Treasures new and old
From high art to sport and fashion, Alex Middleton explores the collections of Britain’s museums and galleries to discover some fascinating group days out.
As times have changed, the old and stuffy image of the museum has well and truly been consigned to the past. Across the UK, museums and galleries have re-invented themselves as exciting, innovative and welcoming places for groups to come and explore. Many offer free admission or group discounts and guided tours and can make an interesting addition to an itinerary as well as being a day out in their own right.
Universal treasures
Often featuring a universal remit, you will find most of the larger and national museums situated in the capital, with a scattering across the provincial cities.
Founded in 1753 at the height of the ‘Age of Enlightenment’ and housing over 13 million artefacts, is the British Museum in London. Its collections will allow your group to explore monumental pieces such as the colossal bust of Ramesses II. In addition to these grand artefacts, your group can also explore exhibits that shed a touching and sometimes amusing light on the lives of the people who lived around them.
A short distance from here, the British Library houses what is believed to be the world’s oldest printed book, the Diamond Sutra – a 16-feet long Chinese scroll printed in AD 868 – its treasures also include a copy of the Magna Carta and one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s handwritten notebooks.
Staying in London, the Bank of England Museum gives groups the opportunity to learn more about the institution’s 300-year history. Its collections give you an insight into how the Bank has been run over the centuries including displays of antique banknotes – some of the first ever printed.
Also in the capital, the V&A Museum in Kensington is home to galleries exploring everything from art and architecture to fashion and furniture. Groups can pre-book tailor made tours of the collections, allowing you to explore themes such as the works of Antonio Canova, sculptor of the Three Graces.
Outside the capital, groups are offered a wide variety of choice at the nine institutions that make up National Museums Liverpool. These include the World Museum Liverpool, which looks at cultural artefacts from across the globe, and the National Conservation Centre, which allows you to learn more about art restoration and conservation. At the Merseyside Maritime Museum, the International Slavery Museum and the Museum of HM Customs and Excise, meanwhile, you can learn more about the city’s centuries old role as a port.
Sailing out across the Irish Sea, National Museums Northern Ireland offers groups four sites; The Ulster Museum, the Armagh County Museum, the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and the Ulster American Folk Park, which explores Irish immigration to the US.
Building our world
With centuries of scientific and engineering progress behind us, your group will find the UK filled with museums that explore the changes and inventions that have shaped our lives.
In the capital, the Science Museum in South Kensington will give your group an opportunity to learn more about these discoveries and achievements. Housing 300,000 exhibits ranging from Stephenson’s Rocket to the 10,000 Year Clock, one of the world’s most advanced time pieces, the Museum also features a 3D Imax Cinema offering group discounts.
Nearby, Natural History Museum houses over 13 million exhibits and historically important items including specimens collected by Charles Darwin on his voyage to the Galapagos Islands.
Spanning the Thames, meanwhile, the Tower Bridge Exhibition allows you to learn more about the engineering that went into creating the Bridge, see the modern day engines used to lift the roadway and the steam powered pistons that these replaced.
Outside London, Hastings on the south coast was the site for John Logie Baird’s first experiments with television. You can learn more about his work and see a large number of other historical collections at the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery.
Moving to the Midlands, the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron near Telford will help you to understand the scientific leaps that transformed Britain into an industrial nation. The Museum is part of a complex of 10 museums in the area known as the Ironbridge Gorge Museums. Based around the site of the world’s first iron bridge, these include Enginuity, Darby Houses, Jackfield Tile Museum, Coalport China Museum, Museum of the Gorge, the Ironbridge and Tollhouse, Broseley Pipeworks, the Tar Tunnel, and the recreated 19th century streets and houses of Blists Hill Victorian Town. Groups can buy a combined ticket allowing entry to all 10.
To see how the fuel that powered the Industrial Revolution was extracted, you can take your group to two sites in the country; either the National Coal Mining Museum in Yorkshire or The Big Pit National Coal Museum in south east Wales. Both Museums allow you to descend the shafts into original mineworkings, where a guide will help you explore the lives and work of the miners.
Motoring ahead
Transport museums around the country offer your group a chance to learn more about the changing face of travel.
