London Other Museums In Kensington And Earl’s Court

In the first floor’s “Who am I?”, you can research your family tree, meet a 200-year-old skeleton, and participate in a series of (potentially demoralizing) games that test your levels of intelligence, beauty, success, and happiness. The Flight Gallery tells the story of air travel from Victorian attempts at steam-powered flight to modern jumbo jets, and holds dozens of airplanes and an interactive Flight Lab. The popular Launchpad offers over 50 interactive exhibits, plus lively shows and demos, all of which explore the world of physics: build your own magnetic building, watch the bubble wall appear and disappear around you, or make water dance using sound effects. The Science and Art of Medicine, on the top floor, chronicles in impressive detail the history of medicine in its modern and cross-cultural incarnations, with over 5000 objects. Alternatively, scorn the real world entirely and enter virtual reality with a SimEx simulator ride through Dino Island, or get a ticket to the new 3D motion theater, Force Field, where you can smell, hear, and feel what it’s like to venture into space on an Apollo mission. (Exhibition Rd. South Kensington. ☎08708 704 868, IMAX 08708 704 771; www.sciencemuseum.org.uk. Open daily 10am-6pm; last entry 5:30pm. Wheelchair-accessible. Free. Audio tours: “Soundbytes” cover Power, Space, and Making the Modern World; £3.50 each. IMAX shows usually daily every 30min., 10am-5pm; £8, concessions £6.25. See website for showtimes and bookings. SimEx £2.50, concessions £2; Force Field £5/4; special exhibitions £9/7. Daily demonstrations and workshops in the basement galleries and theater. MC/V.)

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM. Architecturally the most impressive of the South Kensington trio, this cathedral-like Romanesque museum has been a favorite with Londoners since 1880. The entrance hall is dedicated to the Wonders of the Natural History Museum, a series of prehistorically important skeletons including a Diplodocus and a moa (a giant, flightless bird once native to New Zealand, extinct since the early 16th century). Divided into four zones—blue, green, orange, and red—the rest of the museum is reasonably easy to navigate despite regular massive crowds.

In the Blue Zone, you’ll find the dark and surreal Dinosaur Galleries, which won’t disappoint the Jurassic Park generation: the animatronic T-rex is so popular that he’s secured an exhibit entirely for himself, and he has smaller animatronic friends, too. The enormous Human Biology exhibit boasts an endless succession of interactive and high-tech displays, not to mention an extremely detailed reproduction gallery. Nearby, you’ll find an exhaustive collection of reptile and mammal exhibits, which hold many obscure species as well. The decided favorite is the massive blue whale suspended from the ceiling.

The Green Zone is home to Creepy Crawlies, featuring an enormous model scorpion, vomiting fly models, and a live ant colony. The collection of stuffed and mounted birds features everything from the ostentatious peacock to the awkward ostrich. You’ll also get a sense of our place in the world’s history, with the primates and evolution exhibits.

The Red Zone is less comprehensive but a bit more dynamic. The Earth Galleries are reached via a long escalator that journeys through the center of a model Earth on its way to The Power Within, an exposition of the volcanic and tectonic forces beneath our planet’s surface. A walk-through model of a Japanese supermarket provides a recreation of the 1995 Kobe earthquake, and, on the same floor, Restless Surface explores the gentler action of wind and water in reshaping the world. The first floor’s From the Beginning tells the history of the Earth itself, while The Earth’s Treasury presents an enormous and spectacular array of gems and minerals, from sandstone to diamonds to many jewels you’ve probably never seen.

The Orange Zone is set to open in fall 2009, and will hold the cocoon-inside-a-box that is the Darwin Centre, an eight-story, £78 million project—the largest expansion since the museum moved to South Kensington in 1881. Most of it is research and storage space for the largest insect collection in the world, but it will also be open for tours, where the public can see what goes on behind the scenes and engage in interactive activities about the natural world and its conservation. (Cromwell Rd. South Kensington. ☎020 7942 5000; www.nhm.ac.uk. Open daily 10am-5:50pm; last entry 5:30pm. Wheelchair-accessible. Free; special exhibits usually £7, concessions £4.50. MC/V.)

SERPENTINE GALLERY. This tiny 1934 tea pavilion in the middle of Kensington Gardens is the unlikely venue for some of London’s top contemporary art shows; Jeff Koons’s recent Popeye series, displayed here, was his first major exhibition in a public gallery in England. Summer nights in the park also include architecture talks, live readings, and open-air film screenings. (Off West Carriage Dr., Kensington Gardens South Kensington or Lancaster Gate. ☎020 7402 6075; www.serpentinegallery.org. Open daily 10am-6pm. Wheelchair-accessible. Free; suggested donation £1.)