01 October 2008

Free brain food in Britain

The Sun Herald in a report by Davie Whitley says that in 2001, the British Government did a very good thing, finally honouring a four-year-old election pledge, it set tax breaks and rules in motion that meant entry to many museums in Britain would be free.

The results were startling, with museum attendance figures leaping straight up, both from locals who felt priced out beforehand and international tourists.

For visitors to London, in particular, this means that there is treasure trove after treasure trove for travellers on a budget to explore.

My favourite is the Natural History Museum (www.nhm.ac.uk) in South Kensington. It's worth going just for the architecture alone - it's a fine display of Victorian exuberance, with a grand facade, turreted spires and blue and yellow brickwork.

It would be fair to say that no wildlife lover would think to put London at the top of their must-see destinations list. Apart from the odd urban fox or sewer rat - and 80 per cent of the world's pigeon supply - there's really not all that much to see.

Well, how about a giant ground pangolin, a red panda or a quetzal? Or plenty of other creatures that, if you hadn't seen them with your own eyes, you'd swear were completely fictional inventions?

That none of those were made up for comic effect and all three are now vying to become my new favourite animal is testament to just how good the Natural History Museum is. OK, there are no live creatures in there, but in many ways it is better than any zoo or safari.

The Natural History Museum is bewilderingly huge, so big that to see everything in it could take days. There's also the biggest crocodile that has ever existed outside the preposterous tales of Northern Territory fishermen.

There's interactivity throughout the zones. For example, you can enter a virtual web, becoming a spider and trying to work out whether the vibrations coming from the centre are that of a fly or a potential mate, nervously plucking away in a bid to attract attention. Get it wrong and the consequences are grave - females eat males who bungle.

It's the big beasties that really impress - there are a full-sized blue whale and a diplodocus skeleton - and they frankly look as if they could eat everything in the world.

A few steps away from the Natural History Museum are the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The Science Museum (www.sciencemuseum.org.uk) is fascinating and this comes from someone who largely spent physics and chemistry lessons catching up on some shut-eye. It covers a huge range of topics, from mathematics to space travel, via computing, agriculture and veterinary history.

It also contains some highly important artefacts (and big ones at that). There are early cars, steam engines, space suits, the works.

The Victoria and Albert Museum (www.vam.ac.uk) is thoroughly eclectic, although nominally skewed towards art and design. Expect everything from large Asian statues to Iranian carpets and thoroughly impractical wooden chairs, designed lovingly by clearly deranged artists.

Anywhere else in the world, these two would be the unquestioned highlights of the city. Here they struggle to be the star attraction in the suburb.

This, of course, means that a whole day can be happily spent in South Kensington without shelling out a single penny to get in anywhere and see the attractions. There are charges for special exhibitions, but otherwise it's voluntary donations of whatever you see fit.

There are plenty of other museums in London that have free entry. The best of these is the truly wonderful British Museum (www.britishmuseum.org), which it's possible to spend days in and not get bored. Amongst many others, the Imperial War Museum (www.iwm.org.uk), Tate Gallery and Tate Modern (http://www.tate.org.uk/) are definite highlights.

The museums are right by Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, London's premier outdoor spots.

A people-watching, ice-cream-slurping walk (or sit-down on the grass) on a summer's day is a genuinely fantastic experience.

A Report by The Mole from the Sun Herald