London Landmarks - Science Museum

London Landmarks - Science Museum

08 March, 2011
by: Spoonfed Team

Getting nosey at the Science Museum with Dan Jones. He even learnt a few things...

Value: 7
Queues: 9
Shop: 7
Family Friendly: 8
Enjoyment: 7

Total: 38/50

Other people's loud conversations do my nut. I loathe it on public transport, and the amount of ill-informed drivel I’ve heard spouted in restaurants drives me to near Columbine scenes. Thankfully for the woman jabbering next to me, she looks like she’s had a ration book and the elderly are never at fault, so I let her live…

Sitting in the Science Museum restaurant begins to give perspective on this whole crazy building. The illuminated tables may be unforgiving on my lack of chiseled jaw but the neon frills around the restaurant keep in theme with the visionary sparseness of this introspective playground. As I continue to listen to the lady next to me, it becomes clear she did, in fact, have a ration book. The conversation I so aimlessly disregarded as mindless chatter over a cappuccino actually revolves around this gentle being’s evacuation to Hartfield during the war. It then becomes clear; the Science Museum is as much about harking back as it is looking forward.

It’s always a little overwhelming when you walk into a place unfamiliar to you. This feeling’s amplified when walking into a place of such gargantuan proportions as the Science Museum. Curious objects hang from available ceiling space and immediately I'm clueless as to their function. Beginning in the ‘Energy Hall’ I continue through ‘Exploring Space’, and then I'm off…

Past the oddly placed euthanasia machine and its air of morbid necessity, I begin to wonder how long this building will take me to walk around. There are seven floors in total. The ground floor covers space, machinery and energy, the first floor contains models and original pieces relating to agriculture, cosmos, culture, measuring time, telecommunications, the third is packed with aeroplanes and objects of flight and so on.

The sixth and seventh floors contain temporary exhibitions which continually shift and change. Upon reaching the fifth floor, though, things can become a little tedious. Clearly it’s all very deeply rooted in the realms of untouchable time: little nuggets of advancement and technological achievement are vital to humanity, but when boxed behind glass cabinets it gets a little lacklustre. After all, how long can you look at Stevenson’s Rocket for?

Thankfully for me, and perhaps the entire universe, the Science Museum has an in-house IMAX. Located on the ground floor, this phenomenal 3D cinema sits like a modern amphitheatre, with a screen the size of four double-decker buses stacked upon each other. There are seven films currently showing and today I opt for Wild Ocean 3D.

The documentary’s focus is morally rich and really rather interesting, delving into the depths of the ocean off the Southern Cape of Africa. As cameras began to sweep around shoals of sardines, the images of these fluid sea creatures shoot out above my head, sweeping past faces while tiny bubbles gradually float up to the peak of this soaring venue. This truly is a staggering experience, fruitfully educational and a peephole into the untouchable world of the ocean. If the plentiful arrangements of machinery and objects of space-travel in the museum don’t make you feel insignificant, then this certainly does.

Considering the Science Museum costs nothing to get into, it’s a pretty good deal. You could spend hours juggling between time periods, floors and the copious industrial landmarks, but I’m not sure if you’d want to. You can get the bulk of it done in a handful of hours, and that’s my advice. But the highlight comes with the extras – as with all good museums (and massage parlours). Fork out for the IMAX experience and digitally fry your retinas with education. I actually learnt a few things, so you can’t argue with that.

The Science Museum is open every day except 24th to 26th December. The Museum is free entry and is open from 10.00am to 6.00pm. IMAX tickets range from £8.00 for a child to £27 for a family ticket.

Click here to visit the Science Museum website
Click here for London tourist events

Spoonfed Team