Witton Country Park
Blackburn's biggest green space: 480 acres with adventure playgrounds, woodland trails and a visitor centre in the old Victorian stables. Free in, free to park, and it absorbs a whole afternoon without anyone asking for money.
Temple of Fun
Blackburn, Lancashire
Wood Street in Darwen, and the pitch is comfort as much as play: a sensory room for children who need the volume down, a menu that is not entirely fried, and adult seating designed by somebody who has actually sat in a soft play for two hours.
Term time it opens Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm, and in the school holidays it runs seven days on the same hours. Sessions and parties are booked through the website and the prices live there rather than on the front page.
Darwen gets overlooked by families who default to Blackburn, and it should not be. This and the moors above the town make a decent half day if the weather cannot make its mind up.
Know before you go
- Closed Mondays and Tuesdays in term time. Every day 10am to 6pm once the holidays start.
- It is Darwen rather than Blackburn itself, about ten minutes further down the A666.
Looking for more soft play & indoor play near Blackburn?
Also in Blackburn
Corporation Park
Blackburn's showpiece Victorian park: a triumphal arch at the gate, two lakes with swans, a playground right beside them and a lime-tree avenue climbing the hill. Free, and less than a mile from the town centre.
Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery
A proper old-fashioned free museum in the town centre: Egyptian gallery, natural history cases and paintings upstairs, all doable in an hour. Closed Sundays and Mondays, which catches people out.
Funtazia
24,000 square feet in the middle of Blackburn, with go karts, bumper cars and laser tag alongside the climbing frames. Not really soft play any more, more an indoor funfair.
Flip Out Blackburn
Trampolines, a ninja course and an inflatable obstacle run, with a foam-padded soft play area for the ones too small for all that. Shut on Tuesdays and Thursdays in term time.