Kids in London - The Musical Museum in Brentford

KimT's London for Kids Blog

This is a bit of an alternative choice for older children really. And probably one where there is an appreciation of music and musical instruments. Although, to be fair, my ten year old daughter who is not musical in the slightest found it fascinating.

The Museum has just moved from its original location in a disused church nearby into a modern, purpose built building that is worth a visit in its own right - its is large and airy with an attractive wood interior and with coffee/tea rooms offering interesting views over the river and Brentford Docks - a modernised and developing area of West London.

We were lucky to be given a tour by the director as we were at a private party for one of the volunteers. However, we were told that there are always guided tours at the weekend and they can be arranged for weekday visits. From the first room we entered - showing original musical boxes from centuries ago - we were captivated. It was interesting to learn that, in the absence of amplifiers, people needed real instruments to create their music.

So in the first large room there were lots of pianos and other instruments that played themselves - using either flat metal disks with holes punched through them or rolls of paper. And apparently the museum has thousands and thousands of rolls of music for these machines. Our favourite machine was one that was designed by Keith Prowse Company (the company still, I think, exists today in the corporate sponsorship market) that enabled a piano and a violin to be played automatically.

There were further rooms with more automated instruments and plenty of examples of the first gramaphone machines using early amplifier technology. There were some weird adn interesting machines that didn't make it into modern life as well.

There was an interesting street area that displayed further musical novelties (including a lovely selection of musical toys) in old fashioned shops and provided an authentic back drop for the street instruments - organs. These were very loud and not very tuneful! We could imagine the monkeys that were described by our tour guide.

It isn't a huge museum but there is an impressive main hall which has been designed with a cinema balcony where you can watch old black and white movies and listen to the organ music as it used to be played and there is a huge Wurlitzer organ although this was being refurbished while we were there. There is a small but well stocked shop offering a range of musically themed and pocket money size gifts. And all the staff we met were friendly, enthusiastic and highly knowledgeable.

So if you have older kids who are interested in music - or in mechanical machinery as this was the really interesting bit for my daughter - it is worth a visit. Children don't have to pay but adults are charged £7. A rather different experience...especially for kids in today's Ipod world.

:)

Posted Date
Apr 7, 2008 in KimT's London for Kids Blog by KimT