{"id":278720,"date":"2025-07-21T01:12:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T01:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/278720\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T01:12:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T01:12:16","slug":"a-glorious-concoction-of-whimsy-and-nightmare-fuel-id-go-every-day-if-i-could","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/278720\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A glorious concoction of whimsy and nightmare fuel – I\u2019d go every day if I could\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 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<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

On show at the museum(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

\u201cMum – remember when we went to the garage and saw dead people?\u201d asked a friend\u2019s four-year-old recently.<\/p>\n

Out of the mouths of babes. She was, of course, talking about Manchester Museum.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

My predominant recollection is of the massive Japanese spider crab – a creature said to drag sailors underwater so it could feast on them.<\/p>\n

The Japanese spider crab at Manchester Museum<\/p>\n

It now sits – massive legs and all – in an exhibition case peering out towards Oxford Road. If that doesn\u2019t entice you inside, what will?<\/p>\n

The museum reopened to the public after a \u00a315million revamp<\/a> back in the spring of 2023. But work, life and general lethargy prevented me from visiting until now.<\/p>\n

How wrong I was. The place is an absolute treasure trove.<\/p>\n

It houses everything from a vivarium of amphibians and reptiles to a gallery dedicated to South Asian diaspora communities.<\/p>\n

The South Asia Gallery at Manchester Museum(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, it\u2019s the Fossils and Dinosaurs gallery that captures the imagination most deeply.<\/p>\n

Here you can meet April the Tenontosaurus and Stan the T-Rex – named after the amateur paleontologist who discovered his fossil in South Dakota.<\/p>\n

In fact, you can even have your wedding beneath Stan\u2019s enormous frame. Some people will do anything for a good Instagram shot.<\/p>\n

Stan the T-rex(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Among the more striking sights was that of a huge chimpanzee skeleton that stands in front of a collection of primate skulls.<\/p>\n

Fascinating though it is, I did wonder how it would be received by the toddler who was accompanying me.<\/p>\n

On this occasion he blew it a few kisses but I do worry that he may file it under \u2018horrifying formative moments\u2019.<\/p>\n

One of the more striking exhibits at Manchester Museum<\/p>\n

More nightmare fuel can be found in the eyes of the taxidermy tiger and among the rib bones of the suspended sperm whale.<\/p>\n

But despite the potential for prompting night terrors – always a risk with natural history museums – there was much that I found strangely moving.<\/p>\n

The Singh Twins\u2019 beautiful mural in The South Asia Gallery draws our attention to the sprawling of British colonialism. It\u2019s breathtaking and thought-provoking.<\/p>\n

While the bodies on display at the Golden Mummies of Egypt exhibit really bring home how Britain\u2019s museums benefited from the spoils of colonialism.<\/p>\n

(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Museum bosses have already returned a number of cultural heritage items to Australia\u2019s Northern Territory<\/a>. They\u2019re currently consulting on the body of an ancient Egyptian woman and whether her remains should stay on display<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the kind of earnest effort some might brand as \u2018woke\u2019 – but you\u2019d be a bit of wally to even baulk at the debate.<\/p>\n

I visited the museum last weekend simply to beat the heat, but left with a cultural experience that opened my eyes.<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a while since Beth Abbit visited Manchester Museum, but she was impressed by a revamped space…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,8829,2465,485,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-278720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-m-e-n-explore","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-manchester-family","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114888569704152080","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}