Centre For Life

Great place for kids and adults. Plenty of educational and interest lectures.
Outdoor ice rink in winter.

I went here when I was younger and really enjoyed it. There’s lots of exciting educational and fun things to do inside for children of all ages. It’s located near the train station so is easy to get to. When I went they had a cinema which took you on rides and swings to teach you about motion sickness. There is also a place to get food inside. Good one for bored kids at half term. I haven’t been for a while so I’m sure they have lots more things to do now. There’s a couple of bars outside you could go to if you just want to drop the kids off too.

Centre for life is a huge space, the building itself is something to see, and changed a whole sector of the city when it was first put up. In winter there is an ice rink in front of the centre that is very popular. The centre is an important venue for medical and biological research in conjunction with the University of Newcastle. As a regular pleb we access the exhibition space. The exhibitions themselves change (check the website) and some are a higher quality than others. All are geared towards kids. As you enter the space you go through a section devoted to human evolution. The displays are interactive, for example a range of skulls you can twirl around to see how big the brain inside would have been by measuring the beads. Sand trays that kids can get in to brush sand away from bones.
The next exhibition ponders the range of environments humans can live in, an icy wall to touch, magnetic fishing rods to catch fish, mock ups of desert nomad homes and so on. The ride has height limits. When I was there it has a sponge bob square pants theme but my 4 year old was too little to go on it. The shows are held in a dome. There are usually two that run 4 times a day each. They seem to be one person showing you experiments. Any child who has seen Mad Science or Big Bang on TV will be somewhat underwhelmed by these. For adults and older kids Life also puts on a range of speakers on a range of science topics. These are free and all interesting. The café is very ordinary and pricy, but there are places to eat your own food. A good day out for people with kids between 4 and 11 who are interested in science and nature,

Great place to take the kids and just as much fun for the adults too, loads of activites as you go round which makes the learning much more fun, reasonable value for money, not something you could return to on regular basis in my opinion