NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
There are some 80 million specimens in the Natural History Museum’s fascinating collections. Originally the repository for items brought home by Charles Darwin and Captain Cook’s botanist, Joseph Banks, among others, the museum combines traditional displays with innovative, hands-on exhibits. It remains one of London’s most popular museums and has a number of kid-pleasers, such as the impressive dinosaur collection and the life-size model of a blue whale. A hot-house of research, it employs more than 300 scientists and librarians.
NEED TO KNOW
Cromwell Road SW7 • 020 7942 5000 • www.nhm.ac.uk • Open 10am–5:50pm daily. Last admission 5:30pm • Closed Dec 24–26 • Adm free (admission charge for some special exhibitions)
- There is a restaurant in the green zone, and several cafés and snack bars.
- A number of different self-guided trails are available, and you can visit the outdoor Wildlife Garden. Details at the Central Hall information desk.
Museum Guide
The Natural History Museum is divided into four zones: the blue zone, which includes the dinosaur gallery and Images of Nature; the green zone, with the ecology and creepy-crawlies galleries; the orange zone, with a wildlife garden; and the red zone, incorporating the geological displays.
The Cromwell Road entrance leads to the Hintze Hall with its grand staircase.
An additional entrance on Exhibition Road leads to the red zone.
Museum Floor Plan
1. Fossils
Marine reptiles that existed at the time of the dinosaurs have survived as some remarkable fossils, such as the pregnant female Ichthyosaur, found in a Dorset garden, which lived 187–178 million years ago.
Fossils
2. Hintze Hall
After a major renovation in mid-2017, the museum's cathedral-like hall replaced “Dippy,” the Diplodocus skeleton cast, with a giant blue whale skeleton. In alcoves along the sides of the hall are other stars of the museum, including an American mastodon.
Hintze Hall
3. Treasures in the Cadogan Gallery
Treasures is an apt title for this extraordinary collection, from a rare first edition of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species to the dinosaur teeth that led to the discovery that giant reptiles once walked the earth. The 23 exhibits on display here were chosen for their scientific and historical importance and are true movers and shakers of natural history.
Treasures in the Cadogan Gallery
4. Model Baby
A giant model of an unborn baby in the Human Biology galleries demonstrates sounds heard in the womb. Other hands-on exhibits test abilities and reactions and show how physical characteristics are inherited.
5. Images of Nature Gallery
This gallery showcases the museum’s collection of historical and modern artworks, including prints from micro-CT scanners, watercolors, and photographs. More than 110 exhibits span 350 years to the present day.
6. Spirit Collection
Get a fascinating glimpse of the museum's vast collection of zoological specimens preserved in alcohol, including creatures collected by Charles Darwin.
7. Darwin Center
One of the center’s many attractions is the eight-story Cocoon, a permanent exhibition where visitors can see insect specimens as well as world-leading scientists at work.
8. Blue Whale
The Mammal gallery houses this fascinating exhibit, where both modern mammals and their fossil relatives are dwarfed in comparison to the astounding life-size model of a blue whale, the largest mammal on the planet.
9. Dinosaurs
T. Rex, one of the museum’s lifelike animatronic models, lurches and roars in this popular gallery. More traditional exhibits of fossilized skeletons are also on display. Taking pride of place in the Earth Hall is 19½-ft (6-m) Sophie, the most intact Stegosaurus fossilized skeleton ever found.
Dinosaurs
10. Attenborough Studio
On the ground floor of the Darwin Center, the Attenborough Studio is a state-of-the-art audio-visual facility with 64 seats. The venue hosts events, films, and talks covering all aspects of life on earth as well as scientific discovery.
