It’s been a while since Beth Abbit visited Manchester Museum, but she was impressed by a revamped space filled with dinosaurs, thought-provoking art and a cracking flat white.
Beth edits The Mancunian Way newsletter – a daily digest of news, views and opinions about our great city-region. She has worked for many years as a senior reporter covering live news, court, features and investigations and started as a patch reporter for south Manchester, where she grew up.
On show at the museum(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
“Mum – remember when we went to the garage and saw dead people?” asked a friend’s four-year-old recently.
Out of the mouths of babes. She was, of course, talking about Manchester Museum.
Most people with even a vague link to the city will have formative memories of this sprawling Victorian exhibit hall during school trips and summer holidays.
My predominant recollection is of the massive Japanese spider crab – a creature said to drag sailors underwater so it could feast on them.
The Japanese spider crab at Manchester Museum
It now sits – massive legs and all – in an exhibition case peering out towards Oxford Road. If that doesn’t entice you inside, what will?
The museum reopened to the public after a £15million revamp back in the spring of 2023. But work, life and general lethargy prevented me from visiting until now.
How wrong I was. The place is an absolute treasure trove.
It houses everything from a vivarium of amphibians and reptiles to a gallery dedicated to South Asian diaspora communities.
The South Asia Gallery at Manchester Museum(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
Unsurprisingly, it’s the Fossils and Dinosaurs gallery that captures the imagination most deeply.
Here you can meet April the Tenontosaurus and Stan the T-Rex – named after the amateur paleontologist who discovered his fossil in South Dakota.
In fact, you can even have your wedding beneath Stan’s enormous frame. Some people will do anything for a good Instagram shot.
Stan the T-rex(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
Among the more striking sights was that of a huge chimpanzee skeleton that stands in front of a collection of primate skulls.
Fascinating though it is, I did wonder how it would be received by the toddler who was accompanying me.
On this occasion he blew it a few kisses but I do worry that he may file it under ‘horrifying formative moments’.
One of the more striking exhibits at Manchester Museum
More nightmare fuel can be found in the eyes of the taxidermy tiger and among the rib bones of the suspended sperm whale.
But despite the potential for prompting night terrors – always a risk with natural history museums – there was much that I found strangely moving.
The Singh Twins’ beautiful mural in The South Asia Gallery draws our attention to the sprawling of British colonialism. It’s breathtaking and thought-provoking.
While the bodies on display at the Golden Mummies of Egypt exhibit really bring home how Britain’s museums benefited from the spoils of colonialism.
(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
Museum bosses have already returned a number of cultural heritage items to Australia’s Northern Territory. They’re currently consulting on the body of an ancient Egyptian woman and whether her remains should stay on display.
It’s the kind of earnest effort some might brand as ‘woke’ – but you’d be a bit of wally to even baulk at the debate.
I visited the museum last weekend simply to beat the heat, but left with a cultural experience that opened my eyes.
Far from the dusty old space I remember from childhood, Manchester Museum offers eye-opening exhibits, a great gift shop and a lovely flat white. With the summer holidays just around the corner, how can you go wrong?