Fiona MacLeod on Which Museums to Visit When, How to Avoid the Crowds, and Why the V&A on a Weekday Is One of the World’s Great Experiences
Reported by Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat.
By Fiona MacLeod | UK London Info Honest Travel Guidance for London Visitors
London’s permanently free national museums and galleries are one of the world’s great public gifts, a consequence of a 19th-century philosophy of public education and cultural access that has survived every subsequent political administration partly because eliminating them would be politically catastrophic and partly because they are genuinely excellent and the people who work in them know it and make sure everyone knows it. The free admission has occasionally been threatened. It has survived. Go before it is threatened again.
Here is the honest guide, by institution.
The British Museum
The collection is so large that attempting to see all of it produces a specific exhaustion that archaeologists have named but that I will describe as: too much at once. Go with a plan. The Egyptian collection (rooms 62-63) is extraordinary and requires 45 minutes minimum. The Sutton Hoo helmet (room 41) is in the same room as the Lewis chessmen and you should allow an hour for both because you will not be able to leave. The Elgin Marbles (rooms 18-19) are the subject of ongoing repatriation discussions with Greece and are worth seeing in the context of that discussion as well as on their own terms.
Best time: Tuesday-Thursday, arriving at opening (10am). Saturday between 11am and 4pm is the circle of hell that Dante would have written about if he’d visited in August. The British Museum’s website allows you to see the collection online before your visit, which is helpful for planning and entirely insufficient as a substitute for the physical experience.
The Victoria and Albert Museum
The V&A is my favourite museum in London and possibly in the world, which is a preference I acknowledge is personal but that I would defend to any competing claim. The collection spans fashion, furniture, jewellery, ceramics, glass, metalwork, photography, and sculpture across five thousand years of human decorative ambition. The Islamic art galleries (rooms 42-43) are among the finest anywhere. The fashion exhibition is always good. The temporary exhibitions require timed tickets, which are not free but are worth booking.
Best time: Thursday or Friday morning. The Café is in one of the most beautiful Victorian Gothic rooms in London and the food is genuinely good. The V&A’s website has the complete collection catalogue and current exhibition information.
The National Gallery
The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square covers European painting from the 13th to early 20th century with a collection that includes Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait, Velazquez’s Rokeby Venus, Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire, and Seurat’s Bathers at Asnieres — in other words, the things you came to London to see that you had no idea were here for free. The Sainsbury Wing entrance on the west side is less crowded than the main entrance. The audio guide is worth the rental. Tuesday and Wednesday mornings before noon are the least crowded periods.
The Natural History Museum and Science Museum
Both free, both excellent, both in South Kensington adjacent to each other and the V&A, which means South Kensington is the most efficient cultural kilometre in Britain. The Natural History Museum’s Blue Whale skeleton (recently reinstalled) is worth the journey alone. The Science Museum’s space exploration collection is underrated. Go on the same day if you have energy. Take the tube to South Kensington (Piccadilly line) and follow the pedestrian tunnel from the station. The Natural History Museum’s visitor guide has the full details. Free. All of it. Free.
For cultural experiences that don’t cost money, see NewsThump.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
