Museum chief bans gimmicks

The rising star of the museum world has called time on galleries' interactive displays and hi-tech gimmicks.

Simon Thurley, 39, the director of the Museum of London who is often touted as a future head of the British Museum, is ditching the technical wizardry in favour of a £20 million overhaul of his galleries over six years.

He says that the millions of pounds-worth of gadgetry pervading many museums is " nonsense ... a lot of it is rubbish and doesn't work anyway. You press the buttons too hard and you break it."

The one piece of gimmickry he has allowed in his new World City galleries, which tell the story of how London became the capital of the world after the French Revolution, is a recording of Queen Victoria speaking. He said: "That is actually an exhibit, not a gimmick. It is her voice."

Mr Thurley said children were bored with computers, which they could play with at home. "Put a screen in front of a child and they will fiddle with it for three minutes. Good, oldfashioned worksheets are the best thing, with a reward at the end.

'We had 7,000 people through the doors last Saturday and 3,000 of the children did worksheets that would have taken them about an hour and a half to do.

"All the blooming knobs and buttons in the world would never have held them that long."

He said he was "unashamedly pitching" the new-look Museum of London at adults.

"You have got to involve them as well as the children. There is no use in dumbing down to their level. You have got to have both."