We recently spent a few days in London and one of the places we wanted to visit was The British Museum. We visited with a tween (12) and a teen (16) who both love history just as much as I do and they thoroughly enjoyed it.
With free entry it is a fantastic museum to pass some time and visit some of the world's most famous historic artefacts and you can come and go if you live close by.
When we visited, it was a Saturday Afternoon a few weeks before Christmas so it was pretty busy but bearable. Being home educators, a visit to the British museum has been high on our list for years and finally we managed to get a visit in. Every other time we have visited London we have just been so busy with other things.
The museum has millions of artefacts and they don't show all of them in one go so its the perfect excuse to revisit. (not that you need an excuse)
The British museum is a historical museum with artefacts from around the world, not just Britain. It is home to some of the worlds most famous and important historical objects.
Here are our top tips for visiting
The most important tip I can give you is to Plan ahead
The museum is vast with over 8 million objects and artefacts in its collection and 80,000 of them are on display so there is no way you will see everything in one day. Take a look on the map and plan what you definitely want to see first then, if you have any time, you can wander and find more amazing objects.
The museum have 12 highlights listed on the website for kids to see with a map if you just can't make your mind up what to see.
There are busier areas such as the Egyptian mummies, Rosetta stone, Parthenon Sculptures and the reading room, so please do bare this in mind. We found the Sutton Hoo and Roman sections pretty quiet on our visit. I really enjoyed the Babylon section and looking at some of the amazing artefacts, this wasn't too busy either.
The other most important tip I can give is
Make sure you are wearing suitable footwear because there's lots and lots of walking involved.
Short of time?
You can either plan your own visit and see a few of the objects on display or you can find over on the website a 1 hour object trail, 3 hour object trail or Egypt trail. These are also suitable to do with kids.
Kids Trails
Museum Missions
Museum Explorer trail
You could always make your own
Other things for kids to do
Weekends - Activity back packs
During holidays you can enjoy workshops and activities
Museums little feet - For u5s
Twelve objects to see trail
Visit the Families desk to collect your trails or chat to staff to find out how to make the most from your visit
What objects are on display?
Parthenon Sculptures
Human and animal Mummies,
Vast Egyptian Artefacts
The Rosetta Stone
Babylon artefacts
Assyria lions
Sutton Hoo artefacts
There's so much to see at the museum there's something for everyone!
Entry
Entry to the museum is free for all, special exhibitions and workshops may require a small fee.
Good To Know
⭐ The main entrance looks spectacular, but gets very busy. There is a quieter entrance on Montague Place
⭐ No large bags or suitcases are allowed at anytime. We did have backpacks which were searched, these were normal sized backpacks.
⭐ Even if you pre book tickets you still have to queue, there is no fast track entry. (We didn't book, arrived on a Saturday afternoon and had no wait at all at the Montague entrance)
⭐ Gift Shop
⭐ Toilets on every floor
⭐ Late night opening every Friday until 8.30pm
⭐ Kids trails and activities to suit most ages
⭐ Activity backpacks (different versions available)
⭐ You can also do museum missions on your phone
⭐ Cloakroom available
⭐ You can leave your pushchair in the cloakroom as long as it folds
⭐ Breastfeeding is welcomed throughout the museum although you can also find 2 dedicated rooms if you want somewhere quieter
⭐ The museum is accessible with lifts to every floor
We are planning on heading back early next year to see more of the museum and exhibitions.
Where to find the museum
Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG
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