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British Museum Review

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British Museum

Address: Great Russell St., Bloomsbury, London, WC1
Phone: 020/7323-8000
www.thebritishmuseum.org

Category: Museums/Galleries
Location: Bloomsbury and Legal London

Write a review | Avg. member rating: 5.0/5

Fodor's Review:

With a facade like a great temple, this celebrated treasure house, filled with plunder of incalculable value and beauty from around the globe, occupies a ponderous Greco-Victorian building that makes a suitably grand impression. Inside are some of the greatest relics of humankind: the Elgin Marbles, the Rosetta Stone, the Sutton Hoo Treasure—almost everything, it seems, but the Ark of the Covenant. The three rooms that comprise the Sainsbury African Galleries are a must-see in the Lower Gallery—together they present 200,000 objects, highlighting such ancient kingdoms as the Benin and Asante. The museum's focal point is the Great Court,a brilliant techno-classical design with a vast glass roof that reveals the museum's most well-kept secret—an inner courtyard. The revered Reading Room has a blue-and-gold dome and over 100,000 ancient tomes. If you want to navigate the highlights of the almost 100 galleries, join the free eyeOpener 30- to 40-minute tours by museum guides (details at the information desk).

The collection began when Sir Hans Sloane, physician to Queen Anne and George II, bequeathed his personal collection of antiquities to the nation. It grew quickly, thanks to enthusiastic kleptomaniacs after the Napoleonic Wars—most notoriously the seventh Earl of Elgin, who acquired the marbles from the Parthenon and Erechtheion in Athens during his term as British ambassador in Constantinople. Here follows a highly edited résumé (in order of encounter) of the British Museum's greatest hits: close to the entrance hall, in Room 4, is the Rosetta Stone, found by French soldiers in 1799, and carved in 196 BC by decree of Ptolemy V in Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic (a cursive script developed in Egypt), and Greek. This inscription provided the French Egyptologist Jean-François Champollion with the key to deciphering hieroglyphics. Also in Room 4 is the Colossal statue of Ramesses II, a 7-ton likeness of this member of the 19th dynasty's (ca. 1270 BC) upper half. Maybe the Eglin Marbles should be back in Greece, but while the debate rages on, you can steal your own moment with them in Room 18, west of the entrance in the Parthenon Galleries. Carved in about 400 BC, these graceful decorations are displayed along with a high-tech exhibit of the Acropolis. Be sure to stop in the Enlightenment Gallery in Room 1 to see the contents of the British Museum's first collections. Also in the West Wing is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World—in fragment form—in Room 21: the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos. The JP Morgan Chase North American Gallery (Room 26) has one of the largest collections of native culture outside North America, going back to the earliest hunters 10,000 years ago. Next door, the Mexican Gallery holds such alluring pieces as the 15th century turquoise mask of Xiuhtecuhtli, the Mexican Fire God and Turquoise Lord. The World Cultures Galleries in Room 24 holds Cradle to the Grave,an installation by a collective of artists and a doctor, displays more than 14,000 drugs (the number estimated to be prescribed to every person in the U.K. in his lifetime) in a colorful tapestry of pills and tablets.

Upstairs are some of the most popular galleries, especially beloved by children: Rooms 62-63, where the Egyptian mummies live. Nearby are the glittering 4th-century Mildenhall Treasure and the equally splendid 8th-century Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo Treasure (with magnificent helmets and jewelry). A more prosaic exhibit is that of Pete Marsh, sentimentally named by the archaeologists who unearthed the Lindow Man from a Cheshire peat marsh; poor Pete was ritually slain in the 1st century, and lay perfectly pickled in his bog until 1984. The Korean Foundation Gallery (Room 67) delves into the art and archaeology of the country, including a reconstruction of a sarangbang, a traditional scholar's study.

Cost: Free; donations encouraged
Open: Museum Sat.-Wed. 10-5:30, Thurs. and Fri. 10-8:30. Great Court Sun.-Wed. 9-6, Thurs.-Sat. 9 am-11 pm. Reading Room library and information area daily 10-5:30, Reading Room viewing area Thurs. and Fri. 10-8:30
Tube: Russell Square

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Member Reviews and Ratings

Reviewed by bachslunch from US on 4/2/08
One of the world's best archaeological museums. Collection is exhaustively large and of remarkably high quality and scope. Whether a particular gallery is open or not can be unpredictable, especially in the evening, and the place could be better run in general. But it's an absolute must -- and it's free.