Not a fan of traditional museums? Then the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising is the place for you. Off the beaten path, and literally down an alleyway in Notting Hill, London, the museum offers you over 12,000 original items ranging from Victorian packaging to Rolling Stones concert posters. Interestingly, for a museum that brings you back in time to see how items and brand names have changed, you cannot, technically, take any photos of the inside.

Practically every brand, some of which are not commonly known, can be found here, including Coke, Kellogg’s and even Star Wars.  If you want to see what early cigarette advertisements looked like or the evolution of the Coke can, this is the right place.

However, the layout of the museum is quite confusing. It brings you through the decades, starting from the Victorian era, with Bird’s custard powder, and ending in the modern era, with One Direction magazine covers The way each exhibit flowed from one to another made no sense to me though. Take the 1960s exhibit for example. In a space of nine feet, there was an exhibit on international travel next to a radios exhibit and a breakfast food display. These three things don’t usually go together, but they are placed in successive order in the museum for some reason.

I also noticed the strange and almost nonexistent lighting in the museum. As you walk through, the only lights you see are the ones illuminating the exhibits, but that doesn’t do much. It is not until the last hallway of the museum that it becomes bright enough to actually see what you are reading.

Although the lighting is poor and the layout doesn’t make sense, I still highly recommend seeing this one-of-a-kind museum.

Current Address: 2 Colville Mews, Lonsdale Road, Notting Hill, London, W11 2AR
Future Address: 111-117 Lancaster Road, Notting Hill, London,  W11 1QT
Tube Stop: Notting Hill Gate: District, Circle, Central Lines. Ladbroke Grove: Hammersmith and City, Circle Lines
Cost: Adults, £7.50, Students with ID, £5.00