SCIENCE MUSEUM
Packed with hands-on exhibits, this museum explores the world of science through centuries of scientific and technological development. The collection showcases how Britain led the Industrial Revolution, with looms and steam engines, navigation, and early flight. It also has displays on contemporary science, climate change, and cutting-edge technologies, with many interactive exhibits in the hi-tech Wellcome Wing. The first floor of the museum is expected to have new medicine galleries.
NEED TO KNOW
Exhibition Road SW7 • 020 7942 4000 • www.sciencemuseum.org.uk • Open 10am–6pm daily (last entry 5:15pm) • Closed Dec 24–26 • Adm free (separate charge for special exhibitions, simulator rides and IMAX cinema)
- There is a restaurant, several cafés, and a picnic area.
- Printed maps with a guide provide details of exhibits.
- The museum shop is good for innovative gifts.
Museum Guide
The museum is spread over seven floors; however, the fourth and fifth floors are closed for renovation. Space exploration, steam engines and the IMAX cinema are on the ground floor. Information Age, the temporary exhibition area, Media Space, and climate science are on the second floor. Flight and the interactive games and simulators can be found on the third floor along with Wonderlab. The Secret Life of the Home can be found in the basement.
Museum Floor Plan
1. Exploring Space
Rockets, satellites, space probes, and landers can all be explored, and you can learn about Sputnik, the world’s first satellite, how we sent spacecrafts to other planets, and walked on the moon.
2. Information Age
The Queen opened this fascinating gallery with her first tweet in October 2014. It is divided into six themes and covers 200 years of communication and modern information technology from the earliest telegraph messages to the internet and cell phones.
3. The Secret Life of the Home
This gallery contains a wacky variety of household gadgets and gizmos, from washing machines and vacuum cleaners to burglar alarms.
4. Puffing Billy
Puffing Billy is the world’s oldest remaining steam locomotive. It was built in England in 1813 and used to transport coal. George Stephenson’s famous 1829 Rocket, the first locomotive engine to pull passenger carriages, is also on display.
Puffing Billy
5. Apollo 10 Command Module
The Apollo 10 Command Module, which went around the moon in May 1969, is on display, as is a replica of the Apollo 11 Lunar Lander. Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon from the original in July 1969 and became the first humans to set foot on the lunar surface.
Apollo 10 Command Module
6. Wonderlab: The Statoil Gallery
With its 50 hands-on exhibits, this interactive gallery captivates 5- to 15-year-olds, to whom it primarily caters. From the friction slide to the magnetic sculpture, learning about science has never been so much fun.
7. Who Am I?
The continually updated Who Am I? gallery presents the latest in brain science and genetics through interactive exhibits and object-rich displays.
8. Fly Zone
This zone offers three kinds of flight simulators. With the virtual reality Space Descent, experience a journey from the International Space Station to Earth.
9. Flight
This gallery is filled with extraordinary aircraft reflecting both UK and international achievements in aviation. Highlights include Amy Johnson’s Gipsy Moth and the Vickers Vimy, which first crossed the Atlantic in 1919.
Flight
10. IMAX 3-D Cinema
The state-of-the-art cinema shows mainly 3-D films on a screen that is taller than four double-decker buses. An impressive six-channel surround-sound system will totally immerse you in the action.
IMAX 3-D Cinema
