Best Accessible Museums to visit in 2021
Finding a wheelchair accessible museum to visit can be challenging. How do you know if a museum will be able to cater for your accessibility needs?
We’ve teamed up with Carrie-Ann Lightley, one of the UK’s leading accessible travel bloggers, to bring you a list of beaches in the UK which are wheelchair accessible. Carrie-Ann is also Head of Marketing at AccessAble, the UK’s leading provider of detailed disabled access information.
Wheelchair accessible museums
Our list of wheelchair accessible museums uses information taken from the AccessAble website, where Detailed Access Guides tell you all about a place’s access. They are all 100 per cent facts, figures and photographs, and all of the details have been checked in person, on-site, by trained surveyors.
For each museum, we’ve added links to the main Access Guide, as well as links to Access Guides to hotels and B&Bs, restaurants, and tourist attractions so that you can see everything on offer in each area.
British Museum, London
Founded in 1753, The British Museum is home to an astonishing range of objects from cultures worldwide. The free museum houses a vast collection of world art and artefacts, which illuminate the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present day.
The British Museum is extensive, with over seventy galleries and a comprehensive range of extraordinary objects. The rooms are organised by geography, history and theme.
Access Guides
- British Museum Access Guides
- Accessible Hotels and B&Bs in London
- Accessible Restaurants in London
- Accessible Tourist Attractions in London
Imperial War Museum North, Manchester
At IWM North explore the conflicts that Britain and the Commonwealth have been involved in since the First World War to the current day through a timeline of objects that have borne witness to historical events.
Housed in an iconic aluminium clad building, representing a globe shattered by conflict – IWM North is the first museum in the UK to be designed by internationally acclaimed architect Daniel Libeskind.
Libeskind created the building to enhance the museum’s subject matter – the sharp angles, sloping floors, leaning walls and imposing exterior are deliberately in place to unsettle and disorientate you, intensifying the collections and stories within.
Access Guides
- IWM North Access Guide
- Accessible Hotels and B&Bs near Manchester
- Accessible Restaurants in Manchester
- Accessible Tourist Attractions in Manchester
National Museum of Rural Life, East Kilbride
Escape to the countryside for the day to explore the National Museum of Rural Life’s 1950s working farm and award-winning museum.
There is always something fresh to see with each season, from newborn lambs and calves to harvesting and haymaking.
You’ll always find plenty of life on the farm, including our Highland cows, Tamworth pigs and Clydesdale horses.
Access Guides
- National Museum of Rural Life Access Guide
- Accessible Hotels and B&Bs in East Kilbride
- Accessible Restaurants in East Kilbride
- Accessible Tourist Attractions in East Kilbride
Back to Backs, Birmingham
On a fascinating guided tour, step back in time at Birmingham's last surviving court of back to backs; houses built literally back-to-back around a communal courtyard. Moving from the 1840s through to the 1970s, discover the lives of some of the former residents who crammed into these small houses to live and work.
With fires alight in the grates, and sounds and smells from the past, experience an evocative and intimate insight into life at the Back to Backs.
Once your tour is done, why not take a reminder of your visit home from the gift shop or take a sweet walk down memory lane in the 1930s sweet shop.
Access Guides
- Back to Backs Access Guide
- Accessible Hotels and B&Bs in Birmingham
- Accessible Restaurants in Birmingham
- Accessible Tourist Attractions in Birmingham
We The Curious, Bristol
We The Curious was previously known as At-Bristol Science Centre; an educational charity aiming to “make science accessible to all”. It opened in 2000 and welcomed over 5 million visitors in the past 17 years.
At-Bristol relaunched as We The Curious in September 2017 with a new vision committed to creating a culture of curiosity. We The Curious is an idea and a place for everyone.
The venue on Bristol’s harbourside is a bit like an indoor festival, with all sorts of different experiences, where you can interact with exhibits, test stuff out and participate rather than visit. We’re all about empowering everyone to ask questions and get creative - with boundaries removed between science, art, people and ideas - a culture of curiosity.
Access Guides
- We The Curious Access Guide
- Accessible Hotels and B&Bs in Bristol
- Accessible Restaurants in Bristol
- Accessible Tourist Attractions in Bristol
National Railway Museum, York
For a fantastic day out for the whole family in York, visit the award-winning National Railway Museum. Get up close to over 300 years of fascinating history in York's only National Museum.
Explore our giant halls full of trains and railway legends, including the majestic Duchess of Hamilton, step on to the futuristic Japanese Bullet Train or marvel at the stunning opulence of the Royal Trains.
Get onboard awe-inspiring locomotives, watch our engineers at work in the Workshop, uncover hidden treasures in the Warehouse and make tracks to the outdoor area.
Access Guides
- National Railway Museum Access Guides
- Accessible Hotels and B&Bs in York
- Accessible Restaurants in York
- Accessible Tourist Attractions in York
Great North Museum, Newcastle
The Great North Museum: Hancock opened in May 2009 and incorporates collections from the Hancock Museum, Newcastle University’s Museum of Antiquities and the Shefton Museum.
Highlights of the museum include mummies from Ancient Egypt, a planetarium, a life-size replica T. rex dinosaur skeleton, a large-scale, interactive model of Hadrian's Wall, major new displays showing the wonder and diversity of the animal and plant kingdoms, spectacular objects from the Ancient Greeks and much more!
The Museum also holds temporary exhibitions and a range of free events, from children's activities to lectures and evening events.
Journey through 350 million years of evolution to discover the story of our planet and its people.
From the pretty to the poisonous, the terrifying to the tiny, explore the wonder and diversity of our world at the award-winning Great North Museum.
Access Guides
- Great North Museum Access Guide
- Accessible hotels and B&Bs in Newcastle
- Accessible restaurants in Newcastle
- Accessible pubs and bars in Newcastle
If you're visiting any of these museums, download the free AccessAble App from the Apple Store or Google Play Store.
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