If you know anything about St Albans, you’ll know it was a big deal in Roman times. A very big deal, and there’s tons of archaeology left behind for us to find. I’m fairly sure most school kids in and around Hertfordshire will have visited here at some stage, but we’ve also visited Verulamium Museum a couple of times ourselves. One good thing about doing a written review, rather than a vlog, is that I don’t have to keep saying Verulamium Museum because it’s one of those words I always struggle to say! And when I do say it I look slightly like a horse chewing a carrot!
Roman archaeology in St Albans today
In terms of the Roman archaeology in St Albans, not everything is confined to Verulamium Museum. Within Verulamium Park you’ll find the remains of the city walls and the foundations of the London Gate. One of the walls in slap bang in the middle of the park so you literally can’t miss it!
The park also contains the hypocaust and mosaic, which is free to visit. They decided to leave this part of the site in situ and just built over the top to preserve it! As central heating systems to it’s very pretty!
Just over the road from the museum is the Roman Theatre of Verulamium which is the only Roman theatre still visible in the UK. I do think it’s pretty cool we have stuff like this right on our doorstep! On this visit to Verulamium Museum we decided not to review the Roman theatre as well. I might go another time in better weather. I have been before though and it is quite interesting, but it won’t take you that long to look around.
It’s completely outdoors and it’s not particularly interesting for the youngest ones, which is another reason why we decided not to go. I didn’t think that, at 4 years old, Smallest Child would be able to imagine what on earth the piles of rocks were supposed to look like, she can’t read well enough yet to read the boards and I didn’t really want her running all over the ruins!! A family ticket costs £8.50 or it’s £19 for a joint ticket for here and the museum. If your kids are older I would recommend it though.
The galleries at Verulamium Museum
First of all, this place is really small. I’d forgotten how small actually and when we got in my heart kind of sank a bit. I’d been planning on spending several hours here but I knew that wasn’t going to be possible. For a minute I panicked and thought we might even do it in 15 minutes! Thankfully I was wrong about that.
The biggest things you’ll see here are the mosaics and they are breathtaking. The fact that there used to be a tree growing over the top of the shell mosaic when it was discovered really seemed to tickle Smallest Child! One of the staff was telling us how the mosaic that’s on the floor in the picture was damaged when it was being recovered. Apparently they used glue to secure it, then rolled it up to move it, but they didn’t wait until the glue was dry. When they unrolled the cloth the mosaic had massive holes in it! Oops. That’s a bad day at the office!!!!! Thankfully they did a better job with the other ones.
We did find out from the same person that the Sea God mosaic is actually was the Roman equivalent of mass-produced and ordered from a catalogue! Apparently they’d basically choose which panels they’d like and they fill in the bits around the edges to make it fit! And he might not be a Sea God, he might be a couple of things.
Although there’s a LOT of stuff to look at, the museum isn’t excessively text heavy, which is always a good thing with kids! But there’s still enough information so you know what things are. When we visited Verulamium Museum to do this review they also had a number of drawers underneath the cabinets that had more items on display. There wasn’t really any info about what these bits were, and a lot of the drawers were locked, but the kids enjoyed having a look anyway.
Make sure you have a look at the Sandridge hoard. Smallest Child’s reaction was geninely – as she ran across the room – “oooh, Gold!!” Such a magpie. And the Verulamium Venus. Apparently it’s quite rare to find statuettes like this is such a good condition. Particularly when they’re discovered in a scrap metal bin! I know it’s a bit geeky but we find it fascinating that stuff like this is just lying around underground for thousands of years and then someone just finds it and it’s still just as beautiful as when it was made. Geekout over!!
Life and death in Roman St Albans
At the back of the museum there’s a corridor that leads you through a reconstruction of part of a Roman villa, including the original wall paintings and another mosaic. There’s a few less-creepy-than-you’d-expect mannequins showing what life was like in Roman times and various touch screens to tell you more. I’m making it sound a bit rubbish, but it wasn’t. They’ve got lots more finds on display here, including more jewellery so mini-magpie was fascinated by those!
Oh and those walls behind them? Those are actual Roman internal walls that they found just lying down buried underground. I can’t imagine the plasterboard in my house looking like that after 2,000 years!
