Judges' Lodgings Museum
A 17th-century townhouse below the castle with a Museum of Childhood on the top floor: 200 years of toys, a Victorian schoolroom and nurseries. Free for children, adults £5, and open Thursday to Sunday until mid November.
Museums & science Lancaster
Museums & science in Lancaster
Hands-on museums and science centres. Several of the best ones are free.
4 in Lancaster4 indoor3 suit under-5s
Lancaster's museums are cheap in the most useful way: children go free at three of the four, and district residents get into the two council ones free as well. The City Museum on Market Square covers the city and has the King's Own regiment museum inside, but there are no public toilets or baby change, so plan around that. The Maritime Museum in the old Custom House on St George's Quay opens afternoons only, Monday and Friday to Sunday, with a boatyard outside for picnics.
Judges' Lodgings below the castle has a Museum of Childhood on the top floor, 200 years of toys and a Victorian schoolroom, open Thursday to Sunday until 15 November and up stairs with no lift. Lancaster Castle is the one that charges children, £7 for a guided tour through a history of crime and punishment. Tours are sold on the day only, and they are no place for a pushchair.
Museums & science in Lancaster
Lancaster Castle
Guided tours only, an hour to an hour and a quarter, through a castle whose history is mostly crime and punishment, witch trials included. Brilliant for a gruesome-minded eight-year-old, wrong for a toddler in a buggy.
Lancaster City Museum
The city's own museum in the Georgian building on Market Square, with the King's Own Royal Regiment Museum inside. Children are always free, and so are adults who live in the district.
Lancaster Maritime Museum
Lancaster's port history in the old Custom House on the quay, with a grab-and-go cafe and a dog-friendly boatyard outside. Afternoons only, four days a week, and free for children.
Museums & science elsewhere in the North West
World of Glass
Free, indoors and better than it sounds: interactive science aimed at younger children, glassblowing demos, a picnic area and a small playground outside.
World Museum, Liverpool
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.
Catalyst Science Centre
Hands-on science galleries and a glass rooftop observatory over the Mersey. Small, cheap, indoors and close.
Science and Industry Museum
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.
Manchester Museum
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.
National Football Museum
Shirts, trophies and match footage across six floors, with 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.
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