Hidden gem museums

But if you want something slightly different and away from the madding crowd, there’s no shortage of alternatives. We could mention the Lawnmower Museum, the Pencil Museum or even tip our hat to the Bakelite Museum – where better to pay your respects to the precursor of modern plastic? Terdapat banyak tempat yang pelik, tersembunyi, memberi inspirasi dan luar biasa untuk dikagumi, sebahagiannya jauh daripada laluan biasa, sebahagian lain pula hanya di persimpangan berdekatan.

An area famed for its scenery and heritage is the south west of Cornwall. The town of St Ives, on its northern coast, has attracted and inspired artists for many years. Pengarca, Barbara Hepworth, versi kontemporari Henry Moore yang sama-sama berpengaruh, telah mendirikan rumahnya di situ. The Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, run by neighbouring Tate St Ives, displays dozens of her wood, stone, bronze and marble works, placed as she has wished before her death in 1975.

The garden is a wonderful place to ponder the links between art and nature – although Hepworth’s works are resolutely abstract, they were strongly influenced by the surrounding Cornish hills and coastline.

Lincoln’s Inn Fields, in the heart of the legal district, is an elegant square well known by lawyers but little visited by the throngs that pack nearby Covent Garden. Antara muzium yang terbaik tetapi kurang dikenali di London, terletak sederet dengan rumah bandar teres di situ.

A modest queue of visitors outside its front door is the best clue to the location of Sir John Soane’s Museum, and the wait is well worth it, because it’s not only the rich and charming collection within that appeals, but the house’s interior and the way its treasures are displayed.

Each room is packed full of rare paintings, sculptures and antiquities, collected by architect Soane (not to be confused with Sir Hans Sloane, whose collection founded the British Museum) between the 1780s and his death in 1837. Kurator-kurator berikutnya terikat untuk memelihara muzium itu seperti mana ia ditinggalkan Soane, dan bahan pameran luar biasa yang pelbagai menarik mata memandang.

In south London, hidden away from the riverside and wharves in Southwark, The Old Operating Theatre, Museum and Herb Garret is one of the city’s more curious places to visit. Ia merupakan bilik pembedahan yang tertua dalam negara dan terletak di loteng gereja St Thomas.

If you have ever bemoaned the hectic pace of modern life, a visit to this museum will make you glad that at least you live in a world with anaesthetic. Sebelum 1847, pakar bedah tidak mempunyai cara yang boleh dipercayai untuk menidurkan pesakit mereka, tambahan pula, pembedahan pada zaman Victoria pasti akan disaksikan oleh pelajar-pelajar perubatan di dalam bilik tersebut – maka wujud terma “operating theatre”.

If operations were painful, they were at least quick (an amputation could take less than a minute at the hands of a skilled surgeon) and you can see the original wooden theatre and learn the gory details of its past.

Its guided tours and regular events – speed surgery demonstrations anyone? – are typical of the country’s smaller and lesser-known attractions. Walaupun tempat-tempat ini mungkin tidak mewah dengan bahan pameran yang terkenal berbanding tempat-tempat yang lebih dikenali, namun ia tetap berbaloi dan menghiburkan.