TAKING A WALK?

A tourist can look at London as a dauntingly big city, studded with attractions separated by a tube or taxi ride or as Londoners do, as a cluster of villages, each with its own individual character. One prime example of a village within London is Bloomsbury, home to the British Museum. Bloomsbury is also home to one of the most fascinating offbeat museums to be found anywhere – the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. The principal draw in Bloomsbury is, of course, the British Museum where the Rosetta Stone and the controversial Elgin Marbles are but two of the museum’s 4,000 “highlights”. The museum’s website suggests what to see if you have only an hour to spare. General admission is free; the museum’s special exhibitions, for which there’s a fee, pull enormous crowds.

During the XXXII ESCRS Congress in London, the featured exhibit will be “Ancient Lives, New Discoveries,” a close-up look at the life and death of eight individuals who lived in ancient Egypt. Book tickets online. For details, visit: www.britishmuseum.org.

It’s a 20-minute walk from the British Museum to the Petrie Museum on Malet Place, where the finds of an extraordinary English Egyptologist, Sir Flinders Petrie, are exhibited. It’s an old-fashioned museum stuffed with fascinating objects (80,000 of them) including one of the oldest garments known to exist – a pleated linen dress worn by a woman in 2,800 BC. The museum is open five afternoons a week from Tuesday to Saturday. For details, visit: www.petriemuseum.com.

A stroll down Gower Street takes you past Bedford Square, one of London’s best preserved Georgian set pieces. At 7 Gower Street, a Blue Plaque commemorates the founding of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the artists who sought to free art from the Victorian grip of the 19th century. Next, look to the right, down Kepel Street, for a glimpse of the towering Senate House on Malet Street. It housed the Ministry of Information between the two world wars and was the inspiration for the “Ministry of Truth” in George Orwell’s 1984. At 62-64 Gower Street is the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. John Gielgud, Anthony Hopkins and Richard Attenborough are three of its famous alumni. Book a tour at: www.rada.ac.uk.

You’re now nearing the Petrie Museum. Where Gower Street meets Torrington Place cross the road and turn right for the entrance to Malet Place. Follow this laneway almost to the end; the Petrie Museum on the left, is marked with a banner.