Beamish Living Museum: the Disneyworld of the North East

A subeditor spotlight: the infamous Beamish Living Museum and why we love it... not sponsored!

Editorial Team
16th January 2025
Image Credits: Sophie Jarvis
Beamish Living Museum opened its doors to all the North Eastern history buffs in 1972, and Walt Disney has been silent ever since. Some may say it is due to him passing 6 years earlier, but we say it is due to intimidation.


Nestled in the lush County Durham countryside, an hour-long direct bus from Haymarket Bus Station, the Beamish Living Museum was the first open-air museum to open in the UK- a 350-acre plot consisting of six mini villages, the venue transports you away from the 21st century and immerses you into the past, through 1800s farms, 1900s town centres, and 1950s villages. Not only can you walk through old mines or sit at the school desk of a 19th century primary school, but you can watch a film at a 1950s cinema and buy some sweet treats from the 1900s Town Sweet Shop - all while interacting with period staff to ask any questions and converse with the characters that bring the past to life.

Image Credits: Ellen Pinch


The charm of Beamish is that it's not just a museum in the traditional sense — it's a living, breathing testament to history, one that encourages visitors to experience and participate in the stories of yesteryear. And whilst the museum tackles a broad scope of nationwide British history, the Museum zooms into the old days of the North East; from highlighting the early days of coal mining and farming, Beamish establishes a time capsule of Tyneside's roots and brings together a local connection of our ancestors to remind us of the influence that our region had in crafting the modern world.

Image Credits: Sophie Jarvis


Through Beamish's seasonal events and tireless additions to the time-capsule site, the Museum continues to preserve history for generations to ensure that people of all ages are able to experience the times that came before them; children can have rides on the old carousels at the Edwardian theme park, and adults can have vintage-style portraits taken of them in periodic clothing.


Beamish Living Museum is a truly a treasure of Tyneside, and critical in strengthening Geordie communities and education - something that people from far and wide can lenjoy.

Take that, Epcot.

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