Image: The Science and Industry Museum's gantry restoration (Drew Forsyth)
The Manchester museums’ Power Hall undergoes crucial repairs while its gantry is painted its original red-brown
The Science and Industry Museum is a step closer to the reopening of a significant industrial building, as restoration work nears completion.
The museum’s Grade II listed Power Hall building was closed in 2019 for restoration works to begin. Urgent roof and timber repairs, and the addition of new windows and doors are among the restorations, alongside a decarbonisation project to reduce the building’s carbon emissions.
As the restoration project nears its end, the 72m gantry attached to the side of the building is being restored with historically accurate colour.
Sarah Baines, Curator of Engineering at the Science and Industry Museum explains: “Working with Buttress Architects, paint samples of the gantry were analysed to determine the colour and type of paint originally used. Samples were taken for cross-sectional analysis which allowed us to look back though the layers of paint that had built up on the gantry through time.
“There were at least eight layers of paint, from the original red-brown lead oil paint to the modern dark grey oil paint. We could also see several layers of sooty deposits between the earlier 19th century layers, indicating the high levels of air pollution present in industrial Manchester. The earliest paint layers identified on the gantry all consist of dark red-brown ochre which we’ve matched as closely as possible to repaint the gantry back to its original colour.”
The restoration of the gantry is part of the museum’s t £14.2m initiative to make essential repairs across its site, including the New Warehouse’s 150-year-old roof, the 1830 Viaduct and Station and Power Hall.
Expected to reopen next summer as Power Hall: The Law Family Gallery, it will give visitors a chance to see one of the UK’s largest collections of working steam engines.
