Science Museum

The Science Museum grew from the 1851 Great Exhibition surplus and holds around three hundred thousand objects covering the history of science, industry and medicine. The scale of the individual items is what surprises: Stephenson's Rocket of 1829, the Apollo 10 command module that flew to the moon and back in 1969, Charles Babbage's Difference Engine and a working reconstruction of it, Whittle's first jet engine, and a Boeing 747 nose section. The Wellcome medical galleries hold Wellcome's own collection of surgical, obstetric and pharmaceutical material, some of it grim. The Wonderlab charges separately and is aimed at children with live demonstrations. Free entry has been maintained since 2001.

What you actually see

• Stephenson's Rocket - the 1829 locomotive that set the pattern for steam railways.
• Apollo 10 - the command module that orbited the moon in 1969.
• The Difference Engine - Babbage's design, built to his drawings in the 1990s.
• The Wellcome galleries - medical history from a collector with unusual reach.

When to go

Year-round; school holidays and weekend afternoons are extremely busy with families. Weekday late afternoons in term time are the calmest. Adults-only Lates run on some evenings.

Honest expectations

The museum is enormous and cannot be covered in one visit. Wonderlab and the IMAX charge separately despite free general entry. During school holidays the noise level in the lower galleries is considerable.

Nearby

The Natural History Museum and the V&A are on the same street; Hyde Park lies north.