From museums dedicated to witchcraft and mechanical art, to collections celebrating pencils, crabs and vintage brands, the UK is home to some wonderfully unusual curiosities. Hidden in seaside towns, tucked away in medieval buildings and scattered across the countryside, these quirky museums offer an opportunity for an interesting and unique day out.
Many of these museums began as personal passions or eccentric private collections before growing into popular attractions. Whether you are fascinated by the bizarre, nostalgic for the past, or simply looking for somewhere completely different to explore, these unusual museums prove that Britain’s cultural landscape is anything but ordinary.
1. Museum of Witchcraft
Where: Boscastle, Cornwall
Now over 70 years old, the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic is one of Cornwall’s most popular museums. Featuring displays of mainly Cornish and British witchcraft and folklore, exhibits include a bellarmine jar found hidden in a house near Plymouth – complete with hair, nail clippings and pins. Learn about occult practices and beliefs from around the world, and investigate examples of curses, spells and charms. The museum was formerly known simply as the Museum of Witchcraft, but today trades as the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic.
2. The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities
Where: Hackney, London
Hidden behind an absinthe bar in Hackney, this gloriously chaotic museum first opened in 2015 and feels more like a Victorian collector’s private cabinet than a traditional gallery. Founded by author and curator Viktor Wynd, the museum showcases everything from shrunken heads and taxidermy to occult objects, erotica and bizarre celebrity relics. Visitors can find it on Mare Street in London’s East End, just a short walk from Cambridge Heath station.
3. The MAD Museum
Where: Stratford-upon-Avon
The Mechanical Art and Design Museum opened in 2012 and is devoted entirely to kinetic art and mechanical creativity. Inside, visitors encounter moving sculptures, marble runs, optical illusions and strange machines built from recycled objects, gears and electronics. Located just a few minutes from Shakespeare’s birthplace in Warwickshire, the museum stands out because almost every exhibit is designed to move, spin, clatter or interact with the public. Rather than focusing on history alone, it celebrates the strange overlap between engineering, sculpture and playful invention.
4. Crab Museum
Where: Margate, Kent
Opened in Margate in 2021, the Crab Museum contains an entertaining exploration of crabs, marine ecology, and internet culture. The museum combines scientific exhibits with surreal humour, contemporary art and environmental activism, all dedicated to better understanding world of decapods. Situated on Broad Street near Margate’s seafront, it has become famous for its witty signs and unconventional displays.
5. Museum of Brands
Where: Notting Hill, London
Founded originally by consumer historian Robert Opie in the 1980s, the Museum of Brands in London houses thousands of everyday products, advertisements and packaging designs dating back more than 150 years. Located near Portobello Road in Notting Hill, the museum guides visitors through recreated decades of British life using familiar supermarket items, toys, magazines and household objects.
6. Ulster American Folk Park
Where: Castletown, Northern Ireland
Dedicated to telling the story of Irish emigration from Ulster to America, the American Folk Park houses around thirty restored or recreated buildings, many of which were dismantled in America and shipped to Ireland. It is divided into two sections – the Old World, which includes original thatched houses from around Ireland, and the New World, featuring a mock-up of an old American street. The park is scattered with volunteers in period costume, who often demonstrate skills and crafts of the eras.
7. Huntley & Palmers Collection
Where: Reading Museum & Town Hall, Berkshire
This collection of 7,000 items is dedicated to a company that was once the world’s largest biscuit manufacturer. The collection spans from 1822 – 1980s and includes over 300 of the decorative biscuit tins for which Huntley & Palmers became known. There are also advertising campaigns and historical artefacts, including a biscuit that was sent on Captain Scott’s Antarctic expedition. Learn about life in the biscuit factory and afterwards sample some of the goodness in the museum café, which serves Huntley & Palmers products.
8. Chiddingstone Castle
Where: Kent
A multicultural collection of Buddhist, Japanese and Egyptian artefacts is housed at Chiddingstone Castle. Collected by Denys Eyre Bower during his lifetime, the pieces include art, armour and even a mummified cat. There are also Stuart and Jacobite collections that feature, amongst other things, the heart, hair, blood and garter ribbon of James II. Bower’s study has also been reconstructed to give visitors an insight into the man who amassed the collection.
9. Organ Theatre (Museum)
Where: St Albans, Hertfordshire
What started as one man’s personal collection grew into the Organ Museum in St Albans, which now features an array of mechanical musical instruments, theatre organs and music boxes. The mechanical organs date back to 1923, stretch up to seven metres wide and were collected from places such as Belgium and the Granada Cinema in London. The museum continues its long-standing tradition of demonstrating the instruments, with performances taking place every second Sunday of the month.
10. Fossil Museum (Square and Compass Pub)
Where: Worth Matravers, Devon
Just next door to the Square and Compass pub in Devon is a collection of fossils that represent 60 years of a father and son’s passion for collecting. Found primarily around the Dorset coast but also from places such as Somerset and Whitby, the collection is ever growing and includes clay pipes, Neolithic flint tools, remnants of shipwrecks and even marine reptiles.
11. Derwent Pencil Museum
Where: Keswick, Cumbria
The Derwent Pencil Museum in Keswick celebrates the history of pencil-making and claims to be the home of the world's first pencil. The first production of pencils began locally after graphite deposits were discovered in Borrowdale in the 16th century. Opened in 1981, the museum showcases giant coloured pencils, wartime spy pencils containing hidden maps and the industrial history of Britain’s pencil trade. Situated in the Lake District town of Keswick, it is easy to find near the River Greta.
Top image: The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History contains an eclectic mix of exhibits, including a 19th-century human shrunken head. Housed in a former shop, it contains an eccentric blend of anything and everything that Viktor has taken a liking to. (Credit: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
