People's History Museum

Powerful and inspiring place for teenagers. It brings democracy to life showcasing the struggle for social justice and workers rights in a clear engaging way, encouraging young people to understand equality, their voice, activism, and their role in shaping society. It also promotes pride, inclusively and acceptance. A must visit for young people.

Excellent museum featuring social history with a focus on often ignored / mistreated areas of society such as women, trade unions, LGBTQ+, black /!people of colour / minority ethnicities etc. Impressed to see LGBTQ+ information about many historical figures whose relationships have previously been ignored or changed. Museum was easily accessible in my powered wheelchair as there were lifts to all floors and step free access to exhibits. Lovely little shop selling range of social history/ Manchester related items, many by local artists etc.

Brilliant museum spread out over 2 floors and includes a gift shop and cafe. Friendly staff and volunteers welcome you as you arrive with a map of the building. Exhibitions are full of history with many objects well preserved. It’s free to enter but you can leave a donation if you wish. Highly recommended if you enjoy social history, especially working class history.

Super interesting. They dont charge for folks to visit. This is the history of the enfrachisment of the working class & women. This is the story of the people that built Britain with their blood, sweat and tears. This is the story of the forgotten and downtroden, those who fought to have a voice and a say. Its not about sparkly crowns and princes in towers, its not about the glamour of royalty or the gentry. It is about the poor, the Chartists, the Levelers, the Trade Unionist and the Sufferage movements. This is about the 99% who's names are unlikey to be taught in history classes at school.

I absolutely loved my visit to the People’s History Museum. The layout is very clear and intuitive, making it easy to navigate while exploring the exhibits. The overall atmosphere is incredibly immersive, and the way the museum has designed interactive elements really draws you in—it almost feels like being in an escape room, where you want to take your time to engage with everything. I particularly appreciated how the information is presented in small, digestible pieces rather than overwhelming visitors all at once. This gradual approach makes it easier to absorb the stories and understand the messages behind the exhibits. Engaging people while clearly conveying complex ideas is one of the hardest things for a museum to achieve, and they have done it exceptionally well. The environment is clean, tidy, and very comfortable, which makes the experience even more enjoyable. I was also impressed by the careful preservation of banners and other historical artifacts. Knowing that they have a dedicated restoration center to maintain and protect these treasures adds a lot of credibility and reassurance. Overall, it was a deeply engaging and inspiring visit. Every detail, from the interactive displays to the atmosphere and artifact care, made the museum feel alive and thoughtful. I genuinely, truly loved it and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in history, culture, or just a well-curated and immersive museum experience.

This is a without a doubt one of the best museums I have visited. The stories told here really affected me especially with everything happening in the world now. Seeing how people in the past were imprisoned, sentenced to death, punished for fighting for a lot of what we take for granted and might one day lose, makes me want to keep pushing for human rights in the present and in the future. Continue advocating for humanity!

We actually only attended for the ‘Music for the Senses’ guitar display which was paid admission but the rest of the museum is free & was two floors full of information regarding people’s struggle for proper representation. Very educational & also humbling to learn what our ancestors went through just to earn the right to vote & have decent working standards.

Very informative about the social background of Great Britain through out the years. Clean, disables accessible with friendly and helpful staff.

We were advised to go to the museum in a bar the night before. It was a pleasantly surprising experience. You have free entry to an excellent walk through of English history in light of worker rights and living conditions. It takes you from Peterloo to current day by exploring the impact of class distinction, the industrial revolution and onwards. Very interesting and insightful.

Went for a specific item (parliament scroll) but still not enough of personal interest to make me return.

