| Science Museum (picture by Peter Watts) |  |
Science Museum
Science Museum
The Science Museum has everything from the development of agriculture to the space age. The Science Museum is on Exhibition Road just up from the Natural History Museum. The outside of the Science Museum in London not that impressive, especially when compared to the Natural History Museum just around the corner. However, this is quickly forgotten on entering through the doors and you get feel like you have entered some kind of Tardis as the cavernous galleries open up before you. This is a very popular attraction for people visiting London.The inside of the Science Museum is vast, with 6 floors filled with all sorts of activities and exhibits. You will find planes, rockets and engines. On the ground floor are functioning steam engines clunking away, a testament to Victorian engineering skills. A Musical bridge spans this gallery and weird sculptures made of every day materials are found within. The Science Museum contains 40 galleries housing some 300,000 exhibits covering almost every material and scientific development. These include the famous Stephenson's Rocket and Watson and Crick's DNA molecule and an Apollo 10 space rocket. The collection housed in the Science Museum started 1857 and continues to grow.
The Science Museum is reputed to hold the largest and most significant collection in the world about the development and use of science, technology, medicine and industry throughout history. About 1.6 million people visit each year making the Science Museum is one of the top ten tourist attractions in the UK. However at any one time only about 15% of the entire collection is on public display. Entrance to the Science Museum is free, but you will have to pay for the special temporary exhibitions.
Down in the Launch Bay (adults to be accompanied by kids) is a great array of hands on puzzles and experiments. Fancy a 2m soap bubble - then this is the place to head for! For slightly younger children the Garden, also in the basement, provides another interactive play area. If that is not enough, then discover the secrets of patterns on the ground floor. The Science Museum also contains an Imax Theatre with a continuous programme of shows. Got to the end of the day and don't want to go home? Why not arrange a sleepover in the Science Museum, an evening of fun and then the night in the museum itself.
The nearest tube station to the Science Museum is South Kensington, in Zone 1 of the London Transport System. Other nearby London attractions include Diana Memorial Fountain, Serpentine Gallery, Natural History Museum, The V&A, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.