At the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, which re-opened last November, your group can explore the varied history of the vehicles that have moved Londoners around the city for over a century and a half. Once inside, groups will be able to see exhibits including one of the world’s first underground trains.
Moving to Derbyshire, you can learn more about the many trams that once formed part of the public transport system at Crich Tramway Village. It features a large collection of the vehicles, which run through recreated town streets.
The National Railway Museum in York, meanwhile, will show your group how developments in the railways through the 19th and 20th centuries changed the face of Britain forever. Displaying over 100 locomotives and engines, exhibits include the Mallard, the fastest locomotive ever constructed.
Further north, at Locomotion, The National Railway Museum Shildon in County Durham, groups can pre-book guided tours of its fully operational collection of locomotives. You can also book to spend a day learning how to operate and drive a steam engine.
Groups interested in learning more about the history of the automobile can head to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in Hampshire. The Museum houses a large collection of vintage and classic cars ranging from a 1930 Alfa Romeo to Bluebird, the vehicle in which Donald Campbell broke the world land speed record at 403.10 mph.
In Coventry, once the hub of Britain’s car manufacturing industry, groups can explore Britain’s automobile heritage further at Coventry Transport Museum. Exhibits, include a large collection of cars and motorcycles manufactured in the area during its heyday as well as exhibitions of nostalgic motoring memorabilia.
Groups with a naval interest will find the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory in Greenwich home to some of the world’s most important naval and astronomical artefacts including John Harrison’s 18th century marine timepieces, which allowed the British fleets to accurately measure latitude for the first time.
Further westward, in Falmouth, the National Maritime Museum Cornwall gives your group the opportunity to learn about our maritime heritage with an eclectic collection of exhibits. You can see pieces ranging from the world’s first submarine to an early man-powered torpedo.
Learning about life
Across the country, living history museums will give your group an opportunity to experience authentically recreated eras.
Housed in what were 18th century almshouses, London’s Geffrye Museum contains a large collection of textiles and furnishings displayed in recreated period rooms dating from the 1600s to the present day.
For groups interested in learning more about how the lives of everyday Londoners were affected by the great events of past centuries, the Museum of London explores the changing fortunes of the city and its people from Roman times through to the late 20th century.
As one of the world’s great ports, the lives of the capital’s people has for centuries been tied up with the Thames. At Museum in Docklands, you can learn about heritage ranging from the city’s connections to the slave trade to the lives of the ordinary men and women who worked in the port.
Moving out of London, Milestones: Hampshire’s Living History Museum features recreated Victorian and early 20th century streets, houses, shops and pubs for you to explore.
In the same county, you can also discover more about the changing history of day to day life at the New Forest Museum in Lyndhurst. The Forest was established over nine centuries ago and the Museum chronicles the many events that have affected its residents’ lives.
Further north, York Castle Museum is home to an extensive collection of items that illuminate the area’s social history. As well as a re-created Victorian street featuring period shops, this year saw the opening of its new ‘Sixties Gallery’ to displaying items that illustrate the upheavals the decade saw in society, art and fashion.
Moving to County Durham, groups can explore a recreated Edwardian town, 19th century pit cottages and home farm at Beamish, part of a wide variety of restored houses and industrial buildings at the open-air site.
The way we dressed
At museums around Britain, your group can visit a range of insightful exhibitions that explore the designs and fabrics we have put on our backs.
To see items from the private collection of fashion industry icon Zandra Rhodes, London’s Fashion and Textile Museum features a permanent collection including many of her works from the 70s through to the modern day.
The Fan Museum in the London borough of Greenwich, meanwhile, offers an interesting insight into the skill and craftsmanship that used to go into creating these one time essentials of any lady’s outfit. It features a permanent collection of over 3,500 fans dating from the 11th century to the present day.
Moving to Bath, once the fashionable hub of 18th century society, your group can experience styles and modes from the last three centuries in the galleries of the city’s Fashion Museum. Its permanent collections include pieces from the 18th and 19th century displayed in its new ‘Georgian, Regency and Victorian Collection’, and a selection of modern designer pieces.
In Scotland, the National Museum of Costume, housed in a Victorian Gothic country house, takes a look at fashions and social etiquette between 1850 and 1950 with a broad display of styles including ‘make do and mend’ cocktail dresses from WWII.
