I visited the London Science Museum on July 19th, 2005. After a fabulous visit to the nearby Natural History Museum, I had high hopes for the offerings of the science museum. Overall, the museum has a few very interesting exhibits and some nice interactive experiences but ultimately I was quite underwhelmed with this museum. If you are only in London for a week I would definitely not allocate touring time to this museum. London has much better to offer!

To Be Fair…
My husband and I rushed over to the museum after I was finished with class for the day so we could have three full hours of touring. It didn’t exactly work out that way. After entering the museum and making our way all the way through the ground floor to the Wellcome Wing, we were escorted right back out again as that entire end of the museum was evacuated due to a bomb threat of some type. Security guards were rushing into the area and people were being forced out. Many people left the museum, and the rest of us all kind of waited in the main lobby for some type of information to be given to us. Since I was aware that many false bomb scares had occurred over the past week or so, we decided to wait it out.

Based on what we were able to overhear from security personnel, it seems that the bomb scare was in the IMAX theater. There was quite a rush of people trying to get refunds for tickets and it did seem that the museum accommodated them rather quickly. About a half hour later there was an announcement that IMAX presentations could continue as scheduled so I’m assuming someone just left a bag or something. The rest of our visit continued without incident but we did lose about 45 minutes by the time we walked all the way back down to the other side of the museum. This meant we were unable to make it all the way through the museum before it closed. This experience may have colored my opinion to the museum to some extent, because I was frustrated that no one was really communicating with patrons during the period the IMAX and Wellcome Wing were closed. When we were forced to evacuate the Tower of London the following day I felt that the staff was generally more informative and helpful.

General Information
The Science Museum can be accessed directly through a subway from the South Kensington tube stop. It is next to the Victoria and Albert and Natural History Museum campuses. Admission to the museum is free but there are fees for IMAX films, simulator rides, and special exhibitions. The museum is open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. every day of the week. A helpful website for visitors is available at http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitors/index.asp.

The Galleries
I found the Science Museum’s layout to be spectacularly confusing compared to most of the other London area tourist attractions. The main wing of the museum takes up the vast majority of the museum and is located on portions of six floors. Most of the exhibits here are a bit older and focus on everything from space to transportation. The more modern portion of the museum is the Wellcome Wing, which spans portions of four floors on the back side of the museum. The two wings of the museum are very distinct and the Wellcome Wing in particular should be toured all at once. There really isn’t access straight across most of the floors anyway. This means lots of going up and down stairs and sometimes finding just a couple of exhibits at the top of a climb. There are some exhibits in the basement as well. The following are some of my observations from my visit.

Wellcome Wing - This is the ‘modern’ wing of the museum. It gets high ratings from me for interactivity and I think children would have a good time here. I found Who am I on floor 1 (second level) to be the best of the bunch. Don’t miss the ‘age warping’ machine that allows you to photograph yourself and project your appearance for the future. Also fun are the various memory games. I was able to receive a ‘superior’ rating on both the ones I tried which I rubbed in to my husband who only scored a ‘good’ rating.

Digitopolis offers some good hands on exhibits as well, although they seemed to be less in working order than the gallery below. One thing I appreciated is that this gallery was almost empty so we were able to spend lots of time with the exhibits. This could have been because of the temporary evacuation or it could just be because this is a very large museum and not at the top of most tourists lists.

Very disappointing in this wing is the much hyped in future exhibit. I’m not sure if the museum ran out of money or what. After climbing to floor three, we found nothing but three tables and a couple of touch screen information monitors. Apparently the tables were supposed to have images projected onto them but two were broken and the third wasn’t working that well either. The room was largely empty and just seemed unfinished which is too bad, because the future concept seems like it should be very interesting.

Main Wing
There are tons and tons of exhibits to see in the main portion of the museum, but many of them seemed outdated or were just not very interesting to me. For example, some might find the huge exhibit on Surveying on the second floor to be fascinating but looking at old surveyor’s tools didn’t do a lot for me.

I personally thought the most interesting older exhibits were on the ground floor. Making the Modern World is an enormous open gallery featuring giant industrial and transportation items. You can see planes, flashy cars, and the Apollo 10 command module. Smaller exhibits are situated around the edges of the room and offer a look at the ways people have lived for the past few centuries. If you want to take a great picture of the gallery there is a little balcony overhang on floor 1 (second level.) Also on the ground floor and worth a stop is the Space gallery. Some of the interactive exhibits could use a little care but the discussions of how astronauts live in space are particularly interesting. A detailed description of the eating, sleeping, and even bathroom habits can be seen and you can try on a pair of gloves like the astronauts wear in space.

If you are interested in old farm machinery, the Agriculture gallery on floor 1 (second level) is a good place to stop. I also found the Challenge of Materials area interesting. Displays focused on the ways that science affect manufacturing and some very aesthetically interesting items are displayed ranging from clothing to an ergonomically correct park bench.

In this area of the museum, quite a bit of construction seemed to be going on. I started to become very interested in an exhibit on Food for Thought focusing on chocolate only to find a wall barrier halfway through the exhibit. I know some major renovations are due in the future so this may explain why some areas seem a bit run down at the moment.

IMAX
I did not see any IMAX movies during my visit to the museum but I thought the selection looked very, very interesting. If I have time over the next couple of weeks I would like to go back and check one out. Subjects ranged from a roller coaster ride through a haunted house to an African safari. Most of the films are about 45 minutes long and the cost is 7.50 pounds for an adult. If you are visiting the museum for more than a couple hours I think a film would be fun to include in the trip. A listing of show times is available at http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/imax/index.asp.

Food and Shopping
As with many of London’s other museums, the Science Museum is great about allowing visitors to bring their own picnic lunches. You can eat your own food in several of the museum’s cafes. For a sit down meal, Deep Blue Café in the Wellcome Wing looks like a very fun place to eat with reasonable prices for pizza, pasta, and sandwiches. We had actually thought about dining there on our trip but it seemed to close earlier then scheduled, maybe on account of the bomb scare. The restaurant offers long tables and cube shaped menus and offers views of the first floor exhibits.

For a quick snack there are several options available. Vending machines and tables are offered on the Floor 1 (level 2). There are three shops selling snacks and drinks. One is in the basement, another on the ground floor, and the last is on the third floor and open seasonally. The menus are standard and include sandwiches, hot dogs, sodas, and desserts. The restaurants are spacious and attractive with plenty of seating.

There are two stores in the museum, The Science Museum Store and Ottakar’s Bookstore. I thought the museum store was a great place for children to pick out a cheap souvenir as there are plenty of small knick knacks for reasonably low prices. The merchandise is heavy on the space theme with a little bit of transportation thrown in. Think mini planes, rocket ships, and stickable stars. The bookstore was bright and comfortable-looking and had some type of Harry Potter promotion going on the day of my visit.

Overall…
I’m sorry to say that I don’t think the Science Museum is the best London has to offer. The History Museum next door would probably appeal to kids equally and seems to be better maintained. I think the Science Museum has some work to do in terms of maintenance on its exhibits and I don’t recommend it as a London ‘must-see.’

*Here are some truly fabulous London attractions...
British Museum
National Potrait Gallery
Natural History Museum
London National Gallery
Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum


Recommended: No

Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime