Ive been to the IWM about 50 times and up the air shard about 15 times. It's always disappointing to visit. When they cut the budget for the build, they should have gone further and canned it altogether. Maybe they did can it when they accepted a metal cladding. Put a similar building up in London and there would be riots.

The building is like a windy warehouse and no doubt one day that it is what it will be and the rent wll be cheap. Outside it has some attraction, but it has little grandeur and close up its dreadful. The entrance is completely inhospitable and whilst I can understand a monument to war being that way, this is a public space and should be welcoming. The security staff have a one hour rota at the main door because it's such an awful place to be.

Inside things don't get better. The Reception is unfriendly, low ceiling and a tiny shop. More in common with a second rate cinema. From there on its a nightmare of a building. The coldet cafe in Britain, and the passageways and stairs are very badly designed. The display space is awful with nothing but a poorly lit second class slideshow, if you're lucky. There's not a straight vertical wall in the place and I understand the lack of regularity as reflecting on war itself, but again this is meant to be a museum with artefacts on show. The walls are in fact not needed because there's next to nothing on show. The museum has been shortchanged. The public have been shortchanged.

I live in Trafford and a frequent museum visitor, but tbh, I'd be quite happy for this place to close. I think the message would be more valuable under those conditions. The dereliction of war.

I am pleased however that it wasn't built out of concrete, as originally planned. This way there'll be some value in the metal scrap !