of Manchester’s industrial heritage and showcases how innovative new technology installed at Liverpool Road Station powered Manchester forward. The museum continues to work hard to future-proof this historic structure for generations to come and it will be unveiled to the public in Summer 2025 alongside the reopening of the Power Hall.
Science and Industry Museum
Liverpool Road
Manchester M3 4FP
Open 10.00–17.00 daily
Further Information: We are changing | Science and Industry Museum