Horniman Museum, Forest Hill

Horniman Museum

I've heard a lot about the Horniman Museum over the years of living in the area but hadn't visited until the weekend before last.

We started in the gardens on the museum which, as you'd expect, looked a little barren in winter. However, the formally laid out sections looked full of promise and I'd like to visit again in the spring / summer to see the flowers in bloom and fruit ripening.

The grounds also offered a sweeping panorama of London from Battersea power station in the west round to Canary Wharf in the east. There was also the, errrr, rather striking Ladlands and Bredinghurst estate in the foreground. Once I'd got over the shock the estate had a certain brutalist charm that slowly grew on me the more I looked at it.

I can't think of anywhere else in south London that gives you such an uninterrupted vista of London.

Inside the museum be prepared for a lot of children, something which I found slightly headache inducing. We visited the British Wildlife Photography Awards, had a quick spin through the Natural History gallery and also a look round the music gallery. The collections were quite incredible. However, their formal presentation (rows of objects in glass cabinets with small labels) struck me as being quite dated.

I was pleased to see a Paxman French horn, very similar to my own, in the music gallery. It made me feel a little guilty that I don't play it more.

We ended up walking all the way home. I unexpectedly picked up some free flour in the back streets of East Dulwich from someone who had left a box of food outside their house with a "help yourself" sign on it. I was a bit short on flour so it was a definite baking win.