To be happy the science museum and natural history museum might have an entrance fee soon

[Ironfistfunkymum]

It makes the place unbearably busy, often have to queue to get in and most people don't appreciate it. They are just going as its something "free".

Fuzzy presumably it would massively shorten the queues as people couldn't come without a ticket?

Afford a trip to London but not afford a few pounds for a museum

This ^^ made me laugh

You do realise many people live in London and in the very poor (gasp!) surrounding areas?

Lynda they haven't always been free for UK citizens - how can they remain free when the government is further restricting funding?

Short answer is that they can't. My local county museum pass costs as much as NHM membership because anywhere outside London has suffered funding wise for years.

Many other days out for children are very expensive.

The NHM isn't just a boring museum, there are so many interactive things for children to do - all these things cost money.

I used to be able to save up (a penny at a time) to get dd and I up to town when she was a toddler/small child, and we would go to the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. We certainly appreciated it. If we'd had to pay to get in too, then we wouldn't have gone. My dd would have been deprived. Your children would have got the experience just because you can afford it.

Why are you and your kids more important than me and mine?

That's a fair point Jux (and others who have made similar points) but where do we draw the line?

Some children will have plenty of experiences that can easily be described as educational just because their parents can afford it, and other children won't have those experiences so will be 'deprived'.

It's not about whose children are more important, obviously all children are equally important, but that doesn't mean that taxes should be paying for them and their parents all to have identical experiences.

Lynda You know virtually nothing about the Op's lifestyle so please refrain from the twatty remarks.

YABU, I find your OP almost unbelievable.

During October half term I'm taking my ds to London specifically to go to the NHM, not just because I've always wanted to take him, but also because it's free. The whole day, including return train tickets from East Anglia and food, will cost me around £30. If I had to pay an entrance fee on top of that we couldn't do it because we're poor.
We don't have holidays (haven't had one for over 10 yrs) and we vary rarely have (paid) trips out. This one day is going to be a very big treat for us and I guarantee you that we will appreciate it even though we're poor. Or maybe we'll appreciate it all the more because we're poor...

The north/south London travel divide probably has as great an influence on whether museum visits are affordable than the entrance price of the museum.

London children 'face north-south transport divide'

IME the more annoying museum visitors are not the 'poor' families, but the naice middle class ones who seem to think it's perfectly acceptable to allow their DC to pelt down the tunnel leading to the museums on scooters, banging into everyone's legs.

Was standing waiting in queue to get into South Kensington station at about 5.15 last week and overheard naice posh lady with kids say to her mate 'well it's ridiculous isn't it. It's all these bloody commuters making it busy'.

Um, no. We're here every day. It's you.

I don't see any issue with a free ticketing system, but agree it would be lovely to keep these museums free if we possibly can.

They're going to remain free. It's just cutlass rattling about potential cuts.

Anyway, with the mayoral elections coming up there's no way the Tories would do it?

Ive always donated when I've gone, not because I'm rich, but I can afford a £5 which I view as a contribution towards keeping it free for others

They should be kept free, so everyone who wants to go have that opportunity.

Sorry op but introducing a charge to keep the queues down is a very elitist view, as you'd have to make it very high to achieve that outcome. The queues for madam Tussauds is much worse than anything Ive ever seen so the price isn't much of a deterrent it seems

Free timed tickets could be an answer, but it seems a lot of admin for no other gain than it not being busy at certain times

As others have mentioned, the museums did used to charge round about the late 90s. It was wonderful when it became free.

It used to cost about £20 for my daughter and I to get to London and that was usually all we spent when we went up for the day. I didn't drive then do it was actually easier to do stuff in London than in my own county.

We frequently visited the Science Museum, the NHM, the V&A and the Tate Modern. We could not have afforded to do it if there was an entrance charge. We took sandwiches, drinks etc - the museums all had places where you could eat your packed lunch so it wasn't just the lack of entrance fee that it made it feel like they weren't just trying to screw money out of us - unlike so many other family attractions.

We appreciated the hell out of it. My daughter is now studying art at uni. Maybe the frequent visits to the V&A, Tates and National Portrait gallery played some part in that.

She and her boyfriend went to the natural history museum the other weekend. She couldn't believe he'd never been. She loved the familiarity of revisiting the place. Seeing the giant golden globe and the 'earthquake room' were like seeing old friends.

So yes, you are being as unreasonable as it gets. But, to be fair, everyone's already told you that.

This is tragic news. The last time this happened, the museums lost thousands. It always happens under the tories. Bad news. The reason, as I recall, is that under the current system most tourists donate what they expect to pay but also thousands of Brits also donate something everytime they go, as well as thousands of tourists that cannot afford the full price but go and donate what they can afford (may not be the full fee price, but every £5 helps), under a fee paying system, all those people that donate simply don't go and the museum loses a lot of money. Also they get less funding, I think. Tories never learn, tragic.

London should only be a playground for the rich. They're the only ones who really appreciate the finer things like art and museums.

In fact all "poor" people should be made to live in the outskirts of London (let's build corrugated iron shelters outside of the m25, as they wouldn't appreciate decent homes) and shuttle them in to do the cleaning, nursing etc then shuttle them back out to their ghettos with food vouchers for pay.

Museums are a victim of their own success. They should be happy people want to go - and that it is accessible to (nearly) all.

I think a country where museums charge a fee and libraries are closing down is a poorer, darker place. and not somewhere where I am proud to live.

Typical of this government that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

OP I suspect that what you're getting round to saying is that our people aren't sufficiently middle class enough to enjoy these places and you dont Wish to share them with the Great Unwashed

Our people = poor people

One of those things you only hear or read about on MN - only the rich can afford to go to museums that charge

Maybe- it might mean slightly fewer people queuing but the queues would move much more slowly.

I took DD to the NHM for the first time last week. I saved up for two months for the £80 it cost to get three of us there, and then one meal. We used the free timed tickets, and it was a great day out.

However, it would have been so much more difficult to get there if I had to scrape more money together. The reason I wanted to go was that DD has suddenly got really into dinosaurs and I wanted to support her enthusiasm. If the trip was much more, any short term spontaneity would be lost. As it was, I had to plan it well in advance.

Also, when am I supposed to be able to go, except in the school holidays when DH works weekends, but wants to be there? Not everyone has a M-F job you know.

If it's the level of crowding that is the problem, could there be capacity limits brought in? If not for the museum as a whole, for certain parts? I don't work in a museum so this may be a daft idea.

arabidopsis
I read your post as the North/South Divide of the country not just London
which is far more relevant to this discussion as we 'not Londoners' have to pay lots to even get within sniffing distance of a DCMS funded super museum/art gallery.
are all of mumsnet Londoners?

I have never been bothered by how busy these places are. They are awesome and even though I'm not a tourist tourist I always visit them because they are fun and good for my dd. I think that a busy museum is a good museum - we try to go 2 x a year. I also wouldn't mind paying as long as it were fairly reasonable and\or donation based (tough ask for an attraction in London).

To be running such large places purely on donations must be near to impossible.

YABVU - Art, science and history belongs to humanity - humanity is ALL of us! (Stands on pub table and sings The Internationale... spills pint in a state of over enthusiasm...).