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The Puzzling Place (Keswick)
by GuruOnAMountain My dad and I were in the Lake District for a few days and when in Keswick we ran into this museum quite by accident while wandering round the shops. It is tucked away in an upstairs location among shop fronts in Museum Square and it caught my eye, so we headed up for a nosy. On entering there is a fairly large shop area that ... is free to enter and the receptionist doesn't pressure anyone browsing the shop to enter the museum, which is nice. The World of Illusions exhibition itself is behind swing doors and you simply pay at reception if you wish to enter. The shop stocks lots of unusual little items, puzzles, jigsaws on such like and is worth a little look around in itself. The entry fee to the main exhibit is reasonable at £3.75 for a full price ticket and £2.90 for a child/concession. Under 5s get in for free and a family ticket for four can be bought for £11.75. The swing doors themselves to get in look a bit like a dodgy DIY job and I really wasn't convinced that it was worth going in but in we went, anyway. A lot of the illusions are big boards on the wall with some kind of optical illusion on them (many of them very famous such as the type with a face that when looked at can either be interpreted as one thing or another). I'd seen a lot of the illusions already in books but maybe that's just due to my mis-spent youth being into that sort of thing! There were a few more 'hands on' exhibits dotted around such as two cases (one small and one large) that you'd to lift and gauge the weight of and a kaleidiscope of mirrors that you could stand inside. There was also the optical illusion of a large chair created by the angle of a camera pointed at it which provided a good photo opportunity (you are actually just standing on a board on the ground but from a distance and at the right angle a photo would make you look like you are standing on a huge chair). The best bit was definately the anti-gravity room which due to strange angles on the floor etc. made chairs slide uphill and makes you feel a bit dizzy and strange when you're inside. There is also a fairly large hologram room which is fun and some of the holograms are really detailed and amazing although a few of them weren't visible when I was there as the lights needed to light them had went out. In the hologram gallery there is also a distorted perceptions room where you can make yourself look tiny and your kid (if you have one with you) look like a giant. Again, another good photo opportunity. The overall feel of the place is a bit basic and amateurish and it is really rather small and probably wouldn't take any more than 45 minutes to go round, even if you were taking your time to read everything and do everything that was there but I think this is quite fairly reflected in the price to get in as it isn't particularly expensive. It reminded me somewhat of a poor man's version of Camera Obscura in Edinburgh. I would recommend a peek inside if you're in Keswick but I wouldn't recommend you to go deliberately out of your way to visit this attraction although hopefully it will improve over time if enough visitors invest in it. Read the complete review |
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Imperial War Museum (London)
by julwhite This review is of the Imperial War Museum in London, a military museum marking the contribution made by the armed forces over the centuries. I visited the museum in early April 2012, and for anyone interested in going, it's best to make a visit sooner rather than later as from August 2012 many of the large objects are being ... moved out, and in January 2013 the museum will be closed for six months for a major renovation. Like many other of the London museums, entrance is free of charge to everyone (some special exhibits have an extra charge) because of a grant from the Department of Culture, although donations can be made, or a guide book purchased to help them (the museum is a charity) with the costs of running such a superb museum. Making the museum free of charge has made a large difference to the number of visitors, up from 660,000 ten years ago to nearly 1,100,000 last year. There is a large gun outside the front of the museum which helps identifies you've found the right place, which is located near to Lambeth North tube station, and not far from the Elephant & Castle and Waterloo stations. There are also many buses which go by the museum and some nearby bike racks which are part of the Mayor's bike hire scheme, sponsored by Barclays. There is no parking at the museum, other than street parking, which is expensive and the museum is inside the congestion charge zone. So most visitors will probably opt for public transport to get here. Entering the museum you can see there are a number of floors, which a large number of bigger exhibits such as planes supported from the ceiling, tanks, large guns. The context and description of each of these larger items is provided and the children at the museum seemed to really enjoy wandering around these. On my visit I went to a number of the galleries, starting on the lower floor, which is a look at the wars which Britain has been involved with over the last century. There is a reconstruction of a World War One trench and area where the blitz is recreated to help understanding in a more visual way, but there are also a large number of exhibits and displays to walk around. Most of these were well signed, although it was sometimes hard to match up the number on the information panel with the item in the display cases to ascertain more about it, but overall it was an interesting visit. Visitors are guided around so they discover more about these wars in roughly a date order, so starting at the First World War, then the reasons for the Second World War, then the war itself, and then more later conflicts such as the Falklands and Iraq. I visited the museum on a Sunday and so there were many families and visitors generally, making viewing a little difficult in places, so I didn't see too much of the Secret War exhibition, which was a look at spies and espionage throughout recent times. They had a display of James Bond type items that the agents would use to help them spy, and although this wasn't a large display area, it was worth visiting because of the fascinating array of objects to be seen. Back up to the ground floor, there was an exhibition there called "A Family in Wartime", which looks at the realities of living in a war, not just the obvious dangers of being