The Brilliant Migration Museum

This wonderful Museum is well worth ninety minutes of your time. Yesterday I had a free day with zero plans, so took a trip down to the Migration Museum in sunny Lewisham. Located in the shopping centre it's really easy to get to - just ten minutes from the DLR.

The racist riots across the UK in early August were not surprising. Emboldened by 4 Million votes for Reform UK in the election, a constant stream of anti-migrant rhetoric in the media and the legacy of a deeply violent colonial past that has never come close to being honestly discussed and atoned for in public discourse - racist populism is never far from the surface.

The only surprise was the number of white people who were deeply surprised by what happened.

The Museum itself is free and a great trip with kids. Exhibits are really varied and multimedia and all come from a human angle. Telling the stories behind the people who have found their way onto the shores of the UK in a myriad of ways; people with tales of expectation, fear, pain, sorrow and hope.

The Museum blends cultural elements; I particularly enjoyed the cafe installation and voiceover of a guy talking about how many fry-ups his family had cooked with the deeply visceral.

Lucky Star Chinese takeaway was so realistic my daughter asked if we were eating there.

The area set up to recreate the conditions of the Jungle Camp in Calais was particularly moving as we're reminded of the trauma and conditions migrants go through just to try and enter a country. Never mind the hostility, hatred and inhumane bureaucratic maze they are subsequently met with. If they make it alive across The Channel. The horrors of these journies are so incomprehensible - we mostly just switch off and tune out.

What makes this a fabulous museum experience is the variety of angles the exhibits cover.

There are tales of the Caribbean front-room illustrated through beautiful oil paintings, highly realistic and evocative installations, opportunities to contribute your own stories everywhere, loads of video and audio content and of course - a well-curated shop that will suck you in and relieve you of some cash. ??

The museum itself is due to move to a permanent home in Aldgate in 2027 - but I loved this incarnation. A surprising space that emerges from a bustling shopping centre - full of people going about their ordinary business. Lest we forget - migrants are just people trying to go about their business and build a home. You should go as soon as you can.