I'm going to do something really bad right now. I'm going to review a museum... café! Without reviewing the museum itself, you see. So last Saturday I sidled in here, sheltering from the Mancunian drizzle, to get me some lunchtime eats. I was greeted by a very pleasant man who seemed to be running the show by himself, and there were countless comfy sofas and chairs and vertigo-inducingly high tables and stools dotted around. It was quiet, and that's the way I like it. The Left Bank café's incredibly sleek, as one would expect from a Couture Café enterprise (my, all Manc's museum eateries seem to be in bed with one another!). I clocked the chalkboards behind the dude in charge and saw 'vegetarian hot sandwich'. SOLD! Only then I was crushed, because as soon as I started saying it the gent told me the chef doesn't work on weekends so the options were pre-made sandwiches and soup. But this is where the place started to shine. When I heard tomato I winced, thinking, 'If this is cream of tomato, I'm outie.' Nope! Inspection of the self-service vat revealed a vegetably proper Italian soup, and since it was self-service, I totally abused my bowl. The bread was also help yourself, in a cute little box behind the soup, with options of white and granary. Very nice it was too. Combined with a very good strong coffee my lunch only cost me a little over a fiver, and I was full to the brim. I made a mental note to go back on a weekday and try more of their options. Oh, and I might have to check out the museum too. PHM, thankies for providing me with a most pleasant weekend afternoon!

People who know me agree that I'm a huge pinko. So when I heard there was an entire museum dedicated to the labor movement in Manchester, England, naturally I came to pay my respects. It's a really sleekly designed place complete with a cafe lounge downstairs. The museum starts you off during the early enlightenment and takes you all the way through to the present day, showing you artifacts and banners from workers rights groups throughout the centuries. It's all pretty fascinating and seeing all the syndicalist memorabilia made me rock hard. Highly recommend!

The People's History Museum is one of a kind. An unashamedly hard-left narrative the exhibits re-frame British history as a working class struggle. The Communist Party was misunderstood, the Labour Party and the Unions the only source of progress, the Tories the root of most evil (the rest is big business). At times this goes to quite amusing extremes, such as a flowchart of British history near the entrance with an arrow directly from 'The Conservative Party' to 'The Great War', but in fairness I found most of the exhibits walked the line between opinionated analysis and pure propaganda well enough. And there is something to be said simply for covering angles and events which other museums tend not to focus on. The lengthy, and nostalgic, recounting of the post-war consensus in British politics - when all parties thought massive Government homebuilding was an obvious policy - is one example, the detailed coverage of the Peterloo Massacre another. As others have said, however, the curation could use some work. Much of the museum flows with a clear bias but no clear narrative - what is the link between the people and events shown, beyond the PHM essentially supporting most of them? And what lessons for today and our lives are we meant to take? Museums have come a long way, even just in the last couple of decades, from assortments of objects to carefully crafted stories. The PHM is lagging behind on that front. Were the philosophy of this museum not refreshing purely by its rarity, I'd probably give this 3 stars. But a day out to the People's History Museum is a day out like no other in Manchester, so a bonus star for that.

What a terrible left wing piece of propaganda. Corridor after corridor of flags proclaiming the tin pot workers welfare collective or Chorley east, and lambasting the rich and powerful as though to have money is some kind of social disease that needs to be stamped out by dumping it down a well or giving it to some representative of the people (always a great idea...). That said, the building is fantastic and if you are a lefty fighting the man then this is a wonderful tour through the people's republic of Mancland. I love Manchester and it has to be said so many good things came through people's struggle and effort in this great City, something obviously battered it's way past my right leaning thoughts and I came out with a new perspective (if only changed from my old perspective by one single iota). The Social history part of my economics A-Level (over a decade and counting ago) would have been a damn site more intelligible if I had an overview that this place gave me in a brief tour. Go and have a look around the place if you have nothing else to do, or if you are particularly interested in social history from one specific period, but otherwise bank this place for a rainy rainy day when you have no money to do anything else.

In common with some other reviewers, I only visited the cafe so cannot review the museum. There is a range of sandwiches, salads, cakes and hot drinks. Hot food is also available including daily specials. Be sure to get there before 1 for cold sandwiches and salads as they've been sold out every time I've been here (3 times). Coffee is ok, as was the cray fish salad I had on my first visit. For me the best thing is the relative quiet and also the big windows with views over the river/canal.

It takes 2-3 hours to see the two main galleries. The time line starts from the early days of the Industrial Revolution and the rights the workers fought and died for. It summarises more than 200 years of rights acquired in this area of the UK. Especially important are the conquest of the female vote and more recently, rights for minorities. Unfortunately, photographs aren't allowed and the souvenir store lacks interesting objects, such as replicas of the phenomenal posters and pins made by the people.

