Prescot & Whiston Play Centres
Space World in Prescot, Sensory Hive in Whiston and Boomerang: the council-listed indoor options when it rains and everyone is climbing the walls.
Spaceworld Play Centre
Prescot, Merseyside
Prescot Business Park is not where you expect to find a 20ft rocket, but Ropers Court holds one, along with 8,000 square feet of frame split into three zones over four tiers. There is a 25ft spiral slide, a wavy four-lane slide, spinning poles and a football pitch bolted into the upper deck. The under-3s get a walled-off area of their own with soft shapes, look-out bubbles, a mirror maze and a track for the little space ranger cars, which is where most families with a toddler and a seven-year-old end up splitting the parenting duties.
The pricing is the reason to bother. Adults are £1 flat, peak or off peak, so the cost of a visit is basically the number of children you brought. Off peak, term-time weekdays until 4.10pm, an over-1 is £8.95. Peak, meaning after school, weekends, bank holidays and the whole of the school holidays, it goes to £10.50. A Play & Eat ticket bundles a kids meal, a cup drink and an ice lolly for £15.50 peak or £14.25 off peak, which is worth doing if you were going to buy lunch anyway.
Booking online is only required at peak times, and the operator says as much on every page. The cafe does table service and you order at the counter. What the website will not tell you is how long a session lasts or whether parking is straightforward. Ring ahead of a busy Saturday.
Know before you go
- The £1 adult admission is the whole point. Two parents and two children off peak comes to £19.90, which is roughly what one child costs at some of the branded jump parks.
- Off peak is term-time weekdays only, 9.20am to 4.10pm. Turn up at 4.15pm on a Tuesday in term time and you pay peak, so check the clock before you get out of the car.
- The site does not publish a session time limit or anything about parking, and the address is a unit on Prescot Business Park, not a retail park. Ring 0151 493 1717 first if either matters to you.
Worth knowing: Separate toddler area for 0 to 3; the main frame suits roughly 3 to 11.
Looking for more soft play & indoor play near Prescot?
Also in Prescot
Family & Friends Playcentre
Soft play with a full role-play village attached, which is the bit that holds a four-year-old's attention long after the frame stops being interesting.
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.
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.