One membership for the whole household.

The family membership exists because heritage is best shared, and because nobody should be doing sums at a museum door over which child gets to come this time. One annual subscription covers two named adults and the children living at home, opens the whole museum network to all of them, and adds family days and children's events built to make museums a delight for younger visitors rather than a duty. This page sets out exactly who it covers and why families find it the easiest membership of all.

Who it covers

Two adults, the children at home, one price.

A family membership names two adults — parents, guardians, a couple — and covers the children living in the household with them. All of them gain unlimited entry to the whole museum network for the year, and the two named adults each receive their own card and their own vote in the society. There is no per-child charge and no counting of which children come on which visit; the household is covered, and that is the end of the arithmetic. For a family that visits museums even occasionally, it is comfortably better value than individual memberships, and far better than tickets.

The real point, though, is not the saving — it is the ease. A family membership removes the friction that stops families visiting museums as often as they would like: the cost of bringing everyone, the hesitation over whether a short visit is worth the entry fees. With the household covered, a museum becomes somewhere you drop into for an hour on a quiet afternoon, the way you might a park, and children grow up treating heritage as ordinary and theirs. That, more than anything, is what the family membership is for — not the saving on tickets, real though that is, but the quiet transformation of how often a family steps into its own heritage.

A family looking at a museum exhibit together

For younger members

Days built for children, not just tolerating them.

A family membership adds events designed around younger visitors — because a museum that children enjoy is a museum they will return to as adults.

Family days

Regular family days across the network where a museum is set up for discovery and play — trails, hands-on activities, things to find and do — rather than a hushed don't-touch ordeal that leaves everyone tired.

Children's workshops

Workshops that let children make, handle and imagine — pottery, ancient writing, model-making — connected to what the museums hold, so the collections come alive in their hands.

School-holiday programmes

During the school holidays, a fuller programme of children's events across the network — a reason to bring the family in repeatedly through the break, all covered by the one membership.

Family questions

What families ask.

How many children does it cover?

All the children living in the household with the two named adults — there is no per-child limit or charge. The membership covers the family, however many children that is, for the one annual price on the membership page.

Do the children need their own cards?

No. The two named adults each hold a card; children are admitted with an accompanying adult member. It keeps things simple at the door and means no small cards to lose.

What counts as the household?

Two named adults and the dependent children living with them. If your family is shaped differently and you are unsure whether it fits, just ask through the contact page — we would rather sort it kindly than apply a rigid rule.

Is family membership good value for two adults with no children?

Yes — two adults who visit even occasionally do better on a family membership than on two individual ones, and you gain the family events too should you ever bring younger relatives. For a couple, it is usually the sensible choice. Compare the figures on the membership page.

Bring the whole family into the museums.

One membership, the whole household, a year of shared discovery.

Join as a family See family events