Museum sights in Northeast England
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A
Discovery Museum
Tyneside's rich history is uncovered through a fascinating series of exhibits at this unmissable museum. The exhibitions, spread across three floors of the former Co-operative Wholesale Society building, surround the mightily impressive 30m-long Turbinia, the fastest ship in the world in 1897. There's an absorbing section dedicated to shipbuilding on the Tyne including a scale model of the river as it was in 1929, a buzzers-and-bells science maze for the kids and a 'Story of Newcastle' section giving the low-down on the city's history from Pons Aelius (Newcastle's Roman name) to Cheryl Cole.
The museum is about a 10 minute walk west of Central Station along Neville St and…
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B
Seven Stories
A marvellous conversion of a handsome Victorian mill has resulted in Seven Stories, a very hands-on museum dedicated to the wondrous world of children's literature. Across the seven floors you'll find original manuscripts, a growing collection of artwork from the 1930s onwards and a constantly changing programme of exhibitions, activities and events designed to encourage the AA Milnes of the new millennium.
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C
Durham Light Infantry Museum
The history of Durham's County Regiment and its part in various wars from 1758 to 1968 is brought to life at this museum 500m northwest of city centre; there's a small art gallery with changing exhibitions.
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D
Oriental Museum
Another university museum, located on campus 3 miles south of the city centre, with surprisingly good collections ranging from fine Egyptian artefacts to a monster of a Chinese bed. Take bus 5 or 5a.
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E
Durham Heritage Centre
Near the cathedral, in what was the St Mary-le-Bow Church, this museum has a pretty crowded collection of displays on Durham's history from the Middle Ages to mining. It's all suitably grim, especially the reconstructed Victorian prison cell.
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F
Cell Block Museum
The original jail cells in the upper floor of the town hall (1750–61) have been preserved as a museum devoted to crime and punishment. Tours take in the public rooms, museum, jail and belfry.
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G
Museum of Archaeology
Occupying a converted riverside mill, this small university museum has collections ranging from prehistory to medieval times via the Romans and Anglo-Saxons.
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RNLI Grace Darling Museum
Born in Bamburgh, Grace Darling was the lighthouse keeper's daughter on Outer Farne who rowed out to the grounded, flailing SS Forfarshire in 1838 and saved its crew in the middle of a dreadful storm. This recently refurbished museum is dedicated to the plucky Victorian heroine and even has the actual coble (rowboat) in which she braved the churning North Sea, as well as a film on the events of that stormy night. Grace was born just three houses down from the museum and is buried in the churchyard opposite, her ornate wrought-iron and sandstone tomb built tall so as to be visible to passing ships.
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H
Great North Museum
This outstanding new museum has been created by bringing together the contents of Newcastle University's museums and adding them to the natural history exhibits of the prestigious Hancock Museum in the latter's renovated neoclassical building. The result is a fascinating jumble of dinosaurs, Roman altar stones, Egyptian mummies, Samurai warriors and some impressive taxidermy, all presented in an engaging and easily digestible way. The indisputable highlights are a life-size model of a Tyrannosaurus rex and an interactive model of Hadrian's Wall showing every milecastle and fortress. There's also lots of hands-on stuff for the kids, a planetarium with screenings throughout…
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Bailiffgate Museum
The three floors at this often overlooked museum near the castle are taken up with interesting exhibitions on coal mining, the history of Alnwick, Border Reivers and the railways as well as locally themed temporary shows.
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