Visiting the Polar Museum
Opening hours
The Polar Museum is open from 10am-4pm from Tuesday to Saturday. Admission to the Museum is free and all are welcome.
We are closed on Sundays and Mondays, Bank Holiday weekends and other public holidays, including Good Friday to Easter Monday and the period between Christmas and New Year. Visitors are advised to check beforehand by contacting the Museum.
Location
The Museum's entrance is located on Lensfield Road, close to the centre of Cambridge.
We are situated close to the the Fitzwilliam Museum and other University Museums, and only ten minutes walk from the railway station.
Getting to the Museum
Cambridge is easily accessible by road, and is just under 1 hour by train from London. Frequent coach services link the city with London, Oxford and towns across East Anglia.
By Road || By Rail || By Coach || By Bicycle
Once in the city, we encourage our visitors to make use of the Cambridge Park and Ride facilities. If you wish to park in town, Queen Anne is the closest car park to the Museum. Please be aware, however, that parking in Cambridge can cost up to £25 per day. Free accessible parking is available for visitors with disabilities in the Scott Polar Research Institute car park, via the entrance on Lensfield Road. This facility should be booked in advance, by contacting us prior to your visit. The Museum has a toilet for visitors which is wheelchair accessible.
Enlarge a map in a new window showing the location of Museum.
Wheelchair access
We have recently completed building work that enables access to all areas of the Museum for wheelchair users. Our wheelchair accessible entrance is the main door on Lensfield Road.
The SPRI Museum is housed in a beautiful Grade II listed building, and every effort is made to make access to the museum easy for everyone. Staff are always willing to help visitors with mobility difficulties.
If you have special accessibility requirements, please feel free to contact us about how we can make your visit more enjoyable. We will be happy to make arrangements to accommodate you.
The steps to the main door of the Museum house a Sesame lift
Group visits
The Polar Museum welcomes visits by organised groups of up to 25 people. We ask that groups book in advance by sending a completed booking form by email to groupvisits@spri.cam.ac.uk. You may wish to suggest a range of dates and we will confirm once we receive your form. There is a charge of £80 for guided tours and talks, which are usually offered on Thursdays (other days only by prior arrangement). Groups are welcome to visit on a self-guided basis, when space is available, and are also asked to complete a booking form.
Photography policy
Visitors are permitted to take photographs in the galleries for their personal, educational use only. Photographs must not be reproduced or published in any form, including on the internet.
Use of flash and tripods is permitted, but we ask that you be considerate of other visitors.
If you wish to use an image of an object from the Museum's collection, please see our image request pages for more information.
Contact details
Contact us if you need further information.