The Cartoon Museum

Museum

Explorer Tom

At 63 Wells Street in Fitzrovia, The Cartoon Museum gives Britain's cheekiest drawings a London address and dares you to keep a straight face. Step inside and the ink starts talking back, from eighteenth-century caricature to comic strips and modern editorial cartoons; I suspect a few old politicians would rather the pictures stayed in a locked drawer. The museum's permanent collection and changing exhibitions show how a few sharp lines can make a grand speech look ridiculous, tell a whole story, or simply land a glorious joke. Its collection holds more than 6,000 original comics and cartoons. That is an awful lot of raised eyebrows, impossible noses and speech bubbles waiting for someone to notice the punchline. Look closely: the smallest detail often does the most damage. There is a serious job beneath the mischief. The Cartoon Art Trust preserves British cartoons, caricatures, comics and animation, and the museum makes them available for enjoyment, research and learning. You can move between work made centuries apart and see artists using humour to argue, tease and question the world around them. If you hear a portrait demanding a lawyer, that is my imagination running away again; the drawings are quite capable of defending themselves. This is a real museum with public admission, so use its current visitor page for tickets and hours before setting off; it normally opens Tuesday to Sunday and closes on Mondays. The address is a short walk from Oxford Circus, Tottenham Court Road or Goodge Street stations. Give yourself time to read the captions, then go back to the drawing that first made you grin. Outside, the city will still be arguing; you will have better ammunition.

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Map note: The recorded spot for The Cartoon Museum is near London, City of Westminster, England; it is a museum. It made the map, and that is an invitation to be curious.

From OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors) n7261799916