London Museum's: Natural History, Imperial War, British and Science Museum - anyone been to any of these recently?

[Paul the 6th]

Me and the missus are doing 2 nights in london for valentines day and have narrowed it down to these 4 museums. I've been to the natural history and science museums when I was a kid but can't remember how long it took to get around them. They all look so good that we'd like to do them all but since we're only down for 3days/2nights, we'll be doing the cliche sight seeing & shopping since vicky has never been to london before, saturday night we're off to see "stomp" who are amazin (a late birthday present from vic) and then we've got the rest of the time for museums/bumming around (not on clapham common).

So, if anyone has been to any of the above recently - how long did it take you to get around them and what did you like/dislike?

One other thing, there's an art gallery on greek street called "Laz Inc." which is apparently owned by Banksy's agent (as in bristol graffiti genius banksy). Has anyone been in here?

Thanks in advance!

[SoulKiss]

Originally Posted by Paul the 6th

Me and the missus are doing 2 nights in london for valentines day and have narrowed it down to these 4 museums. I've been to the natural history and science museums when I was a kid but can't remember how long it took to get around them. They all look so good that we'd like to do them all but since we're only down for 3days/2nights, we'll be doing the cliche sight seeing & shopping since vicky has never been to london before, saturday night we're off to see "stomp" who are amazin (a late birthday present from vic) and then we've got the rest of the time for museums/bumming around (not on clapham common).

So, if anyone has been to any of the above recently - how long did it take you to get around them and what did you like/dislike?

One other thing, there's an art gallery on greek street called "Laz Inc." which is apparently owned by Banksy's agent (as in bristol graffiti genius banksy). Has anyone been in here?

Thanks in advance!

Location info.

Natural History and Science Museums are next to each other - so able to do both easily (and as they are mostly free entry this is a plus - the mostly refers to the fact that they do have special exhibits that cost to see)

The Victoria and Albert (V&A) is also on that street which is at Kensington.

The Imperial War Museum is "sarf of the river" just down from Waterloo.

The British Museum is the most Central.

But all are near Underground stations - so not that hard to get round.

Where are you staying - then plan from there - You could combine the South Bank (London Eye with the Imp War museum), then combine the British Museum with shopping on Tottenham Court Road (Gadgets and Electronics) or Oxford Street, and also spend a day doing the Kensington Museums.

Been to the IWM recently - theres a car park at the back - you should give a good 4 / 5 hrs if you want to do it justice, loads of tanks, an arsenal of WW2 weapons , loads of films that need watching, subm,arine exhibit, a V2 rocket, planes, etc etc , then there is the real James Bond exhibition and the Auscwitz exhibitions as well...give it all day.

Thing is the other museums. British, V&A, Tate , Science, are all just as big if not much larger so i dont think you can do two of them in a day....maybe the Kensington ones...

have fun...

[Paul the 6th]

staying in russell square so the british museum is within walking distance (literally 3 mins from here). I was aware the natural & science museums are on adjoining streets but not sure if it would be possible to get them both done in the same day - which is the main point of this thread really... vicky also wants to go to harrods which is about a 15 min walk from those two, so I'm leaning towards them both, but I doubt we'd be able to get science/nat hist/harrods all vistied before closing time...

I went to the Natural History museum with matt last summer, we really enjoyed it. There wasn't anything we didnt like about it apart from having to pay a bit extra to look at the diamond exhibition (Im not sure if that is still there?). I think it took us a whole morning to look around. Word of warning though, the prices in the canteen were a bit pricey back then - we took a packed lunch. My fave part was the dinosaurs and plants. I felt a bit "ergh" over the insect section though.

I found the science musuem boring. Only took 2 hours to see everything. The only bit I liked in there (from what I remember) was the solar system.

Not sure if you will have time to squeeze it in (or whether it will even appeak to you), but the body exhibition at the 02 arena was rather cool. I found it fascinating seeing the muscles and nerve cells and biology of the body. You get to see everything that is inside the body as well as the damage that occurs due to illness etc. I Didnt like seeing the babies though, that was freaky.

Maria

[Paul the 6th]

Originally Posted by pete m

Been to the IWM recently - theres a car park at the back - you should give a good 4 / 5 hrs if you want to do it justice, loads of tanks, an arsenal of WW2 weapons , loads of films that need watching, subm,arine exhibit, a V2 rocket, planes, etc etc , then there is the real James Bond exhibition and the Auscwitz exhibitions as well...give it all day.

