Pompeii @ Britist Museum: a night of over charging

Last Friday night I went to see the Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition at the British Museum. I left work early and strolled through Holborn to the museum trying one of the new McDonalds smoothies along the way. (Could become a summer value favourite.)

I was sitting on the wall outside the museum waiting for Becks, when I was descended on by a group of Chinese students in London for the summer. With seemingly no respect for personal space they ate their picnics to the left, right, in front and virtually on top of me. Picnics demolished they dropped their bags at my feet and headed into the museum. Did they think I was going to look after them while they were gone? It was all quite odd.

Work support the museum and one of the staff perks is that we get two free exhibition tickets. When I went to collect my pre-booked tickets they would only give one of them to me for free. Overcharge number one of the night.

I thought the exhibition itself was pretty good. It's almost impossible to believe the exhibits are 2,000 years old they are so well preserved. My favourites were the mosaics, fresco's and the mummified body that had been cast in resin.

I would have liked to have seen more of the photos of Pompei and Herculaneum and to have learnt more about the eruption which buried the city.

On the way out of the museum we stopped in the gift shop and were charged for too many postcards. Overcharge number two.

After the museum we walked to Great Queen Street for dinner. Housed inside a pub, and retaining some of the original character, Great Queen St is now firmly a restaurant serving British food from a compact menu.

The restaurant had a good atmosphere and the staff were friendly and attentive (although were harder to get hold of as the restaurant got busier). 

We opted for the chicken and girolles pie for two (£32). The substantial pie had a crunchy pastry topping and a generous filling of chicken and girolles mushrooms. I enjoyed the pie, but didn't love it finding that I needed to add extra seasoning and at £32 without any accompaniments it was pretty steep. It might be a little harsh, but I'm calling it overcharge number three of the night.

Great Queen Sreet
32 Great Queen Street
Covent Garden
London