The beauty of visiting London year after year is that there is so much to do. Sadly, that may translate to so much to do and so less time to do all of them.  While my top four favourite London based museums are not all art museums, still I encourage you to try them. If you are a creative person, you will find loads of inspiration in the least expected places.

 

1)      Science Museum 

Trash Fashion taken from Science Museum London website

This year topping my list is the Science Museum. You want IMAX 3D cinema? The Science Museum is for you. True I visited it to see the currently hosted medical history exhibition that was taking place. But I came back with a few lovely ideas while sipping a cup of cappuccino in the Revolution Café. 

Children can experience ‘one night at the Museum,’ nopes not the movie, but the real life experience of sleeping overnight at the museum. How freaky can it get, surrounded by a plastics exhibition, or after viewing the skull of a leper, or a mummified cat. 

At the Science Museum, you can discover (literally) who you really are. When it comes down to genes, the cells and the DNA, that’s all been transcribed and translated within them. And if you are crazy about trash fashion, where people come up with technologies to ensure that textiles are not wasted when designed. Similar to the one on the left, designed through a environment friendly technology by Siddhartha Upadhyaya. 

   

   

2)      The National Gallery  

 

Do you love sketching? Well I do and the next time I visit the National Gallery, I will ensure that I spend a few hours just sketching with gay abandon.  You are fine to sketch as long as you don’t use pastels, wax crayons, charcoal and fountain pens (basically making a mess at one of the fine museums in town is not allowed). I love their top 10 reasons to visit the National Gallery, one of them being ‘have a good lunch.’  The other favourite is ‘listen and enjoy.’  

 3)      Tate Gallery

 So you are an iTune fan as well as an art fan? Look no further, Tate Gallery is the first gallery in the UK to become part of the iTunes initiative. So you can download various podcasts for free.

 I need to point out to you that Tate Gallery has several galleries focusing on various aspects of art. You have the Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St. Ives. Of the four, only Tate Britain and Tate Modern are based in London. While I have not tried the Tate Modern Restaurant on Level 7, it’s a must do. The view of the Thames is unbelievable. In fact, I’ve heard of artists who sketch while waiting for their meal! You can follow their blog, but be prepared to be snowed in with the voluminous amount of information available.

I guess as I visit the UK only once a year, here is my chance to have my tate-a-tate with Tate online Channel. Thank goodness for TV moving online!

  4)      Victoria and Albert Museum

If you are looking for a double vam-my, visit http://www.vam.ac.uk/, home to the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington.  I still have fond memories of sketching a Victorian styled gown, for the intricacies of lace embroidery, frills upon frills. Then I decided to go the other way and sketch a warrior mask which was dark and scary. Whatever you want to view, whether textiles, architecture, fashion and jewelry, theatre and performance, it’s all here under one big roof.  As someone who is a period fashionista and artist, of course, I was drawn to the fashion, jewelry and accessories department online. 

Want to know about Fashion in Motion, there are a series of live catwalk events. Fancy viewing the various wedding gowns from various cultures since the 19th century. V&A are putting them all together, just for you.

And here questions of type such if honestly strike me not much as I wrote everything higher. It is visible you simply you don’t want to read all this. As my parrot does.