Recommended by Kylie with children ages 10 and 6 and and and on Wed Feb 26 2020

We recently visited Leeds Industrial Museum and it was fab! When I hear ‘industrial museum’, I think of old engines, dark rooms and boring content (our local industrial museum is tired and worn) but Leeds was a breath of fresh air! The museum follows a timeline along the floor, so you are able to experience the industry at different time periods and there is a clear route to take. There was a lovely interactive trail around the museum, where kids can grab a real medical bag and try to help the poorly workers dotted around on the information signs. They have to work out which items in their bags would be best to help based on their symptoms. This was great for my little budding vet, who was keen to learn all about the different illnesses! (Although, I ended up carrying the bag around!) The machines were all working and there were lots of interactive displays around the museum, from hands on artifacts to dressing up rails and lots of buttons to press! Tilda’s favourite was the ‘real life’ tailor’s shop, where children can role play- taking orders, sorting measurements, looking at sample materials and then stamping invoices behind the counter. She spent most of the time we were there trying to sell me various suits and plying me with invoices! I literally had to drag her out of there! There was an art installation around the whole museum when we visited, textiles were displayed around the machines and replicas had been created out of cotton and wool, which was great to try and spot with the kids. My favourite was the cosy cinema (which is apparently one of the smallest 1920s cinemas in the whole world!) that was showing Hotel Transylvania when we visited. We managed to watch the whole film and the kids loved being in the old-fashioned room. The kids were able to make their own flick book and have a go at creating a simple zoetrope in the cinema and film exhibition too. There was lots to keep them occupied in every room! Leeds Industrial Museum has worked wonders for what I have always considered to be a very dry subject and you can tell that they have worked hard to make the areas accessible and interactive for families, sparking interest in both adults and children in each and every room. We managed to spend almost a full day there (with the film screening) and thoroughly enjoyed our visit.