Museums in the UK

Hands-on museums and family-friendly collections for curious minds.

Museums earn a place on a family day when children are allowed to touch things. Fireground Museum is built that way, with climbing onto a real fire engine, dressing up and role play, interactive firefighter games and sliding down the pole. Nothing pushes you along, so it suits toddlers and any child obsessed with fire engines and emergency vehicles. The National Football Museum in Manchester holds football history, vintage kits and famous trophies alongside penalty shoot-outs, a VR experience, fun trails and drop-in workshops where children design their own shirt. It is put together to work even if nobody in the party knows the offside rule. Bury Transport Museum keeps vintage buses, lorries, steam engines and industrial vehicles, with interactive displays, crafts, puzzles and dressing-up bits. Entry comes included with East Lancashire Railway, which runs heritage trains of its own and a Day Out With Thomas. Pompeii: The Immersive Experience suits older, curious visitors. The tone is atmospheric rather than frightening, there is free-roaming VR and an immersive film, and you can step out of the more intense moments. It is described as less ideal for toddlers, or for children who need something high-energy. Brooklands Museum and World Museum are listed here as well.