This large dome-shaped building is our newest addition to the site. It contains our Space Dome, where you might watch a free introductory show, and the First Light exhibition. It’s also where you’ll find our main café.

Entry is via two sets of automatic doors. There are toilets, including male, female, accessible, and baby-changing facilities inside, and the whole building is on one floor with no steps or ramps.

Entry to the Space Dome is through a wide door. The Space Dome has raked seating for 140 people. It might be quite dark inside, but there will be staff members and low lighting to help you find your way. There are a number of accessible seats, so if you require one of these, please arrive a little early for the show so that a member of staff can assist you.

If you have epilepsy, a balance disorder, or extreme motion sickness, please contact us to discuss whether the show will be suitable.

The exhibition contains audio-visual and interactive displays. These displays are spaced out to allow plenty of room for wheelchair access. There is also a seating area if you’d like to take a break.

The café is self-service and it has seats and tables inside and outside. If you need any assistance, let a member of staff know.

One of the square, black buildings which houses our interactive science exhibition and our event space.

Space Pavilion is where you’ll find our interactive Space exhibition. You’ll enter through an automatic door that is 120cm wide. The exhibition is open plan with plenty of space to move around. The flooring is carpet in the entrance and changes to hard surface inside the exhibition area.

All of our videos have subtitles and any written description is at a height suitable for everyone, including wheelchair users, to read. There are some chairs in the exhibition area, as well as seating areas to watch videos.

Our First Aid room is accessed through the exhibition area, please ask a member of staff if you need assistance.

Our Events Space is sometimes used for temporary exhibitions. Staff will let you know if there is anything to see inside. If you go in, the flooring changes from carpet in the entrance foyer to hard flooring in the event space. The double doors are 108cm wide each.

There are toilets, including male, female, accessible, and baby-changing facilities in the Space Pavilion.

One of the square, black buildings, which houses our Wolfson auditorium, where you may listen to a talk.

If you’re attending one of our talks, events or science shows, this will probably be in the Wolfson auditorium, which is inside the Star Pavilion. Entry to the Star Pavilion is through an automatic door 200cm wide.

The Wolfson auditorium can seat up to 200 people. There may be raked seating as well as individual chairs. The seats nearest the aisle provide additional leg room if needed.

There is usually plenty of space for wheelchairs or mobility aids, and there will be a member of staff on hand to assist if needed. We can let you in to the auditorium early to make yourself comfortable if you’d like; please let a member of staff know so that the person running the talk can be there to help out.

This area has an induction loop system.

The final square, black building, which houses our Orrery (model solar system), gift shop and second café. This is also where you will exit Jodrell Bank back in to the car park.

The entrance to Planet Pavilion is through an automatic door 200cm wide into the Orrery. There is hard flooring inside, with a mobile solar system in the ceiling and interactive displays around the room. The displays are at a wheelchair accessible height, and the text around the room is at a height suitable for everyone.

To get from the Orrery to the rest of the Planet Pavilion, you’ll walk down a short dimly lit corridor with twinkly lights above and through some more automatic doors. Here you’ll enter the gift shop with a range of shelving and low level displays.

Our second café is accessed through the shop. This is where you’ll also find the toilets, including male, female, accessible, and baby-changing facilities. The café has tables and chairs inside and outside including wooden picnic benches on the grassed area. The outside tables are generally accessible to wheelchair users. The outside decking area is accessed via a retractable bi-fold door with a minimum width of 870mm.

When you’re ready to leave, you’ll do so through the automatic doors in the shop, which are 235cm wide and lead out onto the dropped kerb access to the car park.

At Jodrell Bank we have some beautiful outside spaces for you to walk around, play and maybe enjoy a picnic.

The First Light Pavilion is surrounded by our gardens. There are resin bonded pathways around some of the grounds here, as well as picnic benches and seating areas dotted about. If you walk around the outside of the First Light Pavilion, you’ll come to our play area, which has a woodchip surface.

There are no pathways around the majority of our arboretum and the surface is grassy, perhaps muddy, and uneven. Access to this area may vary seasonally, and there will be clear signage indicating any closed sections.

Our cosy Comet Lodge can be used as an indoor picnic area – it has wheelchair accessible picnic benches nearby outside. (Note that wheelchair access inside the Comet Lodge is limited)

The Lovell Telescope can be viewed as you wander along our telescope pathway: coloured red tarmac. You’ll also notice our whispering dishes, which allow you to ‘magically’ hear your friend whispering from several metres away. The whispering dishes are accessed via 2 steps to each.

There are male, female, and accessible toilets in each of our buildings, including baby-changing facilities. The male toilets have urinals and cubicles and the female toilets have cubicles.

Accessible toilets all offer the following:

• Toilet with back cushion.
• Moveable grab bars at the side of the toilet.
• Grab bars on walls.
• Assist cord.
• Low-level sink with easy lever mixer tap.

Accessible toilets all have outward opening doors with a width of 930mm. Turning spaces vary.

• Planet Pavilion – 210cm x 144cm.
• Space Pavilion – 215cm x 160cm.
• Star Pavilion – 260cm x 155cm.