Museum of Science and Industry, Air and Space Museum is a Grade II listed building in the Manchester local planning authority area, England. First listed on 17 May 1974. A Victorian Museum. 37 related planning applications.

Museum of Science and Industry, Air and Space Museum

WRENN ID
rusted-stair-starling
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Manchester
Constituency
Manchester Central MP: Lucy Powell (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
17 May 1974
Type
Museum
Period
Victorian
Address
Museum of Science and Industry, Air and Space Museum, Liverpool Road, M3 4FP
OS grid reference
SJ 832 977
Coordinates
53.47655, -2.25353
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Museum of Science and Industry, also known as the Air and Space Museum, is located on Liverpool Road in Manchester. Originally built as Lower Campfield Market in 1876 by Mangnall and Littlewood, this market hall has been transformed into a museum. The structure features a large rectangular plan resembling a nave, with north and south aisles under parallel roofs, and transepts at the center and both ends.

The building is two storeys high and consists of a series of bays arranged in a 1:3:1:3:1 pattern, with gabled ends that are both wider and higher at the center. It is constructed from cast iron and wood, topped with slate and glass roofs. The cast-iron columns are adorned with crocket caps, and each bay is divided horizontally by a moulded cornice, featuring small columns and decorative cast-iron railings below, with large-paned glazing above.

The central section boasts a tall segmental-headed doorway that leads into a glazed upper area, with a latticed band above the eaves. The gable is filled with round-headed lights supported by slender shafts and margin panes, along with a bracketed cornice and a continuous louvred ventilator topped with a finial. Each end bay contains a segmental-arched open-work panel at the center, complemented by an elliptical-arched iron bressummer with matching glazing. The intermediate bays have oversailing eaves with scallop fringes and continuous ridge ventilators.

The east and west ends each have three bays designed in a similar style. Inside, the building features cast-iron pillars with decorated caps that support latticed girders and slender elliptical-arched roof girders. This museum forms a group with the former Higher Campfield Market Hall to the east, designed by the same architects in a very similar style.

Local climate

Museum of Science and Industry, Air and Space Museum sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,060 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 85% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 77% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 43 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 81% of listed buildings. Of these, 23 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 37 applications
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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