There’s also a gallery at the end of the corridor all about Roman burials. Fair warning for anyone who doesn’t like things like this, it does contain the visible remains of several people, including two newborn babies and a child. I’m never quite sure how the kids will handle seeing things like this, but they’ve always been fine. Most importantly they’ve always been respectful. One of the most interesting bits is how they’ve taken the skull of one of the burials and reconstructed the man’s face. That’s pretty amazing! If you don’t want the kids to see this bit you can avoid it though.
Family activities
Verulamium Museum is a really family friendly place to visit. Who knew that a child could quite happily spend 20 minutes building, and rebuilding a Roman arch? Apparently Middle Child can so I just left him to it. Because all of the galleries are built off a central hub I could leave him in one and still look at the other stuff but also keep an eye on him! Even though it is quite a small space, there are various hands-on elements for the kids. There are free explorer buckets for the youngest visitors, and free spotter trails.
During school holidays and weekends they put out dressing up costumes. There’s a trolley where you can make your own mosaics, which the kids really liked and spent ages on. They didn’t actually make anything that looked like anything, but they started so that’s something! Ever heard of three men’s morris? It’s a Roman game kind of like a cross between connect 4 and noughts and crosses. Anyway, there’s a version here you can play (totally thrashed Biggest Child multiple times!!).
If you look on their website you’ll also be able to keep up to date with the latest events. St Albans Museum and gallery is actually their sister site so it tells you what’s going on there as well. That one is about 20 minutes walk across the park and free to visit so I’d recommend popping over if you have time.
Our Verulamium Museum Review
Small but packed! As I said at the start of this review, I was really worried when we walked in that Verulamium Museum was going to be a 15 minute wonder. The staff we spoke to were really knowledgeable and approachable – that is always a big bonus for us! We were here for about 90 minutes, including arch building time.
Actually they’ve really thought about how to make it interesting for the kids. No, you’re not going to be here all day BUT you can easily bulk it out into a full day without additional costs because there’s so many free and cheap things to do in St Albans with kids (have a look below for some ideas).
Before we went in Biggest Child was revolting. He’d been there before. He didn’t want to go again. Nothing had changed so what was the point (pre-nager status properly kicking in right now!). As we were walking out he thanked me for taking him as he’d really enjoyed it. I think that says it all!
Admission cost
Everyone else – £10 per adult, £5 under 16’s, under 5’s free. Family ticket (2A + 2C / 1A + 4C) £23
St Albans city & district resident? Lucky you (for many reasons!). You get a discount with proof of address
All prices quoted in this review of Verulamium Museum are correct at the date or publication / update. For the latest prices please visit their website.
Parking / How to get there
Parking – Small car park. Charges apply.
Address – St Michael’s St, St Albans, Hertfordshire AL3 4SW
Toilets
On-site, including baby change
Food
No food allowed or available on site. There is a cafe in the park outside and you could have a picnic there though.
What else is there to do nearby?
Within just a few minutes’ walk of Verulamium Museum there’s lots of family friendly places to visit. As well as Verulamium Park with its playground, lakeside walks, green spaces and splash park there’s St Albans Cathedral and St Albans Museum and Gallery. There’s also a St Albans version of the Treasure Map Trail which my kids love doing. They’re maps for kids which turn St Albans into into an under the sea themed treasure hunt! You can save 10% using the code FREETIMEWITHTHEKIDS and this affiliate link.
Hi, I’m Vicky. My husband and I live in Aylesbury with our three children; a 14 year old son, an 12 year old son and a 6 year old daughter. I (mostly) love spending time together as a family. We visit all kinds of places and we’re quite happy to drive a fair distance for a decent day out. A few years ago I decided to set up Free Time with the Kids as a way to share our experiences of these family days out.
You’ll find the essential information you need to know before your visit that can be surprisingly hard to find out. Where do I park? How much will it cost me to get in? Are there any discounts available? Are there loos? Can I take a picnic or get food? My aim is to be your go-to guide for all your free and cheap family days out across Bucks, Beds, Oxon, Herts & slightly beyond. I really hope you find the reviews helpful. If there’s anywhere that you’d recommend please get in touch contact@freetimewiththekids.com or get in touch via Facebook
