Catalyst Science Centre
Hands-on science galleries and a glass rooftop observatory over the Mersey. Small, cheap, indoors and close.
Spike Island
Widnes, Cheshire
An artificial island wedged between the Sankey Canal and the Mersey estuary, once the heart of Britain's chemical industry and now flat, open parkland with wetlands, woodland and a riverside promenade staring straight at the Mersey Gateway bridge. Children get boats on the canal, ducks, big paths for bikes and scooters, and the general satisfaction of being on an island you can drive to.
Park free off Upper Mersey Road and just wander. The Sankey towpath links into the Trans Pennine Trail if anyone has a bike and ambition, and the 19th century pyrites kilns and the site of the world's first rail-to-ship dock, from 1833, come with interpretation boards for the child who asks what everything is.
The wide grass field was the stage for the Stone Roses' Spike Island concert in May 1990, thirty thousand people on a reclaimed chemical tip. One parent per visit is legally obliged to mention it.
What it costs: Everything on the island is free. Catalyst Science Discovery Centre next door charges its own admission.
Know before you go
- Pair it with Catalyst - science centre in the warm, island walk after, and the observatory on Catalyst's top floor shows you the whole island before you set foot on it.
- It is exposed out on the river bank, so a bright cold day beats a grey windy one.
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