Museums & science in Blackburn

Blackburn has one museum and two stages, and the museum is the everyday answer. Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery has been free since 1874 and is small enough to finish before anyone's legs give out: an Egyptian gallery, natural history cases and paintings upstairs. It opens Tuesday to Saturday only, 11am to 4.45pm, so a wet Sunday needs another plan.

The Empire Theatre on Aqueduct Road and King George's Hall in the town centre are mostly grown-up venues that come good at Christmas. The Empire is a 1910 theatre run by volunteers as a charity, which shows in the panto prices: this year's family ticket is £58, well under what the city houses charge. King George's Hall puts a Christmas show on in its Concert Hall and books the odd touring family show. If both calendars look thin, the same box office sells Darwen Library Theatre, which has the half-term children's shows.

Museums & science in Blackburn

Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery

Blackburn~40 min

★★★★★4.6(350)

A proper old-fashioned free museum in the town centre: Egyptian gallery, natural history cases and paintings upstairs, all doable in an hour. Closed Sundays and Mondays, which catches people out.

Free entryIndoorsAges 4-11

Blackburn Empire Theatre

Blackburn~40 min

★★★★★4.8(992)

A 1910 theatre run by volunteers as a charity, with a proper family panto at Christmas at friendly prices. Outside panto season the family offer is a couple of touring shows a year, so this is mainly a Christmas venue.

Panto £14 child, £58 familyIndoorsAges 3-11

King George's Hall

Blackburn~40 min

★★★★☆4.4(1,911)

Blackburn's town-centre concert hall. For families it is mainly the Christmas show, The Wizard of Oz this year, plus the odd touring family show; the smaller sister venue in Darwen does more for children.

Christmas show £14.50 to £22.50IndoorsAges 3-11

Museums & science elsewhere in the North West

World of Glass

St HelensIn town

★★★★★4.6(956)

Free to get in and better than it sounds: hands-on stations on glass, lenses and fibre optics, a Victorian street and the old Tank House, with live glassblowing around midday and 2pm for a small extra charge. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Free museum, glassblowing demo £5IndoorsAges 5-11

World Museum, Liverpool

Liverpool~30 min

★★★★★4.6(16,054)

Five floors, free, and it covers three things small children reliably love: giant dinosaurs, an aquarium and a space gallery. The best wet-weather day within half an hour.

Free entryIndoorsAges 4-11

Catalyst Science Centre

Widnes~20 min

★★★★☆4.4(1,125)

Hands-on science galleries and a glass rooftop observatory over the Mersey. Small, indoors and close, with one gallery shut for a rebuild until early 2027.

£13 each until 31 Oct, annual pass includedIndoorsAges 5-11

Science and Industry Museum

Manchester~30 min

★★★★☆4.4(20,615)

Working steam engines, the story of Cottonopolis, and hands-on galleries in the world's oldest surviving passenger railway station. Free, and the live demonstrations are the bit kids actually remember.

Free entryIndoorsAges 4-11

Manchester Museum

Manchester~30 min

★★★★★4.7(10,653)

A T. rex skeleton cast, live frogs in the vivarium, Egyptian mummies and a genuinely good natural history floor. Free, university-run, and less overwhelming than the big London equivalents.

Free entryIndoorsAges 4-11

National Football Museum

Manchester~30 min

★★★★☆4.3(7,724)

Shirts, trophies and match footage across four gallery floors, with a penalty shootout and skills games that football-mad kids refuse to leave. If yours do not care about football, skip it: it is exactly what it says.

Adults £16, children £10 onlineIndoorsAges 6-11