Ah, the British Museum: lots of cool stuff (or rather, ‘fascinating historic artefacts from around the world’) in here.
The Egyptian Mummies have the most kid-appeal, but there’s lots of other good stuff too. Some of it stolen collected by various luminaries of the British Empire, e.g. Lord Elgin and ‘his’ Marbles. Although strangely it doesn’t seem to occur to children to ask why all these vitally-important historical artefacts from other countries are here in London - so that’s one embarrassing question out of the way, at least.
Entry is free, which is good - though it’s worth pre-booking a free timed-entry ticket online, as entry without one depends on capacity and you can hit queues at busy times. Adults - unless you’re a Member - have to pay for entry to special exhibitions - fair enough.
The museum is organised (mostly) by geographical region, and it’s fairly easy to find what you’re looking for.
As you come in through the front entrance, you’ll find yourself in the big atrium. This is kind of interesting in itself, it’s the glassed-in former courtyard - but it’s probably not what you’ve come to the museum for, so turn left and you’ll find yourself in a complex of rooms covering ancient Egypt, Greece and the Middle East.
This is where most of the good stuff is, in these rooms and the ones above them.
The Egyptian mummies are likely to be interesting to children - these are genuine thousands-of-years-old mummies, they’re not replicas - and it’s worth reminding them that there are actually dead bodies inside (older kids, at least).
Also look out for the really cool Gayer-Anderson Cat (Room 4, the Egyptian sculpture gallery just left of the Great Court) - a beautiful bronze cat sacred to the cat-goddess Bast - plus the mummified cats and other cat-statues in the Egyptian rooms.
An ancient Egyptian cat mummy in criss-cross bandages.
For something a bit more frivolous - and definitely kid-friendly - check out the Dr Who Banknote! (Room 68: Money)
The Lewis Chessmen c1150-1200 AD.
🛜 Free WiFi for all visitors. Connect to ‘British Museum WiFi’.
