Birkenhead Priory & St Mary's Tower
The oldest standing building on Merseyside, a twelfth century monastery hemmed in by the Cammell Laird shipyard. Ruined cloisters, a chapter house, and a tower you can climb for a view over the yard.
Museums & science Wirral
Museums & science in Wirral
Hands-on museums and science centres. Several of the best ones are free.
6 in Wirral3 free5 indoor4 suit under-5s
Only one of these was built for children, and it is the hands-on science centre with the ferry stop outside the door. Eureka! Science + Discovery has walk-through lungs in the new Bodies gallery and turns your entry into an annual pass, and Port Sunlight Museum is the gentle history stop at about a fiver for children with under-fives free.
Two are art galleries, and neither is aimed at children. The Williamson in Birkenhead is the workable one, all on a single level with a free car park and a cafe, while the Lady Lever at Port Sunlight is thirty rooms of paintings and Wedgwood and is really a quiet hour for the adults, and Birkenhead Priory, free as well, is the twelfth century one that lands better with a seven-year-old, ruined cloisters sitting improbably behind the Cammell Laird shipyard.
The Floral Pavilion on the New Brighton prom is the theatre of the set: a traditional panto at Christmas, a scattering of family shows and holiday clubs through the year, and a ground-floor cafe open to anyone, which is handy on a blowy seafront day.
Museums & science in Wirral
Lady Lever Art Gallery
William Lever built it for his wife and filled it with what he liked: Pre-Raphaelite paintings, Napoleon memorabilia and one of the most significant collections of Wedgwood jasperware in the UK. Free, and the Chinese ceramics cases sit low so children can see in.
Williamson Art Gallery & Museum
Birkenhead's big 1920s civic gallery on Slatey Road: free at the door, no ticket, no booking, all on one level, with a free car park and a cafe. It shuts on Sundays.
Port Sunlight Museum
The story of the village Lever built for his soap workers, with a preserved worker's cottage on the same ticket and a £2 miniature-hunting trail for the children. The village outside, the prettiest streets on Merseyside, costs nothing. A gentle history stop, not a rides day, and priced like it knows that.
Eureka! Science + Discovery
A hands-on science centre built precisely for this age group - walk-through lungs and a supersize brain in the new Bodies gallery, inventions to test, and the ferry stop is literally outside. Entry converts to an annual pass, which changes the maths entirely.
Floral Pavilion
New Brighton's seafront theatre, with a cafe open to anyone every day, a traditional panto and a scattering of family shows and holiday clubs through the year. Pairs well with a blowy walk on the prom.
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.