To be surprised at adults not knowing most museums are free?

[FelineFatale]

I've met recently at least four people who didn't know this. One said they didn't take their children to museums because they can't afford it and the other three just thought you had to pay.

I'm close to two of these people and when I said I was amazed they didn't know this they stated most people think you have to pay for museums.

They don't, surely?!

Only one free museum in my city, and they make you queue for the cash desk where they ask if you’re making a donation and you have to say No!

What I find interesting is that although the museums and art galleries in London tend to be free entry, it costs a fortune to visit churches. In most of Europe, however, it’s the other way round.

MSE has a good list of free museums around the country.

It does show what others have suggested - real regional disparities. London and some other big metro areas (Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Leeds/Bradford, Glasgow) have lots of free museums, but if you’re in eg Norfolk there’s pretty much nothing.

depends on the museum!

Even London museum are not all free - one floor of the Science M. for ex has paying tickets to access. The transport museum has never been free (or not in the recent past)

There are many free museums outside of London. In Wales there are several excellent museums that are free - St Fagins and the National Museum in Cardiff , the Slate Museum in Llanberis, as well as several smaller town museums such as Wrexham.

Liverpool museums that are free, and are again superb - the World Museum, The Museum of Liverpool, The Walker Art Gallery. Manchester Museum is also excellent.

I think that free access to so many museums and art galleries is one thing we should be very proud of - it is hugely expensive to visit museums in Europe. Many of the free museums in the UK have worked really hard to have a broad appeal. The World Museum for example has an aquarium and a planetarium. We have had many hours of free entertainment for our children here.

I also think the National Trust can be great value for money if you get the annual family ticket . I am lucky to live in a part of the world where there are many. many superb NT properties - with no garden to speak of it is brilliant to be able to take a picnic and eat it in beautiful grounds.

London Museums might be free but getting to them costs a fortune

For every £1 that is spent on museums/culture outside London, £20 is spent inside London

London gets free buses for kids and controlled and integrated public transport fares
the rest of the country does not

and then Londoners wonder how Brexit happened

"Whilst a lot are “free” they do have a suggested donation that people perhaps feel pressurised into paying."

I felt pretty much forced into paying the specific donation fee at Bristol Museum. I won't go there again.
I went to the National Gallery the other day and it was easy to walk past the donation thing.
If people don't live in a city, they might be talking about the travel cost to get to the museum?
We hardly ever went to museums as children. I now think my parents and school should have made more of an effort, but getting there was obviously an issue (and you had to pay in those days).

"although the museums and art galleries in London tend to be free entry, it costs a fortune to visit churches."

I've never paid to visit a church (but never visited one in London actually).

No free museums round here either.

@ShabbyAbby yes, you're correct. Since the recession government funding has been cut to the bone for lots of heritage, and as I'm sure you'll appreciate, the upkeep of these sites and museums is expensive.

Unfortunately there is a prevailing attitude in this country that access to heritage should be free, and whilst I agree with that, the reality is that when the government stops providing the funding then the money has to come from somewhere. But people resent paying.

I used to work for a heritage body in the UK. We worked on a site that we used to open, for free, to the public. It was fantastic, loads of people came and had a great time. On nice summer weekends we could have 2,000 or more come through the door! However we had no funding to help with the costs of opening (we used to volunteer our weekends and do all the cleaning / staffing / advertising ourselves on top of our actual jobs) and so we couldn't keep up with the wear and tear on the site, which is what happens of course when you have lots of visitors. Things were left unrepaired and unmaintained.

So in the end we had to close to preserve the site. There was local outrage. So we decided to try opening again, but this time with a very small fee of £2 per adult and 50p per child. The fee wasn't to pay for our time but solely to help pay for cleanup, maintenance etc.

No-one came. Over the month we tried it, and it was in the summer holidays bear in mind, we had about 60 or 70 people. Over four weekends!

