The Royal Armouries Museum

The Royal Armouries operates the Tower of London, which is not large enough by itself to house all of the artifacts in the Royal Armouries collection. The solution was to build a new museum to house and display them. The site chosen was Leeds. Incorporated with the display is an acknowledgment of the value of living history as a medium for teaching and display. The Museum uses hands on exhibits of weapons and crafts to give the viewer a personal sense of history. They have built the first tiltyard in Britain in 400 years, and plan to have tournaments. Their craft shops feature gunsmithing, leatherwork, and blacksmithing, and they have stables for war horses, and a falconry. The Museum is built on the waterfront in Leeds. It has a barge landing dock, which connects to England's large restored canal system. It is a multistory building with a tower at one end. The tower is known as the Hall of Steel, and contains panoplies of Arms and Armor up the entire height of its walls. It is well worth a visit.