LOTS to see at the British Museum!
Written: Jun 26 '05 (Updated Jun 27 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Amazing variety, huge collection, well preserved, FREE!!!
Cons: Some galleries are hot and stuffy, can be overwhelming
The Bottom Line: Visiting London? Don't miss this!
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| chelledun's Full Review: The British Museum |
This is the first of many London travel reviews, as I am living in the city for six weeks this summer. One of the wonderful things about my dorm location in Bloomsbury is the five minute walk to the fabulous British Museum. I just enjoyed an exhausting and fulfilling day spent there today, June 26, 2005.
The British Museum
The museum is full of literally millions of objects from around the world, although only thousands are on exhibit at a time. Some of the display cases are marked as rotating exhibits. Of course, all the museum’s most famous pieces can be viewed at any time. My Insight London guide informs me that if a visitor devoted just sixty seconds to every object on display with no breaks, a tour of the British Museum would take twelve years. Of course, most of us don’t have twelve years. While I am lucky enough to be living next to this museum for the next few weeks, most tourists have only an afternoon or a day to spend here. Rest assured, even a brief visit can offer a rewarding experience including many of the highlights.
Things You Should Know
The museum is wonderfully, gloriously, FREE. A sign at the door suggests those who can afford to do so should pay 3 pounds, but I would say the majority of visitors we saw were not paying anything. The galleries open at 10:00 a.m. daily, while the Great Court (the central area featuring shops and restaurants) opens at 9:00 a.m. The museum is open until 5:30 Saturday through Wednesday and 8:30 on Thursday and Friday.
I highly recommend getting a grasp on the layout of the museum before you visit. The galleries are essentially a square of three floors surrounding the central Great Court. The Reading Room is in the very center of the great court. You can view a map of the museum at http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/visit/plans.html or in most guidebooks with pictures. There are a lot of signs pointing out different areas of the world, which is how the museum’s galleries are organized.
Tours
There are a variety of tours offered throughout the day at the museum. If I were touring the museum and had only a couple hours, I would have done the ninety minute Highlight Tour. This tour costs eight pounds and seems like a pretty good deal in terms of maximizing your time at the museum. Since I was able to spend five hours at the museum today alone and can return any time, I didn’t choose to do the tour today. There are also free Eyeopeners tours occurring in some of the most popular museum galleries throughout the day. I was lucky enough to catch the 11:00 Ancient Egypt tour, and plan to go back for the Enlightenment tour sometime soon. A schedule of these twenty to thirty minute mini-tours is available at http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/tours/eyeopeners.html. Finally, there is an option of various ninety minute Audio Tours for a few pounds per person. Headphones can be obtained at the front desk. I think I would be afraid of getting lost in these tours, but I saw a few people with headphones who seemed to be successfully navigating the exhibits.
What I Visited…
It would, of course, be impossible to visit all of the museum’s galleries in one day. However, in my half day at the museum I was able to visit many of the things I wanted to see and was really quite impressed with the museum.
Africa Garden
I was lucky enough to be able to visit the museum while the special Africa 05 celebration is going on in London. Africa Live was a day long festival of free entertainment at the front entrance of the museum, and it was really awesome. The Africa Garden is available to visitors all summer, and features a huge variety of African plants and sculptures brought together into a compact space around a walking path. Visitors can enjoy banana and aloe plants as well as sculptures of wood and wire. The art and the plants is all well marked with small signs and brief descriptions. My favorite plant was called “mother-in-law’s tongue.” Hee hee. The Africa celebration theme is carried on upon entering the museum with huge banners in the Great Court and a “tree of life” sculpture in the entryway.
Egypt Galleries
Once inside the museum, the Egyptian galleries were my group’s first stop. The reason for this was double. First, I am fascinated with Egyptian culture and history. Second of all, if you don’t visit these rooms right away they will become very, very crowded. The Egyptian sculpture galleries are located on the main floor in gallery four to the left of the main reading room, and mummies and additional artifacts are upstairs in galleries 60-65. One major must-see is the Rosetta Stone located at the very entrance to gallery four. You will recognize it from the throngs of visitors smushing up against the glass. The tablet is from the second century BC. The tablet was key to our modern day understanding of the language of hieroglyphics, and the writing is shockingly well preserved. A model of the stone is located in the Enlightenment gallery if you want to get up close and personal without the glass walls.
The mummies are all located in the second floor galleries. I enjoyed this portion of the museum the most. Artifacts span Egyptian history. Along with the mummies is a body found in a shallow pit grave, which is remarkably well preserved and really freaked one of my friends out. There are also a couple mummified bulls which I don’t remember running across anywhere else. Small children may be freaked out by some of the mummies in this exhibit. One exhibit I found particularly interesting was a demonstration of the evolution of Egyptian coffins over time. The display starts with a simple burial box, which gradually becomes more and more decorative to end with the fancy hieroglyphic coffins and sarcophaguses we associate with Egyptian culture today. The exhibits all have great descriptions that I could have stuck around to read all day. I got a kick out of some of the more unusual items, such as a display on dental health in ancient Egypt and an early prosthetic toe.
