Living Planet and Fossil Stories
A life-size T. rex, a full-size model elephant and Sparkie, the talking budgie who became a 1950s radio star.
A life-size Tyrannosaurus rex fills the ground-floor Fossil Stories gallery, and elsewhere in the building, in a glass case you could miss, sits a stuffed budgerigar called Sparkie who won a BBC talking-bird contest in 1958 and became a radio and television celebrity. That mix of the grand and the gently absurd is the whole museum in miniature: a Victorian building of 1884 that housed the Natural History Society of Northumbria's collections, joined in 2009 by Newcastle University's Roman, Greek and Egyptian antiquities and reopened after a major extension as one of the largest free museums in the North East. Most visits start in Living Planet, with a full-size model elephant and a great white shark, then the fossil hall and its dinosaur, then move to the Hadrian's Wall gallery, which is the part worth slowing down for: a long model shows the Roman frontier from coast to coast, ringed by real stone altars and inscriptions gathered from the Wall's forts since the nineteenth century, including the inscription stone that proves the Wall was built on Hadrian's orders. If you plan to drive out to the Wall itself the next day, this room explains it better than any interpretation board on site. The first-floor Ancient Egypt room holds two human mummies, complete coffins and pieces on loan from the British Museum; the Shefton collection of Greek and Etruscan pottery will not hold children long but pleases anyone with a taste for antiquity. Entry is free with no booking, and the building is set up for families: a lift between floors, a designated buggy park, a simple cafe, and a small planetarium on the first floor showing films of fifteen minutes to a little over half an hour. Planetarium tickets cost £2.95 to £3.75 a head, bought on the day at the museum shop, with a discount for groups of four to six; children aged three and under go free. There is no visitor parking; Haymarket Metro is a five-minute walk, and Exhibition Park and the Town Moor lie directly behind the building if the children need to run afterwards. The verdict: ninety minutes to two hours is plenty, and this is Newcastle's best indoor refuge on a wet day with children. Weekday mornings in term time fill with school groups, so after 2.30pm and Sundays are calmer, and in the school holidays the museum opens at 9am on Tuesdays for a quiet hour before the crowds. A visitor without children who has one half-day in the city should give the Quayside and its bridges priority; this comes after.
A life-size T. rex, a full-size model elephant and Sparkie, the talking budgie who became a 1950s radio star.
A long model of the Roman frontier from coast to coast surrounded by real altars and inscriptions from its forts; the best briefing before you drive out to the Wall.
Two mummies and complete coffins, then a short planetarium show for the children in a small dome for under £4.
Barras Bridge, five minutes' walk from Haymarket Metro, NE2 4PT
With a single half-day in Newcastle, the Quayside and its bridges come first; but with a full day, or rain, the Hadrian's Wall gallery and the Egypt room fill an enjoyable free hour, especially if you plan to see the Wall itself later.
No; tickets are sold on the day at the museum shop and there is no online booking. Shows run daily from 10:10am (from 11:30am on Sundays), and in the school holidays it is wise to buy on arrival because seats are limited.