bombed, but also the practicalities, such as food, clothing and transport. The displays in this area were quite visual, and younger visitors seemed to be enjoying this, and I heard a few older visitors explaining to their relatives their memories of war. Certainly given that, it showed the exhibition was succeeding in its intention to get people talking. One area that under 16s were advised not to go was on one of the top floors, which was a look at the Holocaust. There were some horrendous images, sometimes very visible images which were directly shocking, such as the treatment of the Jews, and indeed other minorities, in the concentration camps. However one of the most powerful images to me was of a letter which a mother had written to her son, her only child, who had been taken from her. She wrote to him, expectantly, until one day her letter was returned to her with "not at this address". She must have known his fate, as he had indeed died, but receiving back that letter which would have been written with such love must have been an horrific moment for the lady, and the image of this was haunting. There Holocaust exhibition was haunting, and most people treated it with great respect, although there were a few people shouting and messing about in the area near some of the most poignant and upsetting displays. It did neither them, or the very light touch of staffing provided in the museum, any credit. The museum proudly announces how many volunteers it gets, and how it can't use all of them, so if anyone was willing to help in this exhibit, it might be useful. However, that point aside, the exhibition was thought provoking and fascinating, a reminder to all. A significant number of people looked quite downcast when leaving the gallery, so its effect was clear, let alone those who emotions were private and not visible. From tragedy to bravery, on the top floor of the museum is the collection of the world's largest number of Victoria Crosses, and a large number of George Crosses. The gallery is named after Lord Ashcroft, the sometimes controversial figure, but he has donated 5 million pounds to help assembly this gallery, and his money has helped remind visitors of some many of the fascinating stories of those awarded these medals. He must be rightly proud of what he has achieved here in conjunction with the museum, having collected all of these medals, and then made them available for display. In summary therefore, the museum was fascinating and too much for me to see in one visit, so I'll make a repeat visit before they close for six months at the beginning of next year. They suggest a couple of hours to half a day for a visit, and to see everything, half a day seems about right. There's enough for kids to do to keep them occupied for a reasonable period of time, and there's the rest of London to explore nearby should they get bored. Also on site are a restaurant, which is reasonably priced given the location, and a shop, which is a bit more expensive, but at least the funds are used to help the museum. There are toilets available in the museum, and the museum is also suitable for disabled visitors. But anyone needing more help need only ask the staff at the museum. Definitely highly recommended, and I noted there was no attempt to glorify war, indeed if anything, it served as a reminder of just how futile war is. Read the complete review |
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St Fagans National History Museum (Cardiff)
by chrisandmark The St Fagans National History Museum in Cardiff is a large open-air attraction, designed and put together to educate visitors about Welsh history. We found it while having a short break to South Wales with two of our children, only spotting it after driving along the motorway in search of something to do that we'd all enjoy. ... After parking the car we followed the 'entrance' signs which took us through a large building; this building houses a restaurant, gift shop and the beginning of your Welsh experience in the form of decorative pieces along the walls, plus a few select statuettes displayed en route to the main area of the museum. Before you leave this building you walk through a display called Oriel 1 - this is an interesting look at Welsh dress, farming equipment and other displays designed to give visitors an insight into not only Wales of long ago, but also how the language and some customs have managed to survive to the present day. Much of the display in Oriel 1 is kept behind glass so my (then) three year old wasn't very interested, her twelve year old sister enjoyed looking at the various Welsh costumes and fashions through the ages - and so did I actually, even though many of them were slightly too puritanical to really have any meaning in the 21st century! We didn't linger in Oriel 1 for long as the sun was shining and we wanted to get outside and enjoy it! As we stepped outside I was shocked at how large and sprawling the outside of the museum is, it spreads as far as the eye can see and I decided to sent my daughter back inside to grab one of the free maps we'd spotted on the way in! The whole area is very green, peaceful despite the fact that there were hundreds of people walking around and extremely beautiful - even though the museum is located near a busy motorway hardly any traffic noise filtered through which gives the impression of being in the countryside. The open air museum is amazing from the moment you clap eyes on it. Whole buildings have been uprooted and re-built here, made to look (and even smell sometimes) how they would have done in days gone by. The chapel with its striking colourful frescoes against pure white walls, this is a beautiful building and I can understand how awe inspiring it must have been as a working church in the middle ages. It has that air of peace that all places of worship have; it's not exactly spiritual feeling, but there's a define sense of 'something' in there. The farmhouse is stunning; painted a fiery red colour, you can go in and see how the animals shared the home (to a point) and view for yourself how little room there was for the farmer and his (undoubtedly huge) family. I wasn't so keen on the tannery shed, the building having an air of bleakness about it - the way animal skins had been draped around made it believable, but it just wasn't my kind of building. My four year old enjoyed the ancient round huts, which we found out were Iron Age structures after sitting in on a talk inside one of the huts - we didn't stay inside for too long as there was an almost overpowering smell of earth, After