It was a staple experience growing up in the Kirklees and Calderdale areas in the nineties and noughties.
And now a trip to Eureka! is set to get even bigger.
The children’s museum in Halifax announced the plans today (Friday) to expand into a building next door so they can welcome an extra 50,000 visitors a year.
The major attraction - which already pulls in 285,000 visitors a year - is also set open another museum near Liverpool.
The major announcement marks Eureka!’s 25th anniversary. The museum, titled after Greek mathematician Archimedes’ famous exclamation, has welcomed 7.5m people through its doors since its opening in 1992.
Its exhibits include a paved street with shops and a Halifax bank, and another with giant body parts for children to explore and learn about anatomy.
Museum chiefs want to expand it further to accommodate more, with proposals to move into the 3,600 sq metre Great Northern Heritage Shed next door.
The museum held a 25th anniversary gala dinner last night (Thursday) announcing the plans. The event was attended by 80 guests, including Halifax MP Holly Lynch, Paralympian Hannah Cockroft and Eureka! founder and Life President Dame Vivien Duffield.
During the dinner, the museum’s Chief Executive Leigh-Anne Stradeski revealed how they were working with Liverpool City Region on a project to be opened in the Wirral, which is being backed by Merseytravel and Wirral Council.
The project will be updated so that it develops children’s technical and digital skills and helps them “meet the demands of a changing 21st century workforce”.
The £11m project is set to be carried out over the next six years, with plans to open the new museum as early as 2021.
Leigh-Anne Stradeski added: “Eureka! has always had ambitions to extend beyond West Yorkshire and we have actively been looking for sites for development throughout the UK.
“We look forward to the new, larger site contributing to the ongoing regeneration of Halifax town centre while keeping Eureka! as a key tourist destination for the area.
"It will allow us more space to bring in temporary exhibitions, like the recently successful digiPlaySpace, and offer the chance to extend our offer in new directions with more arts and digital attractions.”
On the Merseyside project, she added: “The Wirral site - if it goes ahead - will be funded by grants, donations and partnerships and we have planned it to concentrate on skills-based learning while continuing to use play and discovery as a means of engagement.
“We want to create a thriving children’s community of budding scientists and engineers, actively engaging them to contribute their ideas while learning about real world problems.”
