We had a great visit here with the kids in the summer holidays. It's a fun, very interactive museum with loads of fun things to try. They particularly enjoyed presenting the weather forecast in front of a real TV camera, and making their own animations with various props. We paid to see the 'light show', which was actually a short presentation of interesting facts about light and some demonstrations of things like an infrared camera. The viewing observatory on the top floor has great views of the new bridge over the Mersey and had an interesting glass elevator to get up. There is a cafe which also sells ice cream. You can't take your own picnic food in the cafe but there's a big separate lunch room upstairs with plenty of space to picnic (also lots of space outside on a nice day). The playground was a hit with the kids despite the rain when we visited. The parking is free and there are disabled spots available. Finally, remember that when you pay full price you get free visits for a whole year- we'll definitely be back!

This is a fantastic place to bring children! Interactive experiment areas are set up in a fun and engaging manner to ensure that the experience caters for each individual mind. The museum has multiple stories each with a different experience. From the top floor an amazing view of the bridge and Spike Island can be seen. Outside of the center is a nice play area and zip line for the children to enjoy. Duck and swan food can be purchased from inside at the desk to feed them in the water outside on the water. This is an interactive experience I would definitely recommend.

It great way of gaining knowledge of science specifically for kids. Adults enjoys it too. We had fun. There is free parking. You can have food and drinks at cafe. Toilets are neat and clean. Beautiful view from glass lift. You can convert you day ticket to annual pass.

I came here as part of Girl guiding brownies sleepover event where we slept in the observatory, this is a very hands on child friendly museum! The staff are lovely and friendly! We took part in keyring making and science space shows, fantastic experience!

Great day and fabulous staff. Very informative for kids particularly. Suggest for kids older than 5 yrs. Superb view of the bridges from top floor gallery. 👍

What a brilliant interactive museum for children and adults of all ages. Great information about science, and ways to put into practice, microscopes to look up close at the smaller details (money, flies, material for some examples), stop motion learning and flying scarfs and paper cups. We were lucky to go up to the observation top for - what views, even on a rainy day we could see the roof tops further a field. Live shows and demonstrations by Rob - so engaging and enthusiastic, really got the kids thinking and shouting out. So many questions asked by all. Given web searches to answer further questions when we ran out of time. Do recommend going if you want a day out. Make it a full day for walk round Spike island and watch out for the wild life on the Mersey and Sankey canal

Absolutely fantastic place for enquisituve children and parents. Kids get to enjoy experiments and making science fun. The price is great also. Pay once and visit unlimited times for the year. The cafe is also reasonably priced. The museum is also a nice visit and if that's not enough there's a park outside to sort the young ones. I will say something which might not to be everyone's taste. The gift area could do with having a bit more. I enjoy buying souvenirs and more science gadgets for the kids (and me) to take home would be nice.

Very interactive science museum. Great use of space and variety of science activities to keep children and adults engaged. Lovely space outside for picnics and there's a good playground as well as walks nearby. Impressive and recommend you take your family there.

Only a small museum, but kept the kids engaged 11am - 3pm. Lovely staff, nice little cafe and shop. Disabled access throughout, disabled toilet is a proper "changing places". Play area outside, with picturesque riverside area with ducks and geese. For your ticket £5.95 you get a year of visits! Carers are free :)

One word to describe it: AMAZING. Great experience for young and older kids, with experiments for all ages. We had an amazing time there and hope to visit many more times . Thank you for all the fun :) 😀👍

We spent the whole day here, 10am-4pm, we did a few rooms twice and did 2 workshops. Not much to get around and it would be easy to rush around it all so we tried to slow the kids down and make them take their time! The quality of the exhibits however was fantastic, very interactive and fun and the kids (aged 3 and 8) loved it all. The museum upstairs was interesting and very well designed. The cafe was very reasonably priced and had options that suited all of us. Great day - we will be back to make use of the annual pass and I imagine the kids will love it just as much next time.

A great day out. The grandkids love it here. Especially the hands-on events. All the staff are friendly and welcoming. There is a great cafe that serves food for adults and kid friendly food plus treats and hot drinks . Definitely worth a visit.

Not a bad local attraction , highlight heing the glass elevator . Some of the areas things not working . Will try the laboratory session next time and book as this looked really good.

