Museum Of Science And Industry, Air And Space Museum

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.