With my spouse, we are going next month on a weekend trip to London (my first time there). Quite naturally, I was thinking that I’ll spend as much time in the British Museum as possible (as much as she’ll let me 
). I mostly care about Greek stuff, though I might want have a look at the Egyptology section as well. Any practical advice? What should I not miss? Anything I need to know? Any other, less well known museum there with even more interesting stuff Greek-wise?
Ah, well if its any consolation to her there is an absolutely atrocious cafe she can sit in while you browse. Actually, joking aside, if you have a chance and want something more modern there’s the Victoria and Albert Museum which has a wonderful tea room and gardens too. Back to the BM.
It’s all good really, I’ve lost so many hours of my life there and will obviously lose many more. I’d say not to stick to the Greek, you’ll miss the entire point of the museum if you do. You can see stuff from the Mycenaean age onward to Rome there. The really cool thing though is that you can view, say, the Elgin marbles more or less in tandem with monumental architecture from Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Favourites? Well, I guess I would be remiss not to mention a) the Elgin marbles (if I could spend years of my life right next to the actual Parthenon and not give a crap, you can imagine how I feel about these), and b) the Rosetta stone. The latter is pretty good but always swamped. It’s amazing how legible the Greek is. You can stand there and read it. (Egyptian is still a mystery to me though).
EVERYTHING is good, but there are some important standouts. The reconstruction of the Nereid monument from Xanthos, Lykia…some of the friezes from Bassae (an extremely important temple in the history of Greek art), a fair amount of stuff from Artemis’ temple, Ephesos and Mausolos’s…well…mausoleum. As you can imagine, there are a lot of important things. We could easily turn this post into a katalogos lol.
I personally think the Rome and Etruscan things are worthy of attention. There’s this wonderful Hellenistic crocodile armour for example. Also, the cool thing about the Egyptian section is that you can see stuff all the way from the old kingdom to the Persians, then the Macedonians and then the Romans.
Just go and have a wander lol.
Well, if you go to the Victoria and Albert Museum I recommend you go to the Brompton Oratory for Sunday Vespers at 15:30. Very much Roman Baroque but well worth it.
I was in London last September, after having hiked Hadrian’s Wall and seeing the neolithic remains on the Orkney Islands. My wife left me at the British Museum for the morning so that she could visit Liberty of London.
At the museum, there is a small room in the rear that houses the inscriptions. It’s not open all day, so call ahead to make sure that you time your trip to catch it. The Rosetta Stone, located in front of the Egyptian exhibit is fairly readable Greek, as are the many of the inscriptions throughout the museum.
The Elgin marbles are unforgettable. As are the statues from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.
The most sublime statuary was the Greek. However, the Assyrian and Babylonian stonework was awe-inspiring. I doubt that you will be able to restrict yourself to just Greek exhibits.
While you’re in London, you might think about stopping by the British Library. You’ll have to call ahead to arrange to see any manuscripts from their collections (and there are some identification rules for getting a Reader’s Card), but it’s something to read a page from the Codex Sinaiticus, which they should have on display for anyone to see.
Thanks for your tips. It’s just a weekend trip so I think it’ll be just one visit. I suppose it’s as big as the Louvre, so I don’t expect to see more than a fraction of everything. I’d certainly love to lose so many hours of my life there, but now I have only a few hours, so I need to plan everything carefully in advance.
I’ll have to check the Rosetta stone for one then, and I’ll have to look into those inscriptions.
Go early if you can, though no point in arriving before 9:30 or so without authorisation. See inside the Reading Room if you possibly can, even if it’s still closed, outrageously. Break in if you have to. It’s awesome. Karl Marx and I spent many hours there before they moved the library out. Don’t worry if you can’t get near the Rosetta Stone, there’s copies, you can buy one in the gift shop as a pencil sharpener. Same goes for the Sinaiticus in the British Library (online images, that is, not as pencil sharpener), and anyway BL is too much of a hassle unless you already have a card and some particular book you absolutely have to see but it would give you a look at Kings Cross and St.Pancras stations (and English prostitutes if they haven’t been swept out and not come back). Both Greek and Egyptian are stupendous, though you can get your fill of Egyptian at the Louvre so if you only have an hour or two stick to Greek, archaic and classical. Do see the Elgin marbles, while they’re still there, and you might as well take in the Bassae frieze while you’re about it. But these things take time, and you’ll notice the temples aren’t there. Mind you don’t spend all your time with the vases, you easily could. Read David Lodge’s The British Museum is Falling Down before you go.
