Mrs Spider has bought an item of furniture that I need to pick up on Saturday, so I've got a 120 mile drive to Solihull for my sins, however on the way back I'm having a few hours on my own in my favourite museum. RAF Cosford.
Let's have a list of what's good and bad.
Good
RAF Cosford
NRM York
Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum - Shambolic, but charming and packed full of stuff
Bad
MOSI - It is getting a bit knackered
Hard to choose between the V&A, Science Museum and the Imperial War.
The Natural History is always a bit of a let down, also showing its age.
Bletchley Park and the adjacent Computer Museum
Good:
Tangmere
NRM York
Natural History and Science Museum, if you can get a quiet time
The kids and I used to love MOSI, but this was a few years ago. Shame to hear it's gone downhill.
Pitt Rivers/Museum of Natural History - Oxford
I love the building. Just zoom in on the detailing on that roof.
The Vasa Museum in Stockholm. The only place in the world I've walked into and been stopped dead in my tracks.
Dammit! I was going to suggest Vasamuseet too! +1 for it then.
V&A
Wallace Collection
Met Art in NY
2 that i was very impressed by on recent visit to Cambridge:
- Fitzwilliam
- Scott Polar Research institute museum.
Also love the little Tank museum near me in Norfolk, they have Guy Martin WW1 recreation, not very big but everyone there is very knowledgeable and clearly loves what they do.
Bovington Tank Museum.
The Imperial War Museum in Salford is an interesting take on what a museum should be, and always has interesting side exhibitions on as well
Not been to IWR Duxford for years. I reckon that's due a visit again soon
I love the science museum in London.
I love little random local museums, highlights include;
New Walk - Leicester
The McManus - Dundee
Montrose museum.
Kelvingrove in Glasgow for me.
Coming from Portsmouth and going to the seafront for the first time in years last summer, it was the first time i had been to see the Mary Rose since they have stopped spraying the preservative on and they have set up in position and they project moving images on to the hull and decks, it is amazing what they have done with it and the accompanying museum is really well done, especially for someone like me who watched it raised from seabed when i was at school. (i hate how they have turned lots of the old historic dockyard into the usual cinema/shops/ bars though).
Tate Modern, love it, whatever is on gets your mind working, even if you don't particularly like it.
I'll never forget Ground Zero in New York. It's a superb place architecturally as well.
I second Pitt Rivers at Oxford. Plus the aviation museum at old sarum airfield Salisbury for old-skool museum feel and being able to clamber through and sit in all sorts of bits of aircraft.
Good
Jodrell Bank (Not strictly a museum but it seems designed to enable to take as much or as little information without being patronising).
The Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds (The surgery floor is a bit of a let down once you’ve got past the initial icky bit but the rest is good)
Bliss Hill at Coalbrookdale (As long as you can ignore the lack of pollution, horse shit, and dodgy food)
The Justice Museum in Nottingham is worth a visit to
Good -
Ufizzi, Florence
NM of Scotland, Edinburgh
Kelvingrove, Glasgow
Bad -
Riverside, Glasgow
Musée d'Orsay
OK it's mostly painting and sculpture, but there are some fantastic pieces in it, The Origin of the World by Courbet for instance, and the top floor is just amazing, there's a room that's just Manet,followed by a Monet, then a Cezanne, and a Rousseau, a Pizarro...and then you turn the corner and you're in room of Van Gogh. and then here's a Suerat, and a Matisse
It's almost too much to take in. I can happily spend a day there.
Will just lob this in https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/07/cuts-england-museums-london-cliff-edge and we can weigh up how many of people's faves are in / out of the capital
Good: UK only
Barbara Hepworth in Wakefield & her StIves workshop (run by Tate)
Henry Moore in Leeds
Anthony Gormley (pretty much anywhere his installations are)
Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield
Design Museum in Kensington
Camera Museum in Holborn
Bad:
Imperial War Museum
Good - IWM Duxford.
Watts gallery (and chapel!), Compton
Walker, Liverpool
D'Orsay ('The wheel of fortune' Burne-Jones)
Kelvingrove (great and eclectic, good for families)
The Newcastle one (?) has a great Holman Hunt
Pitt-Rivers
Tate Britain (pre-raph room)
Manchester Art Gallery (shall be there in about 5 minutes)
Birmingham Art Gallery
National Gallery (Van Eyck, Holbein)
V and A (Grinling Gibbons)
In the UK: NHM and Science, NRM York, Imperial War North I felt is better than the IW in London. Despite living in Nottingham it's been a very long time since I've done the Justice Museum. Not sure if it's open to the public but Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh was a great venue for conference drinks.
