Until it closed in 2021, Manchester’s Lower Campfield Market housed the Science and Industry Museum’s Air and Space Hall. It’s sat empty ever since – but thanks to the government’s ‘Levelling Up’ fund, there’s now a £17.5m scheme to bring the historic building back to life.
The Lower Campfield Market will go from exhibiting science history to being a space for the science of the future. It’s set to become a contemporary hub for growing media, creative and tech firms.
The hall has been around since 1878 and was a functioning market until 1900, when it was turned into an exhibition space. At the time it was declared by the Manchester Guardian (now just the Guardian) to be the ‘largest, best lighted and heated and most excellently adapted covered, enclosed and balconied building in the kingdom’. Bold claim.
These days, Campfield is part of Manchester Council’s Culture in the City project, which received a total of £20 million in ‘Levelling Up’ funds from the national government. The other two and a half mil will go towards converting heritage railway arches into a ‘creative talent development centre’
Manchester is getting a lot of exciting new stuff over the next few years. In just three months’ time, the long-awaited mega-venue Co-op Live will be opening its doors, while right now there’s an army of volunteers creating a spectacular walking trail around the city. There’s also a huge new ice rink in the works, the Castlefield Viaduct urban park has been extended, the Etihad Stadium is getting a sky bar and Mannie is set to be the new HQ for the English National Opera.
Did you see that this much-loved seaside attraction in Cornwall has been forced to shut?
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