Democracy is fun. The People’s History Museum.

The insider guide to family holidays and things to do with kids – here, The People’s History Museum, Manchester’s newest museum grapples with a ‘big’ subject

Earlier this year, after a £12.5m redevelopment that involved the refurbishment of the Grade II listed Pump House and the building of an entirely new wing, the People’s History Museum re-opened for business. ‘This is a museum that matters to everyone,’ said Deputy Director Andy Pearce. ‘It tells the story of the march towards British democracy – it’s the only place in the UK that does that.’ The museum itself handles its weighty political subject matter with a light touch, explaining complex history via a range of interactive exhibits. Our favourite is a kitchen table where you make up flat pack boxes – and then work out the pittance you’d be paid for this time-consuming, finger-shredding work. As well as being a useful means of rebuffing complaints about pocket money, the museum gets the message across that democracy matters to us all, regardless of age. (Though if your kids remain immune to the museum’s charms you can always threaten to send them down the mines).

There’s a fair bit planned at the museum for kids this summer, including story telling sessions and crafts activities, plus a ‘Busy Bee’ explorer pack for little ‘uns that they can use (and wear) to get the most out of their visit. The museum is also one of the venues for this year’s Family Friendly Film Festival: it will be staging an after-hours screening of family classic Mary Poppins on 12 August. Expect spoons full of sugar and lots of ‘creative activities’ (that doesn’t include smearing jam on the walls, OK?). Tickets are £5 and go on sale on Friday 25 June.

The refurbished building that houses the museum is nothing short of impressive. A Corten steel facade, with its vibrant, rusty-red hue, contrasts nicely with the museum’s Portland stone and new-build neighbours. Windowless upper floors create a climate-controlled home for an extensive collection of political protest banners (the largest such collection in the world, no less), while a glass-fronted ground floor invites passers-by inside and provides the building’s hub. ‘The change from the ground floor, which is light and airy, to the darker museum area, is deliberate. It creates the sense of an Aladdin’s cave,’ says Pearce. The Museum is now double its original size, with both temporary and permanent displays marking a route through 200 years of political campaigning, from the Co-operative movement to the birth of the modern Labour Party. And the Museum opens with Carried Away, an exhibition that takes a sideways look at protest over the past 100 years: in it, it displays photographs of protestors such as the Suffragettes, many of whom were forcibly removed (or carried away) by the authorities they challenged.

The museum’s location is also crucial to its draw for families. Its sunny, riverfront Left Bank cafe (with terrace over the River Irwell) boasts a wartime-inspired menu that’s not only unusual but really rather good. We can also recommend the Mark Addy pub on the opposite side of the river – cross the bridge and you’ll find yourself in Salford. Come back and you’ll be in Manchester. Confused? It’s a fine distinction but one that these sister cities are respectively proud of. On the Manchester side and immediately opposite you’ll also find the Civil Justice Centre, a building nicknamed the ‘filing cabinet’ and which apparently houses the largest plate glass window in Europe. Stand beneath it and squint up at the sky. Feeling dizzy yet? The People’s History Museum is open daily. Free entry.

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Below: radio broadcaster and ‘national treasure’ Stuart Maconie talks to the Museum’s Andy Pearce:

Images: main and bottom thumbnail courtesy People’s History Museum; top thumbnail courtesy Susie Stubbs, image below Kippa Matthews.