Considering a trip to Greenwich with kids ? We recently took our boys, aged six and three, to the National Maritime Museum in London. It ’ second part of the Royal Museums Greenwich which includes the Cutty Sark, the Queen ’ mho House and the Royal Observatory. The National Maritime Museum is a brilliant space for children ( and adults ) to learn about Britain ’ s naval history .
Families in the UK and particularly in London are fortunate : our national museums are free to visit ( with the option of making a contribution ). If you have energetic children with short attention spans, you can drop in, see something specific and then make a swift passing without worrying that you ’ ve wasted your money or that you haven ’ t soaked up enough culture .
On our chew the fat to the National Maritime Museum, with our three year old at his ebullient best, we knew time might be curtly so we opted to join one of the excellent child-friendly Character Encounters .We joined John Simmonds, a bootleg sailor who served with Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. He was played by a talented actor who engaged brilliantly with the children and took us on a very animated stumble through british naval history touching on bondage, biography aboard ship and the barbarous reality of war at ocean. I would highly recommend taking one of these tours, which run on Saturdays and concluding about 45 minutes.
The tour commenced at the Sammy Ofer Wing which is where I recommend families enter the museum as you will avoid coming across the Ahoy ! Children ’ second Gallery which is following to the Stanhope entrance ( once your children have discovered this bet area you ’ ll find it hard to extract them ) .
After pointing out Nelson ’ s Ship in a Bottle, a replica of HMS Victory, John Simmonds took us up to the Nelson, Navy, Nation gallery where the children unfurled semaphore flags and took separate in a diversion of the Battle of Trafalgar by dropping to the floor to avoid getting blown to pieces by cannon fire from the french and spanish .
We saw the fateful bullet train fix in Nelson ’ s naval uniform and the boys even got to see the metal smooch, complete with dentition marks, which Nelson bite on while doctors fought in conceited to save his life .
After much tattle and exclaim ( I ’ m impressed that the museum has such a spirit go ), we concluded our exploration close to the All Hands Children ’ mho Gallery where kids can dress up as sailors, practice morse code and operate a crane lifting cargo onto a ship. If your child is going through a phase of not wanting to partake, you might wish to avoid the crane, there were several disgruntled toddlers while we were there, including our own. The drift is aimed at children aged six to twelve but most of the children were younger than that when we visited .
once we ’ vitamin d exhausted the All Hands gallery we headed for the Great Map which is a appropriately large, open space for children to expend a piece of energy while parents refuel at the adjoining cafe, good planning on the part of the museum .
last we took the children to Ahoy ! Children ’ randomness Gallery which is located next to the Stanhope entrance. Aimed at children aged up to seven years, Ahoy ! is a child-heaven and parent-hell kind of rate .
There ’ s surely a applaudable sum of education to it : boats to be fixed, a fish patronize to man and a replica of the SS Rawalpindi to captain, but ultimately it felt claustrophobic and intense on our visit. The ceilings are depleted and there ’ s no natural light. If you live near by I ’ vitamin d imagine it ’ s a great cushy maneuver placement to bring children on a showery day, provided you arrive early. By the time we reached Ahoy ! it was about 4pm, the gallery was a spot of a fix and some children were showing signs of needing to go family ( or possibly that was just me ) .
overall I was fabulously impressed by the National Maritime Museum and I ’ megabyte certain we ’ ll return to explore it farther, there are numerous themes with which to explore the museum such as artwork and deal and you can take other Character Encounter go. intelligibly a distribute of think has been put into making it a bang-up family experience. however, my kids are desperate to visit the Cutty Sark so I expect that ’ s where we ’ ll principal to on our future inflict to Greenwich with kids.
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Please note, while the National Maritime Museum is free, some of the early royal museums at Greenwich such as the Cutty Sark are chargeable .
Have you been to the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich with kids ? If thus, what were the highlights for you ? Let me know in the comments below .
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