Daniel H.

Review of Pitt Rivers Museum

06 Nov 07, 13:54

The most unusual/spooky/intriguing musuem in the UK?

General Pitt Rivers was an English British Army officer born in 1827, who also dabbled in archeology and ethnography. During postings overseas he became a noted scientist and amassed a huge collection of items from all over the world. This museum is the result of his donation to Oxford University, and is the most extraordinary place I have been to. The museum is situated behind the city's Natural History Museum (which in itself, while not to the scale of London's, is stunning). You enter a dark room, which is filled to brim with glass cases. Each glass case contains hundreds of objects of similar types, arranged by region, period, or any other of the many thousands of categories of items. It's difficult to describe the sheer range of curiosities on display, but the website tries: "a magnificent Tahitian mourner's costume, collected during Captain Cook's Second Voyage in 1773-74... a fine group of early masks worn by actors in Japanese Noh dramas... magic objects including amulets and charms... jewellery and body decoration... musical instruments..." - you get the idea. Each item has been tagged and described in painstaking detail on tiny little labels, useful for some of the - often quite creepy - items that are impossible to identify. The museum is free, and well worth a visit if you're in the area.

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Review of National Portrait Gallery

11 Jul 07, 11:41

Home of the BP prize and other contemporary greats

I've given this 4 stars rather than 5, despite it being one of my favourite galleries in London. This is because honestly, the majority of the permanent collection bores me.

However, it is home to the BP prize, which always boasts some fabulous work from hugely talented British artists. It also boasts a brilliant contemporary portrait gallery, which displays photos, paintings, and sometimes scultures of popular public figures. This gallery is always evolving with new acquisitions and mini-exhibitions, so every time I go there is something new to see.

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Review of The Clink Prison Museum

11 Jul 07, 11:20

A disappointment

I was expecting quite a lot more from this museum: such a great theme, but let down by rather tacky mannequins. You don't get any feeling of what it might have been like, which is something that the London Dungeon does quite well. I would recommend going there if you want (semi-) scary thrills.

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