London_Regional_Children's_Museum
London Children's Museum
Children's museum in London, Ontario
The London Children's Museum is a private, not-for-profit museum located in London, Ontario, Canada.[1] It was the first children's museum established in Canada,[1] founded in 1975 by Carol Johnston two years after visiting Boston Children's Museum during a family trip. As of 2021, the museum receives 88,000 visitors each year and has an operating budget of approximately $1.2 million.[2] Its current executive director is Amanda Conlon.[1]
The original museum was based in the old City Centre.[1] After several moves in its early days, it acquired the building of the former Riverview Public School in 1982 with a grant from the Richard Ivey Foundation.[1] In 2014 it sold the Wharncliffe Road building to a London developer, but will remain a tenant until at least 2021.[1]
The museum will move to a former and refurbished Kellogg's cereal plant in the city's east end factory district at 100 Kellogg Lane.[2] [1][3] The museum will occupy the building's fourth floor, which has 25-foot (7.6 m) ceilings.[1][3] After the move, the museum plans on creating new exhibits.[1] In 2018, the museum hired an Oakland, California company to design the exhibits in the new building.[4] These include eight "immersive and interactive areas for children and their families", among them a garden patio, a main street-themed exhibit, a river-themed exhibit, and a room dedicated to archaeological discovery.[4] It will also include a large rooftop playground.[3]
Exhibits include Bellina, a whale skeleton suspended in the atrium, an arctic exhibit, and a dinosaur exhibit.[1]