New Walk Museum & Art Gallery

While visiting Leicester for work, I figured I would check out a couple of the local museums. This museum, like many in the UK, is free to visit. It’s smaller than what I imagined, but that was quite alright for me. I thought the more local artwork was fantastic. The museum does have a variety of different exhibits — kids would probably do fine here as the downstairs is more kid focused.

free museum and so many contents are shown, it’s a good place for kids and families to enjoy weekend and the gallery worth watching.

A great museum to re-​visit, as the exhibits change regularly. The café is good, and fairly cheap, and the more permanent exhibitions include creepy crawlies, art and mummies. The new dinosaur gallery is superb as well as the obligatory massive skeleton (a Cetiosaurus), you can have the sensation of standing on the sea-​bed as marine dinosaurs swim overhead. It’s not a massive museum, so allow yourself an hour or two at most and (if you can) pop after 6 – 12 months to see what’s new.

No matter how many times we visit the New Walk Museum, the kids always ask to go again every holiday. There’s something comforting in the fact that I can show them things my Grandpa was showing me at their age — which is how, in some respects, a musuem should be, and what several Leicester museums have lost. They love the dinosaur room with the skeletons, fossils and fascinating rocks, and we still haven’t found the fern in the coal face. Mixed feelings about the animal room — they are interested in the computers, but the actual taxidermied animals don’t ‘do it’ for them — and to be honest, they look tired, scrappy and perhaps due a major overhaul (the giraffe had a body once — he stood at the top of a long flight of stairs in what is now the central gallery — so just seeing the neck and head is a little macabre). When I can get the kids in a quiet mood, I like looking around the upstairs galleries, and of course the special displays are always popular with everyone — especially this summers Ardman event.

We have visited this museum a few times and have to say it is a great free museum.
It is in a very pretty part of Leicester — New Walk which is a short walk from the shops in Leicester. We often go there after dragging the kids round the shops and the really enjoy it each time they go. They love that they can just wander around and partiularly like the dinosaurs and egyptian sections.
There is a café which is reasonably priced and all the staff at the museum make you feel welcome and are very friendly. Take the kids at weekends or during school holidays for a cheap but very enjoyable day out.

Great historic building. Not very well known as hidden on New Walk. Nice area, friendly and knowledgable staff. Near the train station. Free entrance when I last went. What more could you ask for? Often has special displays but doesn;t advertise. Need to keep your eyes open.

Apart from the beautiful building and the setting of New Walk itself many a happy, relaxing hour can be spent here.
New Walk Museum and Art Gallery is situated along the historic New Walk. In 1849 the Literary and Philosophical Society formally presented to the town its various collections, which have grown and developed over the last 150 years into one of the premier collections and museums in the Midlands spanning the natural and cultural world. The museum has a coffee shop, is a venue for a wide variety of musical performances and is even licensed to host wedding ceremonies.
New Walk Museum has been the inspiration for many people including Lord Attenborough and Sir David Attenborough, who pursued their love of art and natural history as a result of spending their formative years as regular visitors to the galleries. Leicester’s oldest museum.
Permanent exhibitions include:
Wild Space is an exhibition that investigates what we mean by the word ‘biodiversity’. By looking at different species and the habitats in which they live we can see how vital they are to the well being of the planet.
The Mighty Dinosaurs Walk in the footprints of giants and discover the awesome power of these fascinating creatures and their sea going cousins the plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs. Watch out for the mighty Rutland Dinosaur and the ‘Barrow Kipper’.
Leicestershire’s Rocks Leicestershire stands over rocks of many different ages and types, some of which are 600 million years old. Discover Leicestershire’s rocks and explore a wide variety of fossils and minerals.
Ancient Egyptians Step back in time and explore a civilisation that has lasted for 3,000 years. Come face to face with ancient Egyptians and find out how they lived and died. Mummies, coffins, gods and treasures greet you in the darkened corners of the tunnels.
World Arts The new World Arts gallery provides insights into the vast range of human creativity and skill which has gone into making and decorating objects across the world.
‘Our World Through Art’ displays a regularly changing selection from Leicester’s permanent collections featuring artworks from the 16^th to the 21^st centuries.
Showing the brightest and best of the permanent collection, key works range from powerful 20^th-​century artists such as Francis Bacon, Peter Doig and the Old Masters to new, vibrant works from African-​Caribbean and South Asian artists.
Plus changing temporary exhibitions.
Well worth a visit when in Leicester.

Good, free museum with lots of variety to keep the whole family interested. Displays on animals and nature and geology and dinosaurs, through to Egyptology. Also lots of art gallery spaces, modern stuff mixed with older paintings and sculptures and a very famous German expressionist collection. There is also a World Cultures gallery and regularly changing exhibitions up there, recently they have featured Wallace and Gromit, Ancient Greeks, Landscapes and board games.
There is also a café, which is good because it’s a big museum and takes quite a while to get round everything!