Future of Food at the Science Museum: Last Weeks of a Free Exhibition
Knightsbridge thinks about food more than most neighbourhoods in London, from the counters of the Harrods Food Hall to the Michelin-starred dining rooms on its side streets. A short walk west, the Science Museum has spent the past year asking where all of it comes from, and where it is heading. Future of Food opened in July 2025 and closes on Tuesday 1 September, which leaves just over three weeks to see it. It is free, it suits adults and children alike, and in the school holidays it is one of the best rainy-day options in South Kensington.
Objects worth the trip
The exhibition gathers more than 100 historic and contemporary objects, and three of them would justify a visit on their own. There is a 3,500-year-old loaf of fermented sourdough bread, astonishing simply for having survived. There is the first Quorn burger, a reminder that today's meat alternatives have a longer history than many people realise. And there is the first beef steak grown outside a cow, a small object with enormous implications for how we might eat in future.
Around them, the show looks at how food has been produced from ancient times to today's industrial systems, and at how ecology and biotechnology could change it again. Displays cover a flu-resistant chicken and a growth chamber for engineered plants, packaging for a cricket burger, ecological approaches to farming and fishing, and the use of plants to control pests.
Seeds, communities and a very big game
Some of the most affecting sections are about people rather than technology. The exhibition tells stories of efforts to conserve the genetic diversity of food, from Norway's ice-cold seed vaults to seed-swapping ceremonies in the Amazon, and of community projects, including organic food subsidy schemes in Cardiff and community kitchens in Peru.
For families, the centrepiece is a large multiplayer game in which visitors make choices about food production and watch them shape a shared digital landscape. A seasonal fruit and vegetable interactive adds a lighter touch. The museum recommends the exhibition for ages seven and up, and younger children may find the interactives more engaging than the cases. Allow an hour to do it justice, more if the game takes hold, and think about what you will have for lunch afterwards: it is hard to leave without looking at your next meal a little differently.
How to visit
Entry is free, but booking is required, so reserve a slot on the Science Museum's exhibition page before you set off. The show is in Special Exhibition Gallery 1 on Level 1, and the museum on Exhibition Road is open daily from 10am to 6pm. Ian Visits' listing has a concise summary if you want a preview. From Knightsbridge, walk along Brompton Road or take the Piccadilly line one stop to South Kensington and follow the subway. Afterwards, the Harrods Food Hall makes a fitting next stop on the way home, and our things to do guide has more ideas for the rest of August.
Lead image: Olaf_Janssen via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.
