While you are at the museum, please take care of your own health and safety and our collections. In order to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone, please do not:
- Touch objects on open display or otherwise cause any damage to an object
- Smoke in the museum or across the site (including electronic cigarettes)
- Disregard alarms, signs, barriers or directions given by staff or volunteers
- Leave personal property unattended
- Eat and drink other than in designated areas
- Bring into the museum any restricted items (see below)
- Fundraise, demonstrate or distribute campaigning material, without prior agreement
- Abuse, threaten or intimidate any colleague or visitor
- Ride bicycles, scooters or any other wheeled items other than mobility devices
We reserve the right to ask anyone not complying with our admission guidelines or otherwise causing a nuisance to leave the museum.
Children under the age of fourteen must be accompanied by an adult. Other age restrictions map apply for particular experiences in the museum.
For Education groups, separate advice and guidance on the supervision of children is available in the Learning section.
Dogs are permitted on the museum’s outdoor footpaths, but must not be left unattended at any time. Dogs are not permitted in the children’s play area or in any museum building, except for assistance dogs.
Other animals and pets are not permitted.
Visitors are permitted to use hand-held cameras in the museum for private and non-commercial purposes, but must not:
- Use cameras in any areas where video or photography is restricted—this will always be clearly indicated
- Make any recording or take any photograph of any person without the authorisation of that person
- You must respect the privacy of other visitors while taking photographs, filming, or making audio recordings in the museum. If a visitor complains that your photography, filming, or recording is intrusive you may be asked to stop and/or delete any imagery and/or leave the museum
Non-private or commercial use of cameras/recording devices and the use of tripods or lighting is only allowed by prior arrangement.
Please do not bring the following on to museum premises:
- Alcohol. Alcohol may only be consumed if purchased on site, in a designated area
- Clothing with offensive signage, wording or logos
- Animals with the 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 from this policy
- Balloons, as these can interfere with our alarm systems if they float away
We will sometimes conduct bag searches on arrival at the museum. 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 or staff. Any items found will be removed at the bag-searching point, be recorded and returned to the visitor on departure.
If our staff find anything they consider to be illegal, they will confiscate it and contact the police.
Our visitors are welcome to breastfeed anywhere on site.
All our staff are identifiable from their passes or badges. There is a Duty Manager on site whenever we are open to the public, to ensure that you have a safe and enjoyable visit.
If our staff 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 if necessary.
We will not tolerate abuse or violence towards any visitor, contractor or member of staff.
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.
