Wellcome Collection

While in London, I did what every good tourist does. I saw the London Eye, Westminster Cathedral, Big Ben, Tower Bridge and all the other glorious things that London has to offer. I spent hours in Hamleys being a seven year old and then a couple more hours in Harrods pretending to be one of the rich and famous. It was glorious.

But there is no point writing about all of this on a travel blog because chances are that if you have heard of London you have heard of all of these landmarks as well. This leaves me with a bit of a problem though because I spent a lot of time exploring all of these places.

I have decided however, that I will talk about the parts of London that I discovered by mistake instead.

The first place I would like to mention is the Wellcome Collection. I stumbled upon this place whilst desperately lost in Euston looking for the underground station. I had been lost for a couple of hours already, but had decided that perhaps being lost wasn’t the worst idea, after all once I found an underground station it would be easy to orientate myself again. But now it was getting late and I had promised my aunt and uncle that I’d be home for dinner.

I was walking down what I thought was the right street according to the road signs when I saw a huge advertisement for the Institute of Sexology. It is one of those signs that demand a second look, and I found it funny that such an un-British advert would be on such a typically British building.

After taking a closer look I found that the ad was for an exhibition currently showing at the Wellcome Collection which was obviously what the old building was called. Further along was a second advert, this one for a forensics exhibition. Both exhibitions seemed interesting and I vowed to return at a later date.

So Monday morning, bright and early, I was standing outside the building ready to have a look and excited about what the exhibitions would include, only to find out that the Wellcome Collection is closed on a Monday. What a fail.

I tried again on Tuesday morning, and after waiting for three hours for it to open (it only opens at 11), I finally poured in with all the other tourists.

Both exhibitions where great and there was a third about the human body which was also very interesting. The Forensics exhibition was by far the best and was interactive, fun and very intriguing. The Wellcome Collection has an interesting way of displaying the information and I thoroughly enjoyed the day, even if I had to wait for it.

There was just one problem.

Their exhibitions are set out in such a way that you need to view each section in order. Usually I am a huge fan of this kind of display because it has a sense of continuity and each step further explains the one before it. But on this particular occasion the woman behind me happened to have a little baby with her.

Now I know that babies are humans and not always controllable and I know that sometimes you just have to let them scream blue murder until they tire themselves out and fall asleep. I am not even against this parenting technique because it is one which my mom employed with my siblings and I and I think we turned out pretty well, and it meant that she could get in her daily wine intake.

I do however think that there is a time and place for everything. For example, when you are sitting at home with your friends sipping on a couple bottles of wine, stick the baby in the room furthest from the wine and let them scream. When you are in a forensics exhibition that has that unique silence that is only found in a library then you make sure that the damn kid shuts up!

It was pure torture as I made my way from section to section with this screaming baby right behind me and the other people in the room glaring at me as if it was my fault. Eventually I gave up and went back to Hamleys where the seven year old me jumped into a pile of teddies and started screaming blue murder.

I am sure that in that very instant my mom suddenly had a sub conscious craving for a glass of wine.