Monday, January 16, 2012

London's Museums

Of late, I have been visiting a few museums in London. And I have enjoyed each of them!

The first one I visited was Grant Museum of Zoology. This is a small museum, but what it lacks in terms of space, it more than makes up with the quality of its collection. As the name suggests, this museum has a large number of interesting and varied exhibits from the animal world, and is a fascinating place to spend a quiet hour.

I then visited the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. Like the Grant Museum, this is located within the University College London premises. This one has a large collection of exhibits from Egypt and Sudan, and will appeal to fans of Egyptian history.

The third museum I visited, and quite possibly, the most interesting, was Horniman Museum. This is located in Forest Hill, a suburb to the south of London, well away from the standard tourist attractions of this large city. But it's more than worth it to make the trip here. What attracted me to this museum was it's African Heritage collection. This is a collection of artifacts from the African continent such as headgear, masks, etc. But in addition to this, the museum has a fascinating collection of natural history exhibits and musical instruments. The musical instruments section especially was fascinating, with its collection of varied musical instruments from all over the world, and from the present day to instruments played many centuries ago. In addition to the well documented exhibits, they had an electronic, interactive exhibit where one can listen to many of these instruments played live, as well as a hands-on space where one can try their hand at playing a few of these instruments.

And the best part of these, and many other museums in London? They are all free!