Harris Museum & Art Gallery

To begin, the building itself is very impressive. Behind the neo-classical facade is a huge atrium running the full height of the central tower around which all the galleries are laid out. The ground floor of the atrium is home to the cafe which serves drinks, snacks and excellent cake. It also contains a recreation of the Foucault’s Pendulum experiment which is claimed to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth.
The museum itself houses collections of china and glassware, clothing and fashion accessories, and local archaeological and historical artifacts. The art galleries are also worthy of note, containing a good selection of late victorian and early twentieth century art, supplemented by regular exhibitions of contemporary works.
As other reviewers have mentioned, the Harris also has a shop, runs activities for children, and also houses the Central Library.

The Harris is definitely something you should check out if you’re in Preston. With no admission price it really is a brilliant place to visit with some excellent exhibitions on display and not just the same thing everytime you visit. There are some permanet exhibitions on display however, which are also worth a look.
The gift shop is small but has all youre usual museum type gifts and the cafe is also a nice place to have a drink and a snack.
There is also a library within the building which has some good stuff such as old newspaper microfisches from as early as the nineteenth century.

It’s always worth checking what’s on at the Harris, not just the exhibitions but also for childrens activities. They run some great workshops for children of loads of ages, most of which are fun and original. The Harris also has a coffee area selling drinks and food. The permanent exhibitions are also definitely worth a good look.