I like reading lists. A chap called Ben Schott has taken advantage of my predilection by publishing books of them that he calls Miscellanies. Here is a list (not one of his) that interests me.
It is the visitor numbers to the top fifteen attractions in the UK in 2015.
1 British Museum 6,820,686
2 The National Gallery 5,908,254
3 Natural History Museum 5,284,023
4 Southbank Centre 5,102,883
5 Tate Modern 4,712,581
6 Victoria and Albert Museum 3,432,325
7 Science Museum 3,356,212
8 Somerset House 3,235,104
9 Tower of London 2,785,249
10 National Portrait Gallery 2,145,486
11 Library of Birmingham 1,828,999
12 Chester Zoo 1,694,185
13 Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich 1,676,055
14 Westminster Abbey 1,664,850
15 Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1,622,821
(Titanic in Belfast clocks in at number 57 with 621, 521 visitors. Bottom of the list, at number 230, is the Museum of Zoology that apparently received no visitors; maybe it was closed for a refurb last year.)
Now for some lists that I photographed while walking through Hyde Park.
It is remarkable that the Great Exhibition of 1851 had more than six million visitors in less that six months. Here are some more stats about it.
Rather a contrast to the Millennium Dome on the Greenwich peninsula in east London. It cost £789 million and also attracted about six million visitors – but that took a whole year.
