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Museums
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Once you hit about fifteen the last place you want to spend time is a museum – after years of being dragged around by enthusiastic dads after a little bonding time (whilst getting a chance to look at guns or rocks) or by harassed teachers looking forward to packed lunch time as much as you, never setting foot inside one of the musty old palaces of ancient stuff again is pretty near the top of the must-do list.
It’s a shame though because museums aren’t what they used to be – acres of placards detailing broken bits of pottery or religious icons from long demolished churches – ok, there are plenty of places still to see dusty old stuff on display but there are also those fabulous places that will give you an insight in to a different way of life, those displaying things you wouldn’t mind keeping for yourself (if only you could jimmy open that display case) and those that tell you something that wouldn’t send you to sleep in a secondary school history class. These museums have interactive exhibits, use the latest technology, give you a hands on experience or show you something new and unusual…think of places like London’s V & A where the beautiful costumes on display will intrigue the shopaholic or the nearby Science Museum where the young at heart can be intrigued and disgusted by interactive bodily functions. On the other side of town meanwhile the Geffrye is just the place to indulge those lovers of design with displays of classic interiors and the Horniman is a wannabe traveller’s paradise.
Outside of the capital too museums are taking a step in to the future (whilst keeping one foot in the past of course)…the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, in its unlikely home of Bradford is a must with television archive items and an opportunity to read the BBC news, the Jorvik Viking Centre in York is somewhere where history really does come to life and Blists Hill in Ludlow is an outdoor living museum where you can travel back to the days of Queen Victoria…and buy sweets with old pennies.
Even in your local city, town or village there’s new and exciting things to see and do whilst learning about what happened locally and who came before you. In Nottingham the ever popular Galleries of Justice are a spooky look at local history, Edinburgh’s Museum of Childhood is a chance to go back in time and remember your favourite toys, The Bass Brewery Museum in Burton is a celebration of all things beer while way down south the Beaulieu Motor Museum is home to just about everything that ever went brum brum or beep beep.
Museums might be tainted in your memory but erase those ideas of sore feet, boring facts and, horror of horrors, brass rubbings and you could be in for a treat – whether you love photography, collect hats, can’t get enough of wallpaper or if you just want to learn about your favourite subject or your local area make it past those doors and you could be surprised.
By Laura Heaps
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