Great experience with an informative talk too. Plenty to see and do. Lovely park and canal outside. Plenty of free parking. From observatory a panoramic view of estuary and incredible bridge.

Great fun for all the family. The wind turbines, building blocks, we're just 2 of the sections we got through as my 7yrs old just wanted to do it again and again. The cafe and play areas were good too.

Great day out, lovely staff.. Great experience. I have an annual pass so looking forward to returning again. Big thumbs up and food in cafe was excellent too. See you soon!

As always, staff were helpful and very polite, and the refurbishment have improved its enjoyability and the glass loft, has some amazing views

Great museum of chemistry and forces. Looks good for youngsters and school groups with plenty of hands on stuff to do. Good info boards for the older visitor with equal access to the fun stuff. Excellent cafe. Plenty of parking and nice walks in the surrounding area if the K's and the P's get to much. Don't miss out on the 4th floor views!

Fantastic family day out. Lots of activities, dog friendly cafe, lovely park outside. Gorgeous views.

Fab place for fun and informative (and well priced) day out. Admission is reasonable and then it is an annual pass which is so so good. We have been twice and done 2 of their extra events/workshops (bubbles/potions) and they are wonderful, CHEAP and the staff are just amazing. SO impressed. Perfect location to bring picnic, enjoy the area, play on park and walk out to Spike island too.

A brilliant local resource, perfect for a few hours out especially when it's raining. The ground floor has some fantastic interactive elements for all ages and the observation floor is great too. The entry ticket acts as a 12 month pass which is fantastic value. The cafe does great baked potatoes!

A great place to take school children, with a view to them taking an active role in using playing and learning with the equipment set up. To discover basic principles of fluid mechanics video production, weather presenting etc.

Amazing place … spent hours and hours here with my grandchild ages from 4 to 9 …. Lots to do and they were occupied all the time we were there ….cafe is good and reasonably priced but you can take a picnic in … there’s a park outside with a few swings and things if the weather good ….. definitely worth a visit , pay once for a while years entry… Highly recommend

Visited with a 7 and 4 year old. Sunny Sunday and very quiet. Staff all friendly. 3 floors. The ground floor is interactive and kids enjoyed it. I wish there was a member of staff walking round to encourage and explain some of the things so the kids engaged more. I can imagine without the staff tidying up and supervising the displays soon get ruined on busy days. Upstairs wasn't engaging for my kids, the second floor had things broken and top floor was good for the view but the interactive stuff wasn't very engaging. No hot food due to staffing. Toilets were dirty and clearly hadn't been cleaned from day before. No hand sanitizer in any of the stations I tried. Bubble workshop was fun and the staff member was enthusiastic. We would go again on a sunny day and take a picnic and have a walk round spike Island but not worth the journey just for the museum. It would be so much better with a few more changes.

Sign posted very well. Educational experience for young and old. Value for money, plus 12 months return card when you enter at reception. Cafe area was very spacious with friendly staff

Absolutely great place. Interesting and educational for all ages. Not a quick visit, give yourself plenty of time to enjoy yourself.

Excellent science museum. Perfect place to take kids of all ages. They have workshops for school trips, which are really informative and interactive. There are several galleries with exhibits, one of which has dozens of interactive displays to play with. A great way to spend an afternoon with the kids

Had a lovely few hours spent here today. Year pass too on entry which is good as there's plenty to revisit. Planetarium was very interesting ( booked and paid separately) inside an inflatable tent with images and videos projected inside the done tent. Interesting talk too.

Absolutely brilliant place. Educational for the four year old... with many experiments and interactive activities to get involved in. My child really enjoyed himself.... must admit I did too. Outside are 2 playgrounds for various age groups. A zip line big slide. Walking paths around the site make it easy to explore other areas. Bring duck food. Definitely going again.

Great family day out. Loads of parking, and a lovely play area outside with plenty of space for picnics. We booked onto some of the workshops, which were really interactive and lots of fun.

Great new set of hands on displays since our last visit all excellent and kept our grandsons engaged, the demonstration and lab sessions very good fun. Nice cafe on site, and very good value for a full day's entertainment. Positioned by the river with play area and attractive walks.

Took our 9 year old here and had a lovely day, really enjoyed it. Check out the shows and hands on experiments, they really added to the experience. Amy was great and really engaged the children. Good value as the ticket lasts a whole year, the cafe was also good value.

