kidzdays

World of Glass

Cost
Free museum, glassblowing demo £5
Ages
5 to 11
Where
St Helens, Merseyside
Weather
Works in the rain
Booking
Just turn up
Address, drive time and facilities
Illustration of World of Glass

Better than it sounds, and free to get in: hands-on stations on natural glass, lenses and fibre optics, a Victorian street, and the story of the town that made the world's windows, told around the old Tank House.

The live glassblowing is the one thing you pay for, £5 for adults and £3.50 for children, and it is worth it: watching molten glass become a vase is the moment that sticks. Demos usually run around midday and 2pm. An honest wet-morning winner, as long as the wet morning is not a Monday or a Tuesday, when it is shut.

What it costs: Entry to the museum and Tank House is free. The live glassblowing demonstration is the one paid part: £5 adults, £3.50 children. Open Wednesday to Sunday and bank holidays, 10am to 4pm; closed Mondays and Tuesdays. The car park is paid, free for 10 minutes and up to £5 for 12 hours.

Know before you go

  • Demonstrations usually run around 12pm and 2pm, Wednesday to Sunday, but times move for workshops and events, so ring 01744 22766 if the glassblowing is the point of the trip.
  • It is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, which is exactly where a half-term plan tends to land. Weekends and bank holidays are fine.

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What visitors say

★★★★★ 4.6 across 956 Google reviews.

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