Best & Cool Science and Space Museums in Basildon Close

"There are fabulous hands-on galleries for all age groups at the Science Museum: Launchpad - the museum's most popular gallery - enables adults and older children to explore science and technology with 50 hands-on activities and shows, Pattern Pod has scientific fun and games for younger children, and the basement 'Garden' has great water play and building activities for toddlers. See rockets, satellites, a piece of moon rock and a full-size replica of the 'Eagle' moon lander in the Exploring Space Gallery, or learn about electronic music, the future of fuel and the history of aviation in fabulous galleries over six floors. Older children will want to get their hands on the controls in the Fly Zone Simulators, while the whole family can experience a Saturn V rocket launch in the 4-D cinema, watch a science film on the enormous IMAX screen or take part in workshops, storytelling sessions and science shows."

"The Science Museum in South Kensington is one of the best London museums for kids, and our top choice for interactive exhibits and amazing educational experiences. There are seven floors of exhibits across award-winning exhibitions and permanent galleries. With so much to do, visiting the Science Museum is also one of the best free things to do in London with kids."

"Kings College London only recently opened this permanent site for the Science Gallery, a dedicated space for showing contemporary artwork that explores scientific questions. Its inaugural exhibition is all about addiction, called Hooked, and previous shows in its travelling days have investigated blood, food and orifices. Think of it as looking at science through the eyes of an artist."

"Science Gallery London is an art-science-and-health inspired gallery in London. The free museum has been open since 2018 in London Bridge after a series of pop-up exhibits across London. The gallery aims to bring together scientists, artists, and communities with three themed seasons every year."

": Row upon row of glass jars, with everything from tiny organisms, to strange two-headed beasts, to examples of gross diseases, this museum can be very creepy at times, especially when it’s quiet. However, it’s so much more than the freakshow that it is sometimes made out to be, offering a unique insight into the history of surgery and advances in modern medicine. The next few months are your last chance to see the museum before it closes in 2017 for refurbishment, so get going!"

"Bears is an Icelandic-inspired soft serve store where you can expect flavours like lemon curd with marshmallows and biscoff crumbs. Seasonal ice-cream flavours include things like Salted Pumpkin Seed Nougat or Blueberry, Lavender Jam Meringue Swirl or vegan sorbets like Passion fruit & Double Dark Chocolate Freckles. All the soft serves come with a choice of toppings that are dipped, rolled or smashed into the ice cream and they do ice cream cakes too."

"The audacity of the interior design - part temple, part Tudor (yes) manor, part set from a Bond film - announces that you're somewhere special, and you are. The main culinary influence is Thai, so you're spoiled for choice when it comes to fiery curries and the like, but flourishes come from all over Asia. The spring rolls, Vietnamese in derivation, are a particular delight, combining lightness and impeccable flavour combinations."

"Forgive us while we get lost in The Anchor and Hope’s menu, where a three cheese and hazelnut souffle with pumpkin and extra parmesan hangs out with deep-fried pigs head and sauce gribiche. Sundays are when things get really indulgent: much of weekday menu is on offer, alongside bonus roasts and the likes of a suet-crusted sharing pie filled with pheasant, Calvados and chestnuts. For simpler pleasures, the pub also offers a set “Worker’s Lunch” menu which offers one course for £11 and three for just £18."

"Unlike everywhere else on this map, Atari-Ya is a fish and seafood supplier for high-end Japanese restaurants. Nobu, Zuma, the Araki, included. It also runs three sushi restaurant outlets in Ealing Common, Golders Green, and Swiss Cottage."

"Good sushi is a marriage of produce and skill – two things which The Araki prides itself on enough to warrant a £310 price tag for its one and only menu option. The three Michelin-starred restaurant was opened by Tokyo-based sushi master Mitsuhiro Araki, who specialises in the 200-year-old practices of edomae sushi making. For four years, Araki was the only chef to serve at the London restaurant, creating and personally serving a omakase menu for just nine people per service."

"The only London restaurant to be newly awarded three Michelin stars in the last eight years (and the only three Michelin star Japanese restaurant in the UK), the Araki is incredibly expensive but somehow lives up to its price tag. Worshipped by chefs and regulars alike, it’s a culinary pilgrimage. All the fish and ingredients are locally sourced, with the salmon, for example, from the Irish sea."