Overseas, I was very impressed with the Mercedes Benz Museum in Stuttgart. Just the building alone was impressive.
Musée d’Orsay
Seconded. The higher up you go the more mind blowing it becomes.
There is a small side museum in St Peter's in Rome. Not the big Vatican Museum. Just a little one tucked away round a corner so most folk miss it. Only a couple of € entry fee. Well worth looking for.
This one in Zagreb
museum of american war atrocities in ho-chi-minh city was an eye opener.
telegraph museum at porthcurno is worth a look if you are down that way.
Musée d’Orsay + 1
Every time I go to Paris, I have to visit. Keep finding new parts. The Degas ballerinas are wonderful.
I just visited South Wales Aviation Museum- its just opened & only has 10 or so planes but it was dead good. All the planes are in varying states of repair and you can touch them, get up close etc.
The two Ferrari museums, in Maranello and Modena are worth it if you're in the area. Worth a special trip if you have a car mad son.
The canal Museum in Amsterdam is pretty interesting if you want to know how the canals evolved and were built.
Interesting read. Do museums need to be council run i.e. publicly funded, and do they need to be free?Will just lob this in https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/07/cuts-england-museums-london-cliff-edge and we can weigh up how many of people’s faves are in / out of the capital
I was going to say how hard it would be to choose between the Bakelite museum in Williton and Barometer World.
Sadly it seems that the Bakelite museum is looking for a new home so Barometer World it is.
Te Papa - Museum of New Zealand, Wellington
Cu Chi Tunnels - Vietnam
Blaenavon World Heritage Site and Big Pit
Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakow
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
National Railway Museum
Imperial War Museum especially the Holocaust exhibition
Good:
Jarrow Hall (formerly Bede's World) in Newcastle
Bad (or at least it was when I last went):
Imperial War Museum in Salford
EDIT: I should add that, although it has long since become something else, I always wanted to love URBIS in Manchester - the museum of urban life - but man, was that ever a let-down when I took the kids back in 2003 or 04.
SECOND EDIT: I didn't know what MOSI was until just now. Considering the comments above, I wonder if the GMA just doesn't know how to create and maintain a decent museum.
I'm a bit of a geek so...
Hunterian museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. Sadly closed until 2021
Bletchley Park
Greenwich Royal Observatory
In the US, the National Air and Space Museum will blow you away. Boeing museum in Seattle is also very good. Top Gun in Miramar less so. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is a favourite.
For cars, the Alfa Romeo museum outside Milan is the best I've been to. Even Mrs TiRed enjoyd it and she doesn't like cars!
NRM York. We went earlier this year and spent hours longer than expected in there. One of the highlights was a tour of the stores with an ‘explainer’. I thought the tour with explainer thing might be a bit naff, but it was absolutely great. Other highlight was the short brake van ride behind a steam loco (cue hyper excited kids!) The brake van had a little stove going in there, and it was proper cosy. I really like the child friendly relaxed family vibe in the museum. Proper cooked dinner from the restaurant in there too....eat yer greens🙂
Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Wakefield
Superb place.
Schindler Museum in Krakow - really well done.
Manchester Art Gallery.
Port Sunlight.
Tate Modern.
Henry Burton bike shop in Stafford. If you want a new mountain bike with 100mm stem (ahedset or quill) STX-RC groupset, clips & straps, that's the place for you.
You can tart it up with an XT Sharkfin chainsuck protector too.
Mind you, I can still get 27" tyres (not completely perished yet) there for my pub bike.
As far as real museums go, the one in Dubrovnik featuring the photos of the civil war is pretty eye opening.
In the US, the National Air and Space Museum will blow you away.
Beat me to it. The Smithsonian Air & Space museum in DC is amazing (as are all the Smithsonians really).
Italian Air Force Museum on Lago di Bracciano is fabulous and well worth a trip. Just hanger after hanger of amazing aircraft.
Pitt Rivers in Oxford is brilliant (kids love the shrunken heads)
NMS in Edinburgh is very good. I've been going in for 20 years and I still see something new every time.
Forgot about the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Great place!
Me and my daughter drew a massive flower there on Stara. Two bods in a little 4x4 came over to find out what we were up to.
https://www.strava.com/activities/664332384
