Imagine That opened in Wigan on 18 July 2026, taking three floors of the Grand Arcade for the same idea as the Liverpool original: a child-sized town where the role play is the whole point. The Big City has an emergency services dispatch to run, the Village has a patisserie, a stocked supermarket and a building site, and the Entertainment Pavilion has a large dino dig and a slime factory. More than 40 set-ups, aimed squarely at two to ten year olds.
It is not cheap. A child is £24.95 and adults pay £9.95, so a family of four is a proper outlay before anyone has eaten. The redeeming feature is time: every session is three hours, which is a real morning or afternoon rather than an hour against the clock. Everything is pre-booked, and at the moment weekday sessions in term time are for toddlers.
Being in the middle of town helps with the logistics. Both stations are a few minutes' walk, and there is a cafe on site for the adult who has run out of ways to be a customer in the pretend shop.
What it costs: Hours and pricing page on 27 Sept 2026: child (3 to 13) £24.95, toddler (1 to 2) £18.95, adult £9.95, with discounted family tickets on the booking page. Every session is three hours: September weekends run 10am to 1pm and 1.30pm to 4.30pm, and October times vary. Toddler days on Thursdays and Fridays from 17 September until half term, 10.30am to 3pm, arrive when you like. Weekend toddler sessions run 9.30am to 11am from early October; the home page says 4 October and the toddler page 10 October, so check the booking page.
Worth knowing: Designed for ages 2 to 10.
Looking for more soft play & indoor play near Wigan?
Sending it to the group chat?
★★★★★ 4.5 across 43 Google reviews.
Read all 43 reviews on Google - filter by star rating there
Woodland trails, a big free adventure playground and picnic lawns, with high ropes, adventure golf and seasonal crazy golf as the paid extras. The free bits alone fill an afternoon. The miniature railway is closed while it is rebuilt.
Three colliery spoil heaps turned into a proper nature reserve: a lake with swans and kingfishers, 3km of flat pram-friendly paths, a playground and a woodland trail with a xylophone in it. Free parking, free everything.
Wigan's grand Victorian park after a £6.1m restoration: playground, bandstand, waterfall, formal gardens and an ornate iron pavilion with a Frederick's ice cream cafe inside. Free and right on the edge of the town centre.
An independent soft play in Wigan, going since 2013, with a 4.2 metre three-lane wavy slide, a small football and basketball court and 7,000 square feet of frame. Open every day, no booking, and cheaper on a weekday.
Pub soft play at the Red Robin: a tots area, several slides and a big ball pool for £6 a child, with adults in free and the coffee within reach. The cheap, dependable Wigan fallback.
A 28-lane standalone bowling alley on Wallgate with bumpers, ramps and lighter balls for small children, an arcade and pool. Eat, drink and bowl from £8, three games from £9.50, weekends from 9am.
One email a week: what is on this weekend within a sensible drive, and the places worth booking before they go.