Imperial War Museum

Today, we had a trip up to London to see the War Museum.

 

The main intention was to see the Blitz Experience and the museum as a whole.

 

We took the HS train into London and then a couple of tubes to North Lambeth and the short walk to the museum, set in a local park.

 

The museum was once the Bethlem Royal Hospital. The original "bedlam" hospital. The name associated with mental institutions.

 

As well as the exhibits of aircraft and other equipment, the museum focuses on exhibitions that show aspects of war and the effects on people.

 

The Blitz Experience closes tomorrow (4th November) and is in the basement.  A kind of sound and light show taking you through the lives of people in an air raid shelter when the enemy were bombing. 

 

The other exhibition we saw was the Holocaust Exhibition. I have been to Anne Frank's house in Amsterdam, and the one of the Dora Concentration camps in Germany, but this was far more enlightening. It was also restricted to over 14yo's as some of the images are too strong an upsetting.

 

The whole thing was well done with filmed interviews with survivors, those that escaped before WW2 and those that lived through the inhumanity. This is well worth going to when in London.

 

Afterwards, we ended up on a 59 bus northwards to Aldwych and lunch as Belgo in Kingsway. Not bad moules and beef carbonade.

 

We had a walk around Covent Garden and then back to St Pancras for the train home.