Visiting the British Museum + Brunching at the Breakfast Club!

On one of the HOTTEST days in my entire life residing in the UK, I found myself exploring the British Museum (followed by an emergency evacuation but I’ll keep that for another story). The British Museum has a fascinating story; founded in 1753 it was the first national public museum in the world with free admission to all ‘studious and curious persons‘. Once it opened its doors, visitor numbers have grown from around 5,000 a year in the 18th century to nearly 6 million today! The origins of the British Museum lie Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753). He was a naturalist and collector with more than 71,000 objects which he wanted to be preserved intact after his death. Without much choice left, he bequeathed the whole collection to King George II to create a display for the nation in return for a payment of £20,000 to his heirs. His gift was accepted by the King and on 7 June 1753, an Act of Parliament established the British Museum! British Museum, London

We visited the British Museum during our last trip to London back in July, thus, the summer dress and sunglasses in these pictures. But I have only just seen these images in my SIM card, so I hope you don’t mind me blogging about it today! British Museum, London

This DACAS pair of sandals were made of many layers of goat leather pinched together and stitched by hand and they were used by Somali tribes. The design of these sandals, using dyed-grass fibres suggest they may have been used for special occasions.

Originally, the museum collections consisted of books, natural specimens, coins and medals, and ethnographic material. In the early part of the nineteenth century there were a number of high profile acquisitions. These included the Rosetta Stone (1802), the Townley collection of classical sculpture (1805), and the famous Parthenon sculptures or else known as the Elgin Marbles that Elgin stole from the Parthenon in Acropolis, Greece (1816). British Museum, London

Monarchs and nobles in central Europe began to make collections of art and science in the 1500’s. These collections included expensive clocks which represented the latest technology-they were highly prized and a flourishing market developed around them!

The twentieth century the museum undergone many constructions with the most important one being the construction of the Duveen Gallery to house the Parthenon Sculptures (1939/62). British Museum, London

Inspired by the Parthenon and ancient Greece, the museum building has many of the Acropolis architecture features!

After spending the morning wandering around the floors and corridors we decided to go for some coffee and brunch at The Breakfast Club. An orange juice and good food was much needed after all this focusing and knowledge absorbing.

Before visiting The Breakfast Club I had this beautiful picture in my head of beautiful interiors and good food. I don’t usually like giving bad reviews but it really disappointed us! The music was EXTRAORDINARILY loud – you know when it’s that loud that you cannot even taste the food because your senses are confused? – and we had to ask the waitress to have the music volume a bit down only to have her saying ‘no’. People were shouting as it was impossible to hear what the other person opposite the table was saying and this added up even more to the whole loudness of the place!

The staff were very serious and it seemed like they didn’t take their job seriously and that they were in a hurry. Also, I cannot comment enough on how clean the girl who served us was not! Her nails were dirty and she hold the glasses from the top which didn’t make me think twice if I needed a straw…

The food was good and came promptly, so I suppose this is why there is such a fuss around the place, but the whole experience and atmosphere was rather disappointing. I asked my London friends if this was the usual situation and they said that the Soho one was way worse, so at least now I know where not to go next time!

London was magical and I very much enjoyed every minute of exploring it once again.

Now tell me, which is your favourite brunch place in London and most importantly have you ever been to the British Museum?

Anastasia