Alistair Hardaker | Images: Manchester Museum
Stan the Tyrannosaurus rex will leave Manchester Museum for the first time since 2004 for a residency at Victoria Baths in spring 2027.
Moving Stan, the Tyrannosaurus rex cast at Manchester Museum, to Victoria Baths will take a team of specialists a full week, the museum has said.
The dinosaur will be displayed in the Gala Pool at Victoria Baths, a Grade II* listed Edwardian swimming complex in Ardwick, from 22 March to 19 April 2027. It will be the first time Stan has been removed from display since arriving at the museum in 2004.
At 12 metres long and 3.7 metres tall, Stan is roughly the size of a double decker bus. Its bones must be dismantled and reassembled in a strict order to ensure counterbalance and stop the skeleton from toppling over.
Stan is a full-size cast made from one of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossils found. At Manchester Museum it is displayed as if in a flat run, in pursuit of prey, which the museum says was the first time a T. rex skeleton had been displayed in this position.
The original specimen was excavated in South Dakota in 1992 and named after Stan Sacrison, the avocational palaeontologist who discovered it. Estimated to be 67 million years old, it is now on display at the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi. The bones show a neck fracture and a cavity in the skull that appears to be from a T. rex tooth.
Georgina Young, acting director at Manchester Museum, said: “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for people to experience this incredible Tyrannosaurus rex in an entirely different context. Not only is Victoria Baths breathtakingly beautiful but their team will bring renewed creativity to encounters with Stan.”
During the residency, Stan will be on display to the public and will act as the centrepiece for a programme of events, details of which are to be announced. Entry will be free. Manchester Museum has said it is working on plans for a Stan stand-in, to be announced later this year.
