Getting ready to reopen our doors!

We open our doors to a changed world, and we’ve changed with it – but not so much that you won’t recognise us, promise! 

We know you’ll have loads of questions, which we’ve hopefully answered in our reopening FAQs, but here are a few really important changes that you need to know about: 

• ALL visits must be booked in advance. Yes – even those of you with annual passes!
  Limiting the number of people in our building at any time is really important, and this is the only way we can do it effectively and keep you, and ourselves, safe. You’ll be able to book your visit online shortly, or for anyone not able to book online for any reason, a member of our team will be able to help sort your booking over the phone.You can’t book your tickets just yet (we’re just sorting the online systems for this) but we’ll let you know when bookings are open. 
• You must choose an arrival time from the slots available
  Choose a time with availability, and then please try to arrive as close to that time as possible. Don’t worry though, we know what kids are like (“Are we there yet?” “I need the loo!”) so you have a window of 30 minutes from your timeslot to arrive. Again, this is to be able to manage the number of people in the museum at any time, but also to keep queueing to a minimum, so we really need your help on this.
  
• We’re extending annual passes
  If you lost any days on your pass due to the closure, we’ll pop them onto the end of your pass. So if you missed out on a month, we’ll add a month after reopening, and if you missed out on the full closure period, we’ll add 141 days!
• Stay together: Respect others: Have fun!
  It’s all about three-phrase taglines these days, isn’t it? Well here’s ours…
  • Stay together: Please explore and play within your visiting group, following current social distancing guidelines
  • Respect others: This is about respecting one another’s space by adhering to social distancing, but it’s also more than that. The last few months have been difficult for everyone and we’ve all responded to the Coronavirus pandemic in different ways. We expect our team to be respectful of that and of our visitors’ questions, worries and needs. We ask that our visitors also try to be respectful to our team and other families visiting.
  • Have fun! Well, honestly, if you need this one explaining, you’re perhaps visiting the wrong place 😉

There’s a lot more to cover, so do have a read of our Reopening FAQs, and we’re really, really, REALLY looking forward to throwing our doors open once more on Saturday 8th August. See you soon!