Not far from the British Museum is this hidden gem, the Cartoon Museum. I have lived in East London most of my life (32 years) yet I only became aware of its existence a few weeks ago through a flyer in a comic shop.... well, that's the beauty of London isn't it?

So finally I found myself at a loose end a couple of weekend ago (as my wife was having a girly day in with a friend) so I trotted along to Holborn and with a quick 10 minute walk was outside the museum.

The museum itself is not a large building but they made good use of the space available. There are free lockers available so you can put your bags and stuff it there so you can enjoy the museum unencumbered. The museum covers two floors and is not very crowded at all so I could spend a great deal of time looking at all the art and read the provenances.

Upstairs is a wonderful large room flooded with light from the skylight, there is an area to sit and lots of different cartoon books to look at. This is a wonderful change from many museums I have been to where I feel rushed and hurried through. There is a small adjoining room where children (and adults) can practice their artistic skills and read the many comics available for free.

Downstairs there is an exhibition hall where they were showing the art of Mark Boxer, it was interesting but as I am not a fan of his work I moved through this quite briskly. Of more interest to me were the original Beano, Dandy, Constantine and V For Vendetta works.

This is a wonderful museum which is run by volunteers who want to save the heritage of comic art from Great Britain. If you get a chance go along and support it. It will be money well spent, there are worse ways to spend 8 quid!