Monday 25 August 2014

the one when we went to Seven Stories

Seven Stories is located in a converted Victorian warehouse in the Ouseburn Valley in Newcastle Upon Tyne and is the National Centre for Children's Books.  Last week we spent an enjoyable few hours looking around each of the seven floors that make up Seven Stories.
As we get older we find that our first port of call is usually the cafe - and when we visited, which was quite early on in the day, it was almost empty.  Although the cafe menu is fairly limited the prices are pretty reasonable and we settled on bacon butties, which were yummy, and cups of tea and juice.  Our cafe visit was made all the more enjoyable when we looked through the window and spotted Little Red Riding Hood who was trying the find her way into the building.  

We then went up to the Artist's Attic for a very enjoyable Mixed Up Fairy Tale.  Little Red Riding Hood and The White Rabbit (from Alice in Wonderland) gave a performance of 'The Best Story Ever Told' using children's suggestions for characters and plot and we enjoyed seeing 'Robin Hood' and 'Tim the Wolf' meeting up with various fairy tale characters on their adventure to a very big volcano .  Children and adults alike loved the entertainment.  

Three of the floors are filled with exhibitions and displays of original notes, artwork and movie memorabilia from well known children's stories: The Gruffalo, Mr Stink, Angelina Ballerina, The Borrowers, Fantastic Mr Fox and Alice in Wonderland to name but a few.  

Each of the areas has costumes for the children to put on and activities to do.

We then had fun being artistic in the Creation Station where tables are set out with tons of paper, pencils and glue and made collages, masks and models before we finally visited the independent bookshop - a change from the normal gift shop you usually find at attractions!

As we still had a bit of time left we visited The Biscuit Factory nearby in Stoddart Street, which contrary to the name is not actually a biscuit factory but the UK's largest art, craft and design gallery.




 A word of warning: beware of visiting if accompanied by small children as the ceramic displays are within easy reach of small hands.  We managed to get out without any breakages!

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