Places to remember the First World War
We've picked our favourite venues and works of art that commemorate the First World War.
Following on from a renewed interest after the centenary of World War I, these museums and galleries shine a more permanent light on the military technology used in the trenches, and the human experiences of war both on the frontline and on the home front in collections of clothing, equipment, artefacts and art of the era, to help shape very human stories from such a dark time in our history.
IWM North (Imperial War Museums)
Housed in an iconic building by Daniel Libeskind, designed to represent a shattered globe, IWM North uses innovative immersive displays featuring light and sound as well as objects, film and photographs, to reveal the realities of the conflicts in which the UK and Commonwealth have been involved since 1914.
One of the iconic objects on show is the field gun which fired the British Army's first shot of the First World War. In remembrance of the centenary of the First World War, artist Paul Cummins and designer Tom Piper's sculpture, Poppies: Wave and Weeping Window toured a number of venues in the UK between 2015 and 2018,now re-imagined, the artwork, cascades down its permanent home in the unique architecture of IWM North’s Air Shard.
National Museum of Flight
Following the outbreak of the First World War, the Admiralty was tasked with establishing a string of home defence airfields along the eastern seaboard of the UK, from Edinburgh to the south coast of England. In September 1915 the Director of Naval Air Services gave approval for an air station to be opened at East Fortune – now the site of this museum. Today, it houses personal testimonies, photographs and film and other unique artefacts that tell the story of service at the base.
Stanley Spencer Gallery
Opened in 1962– three years after Spencer's death – the gallery stands as a lasting memorial to the life and work of the Cookham-based painter. Spencer's life changed irrevocably with the outbreak of the First World War; signing up to serve in the Royal Army Medical Corps, he was posted to Bristol and then Macedonia, before transferring to fight on the front line in 1917. He also worked as an official war artist. When he returned to Cookham he said he had lost that 'early morning feeling' and his struggle to make sense of his experience haunts his later work. The collection contains examples of his paintings, portraits and drawings, as well as letters and other personal items.
IWM London (Imperial War Museums)
IWM London, which underwent a major renovation and representation in time for the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, tells the stories of people's experiences of war and conflict. A series of galleries devoted to the First World War reveal what life was like in the trenches, and for those who remained at home. The museum's art collection contains a number of paintings of the war.
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