Science is Fun! (Science Museum (London))

Member Name: AJ26

Product:	Science Museum (London)
Date:	08/02/09 (216 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots to see, free admission, something for all ages, nice chocolate brownie in the cafe!

Disadvantages: Difficult to find your way around, will get busy at peak times, some areas closed for refurbishment

The Science Museum is situated on Exhibition Road, London close to the South Kensington Tube Station. You can reach the museum by following the subway from the tube station which brings you up just next to the entrance to the museum.

The museum has over 300,000 items and is spread out over 7 floors although some floors are much larger than others. When we visited in January 2009 several of the exhibition areas were closed for refurbishment so if you want to visit a particular exhibit it might be worth checking ahead that it is actually open.

The museum is open 7 days a week and is only closed from the 24th to 26th December. The museum opens daily from 10am to 6pm. Children under the age of 13 must be supervised by an adult.

You enter the museum on the ground floor, entrance to the museum is free but there are opportunities to leave a donation towards the running of the museum. However although the museum is free there are special exhibitions and the IMAX cinema which you have to pay to enter and tickets for both of these can be bought at the desks in the museum. The IMAX 3D cinema in the museum boasts a screen taller than 4 double decker buses. It shows films and documentaries based around space, nature and science. When we visited the museum the exhibition on was "Japan Car: Designs for the Crowded Globe." Although my husband is keen on cars he wasn't too excited about seeing Japanese cars and felt that paying £8 each to look at them was a little too much so we didn't go. It does suggest that the exhibit takes an hour to look round so it must be fairly big. There are also various simulators around the museum which you have to pay for as well if you want to try them.

The first big exhibit is Exploring Space which is a really interesting exhibit detailing space exploration. There are lots of rockets and satellites and also some interesting details about what life is like up in space. I found it very interesting (and perhaps a little disgusting) how they manage to go to the toilet in space and they have some examples of the space nappies they used to use!

The next exhibit is called Making the Modern World and has an amazing collection of various things which shows our achievements in technology. Included in this collection are things like Stephenson's Rockets, airplanes and cars. There are also some reminders of our less successful inventions and there was a display including Thaladomide tablets and a reminder of the terrible damage they did.

This display then leads onto The Wellcome Wing which is where the IMAX cinema is located. There was also an exhibit on Genetically Modified food but we didn't have time to go round that.

The Flight gallery is another very impressive gallery up on the third floor it has been designed to look like an aircraft hanger. Along with various planes and engines what I found very interesting was a cross-section of a Boeing 747 showing the various levels of the seats and the luggage compartments underneath and also the relative thinness of the walls. It was quite impressive to see. To view things better there is a raised walkway to allow you to get a better view. There was also a display about mans attempts to fly too.

One of the features we didn't view but which I believe is very popular and certainly seemed to have lots of school kids heading into is the Launchpad which has over 50 interactive exhibits. There are also lots of experiments and shows to keep the children entertained and to excite their interest in science.

The fourth floor houses "Glimpses of Medical History" and "Psychology: Mind Your Head." This was quite an interesting floor and when we visited we were the only 2 people on the whole floor! There is a mixture of things to see like a few pickled brains! Then there is lots of hands on interactive computers that ask you questions which you have to answer then tell you how brainy or not you are. My husband and I spent a while seeing who was best!

The fifth floor consists of "The Science and the Art of Medicine" and "Veterinary History" sadly we didn't have time to visit this floor so its one to save for another visit.

There was only one downside of this museum for me and that was several parts of the museum were closed for refurbishment. Although I can competely understand the need for this it made the museum quite hard to get around. Some of the lifts only go up to certain floors and some staircases where closed so it was a bit difficult getting access to some of the floors.

The facilities in the museum were also very good. There are toilets and baby changing facilities on each floor. If you are looking for somewhere to eat you can bring your own packed lunch and eat it in the picnic areas. There is also the Eat Drink Shop which serves hot and cold snacks, the Deep Blue Café which is a waiter-service restaurant or the Revolution Café which is a self-service café.

We went to the Revolution Café where there was a good selection of filled rolls and sandwiches and a choice of hot meals too. We had some very nice baked potatoes with cheese and coleslaw. I can also thoroughly recommend the chocolate brownies which were big enough to share between two of us and were very tasty. The baked potatoes were £5.95 and came with a helping of cheese, coleslaw and baked beans although we omitted the baked beans. The brownie was £1.80 and as I say was a big enough size for 2 to share. We had water to drink which was £1.25 a bottle. I felt the prices were fairly reasonable for a hot filling lunch in a London museum. The café was a mixture of small tables for 2 people and larger tables with benches. There were highchairs available for babies. We visited on a weekday in January and the café was fairly busy but still plenty of seating, I can imagine that on weekends or holidays it would be very busy.

There is also a large gift shop with a wide range of gifts. There are your usual pens, key rings and little pocket money gifts for children. There is also a wide range of the Science Museums own gifts with things to make, experiments to do or things to play with. We bought an IQ test for our dog (which I look forward to trying out with him!) and a souvenir pen.

I thought the Science Museum was a really interesting place to visit. We spent a couple of hours here but could have spent much longer as we didn't manage to get round all the exhibits. There is plenty here to keep all ages interested. The food was also very nice! We visited on a weekday in January and it was really fairly quiet although I imagine on weekends and during school holidays it will be packed. It is also situated next to both the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum so you can make a whole day of it if you have the energy.

On the downside it is a bit hard to find your way around all the exhibits but this should improve once all the floors are reopened. It is a great place to visit if you are in London and especially on a rainy day there is enough to keep you occupied. I enjoyed my visit and would go back again to have a further look round and see the exhibits I missed. If you thought Science was boring you should visit this museum as it will change your mind.

Summary: The Science Museum in London is a fun and educational day out for all ages.