Venue

Top Floor

Interior of The Top Floor at Manchester Museum, a well-lit space with a glass skylight ceiling, wooden floors, and rows of desks and chairs.

What is the Top Floor?

Open to public visitors during programmed events, workshops and public engagements

The Top Floor Hub is a dynamic, community-centred space for action, sharing, learning and dreaming, used by a range of changemaking individuals/groups working across the city. The hub drives forward Manchester Museum’s mission to build understanding between cultures and a more sustainable world by opening up our space and resources to support local communities taking action on the issues they care about.

Two people talk to one another over a desk at a Meet the Changemakers event on Manchester Museum's Top Floor.

Changemakers Event.

Exhibition display at Manchester Museum with various artworks and informational panels, including a sign with a quote about listening and standing still, and a sign that says 'It's noisy and chaos.'

Pinc. College Summer Show.

The hub is centred around a shared commitment to Social Justice and Environmental Action.

We define Social Justice as everyone’s human rights accessed, respected and protected. It is equitable access to resources, participation, opportunities and representation in society. Social Justice requires action. Action that recognises the roots of injustice and disrupts cycles of injustice by building understanding, solidarity and collective capacity for change – taking action to rebuild a just and equitable world.

Environmental Action is about behaviours and practices that reduce our negative impact on the earth and our environment and move us towards becoming a low carbon and low waste society. This includes rebuilding and repairing human connections with the natural world, considering the equal rights of all life on earth, and reimagining how we might live with one another and the planet in a more fair and sustainable future.

What happens on the Top Floor?

The Top Floor includes flexible and dynamic spaces prioritised for the use of our co-working partners and events and activities programmed in partnership between Manchester Museum and our communities that focus on social justice and environmental action.

The Top Floor includes flexible and dynamic spaces prioritised for the use of our co-working partners and events and activities programmed in partnership between Manchester Museum and our communities that focus on social justice and environmental action.

We believe that everyone – regardless of race, nationality, gender, sexuality, economic status, or ability – is entitled to the same human rights and environmental protections and should have meaningful involvement in the policies and action that shape their communities. 

We acknowledge that ingrained societal and global inequality means not everyone experiences these rights. As such, The Top Floor Hub, informed by a social justice lens, prioritises support for marginalised groups that are typically excluded from decision-making and equitable access to resources.

Spaces available in the Top Floor Hub include a classroom, seminar room, lounge, greenhouse, therapy room, co-working desks, community hub and a creative workshop spaces. We are also home to Pinc College, a Specialist College for Creative Education.

Manchester Museum is registered as a specialist education provider and a charity. We are committed to supporting people to take action on the issues they care about and together move towards a more fair and sustainable future for Manchester and beyond.

For more information about the Top Floor please contact  topfloorMM@manchester.ac.uk, or fill out one of our forms to make a partnership enquiry or a space hire enquiry.

READ THE TOP FLOOR GUIDANCE DOCUMENT

Working on the Top Floor

Two women are engaged in a serious conversation stood next to cases on Manchester Museum's Top Floor, with informational posters and displays in the background.
  • Community Hub

    Flexible working and meeting space for community groups, organisations and individuals, and home to our social and environmental action library.

    Pinc College Open Learning Space

    The Top Floor is a base for Pinc College, a specialist college for creative education that specialises in supporting neuro-divergent young people aged 16-25.

    Workshop

    Used regularly by Pinc College to facilitate art and design sessions, the workshop is a dynamic space for hands-on creativity.

    The Therapy Room

    A quiet space for wellbeing and therapy sessions. We support a range of occupational and art therapy placements.

    Co-working desks

    Practical workstations used by a range of staff and partner organisations with shared values to work and collaborate in a unique and inspiring setting. Co-workers also benefit from regular opportunities to network and collaborate.

    Well Cases

    A curated display which showcases some of the diverse learning and engagement work supported by Manchester Museum and our partners.

  • Seminar Room

    A small, private learning space for up to 10 people.

    Classroom

    A flexible learning space for a range of activities for everyone.

    Lounge

    A place to meet, chat and relax.

    Greenhouse

    Housing a collection of living plants, the greenhouse provides inspiration and a unique setting for taking care of our natural world.

    Generously supported by The Foyle Foundation.

Top Floor co-working partners can have access to desk space between Monday-Friday 9-5pm. There is also the possibility of using spaces on Wednesday evenings and at weekends with prior arrangement.

The aim is to create a hub that can inspire potential collaborations and open up the museum to a range of different groups and people working with shared values. We are interested in forming partnerships that will also inform our public programming and events and pricing and access is negotiable. Please get in touch if you would like to find out more.

For enquiries about partner working and access to the Top Floor please email topfloorMM@manchester.ac.uk

Collaborators

Meet some of our partners working on the Top Floor

Pinc College

Colorful hanging lanterns with various patterns, including floral, animal, and traditional designs, one featuring a sketch of a woman with an elaborate hairstyle.
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Ardwick Climate Action

A young girl holds a root with soil while planting in a garden, assisted by an adult, outside near a fence.
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Manchester Climate Change Youth Partnership

A group of nine diverse young adults sitting on a staircase indoors, smiling for the camera.
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Clean Cities

A group of people waiting in line at an event entrance, with a white wall displaying red text that reads 'National Saturday Club Summer Show' and decorative red arrows around the text.
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Hubbub

Children playing violins during a music class.
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Museum Development North

Logo for Museum Development North, with colorful lowercase letters 'm', 'd', and 'n' and text above and below
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UOM Environmental Sustainability

A courtyard with green grass, paved walkways, and trees in front of an old stone building covered with green ivy, under a blue sky with some clouds.
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National Saturday Club

People, including children, playing with large cardboard boxes and toys in an indoor space.
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Young woman with headphones around her neck enjoying a sunny day outdoors, holding a coffee cup, with a building and cars in the background.
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Carbon Literacy Project

Graphic displaying The Carbon Literacy Project with silhouettes of diverse people underneath.
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Muslim Social Justice Initiative

Map of Greater Manchester with numerous small icons of people and an upward arrow, with the words "Greater Manchester" in the center.
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Olympias Music Foundation

People sitting on the floor and listening to a man speaking into a microphone in a dimly lit room.
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Quarantine Theatre

Building a sustainable world

Find out what we are doing to build a more sustainable world

READ MORE