People of the past
Inside the many UK museums that focus on the life and work of a particular person, your group can learn about the personalities behind the names.
In 1938, Siegmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, fled Nazi Austria with his family, eventually taking a house in the London borough of Hampstead, now the Freud Museum. Preserved as it was during his lifetime, your group can explore the property, filled with his private collection of antiquities and items such as his iconic psychiatrists’ couch.
In London’s Mayfair, groups can explore the former home of another famous immigrant, the composer George Frideric Handel, now the Handel House Museum. The building has been restored to how it would have appeared in the early 18th century.
On the south bank of the Thames, meanwhile, your group can explore the life of one of the world’s great medical reformers at the Florence Nightingale Museum. It houses a collection that highlights her work during the Crimean War, as well as many personal artefacts and pieces from the nursing school she established upon her return to the UK.
Another great 19th century campaigner for social change, the writer Charles Dickens, is commemorated at the Charles Dickens Museum, his former home in Bloomsbury, which features a large collection of items from his life and career. You can also learn more about the author at the Dickens House Museum in Kent, situated on Broadstairs Waterfront, or visit his Portsmouth birthplace, the Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum.
To the west of Portsmouth, in Wiltshire, groups can now pre-book a guided tour of Arundells, the Salisbury mansion that was home to Sir Edward Heath, Prime Minister from 1970 to 1974. The building houses his personal art collection as well as gifts from other world leaders.
Moving to the north of the country, Liverpool celebrates four of its most famous sons at the Beatles Story on the Albert Dock. Here you can learn more about their lives, careers and inspiration.
Playing the game
From rugby and football to cricket and tennis, the UK has a sporting history stretching back centuries, which can be explored at the nation’s sports museums.
In London, the MCC Museum at Lords Cricket Ground www.lords-org/lords-ground/tours/ home of the Ashes, has been collecting pieces connected with the history and evolution of the game since 1864. Groups can book a guided tour of the Ground.
At the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum, meanwhile, you can explore the history of the game and the club over the last century and a half. Your group will be able to try on 19th century tennis clothing, view memorabilia and take a guided tour of the ground including Centre Court.
For rugby fans, the Museum of Rugby at Twickenham offers the opportunity to see historic memorabilia from all stages of the game’s evolution up to the formation of the Rugby Football Union in 1871, and iconic pieces from its subsequent 137 years. Entrance to the Museum includes a guided tour of Twickenham stadium.
Not far from here, in Henley-on-Thames, the River and Rowing Museum explores the story of boating on the River Thames. The collections include early rowing and boating crafts.
Moving to Newmarket Racecourse in Suffolk, the National Horse Racing Museum will give you an insightful view of the sport. Now featuring the skeleton of Hyperion, one of the most successful horses of the 20th century, the Museum also houses temporary exhibitions focusing on art connected with horseracing.
For the football fan, meanwhile, the Lancashire town of Preston is home to the National Football Museum. The Museum houses a range of collections relating to all aspects of the game allowing your group to see everything from memorabilia about famous players to historic items loaned by the Football Association.
Of arms and battle
The story of Britain’s military achievements is often a difficult one, but is a tale that certainly deserves to be told.
For a comprehensive overview of Britain’s history on the battlefield and the story of the men who fought in these conflicts, the National Army Museum in Chelsea explores engagements such as the colonial wars of the 19th century and more recent conflicts like the battle for the Falklands Islands.
The story of WWII and London is vividly brought to life at two exhibitions in the capital. At the Imperial War Museum’s Churchill Museum and the Cabinet War Rooms in Westminster, you can see how government directed the war from beneath the streets of the city. At Winston Churchill’s Britain at War Experience near London Bridge, meanwhile, you can rush for the shelters, see film reels from the war and hear music by popular entertainers of the time to get an insight into what life was like during the dark days of the Blitz.
To find out about the founding and evolution of the Royal Air Force as well as the numerous conflicts in which it has served, groups can head to the RAF Museum in North London, or the Museum�s West Midlands base at Cosford. The museums feature exhibits ranging from First World War aircraft to modern-day Chinook helicopters.
Similarly, the Imperial War Museum has a site in the capital at Lambeth, as well as bases at Duxford in Cambridgeshire and in Manchester. Each explores all aspects of conflict in British history, exploring the politics behind the actions and the impact on the people involved as well as the machines and weapons used.
