Description
The Imperial War Museum in London is the national museum of modern war, from the First World War to today, told through objects, art, film and the voices of people who lived it. It stands on Lambeth Road, in Southwark, south of the Thames, under a copper dome.
Two 15-inch naval guns, both fired in action in the Second World War, guard the entrance. Behind them rises the dome of the old Bethlem Royal Hospital, better known as Bedlam: the museum lives in a former asylum, finished in 1814.
The central atrium is packed with large objects: tanks, guns, aircraft. It has been called "the biggest boys' bedroom in London". Among the collection's rarities are the only complete and original Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 in existence and a Spitfire flown in the Battle of Britain.
Don't miss the First World War galleries, redesigned by Foster and Partners and reopened for the centenary in 2014, and the Holocaust Galleries, which opened in 2021 and tell the story of the genocide through personal objects and testimony.
The collections go far beyond tanks. There are vast archives of documents, photographs, film and sound recordings, a big art collection, Winston Churchill's automatic pistol and a rifle used by T. E. Lawrence. Ole Bill, a London bus that served in the First World War, is also here.
The museum was born in the middle of the First World War, in 1917, to record the effort and sacrifice of Britain and its Empire. Its founder, Sir Alfred Mond, said it "was not a monument of military glory, but a record of toil and sacrifice".
It first filled the Crystal Palace, then moved to South Kensington, and finally here in 1936. The asylum's long wings were torn down for a park, which left the dome looking oddly tall. In 1940, after Dunkirk, eighteen of the museum's guns went back to war.
Its remit has since widened to every conflict involving British and Commonwealth forces since 1914. The museum has branches too: HMS Belfast on the Thames, the Churchill War Rooms in Westminster, Duxford in Cambridgeshire and IWM North near Manchester.
Two 15-inch naval guns, both fired in action in the Second World War, guard the entrance. Behind them rises the dome of the old Bethlem Royal Hospital, better known as Bedlam: the museum lives in a former asylum, finished in 1814.
The central atrium is packed with large objects: tanks, guns, aircraft. It has been called "the biggest boys' bedroom in London". Among the collection's rarities are the only complete and original Royal Aircraft Factory R.E.8 in existence and a Spitfire flown in the Battle of Britain.
Don't miss the First World War galleries, redesigned by Foster and Partners and reopened for the centenary in 2014, and the Holocaust Galleries, which opened in 2021 and tell the story of the genocide through personal objects and testimony.
The collections go far beyond tanks. There are vast archives of documents, photographs, film and sound recordings, a big art collection, Winston Churchill's automatic pistol and a rifle used by T. E. Lawrence. Ole Bill, a London bus that served in the First World War, is also here.
The museum was born in the middle of the First World War, in 1917, to record the effort and sacrifice of Britain and its Empire. Its founder, Sir Alfred Mond, said it "was not a monument of military glory, but a record of toil and sacrifice".
It first filled the Crystal Palace, then moved to South Kensington, and finally here in 1936. The asylum's long wings were torn down for a park, which left the dome looking oddly tall. In 1940, after Dunkirk, eighteen of the museum's guns went back to war.
Its remit has since widened to every conflict involving British and Commonwealth forces since 1914. The museum has branches too: HMS Belfast on the Thames, the Churchill War Rooms in Westminster, Duxford in Cambridgeshire and IWM North near Manchester.