The Dudson Centre

What it’s like

A pottery museum built around a real bottle oven, with a café doing soup and Fair Trade coffee on weekdays.

You come here for the bottle oven and the story of Stoke's pottery trade told through the Dudson Museum's exhibits. It's a proper look at the industry that built the city, laid out on the ground floor of the centre, with the bottle oven itself open for visits Monday to Friday between 10 and 3.

The museum runs across two floors, though only the ground floor is step-free. If the first floor matters to you, the exhibits up there are available on an album instead, which is a fair workaround but worth knowing before you plan the visit around seeing everything in person. A lift covers every other floor of the building, and there's an accessible toilet and wifi throughout.

The Dudson Café keeps the same weekday hours as the bottle oven, doing daily soups, specials and Fair Trade hot drinks. It's not a big production, more a sit-down-with-a-coffee sort of stop after the exhibits, and buffet catering can be arranged from £7 a head if you're bringing a group along.

This reads as a weekday visit rather than a weekend one, since both the café and the bottle oven close outside Monday to Friday. Give yourself an hour or so to take in the museum properly and linger over the oven, longer if you're interested in the history rather than just passing through.

Facilities

Need to know

Food

Dudson Café with daily soups, specials and Fair Trade hot drinks, open Mon-Fri 10am-3pm

Wheelchairs

Fully accessible with lift throughout all floors

• Both the bottle oven and café only run Monday to Friday, 10am to 3pm
• The first floor museum exhibits aren't step-free but are available on an album
• Group buffet catering starts from £7 a head
• Wifi and an accessible toilet are available throughout the building

Plan your visit

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