The Best Museums

Many people ask me, 'what is your favourite museum?' and I always answer, 'mine'. But I have to acknowledge that there are other museums out there that are nearly as good as mine. So in the interests of communal solidarity I thought I would select some that I would invite to join me in the Democratic Republic of Museums (see the Independence Special blog). I've done the list in alphabetic order to avoid accusations of bias and illiteracy.

Beamish Open Air Museum (Stanley, Co. Durham)
Possibly the reason why I now work in the sector, having first visited when it opened in the 1970s. It was the first museum 'experience' I had - by which I mean I wasn't looking at something in a glass case; I was touching, smelling, tasting - 'experiencing' the past. It has continued to grow and develop ever since. No museum can be entirely bad when you get the opportunity to eat fish and chips and ride on a tram etc. This museum is the very definition of 'a day out' and yet in a structured safe enjoyable educational non-museum 'museumy' way.

Coventry Transport Museum (Coventry)
Nobody in their right mind goes to Coventry, right? And especially not another museum that is really just a car park for knackered old vehicles, right? Well go to Coventry and go to this museum. If you never thought of transport as the embodiment of civilisation's development and ingenuity - you will after visiting here. It puts all other 'transport' museums to shame. Engaging, full of stories (and iconic objects). It just keeps getting better.

The Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge)
Hugely small and intimately magnificent. A real contradiction of a museum. As befits its great age as a museum the whole of civilisation is in there. A place of revelation, discovery and learning. Think of  it as a version of the British Museum that's shrunk in the wash. i.e. more manageable and with less queues.

The Great North Museum (Newcastle)

Don't tell me the prospect of playing with an interactive model of Hadrian's Wall doesn't tempt you. The British Museum has leant this museum lots of great stuff so that you can think of this as the British Museum with Georgie Accents (whayaye!!). The entrance just blows you away ( I won't spoil the surprise, but it is the best entrance to any museum in the world) and when you are knackered go into the planetarium - mind blowing.

The Horniman (London)
Do you want to see a great natural history collection that isn't in the Natural History Museum? Do you want a museum that knows it has a tourist audience and a local community to serve? Have you a young family? Then the Horniman is the place to go. To put it bluntly they don't just put up a display and forget about it until hell freezes over - it is alive, vibrant and current. Clearly the team there care about their museum and the audience.
PS There's not just natural history there - but it does have a great aquarium.

Manchester Museum (erm... Manchester)
Not another red brick Victorian university museum...ho hum... No! It is alive (quite literally in the case of the vivarium). It is probably the definition of exceeding expectations. It is difficult to describe, but nothing is as you would expect it to be. Please visit it and come out, surprised, refreshed and stimulated. I'm beginning to think university museums are turning into some of the best family friendly intellectually rigorous museums around.

The Mary Rose Museum (Portsmouth)
Having seen this develop over the years, the latest incarnation is astounding (and still not finished at the time of visiting). This has possibly been my best experience in recent memory. From the building, to the displays, to the interactions with volunteers everything works, engages and illuminates. A true sense of place and time is delivered.

The Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford)
It was a toss up between this and the Ashmolean (world's first purpose-built public museum). Why not visit them both - they're practically next door. But the Pitt Rivers is different. It is a treasure trove, it is a museum of a museum. It seems like the whole world is on display and is asking to be discovered. I felt like I was entering an Indiana Jones movie (without the Nazis) frozen in time.

The Royal Albert Memorial Museum (Exeter)
Here's what a great reinterpretation can do for a 'traditional' gothic museum. Somebody there doesn't take themselves too seriously. Although it is a crazily wide-ranging eclectic collection, it has a lightness of tone that keeps your eyebrows raised and a permanent smile on your face. If only more museums could bring fun into the core interpretation in the same way.

SS Great Britain (Bristol)
One big object (another ship) but multiple interpretations and stories. Possibly the scariest adventure awaits for anyone without a head for heights, or fear of being underwater. Multiple award winning attraction and understandably so. I like the fact that its whole story has been articulated in an inclusive way. I left humbled and shaken - not the usual range of emotions felt when leaving a museum.

This list is entirely personal and reflects my prejudices and biases, so if you disagree then you are obviously wrong even though you think you are right. Seek help - or better still visit the museums and know the truth of what I say.