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.
6 in Lancaster6 indoor5 suit under-5s
Lancaster's museums are cheap in the most useful way: children go free at three of the four museums, 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.
The Dukes and the Grand are the two theatres, and both keep Christmas affordable. The Grand's panto is £49 for a family of four this year, and its visiting family shows between January and May cost £17.50 a head or less. The Dukes stages its Christmas show in the round with a family ticket, and it is a cinema too, with a family filter on the listings.
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.
Lancaster Grand Theatre
A theatre that has been going since 1782, now a charity and home to the Lancaster Footlights companies. The Christmas panto is £49 for a family of four, and touring picture-book shows fill in the rest of the year.
The Dukes
Lancaster's theatre and cinema in one building, with a Christmas show in the round, the odd family show through the autumn and year-round youth theatre. The cafe bar sells Mrs Dowson's ice cream, which helps.
Museums & science elsewhere in the North West
World of Glass
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.
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, indoors and close, with one gallery shut for a rebuild until early 2027.
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 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.
What’s on near you, every Friday
One email a week: what is on this weekend within a sensible drive, and the places worth booking before they go.