Haven't been in the catalyst museum but the surrounding area is great for walking and playing. It's good to bring kids as they have a playing area and there are some swings and few more things for them to enjoy. Always a place I go back to every so often.

What a hidden gem! Fantastic hands on experiments, my twins aged 5 and 7 year old could have stayed there alllll day. We went to a rainbow workshop up in one of the labs and they were gripped and loved doing the experiments. We'll definitely be coming back very soon!

Apsoluty loved it here so much for the kids to learn 😃

Nice place for little kids and adults to play and experiment with easy science activities and learn

Fun few hours out, interactive and enjoyed the soap making workshop. Applied Giftaid to my cost and was given an annual pass for few, bonus.

Great experience for the kids and adults! Lots of interactive experiments and a great outdoor play space. Food on site no great but there are many eateries withing driving distance.

Marvellous museum situated near the river and in sight of several spectacular bridges. The displays are very interesting and there is masses for children to do. There is a cafe so you could spend all day there. A must for anyone interested in the history of the chemical industry.

Great day out for the whole family. I paid with gift aid so got a family annual membership for around £22 - What a bargain!! We also added on the Explore your universe talk for £1.75pp which was really engaging and interesting. The on-site Cafe is very reasonable, nice food and friendly staff. They also said at peak times they open a room up for picnics. There is also a really good outdoor play area and I imagine if the weather was nice u could spend all day here. We'll definitely be regulars from now on.

Lots to do for kids. We keep coming back and kids enjoy it everytime. Great presentations as well. Particularly pop up planetarium is 6*

Great fun for the kids, informative talks and the cafe is pretty good too! There's also a playground right outside so if you have time there's some outdoor fun too

Great place to take the kids or just go for a stroll, free parking, infront of you is the new Runcorn bridge and the Mersey Estuary. Lots of birds sat on the canal waiting to be fed or photograped, we even saw a Whooper Swan. You can walk around the legendary Spike Island or go right along the river and go towards the old Runcorn Bridge. A great play area for the kids and a good place for a picnic when the weather warms up.

I remember coming here as a kid. Loved it. Now, with my partners Kids I was able to enjoy it all over again. It's just amazing. They loved everything. It was all hands on and very kid friendly. It's a really well put together place, fantastic value. We look forward to coming again!

Brilliant hands on experiments, loads of interactive models. Great cafe with lovely staff. Panoramic views from the top of building of toll Bridge and Spike Island.

We arrived at the catalyst museum and were quickly served at the counter, we were given a map and we headed to the interactive room. Our daughter had great fun doing all the different hands on demos. This floor is the best floor for younger children. We then headed upstairs where there is alot of reading material and historical facts. Our daughter found some of the articles interesting. Floor 4 is the observatory and it does have a few interactive demos. The views are fabulous though and worth the journey up the stairs. If you are afraid of heights, maybe not the best idea!! Toilets are located on the bottom floor by the entrance. Here there is also a cafe and a small selection of gifts. We spent roughly an hour and a half. Certainly not a full day out but enjoyable none the less.

Went for an educational visit. Workshops were amazing and the children really enjoyed them. All hands in activities and some great learning. The galleries are full of great interactive exhibits for children and even I enjoyed having a go (especially the green screen to read the weather report). The top floor observatory gave a brilliant view of Widnes and was a great end to the trip. We also enjoyed that you get to slide out of the grounds 😁

Great place. Love that you pay once and come back anytime over the next 12 months. Outside park is great and well designed. Inside, the refurbishment on the ground floor was definitely much needed. Kept myself and the kids entertained for a couple of hours. Only reason for the 4* is that everything other than the ground floor is very dated and needs some investment putting back into it. Especially at the top as it's a lovely view from up there. Overall I'd recommend popping in and seeing what it's all about

Good interactive museum, great hands on displays which the kids enjoyed. We paid extra for the "light show" which was more of a science show about light and probably should have been advertised for ages 6+ as not sure 3 year old got much out of it. Great views from lift. Cafe was pretty disappointing, reasonably priced but baked potato undercooked and nachos were very disappointing. Will bring packed lunch next time. Overall a good family day out and good value if you use the annual pass - will aim to come back in warmer months when we can make more use of playpark.