The Museums

Tuesday 27th October 2009
We wanted to spend some of our time in London seeing some of the sights, or doing something. I was born and brought up in London, and spent four years at University and training as a teacher close to Euston. I used to visit the museums or just wander around looking at things, but I haven't spent much time in London recently.

At Little Venice - we wonder if British Waterways have sold off too much of the office properties?





Bilster at Little Venice - a boat once owned by Alan's brother.














Bilster













I wanted to see the Science Museum or the Natural History Museum, and both Alan and David voted for the Science Museum so we got on the underground to South Kensington. Not surprisingly, it being half-term, the queue for the Science Museum was extremely long, with a 20 minute wait to get in, but once in it was fine.

Alan and I remember the Science Museum from our childhood as being large numbers of glass cases with models in - if you pressed a button then some wheel or cog would turn. It's far more interesting for kids now, with interesting childrens' sections but I have to wonder if it has been too 'dumbed down' for those who are not going there with children. At times it was difficult to find the information relating to some exhibit or another and some of the notices often gave only superficial details. Perhaps the Science Museum doesn't expect adults who are not accompanied by children to go there? We did learn some things - but from each other.

We looked at the engineering section, including the few remaining steam engines there. Then space, flight, time, and computing - I'm someone who used paper tape, so the old computing equipment brings back memories. Perhaps the most scary exhibit was an complete dentist's torture device - just like the ones Alan and I remember from the butchery of our school dentists.
The 'narrow boat' display at the Science Museum.













Towards the end of the afternoon I wanted a quick visit to the Natural History Museum , Alan had to find a post office to get an important letter sent with the impeding postal strike so while he went to deal with his letter David came with me. We looked at some fossils, the mammal skeletons (especially the whales), the section of giant sequoia and the hominin fossils. Once again I had the distinct feeling that the museum was designed entirely from the point of view of children - a bit like 'Disneyworld does the Natural History Museum'. I do feel that museums should be interesting for children - but surely we are not the only adults who want to visit museums.

Alan eventually met us and we decided to head over to Coptic Street by the British Museum to the Pizza Express there - Alan and I used to eat there when we were first together. It has hardly changed at all in nearly 30 years.

Back at Paddington Station we discovered a urinal that hadn't been there when we walked through earlier in the day. The Urilift looks like a manhole cover during the day, but the urinal rises out of the pavement at night - it is operated by a remote from a local business (such as a bar). Another team puts it back down again in the morning.