Five Unusual Museums in London

You may want to visit London and see its impressive Big Ben, the various palaces and castles, the London Bridge, to maybe visit Madam Tussauds museum, but you should pay attention to the huge number of interesting and lesser known museums hosted in Britain’s capital. No matter where you stay in London, you can easily get to these museums and, depending on your personal preferences, you’ll definitely find some quirky exhibitions worthy of a visit.

To five you a mere glimpse of the special places in London, we selected five such unusual museums to visit in the city.

1. Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising
Yeah, I admit this is a museum of interest for me, as I work in marketing and communication. I didn’t have the chance – yet! – to visit this museum, but it is definitely on my list when I’ll be in London. More than 12,000 original items that are rather familiar to anyone buying stuff are exhibited in this museum started by consumer historian Robert Opie.

2. Museum of Fans
Quirky enough for you? Well, let me add then that this is the only museum in the world dedicated to fans. Over 3,500 fans are exhibited in this museum and you’ll get quite a look into the past, as most of these items are old ones. Moreover, the temporary exhibitions change periodically, so you will always have something of interest to discover here.

3. The Crime Museum (The Black Museum)
London is home of Sherlock Holmes (in fact, as a side note, this character has his own dedicated museum on the street where everything started), and to The Scotland Yard, so a crime museum was almost natural, so to say, to be opened in this city. The Crime Museum, perhaps better known as The Black Museum, hosts an impressive number of instruments/weapons used to commit murders. Some of them will definitely surprise you!

4. Cartoon Museum
Aiming to promote British cartoon art, comic art and caricature, this is a museum located near the more famous British Museum, a perfect destination for people travelling with children or for those in love with cartoons. Keep in mind that this museum also hosts collections that go way back in time, until the 18th century! – so you will definitely have some fun visiting it and looking at the items exhibited.

Cartoon Museum London, photo bz lonpicman on Wikipedia

5. The Cinema Museum
Now, cinema is more digital then ever, but there was a time in which movies needed a completely different type of equipment. If you’ll book a visit to this museum – make sure you do that prior to your visit here, as these guided tours are provided by volunteers – you’ll be able to see some old posters, cinema staff uniforms, and an impressive number of photographic images. If you love movies and want to see how they were made in the past years, then this is a museum to visit.

As you see, we picked five museums from different areas and we can assure you there are many more interesting ones. Have we open your appetite for a visit of the lesser known London museums?