Horniman Museum

Lonely Planet review

This museum is an extraordinary place, comprising the original collection of wealthy pack rat tea merchant Frederick John Horniman, who had the Art Nouveau building with clock tower and mosaics specially designed to house it in 1901. Today it encompasses everything from a dusty stuffed walrus and voodoo altars from Haiti and Benin to a mock-up of a Fijian reef and a wonderful collection of concertinas.

On the ground and 1st floors is the Natural History Gallery, the core of the Horniman collection with the usual animal skeletons and pickled specimens. In the basement you'll find African Worlds, the first permanent gallery of African and Afro-Caribbean art and culture in the UK. The Music Gallery next door has instruments from 3500-year-old Egyptian clappers and early English keyboards to Indonesian gamelan and Ghanaian drums, with touch screens so you can hear what they sound like and videos to see them being played in situ . The Centenary Gallery traces the history of the museum's first 100 years. The new aquarium is small but state of the art. The café, with seating in the stunning conservatory, is a delight as are the surrounding hillside gardens with views of London.

To get here from Forest Hill station, turn left out of the station along Devonshire Rd and then right along London Rd. The museum is about 500m on the right.