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Birmingham museum and art gallery.

Spent hours in the late 50,s early 60,s exploring the art gallery and museum. Things that stand out were the sphinx as you went in then the fantastic tiger in the glass case and the massive Japanese crab. The whole building had it,s own smell, never noticed it in other museums! After the art gallery it was off down to Newall Street and the science museum, pre City of Birmingham display. Loved the working machines that could be activated by the touch of a button, happy days. Remember it like yesterday.
 
Spent hours in the late 50,s early 60,s exploring the art gallery and museum. Things that stand out were the sphinx as you went in then the fantastic tiger in the glass case and the massive Japanese crab. The whole building had it,s own smell, never noticed it in other museums! After the art gallery it was off down to Newall Street and the science museum, pre City of Birmingham display. Loved the working machines that could be activated by the touch of a button, happy days. Remember it like yesterday.

I don't rememember the Japanese crab. The roaring dinosaur is one thing that stands out in my memory, and the pterodactyl, which I think was suspended over the mummy gallery. There was, I think, a black New Look dress or suit in a glass case somewhere, in a secluded area.
 
I don't rememember the Japanese crab. The roaring dinosaur is one thing that stands out in my memory, and the pterodactyl, which I think was suspended over the mummy gallery. There was, I think, a black New Look dress or suit in a glass case somewhere, in a secluded area.
In the 50's I loved to go to the Science Museum, I would take the bus from Handsworth to Snow Hill a penny each way. I would get a shilling and the rest was mine!
No matter how many times I went there I learned something more because they rarely changed anything in those days. It was a wonderful place! I loved the machines but also John Cobbs Railton Mobile Special. As I got older I appreciated more how fast 400 mph was!
 
I don't rememember the Japanese crab. The roaring dinosaur is one thing that stands out in my memory, and the pterodactyl, which I think was suspended over the mummy gallery. There was, I think, a black New Look dress or suit in a glass case somewhere, in a secluded area.

In my childhood in the 1990s seem to recall seeing a T-Rex skeleton. But it was gone by the 2000s.

So at the moment the only full dinosaur skeletons you can see are at the Lapworth Museum of Geology at the University of Birmingham.

They have an Allosaurus (not a T-Rex).



And a Pteranodon.



I went in June 2018, about 2 weeks after seeing Dippy in the Gas Hall. Which was on a tour from the Natural History Museum, London.

 
Anyone remember the massive stuffed tiger and the monster Japanese crab in their own glass cases, sceary stuff.
I don't remember the crab, but I remember a lemming in the Arctic section - in fact I made a point of pointing it out to my boyfriend at the time the once as my favourite exhibit!

I do remember the natural history section very well, it's a shame it was broken up. I know some of it got damaged as that department was in the basement & it got flooded during really bad weather, so I guess they made the decision to not reinstate it there. I know there's a bit at the Think Tank, but it's not as good (and the entrance fee is pretty steep).
 
I loved the old Science Museum. Many good memories - the planes hanging from the ceiling, the steam train that moved, the mock up of the Victorian children's nursery that my mom wouldn't go near 'cos the dolls gave her nightmares....

I last went in there in the 90's & was horrified to see something I had actually used in there - the last pay on answer phone box to be decommissioned. It was the one from by the shops where I grew up! Made me feel old to think something I had used was in a museum!


Such a shame you have to pay a fortune to see any of it at the Think Tank now.

Check this Thinktank thread for my photos from my 2013 and 2014 visits.

 
The thread seems to have gone a bit off topic into the science museum . Bringing it back on topic, the newspaper archive have just added a lot of issues of the Daily mirror, including the 1920s. Here is a comment from 1925 on the art gallery and council prudery
Daily mirror. 19.11.1925. art gallery prudery.jpg
 
Spent hours in the late 50,s early 60,s exploring the art gallery and museum. Things that stand out were the sphinx as you went in then the fantastic tiger in the glass case and the massive Japanese crab. The whole building had it,s own smell, never noticed it in other museums! After the art gallery it was off down to Newall Street and the science museum, pre City of Birmingham display. Loved the working machines that could be activated by the touch of a button, happy days. Remember it like yesterday.
I used to go into the museum for the meetings of the Birmingham Natural History and Philosophical Society in '50s (butterfly mad at that time). As a 13 year old, I remember seeing Henry Moore's bronze 'Fallen Warrior' and thought it the saddest and most heart wrenching thing I had ever seen...
Antonym.
 
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