The low-down on the capital's small indie museums that celebrate the obscure and the eccentric
The problem
Agnes, Norwich ‘We visit London quite regularly and know the major museums inside out. Can you suggest some smaller museums worth a look?’
The prescription
London is littered with museums devoted to niche, obscure or just plain eccentric concerns. The Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising in Notting Hill is a kaleidoscopic shrine to one man’s obsession with hoarding biscuit tins, washing powder boxes, royal wedding souvenirs and 10,000 more consumer goods.
On the other side of town, Dennis Severs’ House in Spitalfields offers time-travel tours through a Huguenot silk-weaver’s house designed to feel as if its eighteenth-century occupants have left mere minutes ago. In Bethnal Green, the V&A Museum of Childhood is fab for kids, showcasing everything from antique dolls to last year’s must-have Christmas toys and offering nostalgia value to children of the ’80s in exhibits such as ‘Star Wars’ and ‘He-Man’ toys. Not far from the British Museum, the Cartoon Museum celebrates The Beano, Dandy, Marvel comics, as well as political illustrators from Hogarth onwards.
The big museums are fine for first-timers in London, but stumbling upon a less prominent attraction makes for immensely satisfying sightseeing. If you’ve already done the Tower of London, bypass the tourists craning their necks for photos of the city’s quaintest bridge and venture up and into the actual towers and walkways of the Tower Bridge Exhibition. Great views of this fair city are also afforded from The Monument, and it’s much cheaper than the London Eye. Just over the river is the Old Operating Theatre Museum, with its gruesome displays of surgical instruments and re-enactments of anaesthesia-free operations, all set in an atmospheric old herb garret.
Do you agree? Post your suggestions for Agnes' day out.
Email your cultural problem to cultureclinic@timeout.com.
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7 comments
Horniman museum Forest Hill
Aquarium, taxidermy, african art, gallery of musical instruments from all over the world and lots of events at the weekends (great for kids)
Horniman museum Forest Hill
Aquarium, taxidermy, african art, gallery of musical instruments from all over the world and lots of events at the weekends (great for kids)
Horniman museum Forest Hill
Aquarium, taxidermy, african art, gallery of musical instruments from all over the world and lots of events at the weekends (great for kids)
Horniman museum Forest Hill
Aquarium, taxidermy, african art, gallery of musical instruments from all over the world and lots of events at the weekends (great for kids)
What about visiting the Whitchapel Bell Foundry they have a small museum that is open on a Saturday . THis one of the oldest businesses in London they made the Liberty Bell , my other favourite is the Royal London Hospital Museum and Archives which tell how the NSH was set up and has the records of John Merrick ( Elephant Man)
The Monument is great and definitely worth a visit, but it's shut for refurbishment until early 2009.
The Foundling Museum in Bloomsbury (near russell square tube) is one of London's best small museums, with a collection of 18th Century art, beautiful period rooms, and a fascinating social history gallery.
How about the Ragged School Museum near Mile End (Weds, Thurs, 1st Sun of month) - experience life as a poor Victorian child in the recreated schoolroom, and find out about life in the East End in the 20th century.