Lark Hill Place: Salford’s beloved street returns in its original setting

Lark Hill Place, the Victorian street at the Salford Museum and Art Gallery, reopened this weekend in its original 1897 setting.

Last year, Lark Hill Place traveled to 1918 to commemorate the end of World War One. The attraction was then closed in January to allow the museum to change it back to the way it has been for 62 years.

Ceri Horrocks, heritage manager at the Salford Museum and Art Gallery, said: “It was the first time there had been a time change for the street, so it was quite exciting.

“It went down very well, people seemed to enjoy the fact that the street still felt the same, because they love it, but it did have new things, new interpretation.

“It definitely brought some new visitors in to see it and I think our existing ones just enjoyed seeing something slightly different.”

The £33,000 project was an opportunity for the museum to display 800 new items from its collection last year, requiring six months of work to go through the whole museum’s collection to select suitable objects.

The changeover also allowed the museum to do some of the restoration work that was needed in the street, which had hardly been touched since it opened in 1957.

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Lark Hill Place was created following housing clearances in Salford which saw some areas change dramatically. The curator of the museum decided to try to save shops fronts and contents, and with the help of the public, re-created a Victorian street in the museum.

Ms Horrocks said: “The street is very loved in Salford, it’s a real favourite with families. Throughout their lives, people come to visit it as a child, as a parent and then as a grandparent, it’s perennially popular.”

The museum does not plan to do another big changeover of the street anytime soon, but the street will keep evolving. Ms Horrocks said: “I think what we have realised is that people really enjoyed seeing some different things coming out of our collection in the shop fronts.

“There tend to be key objects that people love and that we would never change, but I think we are keen to do some new displays, keeping within that 1897 time frame but maybe change the grounds a little bit as we go.

“But rest assured, the street will still be Lark Hill Place, which people love and really enjoy visiting.”