The Natural History Museum

A Day In Purgatory At The Museum.

Night at the Museum, the first one, I love that film.

Anyway back to my day at the museum.

It's a beautiful old building

Circa 1830

Hello dear reader, let me explain. On Wednesday I had an outing with my local coach company to Kensington. The coach dropped us off outside the Natural History Museum and we had a "do as you please day". Some visited the museums, some went shopping, and some went sightseeing. I visited the museums, starting with the Natural History Museum. Two happenings conspired to make it very frustrating.

Happening #1. when I booked it I didn't know I would be battling with residual effects of a vicious cold i.e. a stuffy head and nose causing headache.

Happening #2. I didn't realise it would be HALF TERM. OH MY WORD, the museum was awash with children, there were shouting children, screaming children, children running around all over the place, some were bashing things, surly bored children standing in the way, not wanting to be there but parents thought it would be a good idea to do something interesting during the holiday. (I can relate to that). There were pushchairs, one child even had a scoooter with him! In my head I was screaming "Get out of my way"  - I'm turning into a grumpy old lady! It is good that there is so much for children to see, do and learn though, and it's all free.

"I can do this" I thought, so armed with a map I set off to explore.

I was dissapointed that the T-Rex skeleton wasn't in the main hall, perhaps it's on loan or on tour, but the Blue Whale was impressive. 

I'm fascinated by dinosaurs, they were hugely successful.

This giant Sequoia is amazing. Sequoias are among the largest living species on earth. It's timeline goes from 557 when it was just a seedling to 1891 when it was felled at the age of 1,335, with interesting historical facts and population figures inbetween.

The ceiling of the Hintze Hall is a gilded canopy

depicting a wide diversity of plants from around the world.

The mammals section is brilliant.

At this point I had been in the museum for abour 3 hours with a break for a sandwich and orange drink. It was warm in this area and I could feel a hot flush coming on. Whilst I was taking this photo a young woman walked in front of me and before I could stop myself I said "Oh for goodness sake". She apologised, I smiled meekly and thought "It's time to go". Thankfully I knew the way to get back to the entrance quickly and before long I was sitting outside enjoying the wonderful sunshine and cooling down before going to the V&A museum. It's only a short walk away but with all the walking around the NHM my foot was hurting from the Morton's neuroma so when I arrived I sat down with my first coffee of the day and a paracetamol. 

It was a haven of tranquility.

The V&A started as a Museum of Manufactures in 1852. Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone in 1899. It's the world’s leading museum of art and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects, books and archives that span over 5,000 years of human creativity. The museum holds many of the UK's national collections and houses some of the greatest resources for the study of architecture, furniture, fashion, textiles, photography, sculpture, painting, jewellery, glass, ceramics, book arts, Asian art and design, theatre and performance.

Unfortunately I didn't have much time left so it was a whistle stop tour around just a few of the collections.

Triumphal-arch clock flanked by hardstones and micromosaic vases

What a beautiful cabinet

and a stunning mosaic cabinet and clock.

The V&A is a beautiful museum, I will definitely be going back.

I had a lovely day and rounded it off with a Macdonalds when I got home!

∼ Be safe and well∼

    Polly x