In Flanders Field Museum

[thefenchurchfund]

Having visited the "In Flanders Field" museum a few years back, I thought it was just right, and have reccomended it to many people since. I visited again a couple of weeks back and was more than dissapointed. There seems to be a relience on technology for technology's sake through out the museum and the flow of the place has gone. the dreary lighting and even more dreary "music" detract from the subject, rather than add to it.

I shall no longer be recomending it as a place to get the feel of what the war was about on a human level. There are much better "private" museums.

[redbarchetta]

Rod,

Surprised you didn't enjoy it. Certainly it has gone down the technology route, like every other new museum, with this 'identity' idea (Arras, Meaux), but you have to appreciate who they are trying to reach out to, and it is not dyed in the wool WW1 buffs in their fifties, it is the under thirties, for whom technology is everything. The old museum was very 'old museum', I have to say, so was overdue an update. The 'private' museums you prefer are perhaps still 'old school', glass cabinets with photos and items of equipment etc? How many school trips visit such places I wonder?...

I liked it. Clearly Meaux is better laid out, lighter, airier etc, but it is a bespoke new building, and that kinda makes a difference, versus a building (well, the design, anyway) that is seven hundred years old!!!

IMHO

James

[John_Hartley]

I also like the new museum. I'm comfortable with the use of technology and the modern imaging style. Very much 21st century, IMO.

I understand why some will not like it, just as I understand the same dislike of IWM (North) at Salford. But, for me, both tell a successful modern story.

[goldmax 007]

I visit the museum at least 3 times a year which is in fact each time i go over to the area and have always found it to be a good experience a couple of times its has been noisy due to the work but apart from that I have always had a good visit and I am to believe its going to be a big part in the 2014 school trips that are being organized

[Old Tom]

I have only visited the museum twice, once in the old form and once last year. I was impressed with the new form and deemed it a considerable improvement. The only snag was the small snack bar on the ground floor (probably not part of the museum) - one had to chase the tourist office staff to get a coffee.

Old Tom

[Dave Phillips]

I also enjoyed the new technology and it will certainly appeal to the younger generation, which presumably is the intention of the museum, however I did prefer the old layout.

My favourite museum remains Hooge Crater; but I would not want to take a school party there. The museum at Zonnebeke, with the new dugout and trench experience is excellent and for me comes a close second; again I would find it difficult to take a school party to it.

Dave

[17107BM]

Hello all.

I am at a loss as to what people have in mind when they enter this Mueseum? Most i speak with are very impressed with what they have seen and heard.

The Mueseum at Albert, although different in character makes it well worth a visit given it's uniquie way of offering the visiter an insight to the feeling, all be it slight, of what Trench life was like.

There are others that i have visited from Ypres to the Somme, each have there own offerings in way of 'telling the story of World War One.'

Let's not forget that these are also places of Remembrance for many that make the effort to come to the Western Front from all over the globe, and there are many. These places are there connection in the short space of time they have to see what it was like for there WW1 relatives.

Thanks to all.

[Ken Lees]

Zonnebeke for me. The new displays are very good indeed.

[johnreed]

Each to his own. I was impressed with the new IFF.

John

[BelgianExile]

I've had the privilege of being able to visit most of the museums in and around the area over the last year, and IFF is one of my favourites (I never saw the old one though). I took my kids there earlier this year, and they got a lot from it (13 & 16). I'm not convinced that the whole 'personalisation' piece works that well - looking into gloomy letter box sized slits every once in a while doesn't endure, but I thought that some of the exhibits were very effective.

It is what is it - a centrepiece exhibition for Ypres and the wider area to give, dare I say it, 'casual' visitors to the area an idea of what went on. I suspect that the majority of those using this forum are not within that target audience - and would probably prefer a different experience. That said, I think it does what it does very well, and kudos to them for that.

[Mark Hone]

I think that the 'new' museum is a definite improvement over the previous version (which was itself a revamp of the traditional display of blessed memory). I particularly liked the use of new technology in the interactive maps of various sectors of the front. Whilst I criticized the previous incarnation of the museum for being too impressionistic and not presenting a coherent narrative of the course of the war I feel that the new version is trying to bombard you with almost too much information and the visitor can come away rather bewildered and miss some of the really interesting stuff amongst the sound and fury. I agree with a previous poster that the personalised ticket, which was one of the best features of the previous display, doesn't seem to work properly in the new museum. My tech-savvy pupils last year never really got to grips with it and gave up trying to follow 'their' person very quickly.

[goldmax 007]

The museum at Zonnebeke is also well worth a visit also Ramparts museum again gets a visit on each trip

[bruce]

I agree with others that the new IFF is an improvement upon the old.

However, Zonnebeke is better still, IMHO.

Hooge Crater is also good, whilst Hill 62 I find annoying, for there is a wonderful museum waiting to burst out there, lost under a layer of dust and begging to be properly labelled and displayed.

I regularly take school parties to IFF, Hill 62 and Zonnebeke, and have no problems with any of them.

Bruce

[WilliamRev]

I visited the new IFF museum a few weeks ago, and found it rather more conservative than its' previous incarnation visited three years ago: gone is the scarey "No Man's Land experience" and the weird sculptures. Not sure if I like the constant sombre organ music, just to remind us that the war was nasty, though.

What you can now do is to go up the bell-tower, although despite the museum being packed, my brother and I had this entirely to ourselves, and we spent a while up there. It is quite a climb and you need a good head for heights, but the 360 degrees view of the entire salient from the very top is wonderful. (The clock mechanism is fascinating too, the chimes almost deafening when you are standing next to the bells!).

Photos below, taken mid-June 2013, show my brother at the top, and a photo from the top of Ieper Market Square with Menin Gate in distance.

[bruce]

231 steps up to the view....but well worth it (and the extra cost). I can't think of anywhere else on the salient where you can get a view anything like that. It is well worth it.

Bruce

[gerry275]

I went 2 yrs ago so took my wife along this time (aug'13)

We enjoyed the new layout and as my wife pointed out- if you don't want to see the reality of some displays you don't have to look. As for the café- we enjoyed our drinks food and service.

Regards Gerard

[Gareth Davies]

I visited the IFF museum on Saturday morning and learned something new while I was in there. And I then went to the Hooge Crater museum and learned something new there too. So both, while very different in their approach, are certainly managing to educate.

[Kitchener's Bugle]

I visited the Museum about 3 weeks ago and took plenty of images - when I sort them out I will post some.

The main idea as it where is to type in your family name - if there is a soldier with the same name (More than likely) then you can follow him around through the War i.e. around the Museum - with a headset on!.

Of course you can just do your own thing if you wish!.

I think this is a good use of technology - paticularly for Children as it "personalises" the War to some extent and keeps their attention.

[Dawley Jockey]

I am another firmly in the Zonnebeke/Hooge crater museum camp, have always considered them in my opinion the best two in the salient

Dave

[Le_Treport]

Went to IFF this afternoon with an open mind, but now prefer the Hooge/Zonnebeke ones. There wasnt enough 'stuff' for me!

Mind you, I did like the interactive bit at the end where you could overlay then and now aerial photos - wish they sold that application! Shop had a good selection, just have to work out how to smuggle them into the house without Mrs Le Treport spotting them!

[Kitchener's Bugle]

Hi all, you might find this of interest. Some recent photo's of the interior/exhibits in the In Flanders Field Museum.

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=200955