The People's History Museum has just reopened following a major refit and I'm so glad we have it back! One of Manchester's only national museums, it charts the history of the working classes. With exhibits covering everything from the start of the Co-operative movement and political activism to industrialization and trade unionism, it's really is a fantastic place for tourists and Mancunians alike. Despite the refit, the Museum has retained many of its best-loved installations, including the badge machine, which allows kids to make a free, lasting souvenir, a mock Co-op grocery shop and an exhibition where you make fold-up boxes in order to get experience of piece work. However, there are lots of brilliant new exhibits, too there seems to be a much better focus on using technology now. So you'll find old telephones playing oral histories and much more. The Museum has always been child-friendly with good facilities and a fantastic programme of talks and presentations. But it's equally good for an older crowd. In fact, I hear the new Left Bank café bar is particularly good for grown-up visitors. You can enjoy locally sourced food and real ales on a lovely sun terrace, which offers a great view of the City. Perfect for a sunny day!

Review #1500....we visited this museum yesterday - and although we certainly appreciate the effort that went into the displays, the museum is really geared towards students and we were bored. Admission is free....

When I was a schoolgirl, the People's History Museum was the kind of place we were taken on trips, where we'd all be marched in a crocodile formation around a cold imposing building whilst someone lectured us about the chartists. I don't remember much about my first trip there back in 1995, but I can remember that I was bored, my feet hurt and I was more concerned with going home and eating crisps than learning about the history of the working class. Sorry the working class. So, I didn't really know what to expect when I came back here with my boyfriend a few weeks back. What I was immediately impressed with was the redevelopment of the building - it's a gorgeous morass of glass and white brick, complete with huge airy spaces and plenty of animatronic displays to keep the young (and the young at heart) amused. What I loved best about the People's History Museum was the level of love and attention that had gone into each exhibit. They were all thoughtful, concise and incredibly easy to understand. Plus, each wall is festooned with an original Trade Union banner, all preserved so that they hit you between the eyes of colour. You get a real sense that you're in the presence of history which is a bit of an awe inspiring thought. If reading isn't your thing, they also have plenty of costumes and hats for you to wear so you can get a feel for the period. Which means my charming boyfriend is now the proud owner of a picture of me dressed up as Bryant and May match girl. The People's History Museum is deceptively large - we were only able to get around one floor in the space of three hours. However, it truly is a brilliant day out and worth every penny of the government funding which was spent on it. I can't wait to return to explore all of the other gems it has hidden away in its confines - and I promise that I won't distracted from all the educational bits and bobs by thoughts of crisps either.

The People's History Museum was one of the first places I went in Manchester back on my first visit in 2012 and I thought this museum was a fascinating insight into the north west's pivotal role in the development of democracy in the UK. The 17th - 19th century portions of the museum remain the most interesting, with illuminating pamphlets and explanations of the major events and figures of the day, not least Peterloo Massacre and the radical Thomas Paine. I would agree with other reviews that the rest of the museum is a bit propaganda-esque although very attractively presented with much to see for a poster/font aficionado like myself. People's History really means Working Class from a Left Wing Secular perspective history rather than non-elite social history in general but unless you feel deeply opposed to that then give it a go. My only real gripe is they have a children's area in the centre of the main floor which ruins the experience for anyone else trying to concentrate on the relatively complicated exhibits around it and the videos in general are way too loud and absolutely deafen you even from the other side of the gallery.

Seems very modern but quite a few people including children AND adults seem to wander aimlessly bored. I would say if you not interested in social history , don't come !

An amazing, interactive and very accessible museum! Make sure you pop it on your travel list

Unfortuanly the third time i visited manchester this building was closed for redevelopment and i think that it is still going on..They are planing on making it double the size that it is at the minute and one of the things i cant wait to see is that they are going to have a community gallery where local people can exhibit-it is always nice to see local talent!!!!!

Arrived too late to have a proper look, much bigger than I imagined. Definitely a place to go when/if you get tired of the pubs

really like this place. When upstart students and the New Manc social classes really get me down I head for this little oasis of calm. Its an informal little place full of discintive artifacts of Manchester as a hotbed of radical thought and action. It traces a long history of Manc suffrage, industrial relations, political reform etc etc. There are a load a great photos really dipicting life and the struggle in the slums and the idealism and gallows humour of we northern folk. Take your kids and teach them a lesson in proper values.