Admissions policy

Animals, other than Assistance Dogs accompanying their owners, are not allowed inside any building. Please be aware that there is no parking with shade on a hot day.

Please only use our designated outdoor smoking areas (including electronic cigarettes). Please use the designated bin for your cigarette waste.

Visitors are permitted to use hand-held cameras within the Museum for private and non-commercial purposes, but must not make any recording or take any photograph of any person without the permission of that person. 

Non-private or commercial use of cameras/recording devices, and the use of tripods or lighting, is only allowed by prior arrangement. Please contact our Corporate Events team.

We will always let you know if official filming or photography is taking place in the Museum during your visit.

Please look after your personal property during your visit. Any property left unattended may be removed. If you lose any item during your visit, please speak to a member of staff.

• Alcohol may only be consumed, if purchased on site, in a designated area
• Clothing with offensive signage or logos
• Animals, with exception of Assistance Dogs
• Potentially dangerous items such as fireworks or knives. Knives which are carried for religious or cultural observance (such as the Kirpan) are normally exempt
• Any clothing or item worn deliberately to obscure the face, but with the exception of items worn for religious or cultural observance such as a Niqab or Burka

We will sometimes conduct bag searches on arrival. The searches look for restricted items and any other material that might be considered a risk to our collection, or to the health and safety and enjoyment of our visitors.

Any items found will be voluntarily surrendered at the bag-searching point and will be recorded and returned on departure. If our staff find anything they consider to be illegal, they will confiscate it and contact the Police.

There is a Duty Visitor Experience Supervisor on site whenever we are open to the public, to ensure that you have a safe and enjoyable visit.

All our staff and volunteers are identifiable from their badges and passes.

If our team think you may be causing unreasonable offence to other visitors, or are endangering yourself, others, our property or our collections, they will ask you to stop. Our staff have the authority to escort you from the Museum premises if necessary.

We will not tolerate abuse or violence towards any visitor, contractor, volunteer or staff member, whether by telephone, email, or onsite.

CCTV is in use throughout the Museum. Images are recorded for the purpose of public safety and crime prevention, in line with Data Protection legislation.

All tickets are non-refundable unless the Museum has to cancel the service, event or activity or needs to close the site or area being used for the service, event or activity. Please be aware that the refund process may take up to 30 days.