Imperial War Museum North

This museum is totally different to the one in London. It's as if they are embarrassed to be showing military history. The decent informative exhibits are few and far between and there are far more anti-war and those promoting peace. Political correctness is evident everywhere. Give the public a bit of respect-we know war is hell but you can't cover up history.

The building is very dark inside and in places difficult to see any detail. That said, I would recommend anyone interested in military history to pay a visit.

A parking tip, use the multi storey car park on top of the Lowry shopping centre across the canal. It's free parking for 4 hours if you make a purchase in one of the shops. Have a coffee or a snack in the food court and your ticket will be validated. Its a short walk across the bridge to the museum and once there, don't be afraid to refuse a program, that way it costs nothing for your visit. If you are impressed you can always drop a donation in the box on the way out.

So bad i was angry, travelled in from Sheffield to visit the Imperial War Museum North, paid £4 for parking and a further £4 pound for a programme ( i was told i was supporting the museum if i bought one). Inside was like a huge modern industrial building with poor lighting making it difficult to read some of the exhibits. the exhibits were a strange array of items with no \onnecting theme, why a Trebant car is part of the exhibition i dont know.

The small exhibit concerned with the First world war seemed the most popular , but generally the building has masses of space and so few exhibits. we found it hard to find spend 45 minutes there.

Without any doubt the worst museum we have visited.

Oh, grief, where to start . . .

The Imperial War Museum North is a spectacular example of an award winning museum that is actually all mouth and no trousers. Leaving the aesthetics of the building aside, the actual functioning of the museum as a building obviously played second fiddle to the architects, fashionable if not very practical, vision. The building is dark and ill finished with the ambiance of a 70's multistory car park - the only thing missing is the smell of urine in the stairwell. And talking of stairs, the main one from the lobby to the actual exhibition 'space' (beware of anyone or any place that refers to a room or hall as a 'space') is split roughly 70 / 30 by a hand rail. Do not go up the smaller side! If you do you will soon find that the stairs narrow as they ascend and the rail meets the wall and you have to go back down and start again. Bet the architect got an award for that one. If you make it to the top of the stairs you will be presented with an eclectic range of exhibits. A few small arms and odd bits of uniforms, personal papers and the oddest collection of unrelated larger exhibits that you will ever find under one roof. These include an AV8A Harrier, a T34 tank, a Trabant car and a 13 pounder field gun. Why those particular things were chosen is never explained as they don't seem to be there to illustrate any point or enhance any theme. About this time you start to look at your watch because you've spent a small fortune on a parking ticket valid for four hours and you've seen everything there is to see in 38 minutes. Luckily, at about this time, the lights dim and you are treated to a lot of flashing lights while various recorded voices tell you how bad war is. Well, actually, you already know that war is bad and you actually came here and, this will come as a shock to the museums designers, to be interested and perhaps even educated. At this point you may notice that your fellow visitors are leaving the main 'space' en mass in a vain attempt to find something that they can look at without optical effects.If you are like me, at this point you leave. Please take the time to fill in a survey form before you leave.

I would not recommend IWM (north), but if you do, don't say I didn't warn you.