Museums in Manchester

Manchester Museum is one of the UK's largest university museums, housing over 4.5 million items spanning archaeology, natural history and living cultures. A major £15 million transformation completed in 2023 added new galleries and a vivarium.

The Lowry is a landmark arts complex on Salford Quays combining two theatres, gallery spaces and public areas inside a steel-and-glass building designed by Michael Wilford. It holds the world's largest collection of paintings and drawings by L. S. Lowry.

Manchester Art Gallery on Mosley Street houses one of the UK's finest collections of Pre-Raphaelite paintings alongside decorative arts, fashion and contemporary installations. Three interconnected buildings span periods from the 1820s to the present.

Housed in the dramatic glass Urbis building near Manchester Cathedral, the National Football Museum claims to be the world's largest and most comprehensive football museum. It celebrates the beautiful game's history through interactive displays and iconic memorabilia.

IWM North sits on the Salford Quays waterfront inside a striking aluminium-clad building designed by Daniel Libeskind. Its galleries explore how war shapes people's lives through personal stories, immersive exhibits and regular large-scale sound-and-light shows.

The Science and Industry Museum occupies the site of the world's oldest surviving passenger railway station — Liverpool Road — in the heart of Castlefield. Its permanent galleries explore Manchester's pivotal role in the Industrial Revolution, from spinning cotton to splitting the atom.

The People's History Museum on the banks of the River Irwell is Britain's national centre for the story of democracy and working people. Its engaging exhibitions trace 200 years of social change through protest banners, posters and personal artefacts.