The British Museum is enormous and is best experienced in small chunks over several visits. It can also be very crowded on weekends, so it is best to visit on a weekday which is NOT a British holiday or a school holiday. The British Museum also contains a lot of things which you may have heard about, so it is also probably a good idea to look through online sources of stuff which is stored there before you go.
Personally, I am interested in ancient Britain, so I have focused my viewing over the times I have been there to that period. And frankly, I can only handle two or three hours of standing on my feet, so I like to limit my visits to less than three hours. Better to do a couple of shorter trips over a week than a long and exhausting day!
The British Museum was first opened in 1753, with collections being moved from various other museums. However, not all parts of this enormous museum are the same age, as areas were expanded over the years.
The central part of the museum is what used to be the Reading Room, part of the museum in 1757. In the 1990s, the library collections were moved from the central area and a roof constructed to form The Great Court, which is allowed for much better visitor circulation and place for a restaurant and gift shop areas. This left the main part of the courtyard out of the weather and it became a central place for information and to move from area to area in the museum. Here are three photos of the court, looking from left to right from the main museum entrance.
The upper part of the old reading room is now a restaurant. Underneath are rest rooms and a large gift and book store.
While heading for the exhibits on Saxon and Viking Britain, I bumped into the clock room. In the center was a very early clock that was similar to the one I had seen in Salisbury Cathedral.
Some of the Saxon gold and silver items, showing this was not completely the dark ages.
Hoards are collections of valuable items that were buried in the ground for safekeeping, but not found until centuries later. This one had coins and gold items.
Roman Britain items.
And a large collection of things the Vikings had stolen and buried until they could take them back home. Many of these items are broken up because they will be melted into other objects. The text below describes this display.
Does this chess set look familiar? It was used as the model for the Wizard Chess set used in the Chamber of Secrets by "live" pieces.
More Viking stuff.
Tiles from walls of ancient buildings.
I left the museum at about 4 pm, and there was this huge line because Friday was the one day the museum stayed open late--around 8 pm.
Just a few photos as I was on my way to Oxford Street. One thing I find fascinating about London is how you can find older buildings right next to modern shops.
This place caught my eye because I imagine someone like James Bond going to this shop to buy his personal umbrellas! It was closed or I would have gone inside.
After this, I had something to eat, and then went on to the Oxford Street, the busiest shopping street in London. And it was about an hour later that I had missed the small step and fell flat on my face, as described in the post just before this one!! Good thing that I took the time to eat dinner before I went or I would have had nothing to eat all night in the emergency room!!
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