Timlin

We are interested in Old planes, old war weapons that sort of thing from the first 2 WWs. Can anyone tell us what museum would hold that sort of material?

crefloors

Imperial War Museum.

yk

ditto; Imperial War Museum. Excellent museum and it's free.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/

kja

And don't miss the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms - fascinating!

gruezi

Just another vote for IWM:
We've been to a lot of war museums this summer and none of them top the Imperial War Museum. Plan to spend the day. There is a cafeteria with pretty good eats.

The Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill museum are also great.

gruezi

PalenQ

I went once out on the Tube north of London to a British Air Museum that had lots of war planes - the one below

Royal Air Force Museum - with aircraft collections at London and Cosford, West Midlands, the museums offer a free day out to families and aircraft history ...
www.rafmuseum.org.uk/

we bought combined Tube and museum tickets - check to see if the 2 for 1 entry scheme is in effect - then buy a paper one day Travel Card for 2 for the price of 1.

zeppole

The Royal Air Force has a museum at the aerodrome in North London, reachable by tube:


http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/london/collections/

walkinaround

imperial war museum will please even those who are not so interested in implements of war. the name makes it sound old and stodgy but you will find its approach refreshing....going far beyond the usual view of war. not to be missed.

flanneruk

London is surrounded by ilitary aviation museums.

The Imperial War Museum's outdoor campus at Duxford (http://duxford.iwm.org.uk/) has a much bigger range of planes that can fly

A very large proportion of the museums listed at www.aeroflight.co.uk/mus/uk/ukmus-home.htm are within an hour or two of London, around which the bulk of Britain's aerial fighting took place (and before the professional flamers complain, I say that as someone who grew up outside London surrounded by the sites of bomb-destroyed houses). Many of the WW2 airfields got turned into some kind of museum.

Hard, apart from those listed above, to recommend one in particular. Happy browsing

avalon

You might also try thee Maritime Museum in Greenwich. THE IWM is always a must see on our trips.

PatrickLondon

The Maritime Museum isn't likely to meet the World War focus. The IWM is the one.

zeppole

Funny! Some of us were apparently all typing at the same time -- some faster than others.

Not to hijack Timlin's thread, but are there any parts of London left that still bear the marks of WW2 damage? When I lived in London, I used to occasionally stumble across it, and it was always startling (it's still startling in Berlin) but enough years have passed I would imagine everything's been built over.

But Holland Park perhaps? I was there just last year but just in a small part of it.

PalenQ

I rambled over every inch of Holland Park in February - no war damage at all there - except the new avant-garde statue made out of junk could be considered war damage if you did not know it's an acclaimed piece of modern art.

zeppole

Didn't there used to be the shell of a grand building in the park whose roof had been blown in? Perhaps they've restored it or torn it down. The last time I was in the park I was just in the most manicured part of it.

After asking I remembered that last year or so I was at Tate Britain and they had outside a presentation of an area that had been bombed. I now remember standing by it reading the explanations while I was hold on a cell phone call.

zeppole

Holland House. It was restored to some extent in the late '80s to be used as a performance venue, but I happened it across on one of my first trips to London still in its damaged state:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland_House

Sorry, Timlin -- you just got me thinking about what those weapons do.

RM67

If you can get out of London there's Duxford - complete with Concorde!

Nearest station probably Great Chesterford (though you'll need onward transport), or an easy drive up the M11.

Loads of old warbirds including some American ones, and lots of commercial jets from yesteryear (these fascinate me with their backwards facing seats and tarten cushion covers!)

rogeruktm

Regarding Duxford...Bus service right to the Museum from the train station.

Timlin

Thank you all!! I suspect we'll hit a few of those you've named.

I don't mind the hijacking of the post at all.....the subject was of interest to me too.

zeppole

Ok, Timlin!

One thing I've since been reading is that Holland House is not just a performance venue, but a hostel as well -- meaning you can book accommodations there. So if you want the immersion experience ....

If you do a few google searches for "visible bomb damage lond world war 2" you'll come up with websites listing places. Apparently there are plenty of shrapnel gouges at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Cholmondley_Warner

RAF Museum in Colindale - it's the mutt's nutts. (Colindale is on the northern line and it's a short walik from the tube).

It has all the usual WWII suspects.

The National Army Museum in Chelsea isn't just about WWII (our army's been knocking the snot out of johnny foreigner for centuries), but is quite interesting.