If you’re looking for a cultural experience in the capital city like no other, please allow us to point you in the brain-bogglingly bizarre direction of The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History. This eclectic emporium is tucked away inside a basement in Hackney, and is filled to the brim with strange, spellbinding, and down-right shocking objects. In fact, it’s a place so peculiar that it’s just been named the weirdest attraction in the entire country. Yep, sounds about right.
The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History
Located inside a former call centre on Mare Street, the museum can be found in the basement of The Last Tuesday Society cocktail bar. From rare to utterly random, the museum is bursting at the seams with a collection of items that span several centuries (and is insured for £1 million), curated by – rather unsurprisingly – Viktor Wynd.
Challenging the concept of museums as we know them; The Viktor Wynd Museum is the UK’s only cabinet of curiosities – so it’s certainly something to be hold. But it’s not for the faint-hearted, let me warn you of that. The teeny tiny space is filled with objects that entertain rather than educate. And there’s absolutely no correlation between them all.
There’s hairballs and human remains, skeletons and skulls, fossils and feathers, mermaids and McDonalds toys, and a lot of taxidermy. More stomach-turning items include celebrity fecal matter and a jar of used condoms (but the less time we spend speaking about those, the better). Basically, there’s no rhyme or reason to the items inside the museum and nothing seems to be off limits (even though it really should be). As its name may suggest, the museum also features are rather impressive collection of art, including the largest publicly displayed collection of work by Austin Osman Spare.
A recent study conducted by Betway Casino scoured the length and breadth of the UK to uncover the ‘weirdest’ attraction in the country. And – you guessed it, folks – The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History came out on top, with a whopping 76.5% of visitor reviews highlighting the museum’s weirdness. I can’t imagine why.
Tickets to the Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History cost £12 and are available to book here. The museum also offers guided tours and regular events.
📍11 Mare Street, E8 4RP.
🚇 Nearest stations are Cambridge Heath and Bethnal Green.