WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre will open its gates free of charge for one day in November as the Gloucestershire wildlife attraction celebrates its 80th birthday.
Admission will be free to all visitors on Tuesday, 10 November 2026. The centre is asking people to claim tickets in advance through the WWT Slimbridge ticketing website, with a series of events also planned during its birthday week.
The anniversary marks eight decades since the centre was founded by Sir Peter Scott on the banks of the River Severn on 10 November 1946. What began as a project focused on protecting birdlife and waterfowl has developed into an internationally recognised centre for wetland conservation.
Free admission and birthday-week events
Visitors to WWT Slimbridge will be able to attend without paying the usual admission charge on the centre’s anniversary date. The free-entry offer applies on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, and advance ticket collection is requested.
The centre has also invited visitors to join events throughout its birthday week. Those activities will celebrate the history of WWT Slimbridge, its founder and the organisation’s conservation work over the past eight decades.
Charlotte Stokes, WWT Slimbridge Visitor Experience Manager, said: “Sir Peter Scott’s vision was always to protect nature, and find ways to bring people closer to it.”
She added: “And in that spirit, we’re delighted to be offering free admission to the centre for our birthday on 10 November 2026.”
Stokes said visitors, including people who had not been to the centre before, would be invited to learn more about Scott and the journey of WWT Slimbridge. She said the organisation was looking towards “a bright, thriving future”.
From Sir Peter Scott’s vision to an international conservation centre
Sir Peter Scott was the son of Antarctic explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott. He became known as a painter, broadcaster and Olympic sailing medallist before establishing the wetland centre.
He was inspired by Britain’s wild marshes and the geese that travelled from distant shores. His original aim was to create a centre dedicated to science and conservation, beginning with the protection of birds and waterfowl before widening the work to include their wetland habitats.
The centre was also opened to the public, an unusual approach for its time, to help people connect with nature. WWT, the wetland charity, was established alongside WWT Slimbridge on 10 November 1946.
Today, the site covers 800 acres and welcomes more than 250,000 visitors a year. Across its ten wetland sites in the UK, WWT says it has welcomed more than 40 million visitors during its history.
Conservation work continues
Over the past 80 years, WWT has created and protected thousands of hectares of wetlands around the world and worked on conservation projects intended to help save species from extinction.
Sir David Attenborough described Sir Peter Scott as the “patron saint of conservation”. The charity’s current work includes Wetland Cities, which is supporting Bristol’s ambition to become the UK’s first Wetland City.
WWT is also working to restore lost saltmarsh along the Awre Peninsula on the Gloucestershire coast. The organisation says these projects are intended to benefit wildlife and local communities while helping protect wetlands for future generations.
For visitors planning to attend the birthday offer, the centre’s free-entry date is Tuesday, 10 November 2026, and tickets should be claimed in advance through the WWT Slimbridge ticketing website.