Night at the Museum – the Science Museum

October 16, 2008 at 10:22 pm | Posted in General, Out and About, Random, Tourism, Travel, UK | 2 Comments
Tags: Free, General, late night, Lates, London, museum, review, science, Tourism, Travel, UK

Wednesday night (24 September) was London’s Science Museum’s inaugural late night opening specifically for adults. All in all a great time made all the more pleasant by having some friends to share the experience.

The best part of the night was hands down the lack of children and massive crowds. It made navigation and enjoyment so much easier and less stressful. The museum put on several bars and a DJ. Remember t bring your I’d as the doorman/ bouncer will check. The computers exhibit featured a build a robot/robot wars activity. There were also Lindy Hoppers dancing up a storm. The crowd (and our) favourite was the hands on section. Normally dominated by children but for a few brief hours adults could play, laugh, learn and revel in the wonder of science.

Unfortunately I do have one criticism. Namely that the entire museum was not open. I’m not sure if this is the result of crowd control and security concerns but it seems to go against the concept of a late opening.

Overall, the crowd was very cool with a healthy mix of suits, geeks and the groovy hopefully brought together by science! I know I had a big grin when one of the ever present and helpful Explainers … explained the maglev concepts. If most people came away with a similar experience then it was a worthwhile night.

I probably won’t go back for a few months as I don’t want to kill the novelty but I’ll wait and see what they have planned for the night.

Other late night events around London can be found at lates.org

There are some less than stellar mobile photos at Flickr.