What is it?
Both a research institution and a fabulous museum, The Natural History Museum opened in Alfred Waterhouse’s purpose-built Romanesque cathedral of nature on the Cromwell Road in 1881. Joined by the splendid Darwin Centre extension in 2009, the original building still looks magnificent, and the pale blue and terracotta façade just about prepares you for the natural wonders within.
Since 2017, a huge diving Blue Whale skeleton named Hope, has hung in the Hintze Hall. (She replaced London’s most beloved dinosaur, Dippy the Diplodocus, who reigned in the Hall since 1905). A new Diplodocus skeleton Fern, can now be found outside in the Museum garden.
The museum is divided into four different coloured zones. The Blue Zone contains eccentric animatronic dinosaurs, including the endlessly popular T rex, and models of some of the biggest mammals on the planet. The Red Zone is full of prehistoric fossils, volcanic simulations and artefacts explaining human evolution. The Green Zone is where you’ll see the ‘Creepy Crawlies’ gallery and the fascinating bird specimens. The Orange Zone is full of zoological curios suspended in alcohol and the Darwin Centre where many of the museum’s 80 million specimens are housed, taking up nearly 17 miles of shelving. With its eight-storey Cocoon, this is also home to the museum’s research scientists.
The museum has just announced a huge refurbishment project that will restore and reopen Victorian galleries which have been closed to the public for decades, all in time for its 150th anniversary in 2031. This includes The Herbarium which has been closed since the 1940s and will reopen as a reading room.
Each year the museum features fresh new temporary exhibitions, as well as some regular favourites, like Wildlife Photographer of the Year and their tropical butterfly house.
Why go?
To see colourful exhibits and hard-to-believe-they’re-real artefacts mapping out 4.6 billion years of the planet’s history, as well as cutting-edge scientific research.
Don’t miss:
The Museum’s gardens have just reopened after a huge transformation project. The new five-acre expanse of greenery now features a canyon crafted out of ancient stone, biodiverse habitats full of frogs and newts and a bronze cast of Dippy the Diplodocus.
When to visit:
Daily 10am-5.50pm (last admission 5.30pm). Peak times are at weekday afternoons and weekends.
Ticket info:
Free entry, some exhibitions are ticketed.
Time Out tip:
I love heading up to the Hintze Hall balconies. Peeping through the stone arches on these floors gives you a beautiful view of the whole Hall so you can really take in all its splendour, as well as getting fabulous videos of Hope the Blue Whale’s suspended skeleton.
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