Natural History Museum
Good for: rainy days, free admission, science, architecture, child friendly
Not good for: crowds at times
- Address
- Cromwell Rd SW7
- Transport
- Website
- Phone
- 7942 5000
- Price
- admission free, highlights tours £3.00 (pending staff availability)
- Hours
- 10am-5.50pm
Lonely Planet review for Natural History Museum
This mammoth institution is dedicated to the Victorian pursuit of collecting and cataloguing. Walking into the Life galleries (Blue Zone) in the 1880 Gothic Revival building off Cromwell Rd evokes the musty moth-eaten era of the Victorian gentleman scientist. The main museum building, with its blue and sand-coloured brick and terracotta, was designed by Alfred Waterhouse and is as impressive as the towering diplodocus dinosaur skeleton in the Central Hall just ahead of the main entrance. It’s hard to match any of the exhibits with this initial sight, except perhaps the huge blue whale just beyond it. Children, who are the main fans of this museum, are primed for more primeval wildlife by the dinosaur skeleton, and yank their parents to the dinosaur gallery to the left of the Central Hall to see the roaring and tail-flicking animatronics T-rex dinosaur, the museum’s star attraction. The Life galleries to the right of the Central Hall (Green Zone) are full of fossils and glass cases of taxidermied birds, and the antiquated atmosphere is mesmerising. There is also a stunning Creepy Crawlies room, the Ecology gallery’s video wall and the vast Darwin Centre (Orange Zone) which focuses on taxonomy (the study of the natural world), with some 450, 000 jars of pickled specimens, including an 8.6m-long giant squid called Archie, shown off during free guided tours every half-hour (book in advance). The centre’s new feature showcases some 28 million insects and six million plants in ‘a giant cocoon’. The second part of the museum, the Earth galleries (Red Zone) can be reached most easily from the Exhibition Rd entrance. Here Victorian fustiness is exchanged for sleek, modern design and the black walls of its Earth Hall are lined with crystals, gems and precious rocks. An escalator slithers up through a hollowed-out globe into displays about earth’s geological make-up. Volcanoes, earthquakes and storms are all featured on the upper floors, but the star attraction inside the Restless Surface gallery, is the mock-up of the Kobe earthquake, a facsimile of a small Japanese grocery shop that trembles in a manner meant to replicate the 1995 earthquake that killed 6000 people. Exhibitions on the lower floors focus on ecology, look at gems and other precious stones and explore how planets are formed. The Wildlife Garden (open April to September) displays a range of British lowland habitats. A stunning temporary exhibit that may become permanent is the Butterfly Jungle, a tunnel tent on the East Lawn swarming with what must originally have been called ‘flutter-bys’.
Traveller reviews for Natural History Museum (4)
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A great day out for anyone, from young to old.
will95 recommends this,
Walking into the Natural History Museum to the sight of the diplodocus skeleton sets the tone for how impressive this museum is. Set in the middle of the huge Central Hall, amongst some of the most beautiful architecture in London, it is a sight to behold. The Orange Zone is by far the least impressive, showing very little actual natural history, although I was not able to access the Wildlife Garden due to it being closed for the Winter. The Blue Zone is the most popular zone. It includes the fun, but beginning to look very dated Human Biology gallery and the impressive collection of mammals, fish, amphibians and reptiles the Museum houses. The two mammal galleries are the most impressive of these, especially the giant blue whale hanging from the roof. The other gallery in this zone is the ever-popular Dinosaurs. Although this exhibit is fun and up-to-date it was incredibly overcrowded, restricting viewing of what was on show, which was very disappointing. In the Green Zone there is the Creepy Crawlies room which is as stunning as how much it will put you off eating the food out of your cupboards. If you go up the stairs at the back of the Central Hall you will come across the underwhelming Primates, Tree and Our Place In Evolution galleries, however you will also find the seemingly never-ending collection of minerals. Further along from the Creepy Crawlies is the Ecology gallery which is absolutely stunning and up there with the better known Mammal and Dinosaur galleries for spectacle. The last gallery in Green is the huge Bird gallery. Containing every bird you'll ever imagine this is by far the most varied gallery and a must-see for anyone interested in the slightest by animals. Also in the Green Zone is the restaurant containing good quality, if slightly undersized (except for the pizzas) meals. The drinks, however, are almost undrinkable and I would highly recommend going for a commercial coca-cola or lemonade instead. In the final Zone, the Red Zone, there is a very small Lasting Impressions gallery and a good looking, but very boring Earth Today and Tomorrow gallery. In the Earth Hall you are presented by some beautiful statues and a escalator leading up into an impressive metal globe. Going up this escalator takes you to the upper levels of the Red Zone which includes the intriguing Power Within and Restless Surface galleries on Floor 2, including a small replica of a grocery store that shakes equivalent to the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Floor 1 contains the interesting From The Beginning gallery and the beautiful collection of Jewels in the Earth's Treasury. Overall this is a very impressive full day out, although some galleries are in need of a re-haul.
Good for: architecture, rainy days, science, free admission
Not good for: crowds at times
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A purpose built cathedral to bones and stuffed animals
steveomac recommends this,
as it should, it is after all a Natural History Museum. With what must be one of the worlds best collections of bones ("fossils") and stuffed ne "taxidermied" animals. Most impressive of all, is the gorgeous building with the vast central hall and critters carved into the stonework, it is simply stunning.
Good for: rainy days, free admission, child friendly
Not good for: crowds at times
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