The Manchester Jewish Museum has received a £2.89 million National Lottery grant. It will go towards the museum’s ambitious £5m development project that, as the museum puts it “will see our museum double in size, with new galleries, learning spaces, shop and café built in an extension alongside our existing historic building.”
At the same time the Grade II listed synagogue in which the Museum is currently housed will be repaired and restored.
The new grant, announced last week, means that the museum has almost reached its funding goal; the museum says it still needs £250,000.
Planning permission for the development scheme was recently formally approved by Manchester City Council and, with both planning permission and an additional £1.5m already in place, our extension plans will now go ahead. Building work will commence towards the end of next year (2018), and the newly-developed museum will open in Summer 2020.
It said the total size of the extension will be 459m².
It will house a new foyer, café, retail space, collection store, visitor facilities and a 167m² gallery, which is almost three times the size of the museum’s current gallery. In addition to the new build, the museum’s synagogue will be repaired and restored. A new slate roof will be fitted and brickwork repaired. Inside, the synagogue’s historic interior paint scheme will be reinstated as a close recreation to the original 1873 scheme.
“Manchester Jewish Museum is an extraordinary piece of 19th-century architecture, as well as the city’s oldest synagogue,” Nathan Lee, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund North West, said. “This is one of Manchester’s most important historic buildings and our investment of nearly £3m is set to bring it back to life for a new generation. Thanks to National Lottery players, visitors will get a greater understanding of why this Cheetham Hill site is so important as well as hearing moving and uplifting stories about one of the UK’s oldest communities.”
The Museum web site states:
Our historic synagogue – the oldest in Manchester – has been described as a “jewel” by architectural historians. But the building needs urgent repairs. This project will restore the synagogue to its original architectural splendour, while new interactive displays, soundscapes and live performances will bring it to life for visitors.
Alongside preserving one of Manchester’s most significant historic buildings, we care for over 30,000 objects, from personal letters and photographs to Torah scrolls hidden from the Nazis during WWII. These objects help tell the story of Jewish Manchester, as well as broader stories of migration, identity and the Holocaust. Linked to the synagogue, our extension will create extra space in which to display our nationally significant collection, as well as a new learning and community studio and improved visitor facilities, such as a unique Jewish café.
Download a PDF brochure about the project
Read the announcement of the grant, with further details about the project