Port Sunlight Museum

Port Sunlight Museum

Port Sunlight Museum explains a village that has no real business existing. In 1888, Lever Brothers bought 56 acres of flat, marshy ground on the Wirral side of the River Mersey and William Hesketh Lever put up a soap works, then built a village around it for the people who worked there. The museum sits on King George’s Drive and covers how that came about, along with what living in the place was actually like.

The village now holds around 900 Grade II listed buildings and has been a conservation area since 1978. Inside, there is a recreated 1900s grocer’s shop stacked with Lever Brothers packaging, a large model of the village built between the 1960s and the 1980s, and Sunlight Spirit, a twenty-minute film of archive footage with seating laid on.

The museum is run by Port Sunlight Village Trust, a registered charity, and ticket money goes into conserving the village rather than off to a parent company or a council. Your ticket covers the Worker’s Cottage as well and stays valid for a full twelve months, so there is no need to cram everything into one afternoon.

The Basics

  • Where: 23 King George’s Drive, Port Sunlight, Wirral, CH62 5DX
  • Opening hours: Daily, 10:00 to 16:30
  • Closed: 24th, 25th and 26th of December, open on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day
  • Admission: Adults £8.00, concessions £7.00, children aged 5 to 16 £5.50 and a family ticket for two adults and two children £24.00. Under-5s go free. Prices differ in the summer
  • What the ticket covers: The museum and the Worker’s Cottage, staying valid for twelve months
  • Walking tours: A museum ticket gets you a discount on a guided walking tour booked at the same time
  • Access: Level access at the entrance and throughout, with an accessible toilet and baby changing. The door into the exhibition space is not automatic, so you may need a hand with it. Carers and companions go free
  • Families: Mabel’s Wash Day trail costs £2, and sensory backpacks are available from the gift shop on a £10 refundable deposit
  • Getting there: Port Sunlight and Bebington stations are both on the Merseyrail Wirral Line
  • Run by: Port Sunlight Village Trust, registered charity number 1074713