Thing is the other museums. British, V&A, Tate , Science, are all just as big if not much larger so i dont think you can do two of them in a day....maybe the Kensington ones...

have fun...

cheers for that pete, exactly the kind of info I was lookin for. No point rushing to get 2 museums done if we end up missing half of the exhibits in each of them

[Paul the 6th]

Originally Posted by Miss Alpinestarhero

I went to the Natural History museum with matt last summer, we really enjoyed it. There wasn't anything we didnt like about it apart from having to pay a bit extra to look at the diamond exhibition (Im not sure if that is still there?). I think it took us a whole morning to look around. Word of warning though, the prices in the canteen were a bit pricey back then - we took a packed lunch. My fave part was the dinosaurs and plants. I felt a bit "ergh" over the insect section though.

I found the science musuem boring. Only took 2 hours to see everything. The only bit I liked in there (from what I remember) was the solar system.

Not sure if you will have time to squeeze it in (or whether it will even appeak to you), but the body exhibition at the 02 arena was rather cool. I found it fascinating seeing the muscles and nerve cells and biology of the body. You get to see everything that is inside the body as well as the damage that occurs due to illness etc. I Didnt like seeing the babies though, that was freaky.

Maria

ah cheers maria, i think the extortionate canteen prices are a feature of most museums these days. It cost us £3.60 for a bottle of 7up and 2 packets of walkers at the motor museum the other week! robbers

I think vic might find the science museum a bit boring as well to be honest but I'm quite fascinated by engineering through the ages is the apollo 10 space capsule still there? Looks proper primitive considering it went into space (little window panel riveted to the body?! i wouldn't orbit the moon in that thing!)

[Mej]

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[northwind]

I've not been to the natural history museum, at least I don't think so... British, Science and Imperial War are all ace though. Of the three I'd call the british museum the best, the elgin marbles in their monumental display hall are fantastic (I always thought we should give them back to Greece til I saw the amazing work they've done presenting them, there's no better place they could be). They have a couple of other big headliners, rosetta stone, and the lewis chessmen (apparently, I couldn't find them) and a huge amount of interesting content. If I have a wee bit of time to kill in london I tend to nip in for a quick charge around. Half a day covers the best exhibits but there's much more to check out.

Imperial War Museum is also fantastic, there's a huge amount of stuff to see and it's mostly very well presented and accessible. I saw a small child collapse in hysterics in the trench warfare exhibit, it's pretty brutal, kid seemed to get shell shock It's a very impressive place, lots of cool toys but also manages to get across a very strong anti-glory message, I'd expected a lot of "Guns are AWESOME" stuff but it's not really like that. Though there are a lot of display cases with guns in. Excellent multi-media stuff, it doesn't feel tacked on- their overlord gallery is probably the best multi-media museum exhibit I've ever seen. Some of the galleries are a bit more old-fashioned than others though, there's still display cases full of model warships etc. It's harder to get to though, as has been said up the page, but well worth it. You could easily spend most of a day in here, I did, but again half a day covers the best bits.

Science Museum is a bit hit and miss. The good bits are excellent- the space/rocketry bit is first class, as is the big engine hall with its amazing old-school steam engines, and the flight section with its assortment of planes, jumbo jet cross-section, wright flyer model, and big wall-o-engines. I have to admit I totally nerded out here for ages. But then an awful lot of it turns out to be very outdated glass case displays, sometimes they've obviously not been reviewed for years. Frinstance, in the materials section, they've got a set of "current world champion" foggy's leathers, and the display card says something like "Soon, protective gear may contain advanced materials like kevlar and carbon fibre!" . It's all a bit "Look Around You". But the good stuff is good.

Also maybe worth a look is the transport museum in covent garden- and that's a nice spot anyway for hanging around and shopping- and the churchill war rooms.

[northwind]

Originally Posted by Paul the 6th

is the apollo 10 space capsule still there? Looks proper primitive considering it went into space (little window panel riveted to the body?! i wouldn't orbit the moon in that thing!)

Yup... I got told off for touching it It looks like someone like me made it in the shed out of a load of old boilers. Brilliant stuff.