Stonehenge Exhibition at the British Museum
The Trip to the British Museum.
On Tuesday 15th March I went on an Avanti West Coast service from Birmingham to London Euston. I had booked my seat in advance in coach B and made sure I had an electrical socket to charge my phone on the way down to London. Unfortunately, the trip did not start well as the socket didn’t work nor others that I tried on the train – great start Chris!
Anyway, I got to London before noon and decided to walk to the British Museum as it was a sunny day. I had looked at my route on Google Maps before I set off to make sure I was taking the easiest route to the museum. Turns out it was probably the most direct from Euston Station, then turn right on to Eversholt St, turn left on to Euston Road, go past Tavistock Gardens and continue on to Russell Square, turn right on Russel Square and then at the end cross over the road and turn left and then right on to Montague Place, that will take you to the entrance or if you want to go through the main entrance continue walking down Russel Square, continue past Montague Place and then turn right on to Great Russel Street and the main entrance is about 150ft or so further along the road.
At the Museum.
I entered through the Montague Place entrance and was given directions to where the Stonehenge Exhibition was and went up the stairs that had good contrast edging on them so are easy to see. At the top of the stairs on the landing (that was a bit dim) I went through the door into the Great Court and turned right to go to the exhibition entrance. I entered and to my shock it was pitch black with very little lighting. I had a booked ticket and time slot for 1210hrs and could just make out where the man in the ticket office was but couldn’t see him due to the light and only saw his outline once he had scanned my ticket. There was a problem, I couldn’t find the entrance to the exhibition! I walked back into the room and saw too closed doors (thought this can’t be the entrance) worked my way back and there was an electronic sign and eventually found the entrance. Oh, I forgot to tell you that the queuing system had black tape on a black background!
In the exhibition itself there was very subdued lighting, and the artifacts were in cases and lit individually, the information about them was on cards that looked to me green with white lettering, I used my phone to take pictures of them to read what was on them. The major problem for me was the lighting, I was wondering if the exhibition was on one level and walked slowly, it was fortunately on one level. There seemed to be more people than I had expected believing that the booking system would mean numbers would be controlled but there seemed to me to be too many in the room at the same time. If there was someone in a wheelchair, they might find it difficult to get around. Did I say the lighting was very poor?
The artifacts themselves was well worth the visit but for someone with a visually impairment I can’t recommend the exhibition. You can download a large print version of the guide but here is the problem, you can’t read the guide whilst going around the exhibition because there isn’t enough light to read it. Apparently, the museum runs a guided tour for those who are deaf, I wonder if they turn the lights on so people can see the BSL Interpreter? Anyway, I have made a formal complaint to the museum and that should take between 5-10 days to answer so in the meantime don’t go if you are visually impaired and save yourself £20 for walking around a cave.
My video on what I thought about the Stonehenge Exhibition.