National Football Museum

The Museum was established in Preston in 2001 and originally located at Preston North End’s Deepdale ground. It housed a wide collection of football objects and archives, which has now become the Football Heritage Collection. Despite being popular with visitors and critics alike, funding challenges resulted in the museum closing to the public in 2010. In partnership with Manchester City Council and with investment from the European Regional Development Fund and National Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Football Museum opened in Manchester’s iconic Urbis Building in 2012.

The Museum is now the custodian of the world’s largest collection of football-related ephemera. There are over 40,000 items housed in our Resource Centre in Preston and around 2,500 are on display at the museum at any one time. Included are paintings and sculptures in all mediums by well-known and lesser-known artists.