Building work

The Gallery of Costume is currently closed for a major building works project, which is due for completion in March 2010. This work includes a complete rewire of the Grade 2* listed 1760s Platt Hall, and a new boiler and heating system.

Improvements to the ground floor will provide a large lecture arena for up to 75 students or visitors, doubling as a research/teaching area with handling material and study tables for 30 to 40. There will also be a temporary exhibition gallery with an ambitious programme of quarterly shows, and this is a first for the Gallery, which has hitherto been unable to accommodate short-term exhibitions. An area for workshops for schools and students completes the suite of study rooms, but, in addition, the project will provide improved disabled access with a new washroom and a new permanent ramp to the door.

Because of these major developments, the Gallery must close to visitors and researchers until March 2010.

Behind the scenes

Gallery staff are engaged on a project to photograph many accessioned objects, having completed the documentation database of 22,000 items earlier in the year. We also accept about 150 new garments each year, which need to be catalogued and safely stored. The Getty Foundation funded project to sort and catalogue the whole of the Gallery's collection of 25,000 portrait photographs, largely dating from 1840 to 1920 is also in full flow, and will be completed by September 2009. Once building work starts, the staff will be occupied in moving and monitoring the stored collections, which will all remain in situ at Platt Hall.

For further information please contact Miles Lambert, Senior Manager:

Tel: +44 (0) 161 224 5217
Email: m.lambert@manchester.gov.uk