Visual Story: what to expect when visiting Discovery Museum

Download a PDF version of Discovery Museum's visual story (PDF, 1.70 MB)

1. What to expect at Discovery Museum
2. Arriving at Discovery Museum
3. The Welcome Desk
4. The Gift Shop
5. Meeting people who work at Discovery Museum
6. Accessible toilets
7. Stairs and lifts
8. The Café
9. Turbinia
10. Newcastle Story
11. The Gallery
12. Other exhibitions on the Ground Floor
13. Tyne & Wear Archives
14. Story of the Tyne
15. Tiny Tyneside
16. Charge! The Story of England's Northern Cavalry
17. Special Exhibitions
18. Tyneside Challenge
19. Destination Tyneside
20. Science Maze
21. Play + Invent
22. Help us improve Discovery Museum's visual story

I am going to visit Discovery Museum.

It is a big museum with exhibitions on three floors. 

There is lots to see and do but I don't have to do it all in one visit.

Discovery Museum is a science and industry, maritime, military, and local history museum. 

I will find out lots of things about the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. 

I will be able to see lots of different things including a ship, a car, and some of Tyneside’s famous inventions.

It is a safe place to relax and explore and have fun with my family and friends.

When I arrive, I will see that the museum is covered in scaffolding.

This is because the roof is being repaired.

I will need to be careful while the builders are working.

Vehicles might move in and out of the building site.

There is no car park but I can pay to park on the street or at the Grainger Town Multi Storey car park nearby.

The museum is still open - even though it might look closed from the outside.

I can go inside by walking through the white tunnel underneath the blue arch.

When I have gone through the main doors, I will see the welcome desk.

I can ask the person working there any questions I might have about the museum.

There is a gift shop next to the welcome desk.

I can come back here later.

If I have some money, I can buy things - but I don't have to.

During my visit I will see people who work in the museum, in the gift shop and in the café too.

They will give me any help I need and answer my questions.

They are very friendly.

There are accessible toilets at the back of the museum on the ground and second floors.

There is a Changing Places toilet on the ground floor at the back of the museum.

I can ask a member of staff for help if I can't find the toilets.

I can ask to borrow a Radar Key at the welcome desk.

All of the toilets have hand dryers in them.

There are two staircases and lifts in Discovery Museum.

The main ones are on every floor at the back of the museum.

To use the main lift I have to go through a set of double doors.

This is what the main lift looks like on the ground floor.

If I go up to the second floor, I will see the café. 

It might be busy and noisy.

I can buy hot food and drinks here.

I can't eat my packed lunch in the café. 

Instead I can use the tables on the ground floor, next to Turbinia.

I must not eat food in the exhibition galleries because this can attract pests like insects that damage the objects.

Turbinia is the biggest object in the museum.

It is on the ground floor.

It is a ship and used to be the fastest in the world.

I can move all the way around Turbinia.

If I go up some steps behind Turbinia I can find out more about the ship.

I can also get a good view of the ship's deck from the platform off this space.

The lift up to this area is broken but the museum is trying to get some money to fix it.

I can also get some good views of Turbinia looking down from the first and second floor balconies.

I can find the entrance to Newcastle Story at the back of the museum on the ground floor.

The story starts 2,000 years ago in Roman times.

I will learn how the city developed through history, right up until the 1990s.

In Newcastle Story, there is a long and winding route to follow.

At the end, I will come out of a different door to the one I went through at the start.

It is a dark and, occasionally, noisy space but there are lots of places to stop and sit if I need to.

When I come out of Newcastle Story, I am right next to the entrance to The Gallery.

In The Gallery I will find Steam to Green: A North East Energy Revolution - a temporary exhibition about generating energy.

I will learn about how the North East is moving away from burning fossil fuels and moving towards renewable sources of energy, like solar power and wind turbines.

There are some other small exhibitions on the ground floor near Turbinia.

I can learn about the 1926 General Strike, the Enigma code-breaking machine from the second world war, and the history of Newcastle’s Swing Bridge.

Tyne & Wear Archives is a place where I can do some research, for example, family history.

It is a bit like a library and has a huge collection of documents in its stores about the region.

The Archives is based at Discovery Museum on the ground floor.

If I want to look at any archives I need to pre-book an appointment online. 

I can do this at twarchives.org.uk.

If I go up to the first floor, I will find Story of the Tyne.

This exhibition is about shipbuilding, an industry that used to be very common on the river Tyne.

There are lots of ship models, a model of the river Tyne and some lifeboats too.

There are some fun things I can do too including testing my loading skills by pulling on the ropes to move cargo from one cage to another.

Tiny Tyneside is a play area for babies and toddlers on the first floor.

If I go in here, I must close and lock the gate behind me.

This will stop any children from getting lost.

Charge! tells me what it is like to be a soldier in two cavalry regiments.

Not only are there weapons in here, like guns and swords, but also uniforms, and a full-size model of a horse.

The guns and swords are safely locked away.

I can also watch a selection of short films.

I might find some of the stories told upsetting.

It can be quite noisy.

I don't have to go in here if I don't want to.

This is a new space for temporary exhibitions.

The first exhibition in the space is called Things That Go! - an exhibition all about different kinds of transport.

Tyneside Challenge tells me how North East inventors have found solutions to various problems across the world.

I can see a model of the Tyne Bridge, ship models, and a model of Puffing Billy, one of the first steam locomotives.

There is a large gun on wheels and a full-size car from 1911 which used to belong to the first Director of the museum.

The gun is completely safe and cannot be fired.

Destination Tyneside tells the story of people who have come to live and work on Tyneside from other parts of the world.

When I first go inside Destination Tyneside it is dark.

There is also a cinema room where it is very dark.

In the second part of the exhibition there are large windows letting the light in.

There are plenty of places I can sit and rest in here.

In Science Maze there are lots of things I can play with to help me understand science.

I can use a blower to shoot a ball up a pipe and for gravity to then bring it back down a spiral track.

It is very colourful in here but it can get noisy.

Science Maze is not actually a maze. I won't get lost.

In Science Maze I will find a small soft play area for babies and toddlers.

It's called Mini Maze.

At the end of Science Maze I will find a space called Play + Invent.

This space is used for occasional events.

We hope this visual story is useful.

If after your visit you feel we have missed any important sensory information, please email us and let us know: info@discoverymuseum.org.uk