People’s History Museum. Behind the scenes.

Susie Stubbs goes behind the scenes at the People’s History Museum

Readers of our city guides will know that the People’s History Museum has been undergoing a £12.5m re-fit, an undertaking that has seen the construction of an entirely new, Corten steel-wrapped wing, as well as the scrubbing up of its historic pump house building.

Last Saturday, the Museum quietly unlocked its front doors and allowed the public inside. The Museum itself, however, is in what it calls its ‘test drive’ period. So, up until its official opening on 6 March, the Museum continues to get on with what those in the building industry call snagging: testing things out, polishing things up, seeing what works and what doesn’t. Most new builds don’t let the public in during this period, but to their credit the People’s History Museum has – and it’s a remarkable opportunity to get a feel for how a new museum is created.

We managed to get inside even before the public did. The photos here, taken early last week, show the final cleaning and frantic adjustments made to a building that opened just a few days later.

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