Lewisham museum wins family-friendly accolade

A museum in the London borough of Lewisham has been named the most family friendly in the UK in a  national competition to find places where parents and children alike can have fun and are made to feel welcome.

The Horniman Museum and Gardens in Forest Hill was bestowed with the honour after coming in joint first place in The Telegraph Family Friendly Museum Award 2013.

The museum beat four other finalists to the top spot thanks to its plethora of events and exhibitions, which not only teaches adults and children about the world around them, but how our current world came to be.

The key criteria for the awards was that the museum had to go an extra mile in making all visitors feel welcome, and this is something that judges deemed was achieved successfully.

The victory was announced at a ceremony at The Telegraph’s offices in Buckingham Palace Road, London, after the shortlisted venues has been picked in July by a panel of expert judges and a team of family judges, who visited each venue anonymously over the summer holidays to choose the winner.

Janet Vitmayer, director of the Horniman Museum and Gardens, said that to be recognised by families themselves for the award is "the greatest prize".

"We welcome thousands of families each year, and our aim is not only to make their visits rich and enjoyable, but also to help foster a lifelong love of the arts and culture in our younger visitors."

The museum itself has been open since Victorian times, when Frederick John Horniman first opened his house and the interesting collection of objects to visitors.

Since then, the collection has grown tenfold and includes internationally important collections of anthropology and musical instruments, as well as an acclaimed aquarium and natural history collection.

A unique factor in the museum - and one which helped it to scoop The Telegraph award - is the fact that visitors can see the collection up-close and face-to-face, even being allowed to pick up, try on and play with some of the objects.

Published 19th September, 2013

© 2013 Estates IT Limited