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| The large exhibits gallery (seen on the right), showing vehicles and artefacts which, due to their size, prevent them from being included in any of the smaller exhibitions, swallows the visitors upon their entering. A spacious hall, reaching from the ground floor up to the second storey, provides a possibility to asee at least some vehicles, tanks, artillery and aircraft of the two world wars and later conflicts. Permanent exhibitions offer an experience of WWI trenches, in which you can hear shells exploding and orders being |
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| Imperial War Museum Jan Hyrman |
| London is one of the many European cities, which were heavily tried by WWII bombing. Several of its museums point this out through hands-on multimedia exhibitions, where the gravelike silence of central European museums is unknown. All senses are fed with sensations, the combination of which brings the feeling of history and satisfies the desire of modern man to see everything and be able to touch it. |
| The Imperial War Museum (I.W.M.) is especially devoted to remembering 20th century conflicts. It began to write its history already in 1917, when the first of the century's two greatest wars was still being fought, and grew with every conflict, adding new displays and exhibits. It has occupied its present location at Lambeth Road since 1936, when it was reopened by the Duke of York, shortly to become King George V. The building originally served as a hospital, caring especially for |
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| shouted. You can see here improvised command post, a dugout for the sentries or a soldier reading a letter he just wrote to his family. A model of a labyrinth of trenches can be examined here, visitors can hear histories of the battles, accompanied by displays about the arms and equipment of the soldiers who fought them. With the same feeling for detail the visitors are shown information on the second world conflict of the last century. According the the I.W.M. General Director, Mr. Robert Crawford, in his welcoming message of the museum guidebook, 'its exhibits range from tanks and aircraft to personal letters and ration books'. The Museum also offers the possibility to visit temporary exhibitions, a list of which can be obtained from the Museum's website (see the Links Directory). During the 20th century and its many wars and conflicts, the size of the building could not house all the exhibits and the Lambeth Road became only one of the branches of the I.W.M., |
| the insane. The building was formerly the Bethlem Royal Hospital, or Bedlam, and was originally far larger. Both of its wings were demolished in 1930's to make way for a park. In the period between September 1940 and November 1946 the Museum was closed to the public and many exhibits were evacuated to stores outside London. One of the German bombs actually hit the museum, destroying the Short seaplane from the Battle of Jutland and damaging other exhibits in the naval department. Nowadays the I.W.M. is one of the best known European museums specializing in this field, and it really does deserve such publicity. A total of six storeys of exhibitions is from floor to ceiling packed with exhibits, every single one of which gives out its story of victory or defeat, fortune or disaster. The Museum overflows with the desire for knowledge, which is what its administrators give out in large amounts. |
| which include Europe's last surviving WWII big gun armoured warship, H.M.S. Belfast, the Cabinet War Rooms or the I.W.M. Duxford and I.W.M. - North at Manchester. |
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| Sources: The official Imperial War Museum guide for visitors |