But there is so very much to do and see in London! You must go to Westminster if nowhere else.
As we say in English, bon voyage!
κλίνη κλυτή τις.
hi paul, in fact the BM is only a fraction of the size of the louvre. a great thing about it is there’s no ticket gate or anything and it’s in a great part of town so you can just walk in and have a long or short look around depending on your timing. in paris i had to become an ami du louvre to get the same ability to pop in here and there and just check out some exhibits and focus on them.
your basic strategy is to head in and veer to the left around the big central stairway into the big door there on the left and you’ve got tons of egyptian and greek and roman and other things all together, in the rooms that run down to the elgin marbles. then there’s more classics stuff upstairs.
often the room up a little stairway to the right when you’re in the rooms leading down to the elgin marbles) is/used to be roped off, which sucked, there are some really nice things in there, like the alexander inscription - you can imagine him standing in front of that same slab.
you could definitely get a good sense of the collection as a whole in a few hours of lazy meandering (compared to the louvre, you couldn’t make the whole circuit in that time) but of course to appreciate the exhibits you really would need to go back again and again – a good excuse to go back later!
and really scribo the cafe at the top isn’t that bad, but i’m no food critic. the high tea with clotted cream and the teas they have are good after hours of checking out exhibits has left you mentally fried.
nearby there are also some rare book stores with nice old classics books in a little street off charing cross road, i forget which exactly – i think cecil court or st martin’s court (or both), worth checking out. my theocritus comes from there. it’s only about 10 mins walk from the museum.
cheers, chad
Thanks, so many good suggestions. I’ll review the cafe if I go there (If it’s for me to decide, I’ll be at the Museum at 10 when it opens until 17.30 when it closes; if I’m allowed to spend a day like that, I’ll need something to eat at some stage!). Thanks for the other suggestions too, rare book stores, Freud, vespers, prostitutes… maybe there’s something there for her too!
And if they don’t let me in somewhere in the museum, I guess all I need to say is “I need to borrow your marbles!”
“Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
— Samuel Johnson
The basement room with all of the various Greek and Latin inscriptions is probably one of the best things in the museum ever. Also, there’s a small upstairs gallery that displays the incredible frieze from Bassae, but due to its fragile nature the gallery is hardly ever open so it might be worth calling ahead to check what times it might or might not be open.
If you like Egyptian stuff, then at the moment there’s actually a special (but sadly, paid) exhibition going on at the British Museum called Egypt: faith after the pharaohs. It’s a look at the development of religion in Egypt after the Roman conquest and tracks its progress from polytheism to Christianity to Islam. Oddly fascinating, especially the Theban Magical Papyrus.
There’s also a not-very-well-known but very important Egyptology museum in UCL, not too far from the British Museum, known as the Petrie Museum of Egyptology. They’re actually part of the university and are a proper research museum (not that the BM isn’t, of course), so they’re not open for too many hours and are only open from Tuesday to Saturday, but you can find out more about their hours on their website. I’ve never had a chance to visit it myself but as far as I’m aware, it’s a perfect place for any massive Egyptology nerds, and seems to be crammed full of all sorts of finds from the university collection.
Thanks! Egyptology is fascinating, but I’m on a tight schedule so I suppose I’ll have to skip that other museum this time. I’ll need to check whether and when 1) the inscription room and 2) the Bassea gallery are open.
Here I am, in London, until Monday! Cb hinted at some old books stores, but do you have any other suggestions for book stores where I could find Greek-related stuff?
Cb’s suggestion of Cecil Court is a good one for antiquarian books generally (You’ll want Bryars & Bryars mainly). You could check out the aptly named “Hellenic Bookservice” over on Fortress Rd. Apt since the store is owned by Cypriot-Greeks and stocks a wide variety of Greek, Latin and modern Greek stuff. But though you’ll find grammars and OCTs and the occasional Loeb you won’t, to my recollection, really find proper academic stuff like monographs. You can check their site and search their catalogue. Largish second hand section.
I’m trying to think of anything else to recommend in London for Classics specifically, but nothing really comes to mind. I mean you’ll find Latin inscriptions everywhere and stores like Foyle’s will have volumes and so on.
