pensnest | Meme: Museums (Reply)

nopseud asked for My favourite museums.

My favourite museums… hmm. When I was a child it was a great treat to come up to The Museums, and my favourite was the Natural History Museum, because it is a fabulous building and had dinosaurs. I wasn't nearly so keen on the Science Museum because it seemed to be filled with gigantic engines that didn't do anything. It's a bit more fun these days, I grant.

Nowadays… hmm. As I failed utterly to notice the existence of the Museum of Sex until I was about to get in a cab to the airport, last time I was in New York, I have not been to that one. Maybe next time an Adored One appears on Broadway… But I have been to the V & A, and that's a splendid place. I have absolutely no idea if I've seen all of it, because it is constructed a bit like Little Brampton on astronomical-scale steroids, with staircases and rooms through other rooms and odd levels all over the place. But there are so many galleries filled with sparkling objects, and as I was plainly a magpie in a previous life, this appeals to me. I went to a fashion exhibit there with...

ephemera? And who else?

rikes?

adelate? There is also a really magnificent tea room there, it's a treat just to sit in something that astonishingly overdecorated. Admittedly it is not a good idea to try and see too much of the V&A in one go, as it's easy to be a bit horrified by the amount of ~~Stuff We Stole~~ Impressive Wealth on display, though there isn't quite as much Stuff We Stole as there is in the British Museum.

On a smaller scale, I have a definite fondness for the Costume Museum in Bath; we were there fifteen years ago (I think) for a wedding anniversary weekend, and the costume museum was one of the places we visited. They had a set of "Jane Austen in film and television" exhibits, and someone had been delightfully acerbic about several of them. I think the BBC's 'Pride and Prejudice' must have come out not long before, and generally speaking got a lot of praise, but a number of Hollywood products were well scathed.

Oh, and we went to a rather lovely Toy Museum one Camp, but I can't remember where it was. A Museum of Childhood? With toys on the ceiling, and all kinds of fun. That was very charming.