The Science Museum
The Science Museum on South Kensington’s Exhibition Road is a fascinating place for kids and their parents to explore. First opened in 1885, the museum is full of interactive exhibits to spark young minds. Included in its collection of over 300,000 scientific items, it includes exciting vehicles and contraptions like Stevenson’s Rocket and the first jet engine.
The huge museum is spread over seven floors, with numerous galleries on each floor. One of the most popular galleries, the ground-floor Making the Modern World, explains how technology has changed the way we live throughout modern history. Nearby, there’s a life-size model of the Apollo 10 command module, and an IMAX 3D cinema showing a wide selection of movies with scientific themes.
The second floor features a gallery with examples from the history of computers, through the 1950s to the present. On the third floor, a gallery of flight is full of early planes and flying machines, and on the fourth and fifth floors, the focus is medicine, medical history and psychology. Throughout the rest of the museum you’ll find exhibits on weather, time, mathematics and marine engineering, among many others.
Hours, admission and location
The Science Museum is free to enter. With the exception of 24-26 December, when it’s closed, the museum is open 7 days a week from 10am-6pm. The nearest tube is South Kensington: rather than exiting the station right at South Ken, follow the signs along the underground tunnel to the Cromwell Road, which will bring you up right beside the Science Museum. – Map