Shock and Awe

While in London I found myself with a Saturday to kill, which of course landed me in a museum for several hours. That is not to say that I don’t relish such an opportunity, but with the abundance of museums in London you find yourself spoilt for choice. Thus after much deliberation I stuck out and steeled my nerves to tackle the goliath that is the Imperial War Museum.

It is, broadly speaking. awe inspiring. Walking towards the former Bethlem Royal hospital,  you are greeted by two towering obelisks in the form of two 15inch Naval Guns. Coming up  the steps and inside you arrive at a balcony overlooking the central floor. The museum is a monument to death in many ways. The open plan exhibition features great  and terrifying machines from a century of war, including a V2 rocket, a spitfire, and the  destroyed remnants of a car that had been used in a suicide bomb attack in 2007.

They certainly know how to make an entrance. The museum consists of five floors, all of which  discuss different themes or times of war. The real standouts from these are the First World War exhibition on the first floor and the Holocaust exhibition on the fourth floor.  The First World War exhibition is really the jewel in their crown, in no small part because  there has put so much work into developing it for the centenaries. They force you down a  corridor and around the exhibition with a comprehensive narrative of the Great War. It takes you on a journey through enlistment and then into the horrors of modern war.

The exhibition is remarkably well designed with a combination of audio tracks and projector  screens adding to the story. There are plenty of points to stop and listen to a more detailed description of the events if you like to take your time. It also has a number of round tables  with seating. Each has its own audio track to provide more context to the story. One table is particularly emotive as they read out a number of letters of British soldiers describing the shelling, while on the table sits the melted remains of a British gas mask in a glass jar.

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