this we walked up the hill to see the more recent history of Wales - the ironmonger's shop, a sweet shop and store selling delicious looking Welsh goodies. This area of the museum is decidedly less twee and wandering around here you get a sense of how industrialisation hit the hills and valleys of Wales. Here we bought sweets for the kids (and daddy!), the most delicious scone I've ever eaten and a few sweet treats for when we went back to the hotel - everything was perfect and in these days of plastic wrappers my youngest was highly impressed to be given her selection of sweets in a paper bag. I personally enjoyed the Welsh foods shop and was surprised to find the prices weren't much different to modern food shops I'd been mooching around on previous days. I bought a few small souvenirs, Welsh Cakes and some delicious chocolate eggs which had been made locally to the museum. Within this row of 'shops' is a photography studio which has been made to look 'of the times'. Here you can dress up in a variety of olden days Welsh costumes and have a black and white family portrait taken. I'd have loved to have had this done but unfortunately my partner doesn't like having his photo taken and one of the girls' was sick (and therefore not in the mood) so we had to miss out on this this time. I did, however, speak to an elderly lady who had just collected her photograph and the quality and posing of her and her two granddaughters made for an excellent memento of their visit to Wales. In every corner of the museum there's something to look at or do, just when you think you've seen everything you'll walk around the side of a building and find something you hadn't noticed before. My youngest daughter loved the small woodland and after joining a talk (which we later found out she shouldn't have!) she was given a gift bag with a magnifying glass, book on English wildlife and pencil inside - which she was surprisingly thrilled with! Dotted around the woodland are interactive information boards designed to teach children about their surroundings. My daughter obviously enjoyed the one showing various 3D animal poo's the most, while I had to physically move her older sister away from the one showing lots of different butterflies and telling you where in the woodland to look for them. The museum is set within the grounds of St Fagan's Castle, which was closed for restoration work at the time of our visit. This was no hardship as I hadn't even been aware of the castle until I heard it was closed! I've since looked at photos on the internet and it looks very pretty, but a bit too 'stately home' for me - I like my castles as the huge stone defence types, not this (admittedly beautiful) chocolate box building. I'm sure it's a lovely place to look round though, and if we ever visit the museum again we'll no doubt go and have a look. We spent a good five hours in the National History Museum and all agreed that it had been a good choice of activity. It was an interesting day, I felt I learnt lots about the Welsh culture and how it's been shaped through the centuries - the fact that it's so hands on helps you to really absorb the details. As an adult I was impressed, but I was surprised by how much effort the museum has gone to to engage children. In Oriel 1 there are several points where children can play with masks, colour in pictures of the exhibits or choose from a variety of other fun activities - things like this are so simple to include in an exhibition such as this, but can make all the difference when it comes to capturing the attention of a young child. The museum is (amazingly) free to visit, although there is a flat £3.50 car parking fee. This, in my opinion, is fantastic as we have a similar outdoors museum near where I live which charges an exorbitant entrance fee! Disabled access is fine to a point. The museum is hilly in parts and the natural landscape means there will be parts that less mobile visitors will not be able to reach, this is a shame but I can understand it as the museum is kept so 'real' that a modern pathway would just spoil the effect they have so cleverly mastered. The same is true for pushchairs, which probably explains why I didn't notice many babies in prams while we were there. I thoroughly, completely and utterly recommend a visit to the St Fagans National History Museum. It's one of those places that will grab you as soon as you walk in, and you don't even have to be terribly interested in Welsh history to enjoy the walk round. We all loved the day and the atmosphere made it perfect to have a natter as we were walking, away from the distractions present when doing a more modern activity - it made for an ideal family day for us, my only regret is not taking my mum as (as a real history buff) she'd have enjoyed it far more than babysitting our other two children back in Birmingham! Read the complete review |
Museum National |
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1 review Address: City Museum and Records Office / Museum National / Museum Road / Portsmouth / PO1 2LJ / Tel: 023 9282 7261 |
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1 review Address: Hay's Dock / Museum National / Lerwick / Shetland / ZE1 0WP / Scotland / Tel: +44 1595 695057 |
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2 reviews Address: Botanic Gardens / Museum National / Belfast / BT9 5AB / Ireland / Tel: +44 0 28 9044 0000 |
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7 reviews National Museum of Photography, Film & Television Bradford, West Yorkshire BD1 1NQ. Tel +44 (0)1274 20 20 30. 10:00am - 6:00pm Tues-Sun and Bank/main Holidays. FREE ADMISSION |
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1 review Address: Maygate / Museum National / Dunfermline / Fife / KY12 7NE / Scotland / Tel: 01383 733266 |
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Address: 40 Gay Street / Museum National / Queen Square / Bath / BA1 2NT / Tel: 44 (0) 1225 443000 |
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4 reviews Address: Beaulieu / Museum National / Brockenhurst / Hampshire / United Kingdom / SO42 7ZN / Tel: 01590 612345 |
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2 reviews Address: Southey Works / Museum National / Keswick / Cumbria / CA12 5NG / Tel: 44 (0) 17687 73626 |
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3 reviews Museum National / Museum Square, Keswick. |
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Museum National / Spring Gardens Lane, Keighley, West Yorkshire, BD20 6LH. |
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