Day 110 - Imperial War Museum

Alas, we woke this morning to mild but very wet weather. When you are in London, there are many museums that are free to enter. So, when you're faced with a rainy Sunday like we were it was an obvious decision to hop on the tube and head to Southwark on the south bank of the Thames to visit the Imperial War Museum (IWM).

Alex is quite the war historian as we mentioned earlier in our blog so this museum was the consensus choice (yes, mom and dad were willing to give him the upper hand in the voting). Umbrellas in hand we set off. 

The IWM was first opened in London in 1920 and was not located where it is today.  It moved once before being established in the former Bethlem Royal Hospital in 1936 (known as "Bedlam").  The centre wing of the hospital was retained while the outer wings were demolished to allow for a surrounding park.

The museum was closed for most of the Second World War and was even hit by a Luftwaffe bomb with some resulting damage to a couple of galleries. Those galleries not damaged were re-opened in 1946. A policy of documenting all conflicts in which Great Britain was involved was put into place, so the museum includes collectibles not only from the two major world wars, but also the Korean Conflict, the Falklands War, the Kuwait and Iraq conflict and even the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland (ironically, in 1992, the IRA planted an incendiary device in the basement, which was found and defused).

Dad and Alex wondering
where do we go from here?

As it was Sunday and raining, the museum was packed which meant it was difficult to move along the exhibits at one's own pace -- either you were caught behind slow people or you were pushed by faster people -- and we soon became frustrated. The IWM had been re-modeled in 2014 and I must say that they didn't do that great a job.  Certainly there are many video presentations, but the actual elements are organized in such a way that they have created a sinuous path between them and one has to actually backtrack to get through the entire exhibit floor.  They have five floors with the first three floors having the best stuff: ground floor- WWI;first floor - WWII; second floor - Post-WWII - Cold War.

[Note from Ange: Another frustrating aspect of this museum was how it editorialized in its descriptions of historical events. Sad to think that what should be factual accounts by professional historians are often so full of opinion.]

We expedited our visit by selectively choosing sections to get to and when we were done it was time to seek out a Sunday Roast. And that we did.

With our bellies full, we walked along the river and explored the St. James area near Westminster in search of outdoor clothing shops. We found them but boy oh boy one would empty out their bank accounts fairly quickly. It made the shops in the Cotswolds look like absolute bargain basements!  It was fun to look though and not a bad way to spend the balance of the day.

Ale of the Day: London Pale Ale, Southwark Brewing Co., London