Ancient Near East
The mummy exhibit spit us out into these galleries featuring artifacts from Mesopotamia. These display rooms run from 51-59. Artifacts and exhibits include sculptures, tablets, and household items. Of all the areas we toured, I found myself not quite as interested in these particular rooms as some of the others. I’m not really sure why, perhaps just because I am not very familiar with history in this part of the world.
Europe and Roman Britain
Room 50 offers a neat selection of artifacts from Celtic Europe. Displays focus on various ‘hoards.’ The huge metal torcs made us laugh, because they were thick and bulky but apparently worn as neck jewelry. Styles have certainly changed! This gallery offers primarily small items in cases. The items include a large collection of sword blades, jewelry, and bronze carvings. Not to be missed in this room is the Lindow Man, an amazingly well preserved human body discovered in a peat moss bog. The poor fellow died sometime between 20 and 90 A.D., probably as the victim of a human sacrifice ritual. He looks pretty good today considering all that! The squeamish may want to avoid Lindow Man.
The other European galleries are 42-49 and contain items similar to those mentioned above as well as some larger tiles and carvings. The medieval collections were especially interesting. I would like to go back and linger a little more in this gallery when I get a chance. A little more reading and attention is required to understand what the significance is of some of the small artifacts. I noticed this area was one of the least crowded in the museum, we were almost the only people there. Maybe European history just seems less exotic to people, but I really enjoyed this gallery.
Greek and Roman
Some of the biggest and most awe-inspiring pieces are located in the first floor Greek and Roman galleries, 11-23. Not to be missed even on the briefest visit are the Parthenon Galleries in number 18. A film in a room to the left upon entering the gallery is a great little film that illustrates the portions of the Parthenon which are viewable in the museum. There is also an interesting billboard which discusses the controversy of housing such a great portion of the Parthenon in London instead of Rome as well as a website to go to for more information. The pieces themselves are in surprisingly good shape.
The other Greek and Roman galleries feature a huge collection of busts and an awesome temple which makes for a great photo. Be prepared for groups of teenage tourists taking photos of the statues, um, private parts and thinking its very funny. This exhibit is quite open and airy, and seemed cooler than some of the other areas of the museum.
The Enlightenment
Primarily located in gallery one on the first floor, this is one awesome room. I stumbled into it somewhat by mistake but absolutely loved it. The gallery is decorated like a library, with hundreds of enlightenment era books filling the shelves from floor to ceiling. There are sculptures and displays on religion, jewelry, and text. I enjoyed this exhibit as a tribute to humanity’s knowledge and ingenuity, and some of the pieces are absolutely beautiful. One of my favorites is the gigantic marble foot which is a small portion of a statute dating back to the first or second century A.D. I can only imagine how big the completed statute must have been! The only down side is a few sad stuffed animals such as a penguin, koala bear, and platypus. Unfortunately, because of all the glass on the book cases photos in this gallery do not turn out too well. If you get tired of statutes, this gallery is unique and a good way to break up a visit.
Wish I had more time for…
As I mentioned before, it would be impossible to see everything here in a one day visit. I hope to go back as class and my touring schedule allows. Most galleries at least got a walk through, but I felt that I sadly neglected the Asia galleries, with only a quick stroll around one of the rooms. I also would like to check out the Mexico artifacts, which I didn’t end up realizing I missed until I headed home. There is a 3-D film on mummies which I feel that I must see, although it costs six pounds. There are also additional Greek and Roman galleries on the lower level I am interested in checking out. And, of course, tons more because this is a huge museum. However, I did feel that my trip was productive in a few hours. Even if worst case scenerio I don’t make it back again, I will still feel pretty good about seeing many wonderful pieces of art.
Shopping and Eating
I browsed through some of the shops a bit, all of which are located in the central core area of the museum’s Great Court. One of the shops is focused on children’s items, one on books, and a couple others on general souvenirs. I didn’t purchase anything yet but if I go back I may get one of the little scale replicas of the Rosetta Stone intended for use as a paperweight. The items for sale include art, postcards, t-shirts, and other typical souvenir items.
There are a couple of options for dining in the museum. Detailed information is provided in http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/visit/restaurants.html. The formal Court restaurant looks beautiful, if a little beyond my budget. Afternoon teas start at under five pounds, however, so that is a nice option for a touring break. The Gallery Café is a mid-priced restaurant which also offers afternoon tea. Most guests seemed to be dining at Court Café, right in the middle of the Great Court. These long tables provided great views of the museum, but I thought the tables themselves actually took away from the beauty of the court area. However, if you want a quick sandwich and soda this is the easiest place to dine.
Overall…
So ends my lovely day at the British Museum. Thank you for joining me on my excursion. Although this is a massive and slightly overwhelming museum, I think that it is worth spending even a few hours here to hit some of the highlights, and the museum is fairly easy to navigate despite its large size. I missed the museum on my last trip to London but I’m glad I didn’t miss it this time.
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Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Students
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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