Knowsley Safari
Drive through the reserve from the car, then the sea lion and birds of prey shows. Reviews are split on value, and several warn that families expect a full zoo and find fewer headline animals, so set expectations first.
Family & Friends Playcentre
- Cost
- Over-1s £6, babies £4, adults free
- Ages
- 0 to 5
- Where
- Prescot, Merseyside
- Weather
- Works in the rain
- Booking
- Book online through the website; open Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings, closed Tuesdays
The old Prescot Gospel Hall on Evans Street now holds a playroom built for 0 to 5s. The heart of it is Sugar Lane, a role-play street of roofless child-sized buildings: a cottage with a kitchen and an ironing board, a garage, a shop, a vet, a doctor's clinic and a fire station fronted sensory space, where the under-fives disappear into their own economy for an hour. At the top of the room is a soft play house with slides and a ball pool, and pre-walkers get a farm-themed baby corner away from the busier areas.
The role play is the differentiator. It holds attention long after frames stop being novel, though an older sibling will find the whole place small.
Stay to Play runs on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 9.30am. The home page says until 2pm and the schedule page says 1.30pm, so treat it as a morning out. It is closed on Tuesdays, and weekends are kept for parties and private hire. Entry is £6 for over-1s and £4 for babies up to 12 months, adults free, booked through the website. Shoes come off in the playroom and food stays out of it; the cafe does light bites, home baking and barista coffee. Street parking outside is permit only, but the free Moss Street council car park is a two-minute walk.
What it costs: Stay to Play: up to 12 months £4.00, over 1 year £6.00. Accompanying adults are free. Entertainment sessions and events are priced individually and include Stay to Play.
Worth knowing: Built for 0 to 5s, with a baby corner for pre-walkers. Older siblings will find it small.
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What visitors say
★★★★★ 4.9 across 56 Google reviews.
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Spaceworld Play Centre
8,000 square feet of frame over four tiers on a Prescot business park, built round a 20ft rocket, with a 25ft spiral slide, spinning poles and an elevated football pitch.
Prescot Museum
Knowsley's free local history museum, upstairs in Prescot Shopping Centre next to the library: watchmaking, pottery and coal mining, plus a kids corner with quiz sheets, trails and an apothecary chest to rummage in.
Stadt Moers Park
Bring the bikes or you will see one playground and go home. Knowsley's biggest park at roughly 220 acres, either side of Pottery Lane in Whiston, with playgrounds, a cycleway, a fishing pond and an outdoor gym.
Shakespeare North Playhouse
Prescot's playhouse has a proper family strand: weekly Baby Bards, short shows for the under-fives, half-term drama workshops for older kids and a performance garden outside. Better than it has any right to be for a town this size.
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.