Every year on The Daily Constitutional, as the high season for visitors to London hots up, I spend August sharing a few archive posts. This year I'm reposting recommendations from our If You Do One Other Thing In London slot (a regular feature of our Saturday London Spy posts) and updated posts from the Best Museums In London series, in which the London Walks guides shared their best London museum tips.
If theres' a London Walks tour starting or ending nearby I'll add the details at the bottom of each post. I hope you find these posts helpful over the course of the summer.
Keep in touch - I'm not going into hiding! - I'll be posting throughout August and, of course, I'll see many of you "out there" on London Walks tours. All of our regular features – and some new ones, too – will return in September.
A.S-G London, August 2016
I love the Cartoon Museum in Bloomsbury. Tucked away in Little Russell Street near the British Museum, the Cartoon Museum receives very little funding, yet manages to sustain a vivid, rolling programme of exhibitions covering everything from The Beano to William Hogarth. More info here: www.cartoonmuseum.org/exhibitions
The collection – rotated regularly – also features originals from Charles M Schultz and Doonesbury creator G.B Trudeau. I'm told that Trudeau dropped off the originals in person one day, traveling incognito - he enjoyed a mooch around the collection first (as a paying customer!) Artists from George du Maurier to Gillray are also represented in the permanent collection alongside such diverse contemporary figures as Posy Simmonds (Tamara Drewe, Gemma Bovary) and Alan Moore (V For Vendetta, From Hell).
There are workshops for kids and courses for adults, too. Keep an eye out for the peerless Steve Marchant and his Cartooning For Beginners Course. There's a great bookshop, events and talks from the likes of Martin Rowson and no corporate coffee concession stinking the place up. Hoorah!
And I hear that there may even be a ghost on the premises, too.
Crikey!
Small, but perfectly formed, Cartoon Museum is tucked away in plain view, struggling to be noticed in the presence of that upstaging old ham The British Museum.
Go on. Treat yourself.
P.S My Cartoon & Comic Book Tour of London blog can be found here: cartoonandcomicbooklondon.blogspot.co.uk
Here's how to find The Cartoon Museum…
Swing by the Cartoon Museum after/before the British Museum Highlights tour on Wednesdays & Saturdays. More info here: www.walks.com/London_Walks_Home/Saturdays_Walks
A London Walk costs £10 – £8 concession.
Accompanied children under 15 go free.
To join a London Walk, simply meet your guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.
