Visit Beamish, The Living Museum of the North with our Great Savings Guide

Step back in time at Beamish, The Living Museum of the North, where history comes alive

“What’s ‘lard’, Grandad?”

I’m standing in a bright but utilitarian 1950s council-house kitchen, listening to a man explaining what a chip-pan was. Across the road – opposite the mid-century milk bar, radio rentals and Grand Cinema – a queue is forming for freshly cooked suppers from the fish and chip shop.

I’ve travelled back in time at Beamish, The Living Museum of the North, in County Durham, where visitors can explore whole streets replicating the region’s different eras. Period buildings (often relocated brick by brick from their original sites) are full of both character and characters, with staff and volunteers who dress and act as interpreters of the times.

A short stroll from the 1950s town will find you in a cobbled Edwardian High Street, complete with bank, co-operative store, drapers, emigration agent and printing press. Nearby, a steam train shunts passengers from the station, serenaded by the Wurlitzer from the fairground carousel opposite. Elsewhere, you’ll find an 1820s landscape – with working fields, an Old Hall, tavern and quilter’s cottage – a 1940s farm, a classic transport depot and even a whole Victorian pit village – complete with a drift mine you can walk into, a colliery works, schoolhouse, chapel and miners’ cottages.

Gallery

Beamish introduced the living museum concept to the UK and is still considered the best, winning ‘Museum of the Year’ in 2025. What impresses is both its scale (the site’s 340 acres contain over 70 buildings to explore) and the meticulous attention to detail. From the antimacassar on the back of an armchair to half-polished school shoes in the hallway, neat mantelpiece ornaments or hanging game in the pantry, no detail is missed. Even volunteer re-enactors have their costumes vetted for authenticity.

I loved that these buildings aren’t just facades – not only can you explore upstairs and down, but you can continue out into the backyards, adorned with tin baths and washing lines, and beyond into connecting lanes with allotments and sheds made out of old doors and adverts. But what made Beamish come alive for me most was that many of the stores are fully functioning. The printing press produces posters for the site, there’s a working smithy at the 1940s farm, and a vintage garage repairing vintage vehicles. You can queue for bread at the bakery, sit for a portrait at the photographer’s, suck on traditional sweets at the confectioner’s and quench your thirst at the pub (I can recommend the Two-Bob Bitter).

Bring good weather and comfy shoes, as you’ll be outside and on your feet most of the day. Luckily, vintage trams and motorbuses circumnavigate the site, making time travel a cinch.

Beamish proves that history is far more memorable when you can taste it, ride it and ask Grandad how best to cook chips. 

Member saving: 15% discount on entry at Beamish - The Living Museum of the North with the Great Savings Guide. Find out more here.

Stay at: Durham Grange Club Campsite

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Please visit camc.com/greatsavingsguide for vouchers, discount codes, and pre-booking where applicable, along with terms and conditions for all offers. Make sure to check the site and attraction opening dates and times before your visit or travel.