Stoke-on-Trent’s Gladstone Pottery Museum has been named one of the best museums to visit in the UK.
The attraction, the UK’s last surviving complete Victorian coal-fired pottery factory, has taken third place in a list of the UK’s 20 greatest museums in 2026, compiled by global media and publishing brand Time Out.
The filming location for The Great Pottery Throw Down is described as ‘the greatest physical document of Stoke’s ceramic-making heyday’.
Time Out wrote: “The Gladstone guides visitors through the roles within a Victorian coal-fired pottery factory, from throwing to firing and decorating, vividly bringing the process to life by allowing you to walk through each factory building (you can even go inside the bottle ovens and peer up towards the chimney).
“Not only do you get a sense of the scale of Stoke’s pottery history, but you come face-to-face with the experiences of the people who were part of it: the unbearable heat, agonising pain and child labour, but also the immense skill and local pride.”
Gladstone Pottery Museum, which celebrated its 50th anniversary as a museum last year, ranked higher on the Time Out list than the likes of The British Museum in London, the National Railway Museum, Manchester Museum and Beamish – The Living Museum of the North.
The Crab Museum in Margate came out at the top of the list, and was praised for its ‘clever storytelling, cute little doodles and hilarious merch’.
Second spot was taken by Birmingham’s interactive Thinktank museum, which features everything from exhibitions, a soft, padded roleplay ‘city’ and a science garden.
Gladstone Pottery Museum is managed and operated by Stoke-on-Trent City Council.
Councillor Sarah Hill, the city council’s cabinet member for finance, anti-poverty, governance and corporate services, said: “This is a huge achievement by Gladstone Pottery Museum to be recognised alongside so many other great museums nationally.
“Gladstone epitomises the proud history and cultural heritage we have in Stoke-on-Trent as the ceramics capital of the world. It is also a great day out for all the family and I encourage anyone who hasn’t experienced it yet to pop in and enjoy what our city has to offer.”
