Sunderland Museum, Winter Gardens Reviews Summary

Accessibility

Pros:

• "All floors are easily accessible by stairs or by lift."
• "Easy access and if the little ones are restless they love the winter gardens, the carp 🐟 and the exhibitions of course."
• "I’m a wheelchair user and this is a lovely, spacious, and well thought out building with disabled toilets on every floor."
• "Note that access to this and the museum can be via a wheelchair-friendly ramp."
• "Very accessible for wheelchairs and pushchairs."
• "Most areas accessible with a wheelchair."
• "Wheel chair access is abundant and accessible to all areas."

Cons:

• "Some plant need cutting back, some winter garden paths are not wheelchair friendly, museum has roof leaks."
• "Really nice place, shame that there are no signs before you get to the lift telling you that it's not working."
• "The only downside was the lift in the Winter Gardens was out of order."
• "Went to the museum today. What we saw of it was ok, but both lifts out of order, and I was in a wheelchair."
• "All public lifts broken on my visit unable to have a good look around."
• "No way for a buggy or wheelchair to get to the viewing level."
• "Parking area for disabled wheelchair users was a disgrace no dropped kerbs must have been a 5 inch step up SHOCKING!!!!!!"

Cafe and Food Services

Pros:

• "The cafe which we had a drink in before leaving was reasonably priced."
• "Tea coffee children's food adult salads all reasonable price."
• "The cafe is very pleasant and the facilities are spot on."
• "Cafe is worth a visit to food, and coffee was nice with pleasant service."
• "The staff were all very friendly and this is somewhere I would go to eat if I lived in the city."
• "The cafe provides delicious drinks and food."
• "We had tea and cake in the cafe which was very nice."

Cons:

• "The cafe service was terrible. i ordered what i thought was going to be an iced mocha and they simply handed me a hot chocolate with a bit of coffee and dumped some ice cubes in it."
• "Lovely gardens however the lady in the cafe was extremely rude."
• "The cafe got our order wrong twice and waited 40 minutes for meals had to go and ask about one of the meals as only half of it came."
• "Our biggest disappointment though was the Cafe. Customer satisfaction means nothing to them."
• "Theres also a cafe which is a little overpriced."
• "Unfortunately the cafe has closed down so had to go elsewhere."
• "The owner was very rude and awkward as we entered 15 mins before closing time."

Exhibits and Displays

Pros:

• "The museum itself is interesting and informative, with lots of artefacts to view."
• "With a wide variety of different themed rooms with everything from pottery to mining, art to quilting and a wide variety of history around the region."
• "Great for families. There's plenty to do and see. My 2 year old loves it here."
• "Definitely worth visiting. Interesting museum with both local artefacts and national exhibitions, winter gardens great at any time of year have tropical plants and fish."
• "The museum has some good exhibitions and keeps kids occupied for a couple hours."
• "The museum tells a lot about the history of Sunderland and it's local heroes."
• "The museum is full of interesting and informative displays."

Cons:

• "Pretty poor day out. Not many of the interactive exhibits were working."
• "Not so keen on the cheap plastic dinosaurs, though, and I'm not convinced they do much to keep children interested."
• "As a museum goes it has quite a lot to see but it just seems lacking in interactive department which is important for the children."
• "The interactive displays don't work anymore and some of the buttons to press etc don't work and it's just really dated."
• "Been a few years since last visited and exhibits are all the same would be good for once off visit but lack of change."
• "One walkway closed off. Bits of the exhibits broken. Various dinosaurs half heartedly hidden in the foliage... One fallen sideways."
• "The only reason I didn't give 5 stars is because some facilities are out of order and some of the interactive parts of the museum do not work."

Staff and Service

Pros:

• "Staff are very helpful and kind."
• "Extremely helpful staff and very child friendly surroundings."
• "The staff wanted food and paid the service user who had special diets were not able to eat the specialty lunches."
• "The staff are lovely, big helpdesk at the front."
• "Staff were friendly and knowledgeable."
• "The museum is accessible friendly♿The staff is welcoming and polite and helpful."
• "The Holmeside Coffee cafe/restaurant has a good menu with good vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options."

Cons:

• "Whilst visiting this museum during my visit. Myself and my partner was horrified to find and notice CCTV cameras INSIDE the baby changing facilities!"
• "Receptionist clearly couldn't wait to get home ... announcing closure 15 minutes before due to close, then asking people to depart every 2 minutes thereafter."
• "It is hard enough going places with people with disabilities and it is not fair to deal with discrimination like this."
• "Just felt poorly funded and under maintained."
• "A little disappointed by the number of things not working..... The worst being the lift in the winter gardens."
• "The owner was very rude and awkward as we entered 15 mins before closing time."
• "Parking area for disabled wheelchair users was a disgrace no dropped kerbs must have been a 5 inch step up SHOCKING!!!!!!"