John Rylands Research Institute and Library
A neo-Gothic library from 1900 on Deansgate that looks like a cathedral built for books. Free, no booking, and a genuine wow for about 45 minutes. Open Wednesday to Saturday only.
Museums & science Manchester
Museums & science in Manchester
Hands-on museums and science centres. Several of the best ones are free.
14 in Manchester8 free13 indoor12 suit under-5s
Manchester's museums are the single best argument for the city as a family destination, and most of them are free. The Science and Industry Museum has working steam engines you can hear from the next gallery. Manchester Museum has a T. rex cast, Egyptian mummies and live frogs in the vivarium. Manchester Art Gallery has the Lion's Den for the smallest ones. None of those three charges a penny.
Away from the centre it gets more interesting. The Runway Visitor Park puts you close enough to taxiing jets to feel them, with Concorde parked alongside, and only parking costs. The Museum of Transport is a 1930s bus garage in Cheetham with around seventy buses, run by volunteers, and under-16s go free. Z-arts in Hulme is the only arts centre in the country run entirely for children. The National Football Museum is the museum that charges properly, and whether it is worth it depends entirely on the child.
Two of these are stages. The Opera House on Quay Street takes the big touring children's shows in the half terms and a city-centre panto at Christmas. Aviva Studios on Water Street is mostly for adults, but The Social, its free space, runs free craft drop-ins in the half terms and there is a big family show at Christmas.
Museums & science in Manchester
Manchester Art Gallery
Free, right in the city centre, and properly set up for children: the Lion's Den family gallery has its own play space and the family activity programme costs nothing. Closed Mondays.
Manchester Central Library
The big library on St Peter's Square has a jungle-themed children's library, refurbished in 2021, with board books to older fiction, a nursing room and a cafe in the building. Free, and open until 8pm Monday to Thursday.
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.
People's History Museum
The national museum of democracy, on the corner of Left Bank and Bridge Street, with galleries of protest banners, badges and votes-for-women history plus free drop-in family activities that change with the season. Free, and closed on Tuesdays.
Runway Visitor Park
Watch jets take off close enough to feel them, with Concorde parked by the fence. Free in, pay for parking, and there is a play area and cafe for the wait between planes.
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.
The Whitworth
A free gallery on the edge of Whitworth Park, with a cafe among the trees and a surprisingly full calendar of free under-fives days, baby sessions and outdoor art clubs. Closed Mondays.
Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester
A 1930s bus garage in Cheetham packed with around 70 historic buses, run by volunteers who know every rivet. Under 16s go free with an adult, so a family visit costs one or two £7.50 tickets. Only open Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays.
Museum of Illusions Manchester
More than 60 hands-on illusions on Market Street, from the Infinity Room to the Cloning Table, made for daft photos. £25.50 an adult and £21.50 a child, under 5s free, and prams are not allowed in.
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.
Aviva Studios (Factory International)
Manchester's huge arts venue on Water Street does free craft drop-ins in the half terms and a big family draw at Christmas, this year a life-size dinosaur Lightroom show. Free to walk into, with food and drink inside.
Opera House Manchester
Manchester's big touring house, which first opened on Boxing Day 1912. Families get the city-centre panto plus a string of big-name children's shows in the half terms, from The Dinosaur That Pooped to Horrible Histories.
Z-arts
The UK's only arts centre run entirely for children, in Hulme. Come for a booked show or an Adventures in Wonderland session rather than a wander: this is a plan-ahead venue, and a very good one.
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.
Imperial War Museum North
War told through people's stories in a building designed to feel like a shattered globe. The hourly Big Picture Show projections fill the whole gallery and stop everyone mid-step. Heavy themes, handled well, and better for the top end of primary.
Stockport Air Raid Shelters
A labyrinth of tunnels carved under the town centre that sheltered thousands in the Blitz, explored with a self-guided audio tour. Atmospheric in the best way for 7-and-ups.
The World of Beatrix Potter
Peter Rabbit's world recreated in walk-through scenes, ending in the garden with Mr McGregor's vegetables. Squarely for the under-8s; it is small, sweet and unashamed of it.
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.