It's a sad time for heritage in this country at the moment. Government funding has slowed to a trickle and is showing no signs of picking back up. People are quick to complain when things close but are for the most part unprepared to contribute to the preservation of these museums and sites. So it's a catch-22.

Local museums I've been to recently:
centre for Life, currently has an offer for kids to go free, normal over £40 for a family of 5. To be fair the Discovery Museum and Hancock are both free in Newcastle so Tyne and Wear are doing their bit.
Beamish, £60 for a family, although the ticket lasts a year and so we don't go for a couple of years then have lots of visits for a bit.
Bowes Museum £30 for a years pass for a family (kids go free, that's the price for 2 adults).
York Castle Museum £10 per adult, kids go free. The railway museum in York is free but every other one charges for adults.
Oriental Museum Durham - a bargain £3.50 for the whole family.
Preston Park Museum £5 for a family.

I also think the National Trust can be great value for money if you get the annual family ticket

I'm a member of NT and it's fantastic. My parents are and were when I was a child so I grew up with it.

I think what surprised me is to not realise any museums are free, you must've rarely been to museums and even if you live somewhere where they aren't free, that means you've rarely left your neighbourhood. I was surprised as it seems very sheltered.

I've never paid to visit a church (but never visited one in London actually).

Both York Minster and Durham Cathedral charge.

Museums are hugely reliant on donations because as with every other sector they have been strangled since austerity, there is huge pressure on them to generate income. If money isn't brought in via donations, cafes, gift shops etc they will simply have to start charging again. They don't want to, it's not for profit, the ethos is these are our collections we should learn from but someone has got to pay to maintain them. So it may feel frustrating to be asked to donate, but it's because it costs huge amounts of money to preserve and make available the collections and local government and national government have little desire to fund this and would rather museums were self sufficient.

Most of the cathedrals charge, I think.

Plenty are free in Manchester but the train fair is expensive.

Not all museums are free in London ethier. The museum of brands and packing definitely charges. As do some of the museums in birmingham. But that's not the ops point. It's another post were someone who likes museums (which is obv fine) has no comprehension that other people don't find them interesting or relevant and therefore don't go or have any idea if they charge or not. I was last dragged round the British museum as a teenager when you had to pay. It was boring and I no plans ever to go again . Hence I didn't know it was now free. But keep judging op.

Well I never knew that most cathedrals charge. As I said I've never been charged, but come to think of it most cathedrals I've visited have been in Wales or on the continent, not many in England. I wasn't charged at Hereford Cathedral.

We go to a lot of museums. Most are not free.

I think what surprised me is to not realise any museums are free

No one on this thread has expressed this. I know there are museums which are free, but I also know that most of these are nowhere near where I happen to live.

Your OP asked

To be surprised at adults not knowing most museums are free?

The reality is that most museums aren't free, and those who are often rely on public donations to help keep them running.

Although on reflection, I don’t think I’ve paid to enter a church/cathedral in France but I definitely have in Italy (though cheaper than here).

"I think what surprised me is to not realise any museums are free, you must've rarely been to museums and even if you live somewhere where they aren't free, that means you've rarely left your neighbourhood. I was surprised as it seems very sheltered."

I agree, but then I didn't know that cathedrals (in England presumably) charge, so am I sheltered too?

We have annual memberships for NT and EH so our kids are used to historic sites and houses. BUT OH and I are both history grads and each have a post-uni interest.

My kids have been to a Leonardo exhibition this week and next weekend we are off to the Oxford Uni museums. All for free (except parking and Petrol)

They love telling their pals they have been to
London museums and handled dinosaur bones or seen paintings that are 500 years old.

All the museums in my City are free, 6 I think off the top of my head.

Winchester cathedral charges, and so do St Pauls and Westminster Abbey. I think it's pretty standard in the UK. However for Winchester at least you buy a ticket which is good for a year, so you pay once and can then go again.

Notre Dame in Paris was free to get into, but it's obvious that it's not quite as well maintained as the UK cathedrals I've seen. It needed a lot of TLC, or at least it did as of 3 years ago!