Overview
The British Museum is our most popular London treasure hunt location for families, kids and corporate team building. Search for some of the most iconic treasures in the entire world from Greece (Parthenon, the ‘Elgin Marbles’), Egypt (Rosetta Stone) and Medieval Europe (Lewis Chessmen) across to Mesopotamia, Mexico and China. “The World’s Museum”, the British Museum’s nickname, has over 8 million objects. Let us help you make the most of your visit, hunting for all the highlights as well as hidden gems, from every corner of the globe.
The idea is simple: compete against each other, or the clock, to photograph your team in front of as many pieces as possible within a given amount of time (90 mins to 2 hrs). A variety of additional THATMuse bonus challenges, from the embarrassing to the illuminating, are embedded in your treasure text, ensuring that hunters read about their treasure — making the hunt educational, fun & interactive!
Please scroll down (on this page) for themes, sample & prices
Themes
Commissioned by repeat corporate clients (& makers of fun!) Lego, Fun & Games is our most popular theme for first-time visitors (adults & kids alike), as it unifies the collection from all corners & quarters. The BM’s treasured Lewis Chessmen are of course prize pieces, but you’ll also scrutinize a Mesopotamian Lion Hunt, find a Roman girl playing Knucklebones, lest we forget Greek Olympic champions (& drinking games!).
THATMuse goes ghoulish on this search for all things dark & macabre, from maudlin mummies and Greek sarcophagi to Aztec sacrificial knives dripping with blood (yikes!). This theme covers a good amount of ground, so it’s not for the faint of heart, but is also family friendly (geared to kids older than Fun + Games, as treasure text is longer).
The Love Hunt includes romantic love (Medieval treasures), impish love (Cupid & his arrow), conjugal love (the famous Sophilos Dinos, a Greek wedding gift telling the story of Thetis & Peleus’s marriage), seductive love (lest we forget Lely’s Venus!) and salacious love (an 11,000 year-old Levant piece of two in coitus!). With a naughty twinge, this is an adults-only hunt.
From the Queen of the Lewis Chessmen to the Babylonian Babe, the Queen of the Night, this lady hunt pumps your pumps up, down and around the BM. Famous femmes like Lely’s Venus & the Nereid Nymphs to little-known ladies like the seal of Elizabeth de Sevorc, a Northern French aristocrat. The prize treasure is spelled out in a letter scramble, for the most celebrated lady of them all!
Sample clue
LION HUNT FRIEZES Palace of Ashurbanipal, North Palace of Nineveh (Northern Iraq) Assyrian (Mesopotamian), 645 BC
In 12th century European lions begin to decorate royal coat of arms; this connection between kingship & lions was probably a result of the European crusades to the Middle East. Here we have a chief source, the Assyrian Lion Hunt frieze – a triumph of Man over Nature. King Ashurbanipal left his mark on his grandfather’s Palace at Nineveh (a city measuring 12kms/7.5 miles) with the North Palace, where these fine feline creatures – vicious, attacking & sad brutes meeting their grisly end – lined the walls. Get a load of just what the fence of this hunting field was made of: shielded soldiers lined shoulder-to-shoulder (oh go on, earn 20 THATMuse points for a photo of your team lined up in profile like them & pointing to one of their rows (there are two human shields within this room)… I guess men were as disposable as lions to the Assyrians! Apparently the Mesopotamian lion, brought to extinction by the 19th C (quelle surprise!), was compared in size to a large St Bernard dog. Still, that doesn’t lessen the queasiness I feel when seeing the small boy standing above their cages (see his small protective cage above?) whose job it was to liberate those ferocious creatures (take 20 THATMuse points for a photo pointing one of these boys out). And yet the 21st C viewer finds compassion for these bloodied beasts, writhing in their last moments. For a bit of your own hunting, scour these gypsum alabaster reliefs & earn 50 THATMuse points by listing 4 of the 8 types of animals found in this room (not including lion or man!). No partial credit, but the BM tags do help!
GAME POINTS: 20
Prices
CLASSIC HUNT: £85 for families (6 people or fewer)
LUXE HUNT: £275/3 hours (6 people or fewer, not including skip-the-line tickets)
GROUP HUNT: contact us for a quote
Extras
London Street Hunt
Want to keep the fun going after your museum treasure hunt? Our first London Streets Treasure Hunt is a completely self contained experience, starting outside the British Museum and taking you all the way to Trafalgar Square. Search for hidden secrets, family crests, magical alleyways and strange statues as you learn about the six (!) wives of King Henry VIII and how he shaped the city you see today.
The London Streets Hunt takes around 60-90 minutes from start to finish but it is not timed. Stop to explore the many landmarks on the route, grab some lunch at Covent Garden, or avoid the rain at the London Transport Museum and continue hunting in your own time.
Or race against the clock, and your friends or colleagues! Our street hunts make great team-building events for schools or companies as well as customized birthday party events! Add one to your booking today, or Contact Us for a quote.
Practical info
Hours
Opening Hours
Open 10am – 5:30 pm every day, except Friday when it’s open till 8:30 pm
Closed 24, 25 and 26 December & 1 January (open every other day of the year)
Getting there
Address
Great Russell St, London WC1B 3DG, England
Metro (Tube Stations)
Tottenham Court Road, Holborn, Russell Square, Goodge St Station
Bus Lines
Stop: New Oxford Street: 1, 8, 19, 25, 38, 55, 98, 242
Stop: Southampton Row: 59, 68, X68, 91, 168, 188
Stop northbound on Tottenham Court Road/Southbound on Gower: 10, 14, 24, 29, 73, 134, 390
Tickets
No tickets needed — the British Museum is free to visitors (although a £5 donation is suggested).
