This week, i took Mini to the Julia and Axel: thirty years of favourite stories exhibit at The Lowry in Salford Quays. This exhibit celebrates the well known and loved stories such as The Gruffalo, The Gruffalos Child, Room on the Broom, StickMan, Zog and so many more by Julia and Axel. Mini is a huge fan of these stories and we literally have been waiting all year for this exhibit to open. It opened last month and is on until the end of the year so there is plenty of time to catch it.
Arriving at the Lowry the first thing you spot, is a huge statue of The Gruffalo outside. Minis face when she saw it was just everything! She was so excited. Even more so when she realised she could go over to it and that squirrel was also there. We stopped here to pose for pictures while we waited for the gallery to open.
We had arrived at 10:30, and by time the doors were opening for 11, the que was stretching back right the way up the steps of the Outlet Mall! Good job we did arrive a little earlier and got in the que before it formed.
Inside we were given a flyer which told us about the various other themed events going on. From a gruffalos kitchen, zog academy and storytelling, it was clear there was lots to see and do!
By the front desk was another statue from The Gruffalo, that i struggled to drag mini away from. Mouse is by far her fave character and she just loved this giant one!
Up the escalators to the gallery and here we were given a little notebook which children can draw or write whatever they want in.
Inside she didn't know where to look first. There was so much to see!
There wasn't really a structure to it and you could go in whichever direction you wanted, which did cause it to be a little chaotic. With so many people, it meant a lot of bumping into people.
We headed to her faves first, the Gruffalo. Over in this section were screens showing the films, and scenes filling the walls. She walked around pointing out all of her fave characters and was so excited by it all.
In the StickMan room, it was set up as a cute little reading area. Again the walls were covered in scenes and quotes from the movie, and the furniture matched the theme. Julia Donaldson books were in little bookcases and you could grab one and sit and have a read. This was one of many little reading areas around the building.
There was a little dress up station, which we didn't get a chance to have a go at due to it being far too busy. There were rooms with activities like drawing, the zog academy which again was too busy for us to visit, and a little gift shop at the end.
In the cafe there was a "gruffalo kitchen" which i was a bit disappointed by. I don't know what i expected it to be, but a toy kitchen and some bean bags probably wasn't it. Thankfully when we went here it was quiet, but i can't imagine what it was like when it got busier. I also expected the kids gruffalo lunch to be a bit more, It was a choice of 2 sandwiches, a drink and a gruffalo biscuit but it wasn't worth the price of it in my opinion. It would have been better to offer a range of kids meals instead.
It said on the flyer that you could get the chance to meet characters from the stories, but with it being so busy we didn't get a chance to do this.
Mini is only 2 and as much as she was enjoying the exhibit, the lack of organisation and how busy it was, got too much for her. She ended up having a huge meltdown, smacking herself and screaming and crying, because it was so busy and so loud.
I understand that it was the opening week, but i feel like there should have been a limit on how many people could be inside the exhibit at one time. I felt like they just let everyone in and didn't keep track of numbers at all. Prams are not permitted in the gallery, and i can see why, but i feel like this makes it hard for young children as well as they can get pushed very easily when walking around the gallery.
I did have a chat with a member of staff about this, and she had told me they hadn't expected such huge numbers to show up. It was a record breaking opening week! I enquired about if they would do relaxed sessions at any point and she told me that they were looking into this. Thankfully i have since found out that you can now book on a sunday morning 9am-10am.
I understand that it's the school holidays, but in my opinion bookable sessions would work so much better for this exhibit. I will be taking her back on one of these sessions instead for sure, because as much as she enjoyed it, she also had to miss out on so much.
I would also avoid the gift shop, the prices of things were eye watering!
Overall i would 100% recommend this exhibit to Julia Donaldson fans, but i would say do the bookable sunday morning if you have toddlers or children with sensory issues.
The exhibit is on until January and the opening hours are 11am-5pm tuesday-friday and 10am-5pm on a weekend. The relaxed sessions to book are Sunday 9am-10am and they are closed on a Monday.
You can have a watch of our video of the day over on instagram by clicking here.
Have you been to this exhibit yet? How did you find it?
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