Visitor Centre

Before you take a trip on the Anderton Boat Lift, you may want to find out about the huge lift and why it was built all those years ago. The Visitor Centre gives you all the information you could wish to know. From interactive displays, to an informative dvd, displays by local school children, a huge timeline, a model of the boat lift, a café and shop, you can discover everything you need to know about the ‘Cathedral of the Canals’.

The centre is actually built around the operations room, where the boat operators ensure the lift runs smoothly. The windows around the operations room means that visitors can see what they do and view the boat lit in the way the operators do. Surprisingly, to operate the lift they don’t use a whole manner of switches and buttons. In fact, the lift is operated by, literally, the click of a mouse.

Visitors are bound to feel welcomed by the team at Anderton. They are used to greeting large numbers of visitors who often come in groups to experience the boat lift, and each visitor is welcomed with a smile.

The whole attraction is very community focused and this is very apparent in the visitor centre. A display in one corner includes pictures and work by local school children.

The centre also plays host to a number of facilities for visitors with disabilities. There is an accessible lift from each of the floors in the visitor centre, disabled toilets on the upper level and lower level of the operations centre. Tactile maps are available for any blind or partially sighted visitors which can be requested from the welcome desk. The trip boat, ‘Edwin Clark’, has an accessible lift to take people on and off, and also a disabled toilet.