ABBEY HOUSE MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Monday: closed
Tuesday – Friday: 10am – 5pm
Saturday: 12 – 5pm
Sunday: 10am – 5pm
Last admission: 4.30pm
Address
Abbey Walk
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
ABBEY HOUSE MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Monday: closed
Tuesday – Friday: 10am – 5pm
Saturday: 12 – 5pm
Sunday: 10am – 5pm
Last admission: 4.30pm
Address
Abbey Walk
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
LEEDS ART GALLERY
Opening Hours
Monday: Closed
Tuesday-Saturday: 10am – 5pm
Sunday: 11am – 3pm
Address
The Headrow
Leeds
LS1 3AA
LEEDS CITY MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Monday: closed*
Tuesday – Friday: 10am – 5pm
Saturday & Sunday: 11am – 5pm
*Open Bank Holiday Mondays 11am – 5pm
Address
Leeds City Museum
Millennium Square
Leeds
LS2 8BH
LEEDS DISCOVERY CENTRE
Opening Hours
Visits by appointment only.
Free public store tours are now available by booking in advance. Please call or email us.
Address
Leeds Discovery Centre
Off Carlisle Road
Leeds
LS10 1LB
LEEDS INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: closed (open bank holiday Mondays only 10am-5pm)
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat – Sun: 12 – 5pm
(last admission one hour before)
Address
Canal Road
Leeds
LS12 2QF
KIRKSTALL ABBEY
Opening Hours
Monday: closed*
Tuesday – Sunday: 10am – 4.30pm
Last admission: 4pm
*Open Bank Holiday Mondays 10am – 4pm
Address
Abbey Road
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
LOTHERTON
Opening Hours
Open Daily
Estate opens: 8am
Hall: 10am – 5pm
Wildlife World: 10am – 5pm
Estate closes: 7pm
Last entry 45 mins before estate closing time
TEMPLE NEWSAM
Opening Hours
House : Tues – Sun: 10.30am – 5pm
Home Farm: Mon – Sun: 10am – 5pm
Last entry 45 minutes before
THWAITE WATERMILL
Opening Hours
Address
Thwaite Lane
Stourton
Leeds
LS10 1RP
LOGOS, FOOTER LINKS, COPYRIGHT
We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.
Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.
These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.
Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.
We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.
We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.
These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.
If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:
We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.
Google Webfont Settings:
Google Map Settings:
Google reCaptcha Settings:
Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:
The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:
You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.
Privacy and data
The Greener Museum: A Case Study for Environmental Messaging in Museums
Engagement, Featured, Leeds City Museum, Natural ScienceIn 2022, Leeds Museums and Galleries set about changing the look, and some of the messaging, of the large natural science gallery at Leeds City Museum. It had been installed in 2008 and, whilst the climate crisis and what visitors could do about it was mentioned, things have moved on a bit.
A taxidermy case in the Life On Earth Gallery at Leeds City Museum
I remember an (external) education advisor telling me not to be ‘shrill’ about environmental messaging when we were designing the museum back in 2006. I was young and passionate about the problem – seeing a real role for museums in speaking loudly about it. He advised paired-back wisdom, there was no urgency. One of the interpretation signs we had up – and I wish I had taken a picture – read, “Are we warming up the planet?”.
However, I was proud of an audio piece we’d commissioned for the gallery in 2008. We asked a researcher to interview people who were physically experiencing climate change. We had recordings from around the world (these were the days when we had lots of Heritage Lottery Fund money, it was wonderful). The one I remember was a ski instructor talking about how the bottom of their ski runs were lifting every year – you could literally track the progress each winter. I’ve tried to track down that audio file but we don’t seem to still have it. The headsets were bashed out of existence a long time ago.
We had other pieces of interpretation but it was quite out of date – something on using low energy lightbulbs for example.
New interpretation in the Life On Earth Gallery
So, how do you think about what stories to tell, and how do you address every visitor who comes through the door – from the dedicated vegan to the family who came by gas-guzzler?
One of my favourite guides for this was Communicating the Climate Crisis, a report by Maria Virginia Olano, Communications Director at Climate XChange, and in particular Per Espen Stoknes’s TED talk within it. His salient (and proven) points are:
The other useful resource we used was Leeds University’s ‘Take the Jump’ idea. Here, researchers have worked out a few impactful changes people can make that are relatively easy. The idea being that they seem achievable, and even if you only do one or two of them, you will make a difference.
The pandemic has obviously been a most unwelcome visitor but it has changed everyone’s attitude to QR codes. In 2019 they were almost passe but now we are not only allowed to use them, we are allowed to embrace them. We’ve scattered them around the gallery, and have the opportunity to do more. Many are embedded within the interpretation on what a visitor could potentially do to save the planet (links to beach cleans, Leeds City Councillors’ profiles etc.).
A new addition to the Life On Earth Gallery: Poo Corner
For our exact content and layout, you would have to visit the gallery but please get in touch if you have any questions about what we did.
I’ll leave you with my favourite interactive of all time, we installed it in 2008. It’s a piece of sandstone that we encourage visitors to run their fingers over. It’s gradually being worn away, the message being: “if everyone does their bit, we can cut rock in half with our bare hands.”
By Clare Brown, Curator of Natural Science