Moored on the Thames a short distance from London Bridge, the cruiser HMS Belfast, which is also part of the Imperial War Museum, served throughout the Second World War. Once aboard, your group can get a first hand feel for what life was like for the Royal Navy.
In Kent, The Spitfire & Hurricane Memorial Museum at RAF Manston – which played a key part in the Battle of Britain – permanently houses two of these World War II fighter aircraft, enabling groups to learn more about their role in the conflict.
At the other end of the country, near York, you can learn more about preparations that were made for a conflict that, mercifully, never took place at English Heritage’s York Cold War Bunker, built on the edge of the city to monitor fall-out in the event of a nuclear attack.
Artistic tips
With exciting touring exhibitions and collections featuring some of the world’s greatest works of art, your group should easily be able to find a UK gallery to inspire them.
Founded in 1824, the National Gallery, situated in Trafalgar Square, houses one of the world’s largest and most prestigious collections of Western art including iconic works such as Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’.
Adjacent to the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery houses a collection of paintings, caricatures, photographs and sketches of important figures, with works ranging back to the Tudor period.
At the Royal Academy of Art in Piccadilly, your group can explore a permanent collection that focuses on British masters from the last three centuries such as Reynolds, Gainsborough and Sargent. In addition there is a programme of temporary exhibitions.
Moving from here to the Strand, Somerset House houses the Courtauld Gallery, displaying an art collection that easily ranks amongst the most impressive in the capital. It focuses on the French Impressionists and Post Impressionists. The Hermitage Rooms, meanwhile, are a series of chambers featuring interiors, furniture and art intended to evoke the 18th century Winter Palace and Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. Although they no-longer display pieces from the Russian site, a number of temporary exhibitions are hosted here each year.
In London’s St Pancras, meanwhile, you can find the Foundling Museum. Established by the artist William Hogarth in the early 1700s as a home for abandoned children, leading artists of the day were encouraged to donate works to the institution to attract wealthy benefactors, forming the basis for Britain’s first public art gallery. These days, the Museum features a number of pieces by Hogarth as well as a large collection of paintings and sculptures by Western masters.
More contemporary work can be found at the Tate Modern on the south bank of the Thames. It is Britain’s national museum of international modern art and features a range of temporary exhibitions as well as a permanent collection. The gallery is one of four national galleries, collectively known as Tate, which include the more historic gallery, Tate Britain, also in London, as well as Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives in Cornwall.
Moving to the Midlands, the 18th century Robert Adams-designed country house of Compton Verney in Warwickshire was bought by the Peter Moores Foundation in 1993 to house its collection of western and Chinese art. The house sits in 120 acres of ‘Capability’ Brown landscaped grounds and inside, your group can discover pieces including 2,800-year old Chinese ceramic figures. The house also features an annual programme of temporary exhibitions.
Just to the north, the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is home to one of the world’s largest collections of pre-Raphaelite paintings and drawings. In addition, your group will be able to see an extensive collection of ceramics and sculpture form the 14th century onwards.
With the city having been awarded the status of European Capital of Culture for 2008, it is not surprising that Liverpool offers groups a range of galleries to suit all tastes. In addition to the contemporary Tate Liverpool, groups can explore the collections of the city’s Walker Art Gallery, part of Museums of Liverpool. Here, you will find works including 14th century scenes from the life of Christ by the Italian artist Simone Martini. Not far from here, the Albert Dock is home to a number of gallery spaces where, over the coming year, your group will be able to see work by many of the city’s leading artists such as photographer Peter Carr.
Moving into Lancashire, The Lowry in Manchester features a collection of over 350 pieces by the home-grown artist, LS Lowry, famous for his match stick men and dogs. The building also houses temporary art exhibitions.
Across the Pennines in Sheffield, the Millennium Galleries focuses on metalwork and design, a theme that relates to the city’s long history in the field. The Galleries also feature a temporary exhibition space.
Staying in Yorkshire, the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds houses over 700 pieces of sculpture by artists such as John Hoskin and Naum Gabo, as well as numerous pieces by Moore himself. The Institute also plays host to a varied programme of temporary exhibitions.