British Museum - World Treasures (British Museum)

Member Name: mrsbump1

Product:	British Museum
Date:	26/09/09 (51 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Something for everybody, free admission

Disadvantages: Not enough time in the day to see it all

Over the years I visited the British Museum on a number of occasions to view different parts of the Museum's collections, starting with Lindow Man (the body of a young man possibly the victim of a ritual killing which was perfectly preserved in a peat bog), then the treasures of Sutton Hoo and finally wonders of Ancient Greece. The Museum never failed to capture my imagination and I loved exploring its exhibits. My husband had never visited it before but had heard me talk so fondly of it that he decided that my 30th Birthday treat would be to visit it again.

Our visit was planned for a saturday. The Museum's impressive main entrance is on Great Russell Street, with Holborn, Tottenham Court Road and Russell Square tube stations in close proximity. Although the Museum exhibits don't open until 10am, the Great Court (the museum's reclaimed and redesigned covered inner courtyard) is open from 9am. The Great Court in itself is something to behold. As this was the first visit in a long while and certainly the first time I had visited since it had been redeveloped. The simple act of walking through the doors into this new space was breathtaking. I would heartily recommend arriving early for several reasons; first you have the opportunity to take in the Great Court while it is quiet. Second, as the cafe in this area also opens at 9am you can fortify yourself before you start exploring and finally because you can be ready to go when the Museum proper opens its doors.

Room 4 (Egyptian Sculpture) is just off the Great Court and tends to be most visitors first port of call. Here amongst other impressive exhibits you will find the Rosetta Stone. As we moved through this gallery and beyond, again and again we were met with imposing statues, and pieces of ancient architecture, each as impressive as the next. After slowly working our way round the Assyrian galleries we headed off to the rooms encapsulating some of the treasures of Ancient Greece. Having studied Clasical Civilisation at A-level, this was what I was especially looking forward to seeing. The examples of black and red figure vases are beautiful and the architecture and other treasures that are housed in these galleries well worth the visit but finally we made our way to room 18 - The Elgin Marbles. Regardless of whether you believe the marbles should stay in England or be returned to Athens (I am personally undecided) they are something to behold. Although not complete, the frieze is no less impressive and plaster moulds fill in the blanks caused by years of damage insitu in Athens. The sculptures from the pediments were also beautiful.

By this time we were starting to flag and the visitor numbers were rapidly increasing. We rather too hastily explored the Europe exhibits and finished off looking round the Egyptian Mummies. I have to admit that although the Mummies were impressive, I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. Since my previous visits the exhibit had moved rooms and this time round the dimly lit rooms felt too claustrophobic though this may have been attributed to the volume of people clamouring to view the exhibits and my aching feet.

We by no means exhausted the exhibits on display at the Museum; in addition to all it's usual galleries the Museum houses temporary exhibitions for which you have to pay to view. But this I think is the beauty of the British Museum, I don't honestly think you can hope to do justice to all its treasures in one visit and as standard admission is free you can target areas you are interesting in seeing and spend a few hours looking round and come back another day to something else. The museum also offers late night opening until 8:30pm on a thursday and friday so if you want you can visit in an evening which makes it accessible to those who want to visit after work.

There are a number of places you can eat and drink in the Museum. The Great Courtyard, as I mentioned earlier houses a cafe which is fine for a sandwich or cake or a drink. The Gallery Cafe serves "hearty meals" and markets itself as family friendly. If you want more formal dining then the Court Restaurant is open for lunch, dinner and afternoon tea sittings, with starters costing from about £8 and main meals costing between £15-20. In this credit crunch climate, you may want to bring a picnic. The Museum is not averse to this and at weekends and in the school holidays offer the use of the Ford Centre on the lower floor as a picnic area.

I only fleetingly looked round on of the gift shops. There are several different gift shops on site; one which is specifically a childrens shop, a book shop, a general souvenir shop and a more specialist (and expensive) shop. Between all these shops you should be able to find something in your price range to afford, be it a postcard or something a little more special.

The facilities overall are good, I believe there are toilets on all levels and the ones I used were clean. There seem to be various tours available (although I did not use these so cannot comment further) and there appeared to be wheelchair access and lifts to make the galleries accessible to all.

I would happily recommend anyone to visit the British Museum, there is so much to see I believe most people should be able to find something to interest them. I would suggest checking on the official website before you visit to work out which galleries you are most interested in seeing on your visit, some galleries are periodically closed and it would be a shame to arrive and find you cannot see what you wanted. I also swear by getting there early as it can get quite busy.

I am now starting to get itchy feet writing this and am already starting to work out when I can next visit and see some of the areas we missed!

Summary: World history under one roof