TURN your world upside down with a visit to London’s latest ‘Instagram-friendly’ attraction – the Paradox Museum.
Launching tomorrow, the exhibit features 25 different crazy rooms with mazes, gravity-defying furniture and mind-bending tunnels.
Much like the Museum Of Ice Cream and the Balloon Museum, this isn’t a museum in the traditional sense – more of an opportunity for plenty of selfies.
But that will suit the hordes of Millennial and Gen Z visitors just fine, because between all the 50 family-friendly interactive displays and optical illusions, there are plenty of Instagrammable moments.
A description on the website reads: “Step into a world where nothing makes sense yet everything feels real. Come, explore, and let paradoxes redefine your reality.”
From the moment I stepped foot into the first exhibition, which can be found directly opposite Harrods in Knightstbridge, I was snapping away for social media – which is exactly what they want, of course.
The rooms are all a series of optical illusions, from tiny sculptures that flip perspectives to tilting slopes and mirror mazes – I spent around an hour exploring.
My favourite room was Zero Gravity, built to look like a room inside a spaceship, and if I jumped it looked like I was floating in space.
Another of my favourites was called ‘The Tilted Room – where gravity takes a holiday,’ which had a white sloping floor and walls featuring either graffiti or mirrors, that made me look wonky.
There are plenty of nods to pop culture in the museum too, including a whole exhibition inspired by Harry Potter and a room dedicated to the British Royals.
Fans of Doctor Who will want to make a beeline for the Infinity Room, where the iconic blue door of the Tardis hides a Yayoi Kusama-inspired small room covered in mirrors, giving it the illusion that is stretches on forever.
If you’re after something more puzzling, then head to the maze of mirrors, where I weaved my way through black-and-yellow pillars and even bumped into a mirror or two.
It was very reminiscent of a House of Mirrors that you’d find at a standard circus – just without the distortion.
Another Yayoi-esque attraction was the Infinity Dodecahedron, a large sculpture made from mirrors and lights.
Several hours after my visit, the one that still has me puzzled is stomach-churning The Swinging Tunnel.
Set within the museum’s Tube-themed section, visitors walk along a disorientating and dizzying bridge, and I still can’t work out whether it was the tunnel or bridge that moved.
Or if you’re more of a wallflower, the Camouflage Wall allowed me to disappear into the background by wearing a cape that matched the black and red zig zags walls.
If you want a break from the interactive elements, then there are plenty of displays where you don’t have to feel like a human guinea pig, including sculptures and other art installations.
Overall, it was a great hour spent on an otherwise cloudy day in London (and let’s face it – we’re getting a lot of those).
The Paradox is aiming itself squarely at the family market and will be great fun for kids on their school summer break from next week.
But it’ll also appeal to ageing Millennials like me and the younger Gen Z .
The Paradox Museum opens tomorrow (July 17, 2024), with tickets starting from £14 per person.
They say that no more than 50 people will be allowed into the museum at any one time, giving visitors the chance to explore the exhibitions with the crowds.
It will be open from 10am until 5.30pm every day, with the museum staying open until 7pm every Friday and Saturday. Visits are expected to last around 90 minutes.
Located opposite Harrods, Knightsbridge is the nearest London Underground Tube Station.
The Paradox Museum is wheelchair accessible and locker storage is also available.
THERE are plenty of great museums dotted across the country, here are some of our favourites.
Victoria & Albert Museum – Sophie Swietochowski, Assistant Travel Editor
London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, which dates back to 1852, simply oozes history from the building itself to what’s in it, but that’s not to say its exhibitions are dated.
A free “songbook trail” from mega star, Taylor Swift, launches next week, plus there are installations from some of the most renowned artists in the world.
I can easily spend a whole day getting lost in its ancient collections tucked away in a hidden corner – sometimes it can feel like you have the whole place to yourself
Beamish – Ryan Gray, Travel Reporter
Beamish is unlike any typical “museum” in that it’s basically a fully-functioning town in County Durham, offering a genuine look at what life would have been like for people during various stages throughout the past.
It has a miners’ pit village, farms, shops, a pub, a school and even a dentist among its businesses and reconstructions, all created to provide people with an experience as close to stepping back in time as possible.
Recently, it has expanded to include a new 1950s town, which includes a toy shop, a welfare hall and a cinema that has been painstakingly brought in and rebuilt from Ryhope in Sunderland.
If I’m ever up in the north east, I try and make sure I pay a visit to Beamish to make the most of my annual ticket. It’s especially great at Christmas when the skating rink is up and carol singers can be found gathering in the town’s bandstand, along with brass bands if you turn up on the right day.
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery – Hope Brotherton, Travel Reporter
It’s safe to say I fell in love with art, history and culture at this Birmingham-based museum.
Following a four-year closure, the museum partially reopened to the public with an exhibition on Victorian Radicals featuring a collection of paintings from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
You can bet the next time I visit my hometown, I will be wandering through the exhibition.
Meanwhile, this UK town is home to one of the world’s best car museums.
And this world class UK museum reopened earlier this year.
