On Monday I was lucky to visit to The Museum of Architecture’s Gingerbread City 2019 at Somerset House. I stumbled across this a few years ago and couldn’t wait to visit. Gingerbread City is an annual exhibition, now in its fourth year, organised by the Museum of Architecture. It aims to connect the public with architecture in an exciting way, and spark important conversations around cities and how we live in them. And yes, everything is made of gingerbread – an absolute dream for me!
A visit to The Museum of Architecture’s Gingerbread City 2019
The Museum of Architecture challenges leading architects, engineers and designers to create a futuristic city made entirely of gingerbread. The theme this year was ‘transport’ with over 100 architects, engineers and designers using their design expertise (and baking genius) to create a city that explores imaginative new ways of moving around our densely populated cities – all made entirely from gingerbread!
The first issue I had was trying to find the venue. I entered Somerset House from the Strand and saw the wonderful ice rink. The Gingerbread City was a bit of a walk, through long corridors, out side and then back in a door at the back of the building overlooking the Thames! Unfortunately there was a problem with the ticket machine so I was only able to buy a ticket with cash or by registering online and buying a ticket via the website. I went for a quick walk to a local cash machine and came back to buy a ticket.
Finally I was in! The Gingerbread City was displayed in a large room which you could walk around to see all the different buildings. It’s difficult to describe but it is definitely worth a visit, especially if building a gingerbread house is one of your festive traditions. The City was cleverly displayed and tiered so you could see inside buildings and there was always something to look at.
There were some amazing creations and it was so much fun to walk around. It was fun spotting gingerbread buildings based on real London buildings alongside the made up fantastical creations. I loved the clever use of gingerbread, with all kinds of sweets to make windows, drones, presents and pretty much anything!
At the end of the exhibition you could vote for your favourite creation and add your dream gingerbread building to the wall of comments. Gingerbread City is also running workshops and if a visit to The Museum of Architecture’s Gingerbread City 2019 inspires you, you can purchase your own gingerbread kit in the shop.
Visit Gingerbread City at Somerset House between 07th Dec 2019 – 05th Jan 2020.
Tickets details:
Full Price £9.00 / Under 12s £7.00 / Under 3s Free
Monday, Tuesday, Saturday & Sundays 10.00-18.00
Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays 10.00-20.00
I would absolutely love to attend this one day, we always try to make gingerbread but we never succeed.
This is really cool to see! I would have never thought that you could create something so intricate out of gingerbread. Lovely!