Birmingham Museums: Peter Pan lands on 23 October

Culture & Events Desk 2026-10-06 13:55 4 min read

Painting of children playing in a lush forest with a dog, Springtime by Steer.

Neverland is coming to Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery’s Gas Hall from 23 October 2026 to 3 January 2027, with an immersive Peter Pan experience at the centre of Birmingham Museums Trust’s autumn and winter programme. Around it, visitors can choose between Halloween tours, cinema, comedy, spoken word and Christmas activities across the city’s museums.

The Birmingham Museums Seasonal Programme runs from 2 October 2026 to 3 January 2027, covering Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Thinktank, Aston Hall, the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter and Blakesley Hall. The programme includes experiences for all ages, with family activities alongside film screenings and comedy events.

The Trust’s announcement does not provide prices, booking arrangements, start times, street addresses, transport or accessibility information. Those details need checking for the individual event before planning a visit; the overall programme dates do not mean every activity runs throughout the season.

Neverland takes over the Gas Hall from 23 October

The Peter Pan experience gives families a date range spanning autumn and the Christmas holidays. Gas Hall will become a Neverland setting inspired by the children’s classic, with the experience continuing until 3 January.

It is the programme’s centrepiece, but the other venues offer distinct reasons to visit. Thinktank combines cinema with science activities, while Aston Hall and Blakesley Hall bring their historic settings into the seasonal programme through themed tours.

For readers deciding which outing fits, the clearest distinction is between the Neverland experience’s extended run and activities tied to particular dates, such as the Halloween tours and October comedy festival.

Halloween cinema and candlelit tours in October

Thinktank’s spooky cinema selection includes Hocus Pocus, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, ET the Extra-Terrestrial and Alien. The titles offer different kinds of film outing, so the programme’s all-ages description should not be read as a suitability statement for every screening.

At Aston Hall, Halloween-themed LED candlelit tours take place on Thursday 29 and Friday 30 October. The tours draw on stories of people who lived and died in the mansion, including the ghosts reputed to inhabit it.

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery follows with a murder mystery gallery tour on Saturday 31 October, led by Tat Vision, described in the announcement as an eccentric and deeply unreliable guide. It offers a different approach to Halloween, using the museum galleries as the setting.

Earlier in the month, the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter marks UK Fungus Day on 10 October. Natural sciences curator Lukas Large will lead a Fungi Foray through Birmingham’s historic cemeteries.

Comedy, poetry and electronic music across the museums

Birmingham Comedy Festival runs from 2 to 11 October, with museum events including Tatty Tours of Joe Lycett’s EVERY THING MUST GO, Coco’s art history comedy gallery tour and comedy at Craft & Culture at the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter. Comedy at the Museum features Shazia Mirza and other performers.

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery’s Piece of Work spoken word evenings combine established artists with an open mic element. That gives emerging voices a place in the programme alongside the featured performers.

The seasonal line-up also includes Pride in STEM day and Algorave, an experimental music event bringing together coding, technology and live electronic music.

Santa visits, festive films and Tudor traditions

At Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Breakfast with Santa tickets include same-day admission to Thinktank. For families choosing that event, the included admission allows the outing to continue at the science museum.

Santa’s Workshop offers children a meeting with Father Christmas, a Christmas craft activity with the elves and a special gift. Thinktank also hosts Breakfast with Santa and Santa’s Workshop, alongside festive screenings including The Muppet Christmas Carol, Elf and Love Actually.

During the Christmas holidays, Thinktank’s Lights, Science, Action! interactive show explores the science of light. Other options include a Christmas wreath workshop at the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, Tudor Christmas tours at Blakesley Hall and further Aston Hall by candlelight tours.

For a visit with a confirmed date already supplied, the next October markers are the Fungi Foray on 10 October, Neverland’s opening on 23 October, Aston Hall’s Halloween tours on 29–30 October and the museum murder mystery tour on 31 October.

Source: Birmingham Museums Trust Stories

Context & actions About this article

Source check Source and event details

This preview uses the supplied Birmingham Museums Trust announcement and event brief, distinguishing dated activities from programme details that still need checking.

Checks

The event brief gives the overall programme dates as 2 October 2026 to 3 January 2027.
The source gives the Gas Hall Neverland experience dates as 23 October to 3 January.
Halloween tour dates, named venues and film titles were checked against the supplied sourc...
Missing prices and booking, timing, transport and accessibility details are identified tog...

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