There are so many great museums here to admire classic art, experience history, and learn something new. The best part is, a lot of them are free to enjoy. This post will be where I update all my trips to the Museums of London. I have taken A LOT of photos at these places, but to keep it minimal I'll just post the famous/my favorite ones.
The British Museum: What better place to start than the British Museum. This place has so much on display, but now, 5 visits over four weeks and hundreds of photographs later, I have seen everything I wanted to see in the museum. The first day I walked though the Hall of Enlightenment, seeing how science, art, and the humanities have advanced over the last few centuries in Europe and beyond. The next visit, I passed the time walking through the Egyptian room, where I saw the Rosetta Stone, statues of Ramses II, and a man reciting Ozymandias to a little kid, and the North and South American History rooms, where I saw an Easter Island head. The third I spent exploring Ancient Greece (until they shut down the exhibit when I was about half way through), and finished Greece the fourth. Here the highlight besides the Parthenon remains and a lot of statues without heads, was a little kid pretending to ride a marble statue of a lion and his mom yanking him off before security could notice. The last visit I strolled through the upper floors, exploring deeper into the history of the Eurasian area, especially the Roman Empire, which was a good precursor to the advancing Italy trip. I really enjoyed spending the time before and between class at this museum, and actually being able to see in person a lot of the things I have studied, while learning a little more about them. Its amazing how many impressive artifacts the British museum holds, but I often found myself asking I wonder why they don't have this or that. For example, I didn't see any statues of Queen Hatshepsut in the Egyptian center. But then I would realize the better question, why do they have things like pieces of the Parthenon or coffins of mummies, shouldn't they still be in Greece or Egypt? The engraving on the side of the Rosetta Stone sums it up: Captured by the British Army.
The National Gallery: The first time I tried to enter the National Gallery (right down the street from Northumberland), the workers were striking and I couldn't get in. I returned two weeks while later, and this time got to see the paintings no problem. I first went to the paintings of the 15th century, which was basically like talking a walk through the Bible. The paintings depicted every scene from the Bible you could think of, and then some, in different and similar takes by various artists. This got pretty repetitive, so I moved onto the more recent paintings, which I enjoyed a lot more. The standouts included a pointillist painting of Westminster by Monet and Van Gogh's (GOFFS) Chair. I visited the National Gallery again, this time with Kevin, and again we walked through the old Bible paintings. There were some this time by more famous painters like DaVinci, Raphael, and Botticelli, but they honestly weren't any more spectacular than the other paintings. I explored a little further, and found the Dutch section. It was cool seeing paintings of Amsterdam after just visiting there last weekend, and of my nickname sake, Rembrandt. The highlight of this visit however, was stumbling upon a young woman who was recreating one of Michalangelo's masterpieces on her own canvas right next to the original. I watched her work for about 20 minutes (in which time she painted the corner of a tablecloth) but it was very interesting to get a look behind how an artist puts a painting together. I also thought it was almost more difficult to copy another work, because everything has to be exact, but her work was beautiful.
Tate Modern: I'm not usually one to admire modern "art", but the Tate Modern museum was really enjoyable. First of all, the architecture looks almost post-modern, post-apocalyptic, with huge empty spaces surrounded by white walls. Tate Modern is opening up a new building right next door to display more of its collection, which is ironic because the current building has the worst use of space I have ever seen. Anyway, the currently displayed collection included a lot of cool paintings by Picasso, Jackson Polluck, and one of Monet's Lilly pads. My favorite was actually one by a Japanese-American artist that showed blue paintbrush strokes on a yellow canvas, supposed to represent the passage of time. Of course, there was also the absurd "art" pieces common in modern art museums. The funniest was one galled "Grey", which was simply a gray square and was "the epitome of non-statement" in the artists own words. What?!
Tate Britain: The other Tate, the British art version, was also enjoyable, though I enjoyed the modern one a little better. I did enjoy the Clore gallery dedicated to JMW Turner and his amazing use of color and light in his paintings. It was interesting to see how British art has evolved from the 1500s portraiture to landscape and now modern art.
Science Museum: The science museum had every aspect of science, from manufacturing to psychology, agriculture to space travel, timekeeping to design, and a little bit for everyone. My favorite part was the first thing I saw when I walked in, a special exhibit called Mind Maps, that deals with the history and current practices of psychology. There were some cool depictions of the brain like I had never seen it before (makes me excited for The Human Brain psych class I'm planning to take this fall), books on CBT, and outdated experiments run by the likes of Freud and others (a surprising number seemed to harm frogs - sorry dad). I also enjoyed an exhibit called Unlocking Lovelock about the life of James Lovelock, a jack-of-all trades scientist whose most famous contribution is the
Gaia hypothesis. The gift shop had one of those balls that flattens into a frisbee for 12 pounds that I kind of regret not buying and might go back to get. Perfect for a sunny afternoon in Hyde Park or Old Campus.
Museum of London: After finding out St. Paul's cost $30 to go inside, I decided to dart over to the Museum of London. I quickly walked through the museum, but nothing really caught my eye as truly exciting. It basically just tells the history of London from Mesopotamia-era to the current day. One thing I did learn was that the Fire of London apparently started in a bakery on Pudding Lane. A little bit of trivia for ya. I also saw the London Wall in that area.
Royal Courts of Justice: I finally got over to the Royal Courts of Justice, located directly next to LSE, to see inside. It's not really a museum, as there were a lot of young lawyers and judges wearing funny wigs around as I was doing my tour. It was a really cool space, with high domed ceilings and intricate stone carving work, that I'm glad I got to see. I know my parents the architects would have enjoyed it (as with pretty much every other building in London).
Imperial War Museum: Between classes, Kevin and I walked down to the Imperial War Museum in the Elephant and Castle ("mis-named" for Ellenor of Castile btw). It's one of the coolest facades, with a dome rising up above two cannons pointed directly at you. Inside was just as impressive, with fighter jets and missiles hanging above, and tanks and artifacts (some completely destroyed) on the ground below. We weren't able to get into the WWI exhibition, so we started on the 1st floor with WWII. It was interesting to read about the war from a British perspective, and how it affected their country. Seeing all the history, including the Munich agreement and a video of personal stories from DDay, may just have inspired me to take the class Military History of the West since 1500 at Yale this fall (which I heard was an awesome class anyway). The next floor dealt with the tensions that have existed since the end of WWII, and the displays included an atomic bomb and a piece of the Berlin Wall. Again, it dealt more with the British side, and their conflicts with a Northern Ireland and Argentina, rather than the Vietnam and Korean War that I am used to studying in this period. There was also a section that talked about the secret war, M15 and M16, and some galleries of war art. The Holocaust was the last exhibit, and it really gave me a sense of awe at the perverse evils in the world. I wondered how something like this could ever happen, and was thinking a lot about the current conflict in Gaza and how the senseless killing is still going on 70 years later.
