Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport figures show that between April and October 2018 there were 912,468 more visitors across the nine venues compared to the same period last year.

It is the highest number of visitors across these museums and galleries in the April to October period since comparable records began in 2011/12.

More than 537,000 people visited The National Railway Museum in York, an increase of 11 per cent on same period last year.

Judith McNicol, director of the National Railway Museum said: "It’s fantastic to see two museums in the Science Museum Group experiencing such positive growth in visitor figures.

"At the National Railway Museum this growth can be attributed to a renewed focus on customer service and the presentation of our museum spaces, the launch of popular new exhibitions and our smart new branding.

"As well as the history of the railways, we’re increasingly telling contemporary stories of innovation and engineering in collaboration with the current rail industry. We have also seen the benefits of working in partnership with other organisations across the city and beyond.

"We will continue to work to maintain this increase into next year as we launch the next phase of our ambitious and exciting Vision 2025 master plan which we hope will transform the museum to deliver an even better visitor experience."

Minister for the Northern Powerhouse Jake Berry MP, said: "I congratulate the world-class museums and galleries for attracting so many visitors in 2018."