Thanks! By the time I read that, I’d already visited B&B — but I don’t have £2000 to spare for a nice Iliad and anyway I wouldn’t dare to read such a valuable book. It doesn’t matter though, it was nice just to visit those bookstores. I guess for actually buying books it’s much more convenient online, but it’s not quite the same as walking around in a real shop. I might still check that other place too…
I trust your enjoying yourselves in the world’s capital, as once was. If you can somehow squeeze it in, do see inside the John Soane’s Museum, less than a 10-minute walk from the BM main entrance. Unfortunately tourists now know of its existence, as they never used to, and I think its hours are now restricted. You used to be able just to drop in. But check it out if you can. It’s a collector architect’s wonder, frozen in time, and I understand they opened up more of it just this year.
Michael
So I walked in the British Museum today at 10 am and an eyeblink later I’d spent 5 hours there without seeing but a fraction of all I wanted to. I simply couldn’t move on, there’s so much to see and it’s well presented. I’ll return tomorrow or on Monday. I’m not altogether happy though — the Bassai room and the Greek vases room were closed and no one was able to tell me whether or not they will open later on today, tomorrow or the day after. The person at the information desk I first asked about the Bassai gallery when I entered didn’t even know what I was talking about. Ok, my accent is terrible but still. I know that a large percentage of visitors couldn’t tell the difference between a Parthenon sculpture and a mummified cat, but apparently it hasn’t occured to the staff that some visitors are actually after something specific and not just any old stuff.
The John Soane museum was a wonder, we actually went there together (I was alone at the BM) and it was really worth it. What an eccentric that Soane must have been, and yet a child of his own time! So thanks a lot for that tip. Photography was not allowed there and you were supposed to keep your phone turned off — which certainly contributed to the magic of the place.
In the BM, on the other hand, you are continually assaulted by tourists taking their photos, or worse, filming. I understand this to a point; I do it myself sometimes, because it’s more practical than taking notes, and I try not to bother other people when I do it. I also did it when on the occasion of a bachelor party we were in St Petersburg in the Eremitage Museum and I found a Greek vase that depicted a lady playing around with not one but TWO olisboi — because I thought that was the sort of photo that would amuse folks at a bachelor party. But just running around with their "smart"phones without even taking a look at whatever they are filming — I just don’t get it. I took a look at the Rosetta stone, and like Scribo said, it was stunning how clear it was, I could just stant there and read it; but I didn’t read more than the first line, because there was just too much of a crowd (which is ok) and way too many smartphones (which is not). Can’t they buy a postcard or something?
Glad you enjoyed the Soanes museum. Isn’t it a treasure?
For openings of Bassae and Greek vases rooms I dare say someone at the Institute of Classical Studies or the UCL Inst. of Archaeology would be able to tell you or find out. Might be worth giving them a call. Alan Johnston at the latter used to be a drinking buddy of mine; he’s now retired but is probably still around. At least he’d be a known name at either place, to give you an in.
At the BM itself you might try to get hold of Patsy Vanags. She works (or used to) with the Greek antiquities, esp. temples and vases, and is very helpful. Mention my name (her partner Alan Griffiths is another of my old buddies) and she might even give you a tour! (or have you expelled)
Sorry I don’t know who decides on openings.
—Oh I was forgetting, the Institutes won’t be open till Monday. Patsy may be your best bet, if she’s still around. Surely someone at the BM knows.
I’m back home, safe and sound, although the trip was not entirely without danger – cars always coming from where you least expect them, cholesterol poisoning, and Stendahl syndrome being the most constant perils. I saw the tomb of Isaac Newton, which surprised me, as I’d thought that he was still alive and kicking. I naturally did some shopping, including for absurd British grooming articles such as avocado shaving cream (but my facial hair growth remains weak).
I was finally able to see everything I wanted in the British Museum without resorting to name dropping (except the reading room, which was, and remains, closed). Everything was wonderful, as expected, and it would be absurd call anything a favorite. I particularly liked, though, the metopes of Parthenon, which showed scenes from the battle of Lapith and Centaurs; many of them had a sort of witty humor in them. I hadn’t realized the pediment sculptures were in such a sad state. The Bassae frieze was another high point –they were in superb condition, and as with the Partenon metopes, I loved the little details in the depicted fighting scenes.
So much remains to be seen. In the BM, I didn’t even enter the Roman and Etruscan rooms, because too much is too much. Egypt, Mesopotamia, Levant, Celts I only walked quickly through. I didn’t see the current exhibition, “Egypt: faith after the pharaohs”. For sights outside the BM, we wanted to follow many of your thrilling recommendations, but there was simply not enough time.