Natural History Museum of London is perhaps one of my favourite museums in the World. Whenever I'm in London I try to visit it.
The museum is in a "cathedral" building. This creation was deliberately designed by Alfred Waterhouse to inspire awe... and it does. It's even hard to photograph because it's very big compared to the surrounding area. The elaborate Romanesque style is impressive as the giant cast of Diplodocus skeleton in the main hall of the Life Galleries.
This museum makes learning fun! They have amazing galleries and a vast collection (70 million plants, animals, fossils, rocks and minerals to be exact) including dinosaurs (also a real-size animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex roaring at you) and Creepy Crawlies gallery. Also impressive is a giant tree slice on top of the stairs in the hall which dates from 557 to 1892 when the sequoia sadly fell at the age of 1335!
There is a section entirely dedicated to our beloved planet Earth. The entrance to this gallery is portentous: you travel via an escalator, passing through a giant suspended globe and twinkling images of the star system. It leads straight into a noisy gallery called Restless Surface, whose most famous exhibit is a mock-up of a Kobe supermarket, where the floor shakes to video coverage of the 1995 earthquake.
Another important part is the Darwin Centre, whose first stage of development was completed in 2002 and it houses about 22 million specimens, 450,000 of them stored in jars of formaline. Another part of this centre store a collection of insects and plants. A daily programme called Darwin Centre Live (2.30 pm Tuesday to Friday, noon and 2.30pm weekends) allows visitors to meet researchers and curators to find out about their work and view the museum's vast collection.
There is always a major temporary exhibition going on although that one is never free. The Museum is open every day, including Sundays and bank holidays, closes only on 24 - 26 December.
The museum is often very crowded and for a reason, as I said, I think it's one of the most extraordinary museum of London. It will satisfy people of every age and of every hobby (whether you like dinosaurs or minerals or insects you will be highly satisfied).
F REE ENTRY Open every day 10.00 - 17.50 Last admission 17.30
Useless to repeat that this museum is extremely family friendly and very well connected to city transports: * By tube We are within walking distance of South Kensington station on the District, Circle and Piccadilly lines * By bus Routes 14, 49, 70, 74, 345, 360, 414 and C1 stop near us. Some tour buses also pass nearby * By bicycle There are cycle parking facilities by the Cromwell Road entrance. * By coach Victoria Coach Station is within walking distance of Victoria train and tube station on the Circle or District lines. For groups travelling by coach, there is a coach drop-off point outside the Cromwell Road entrance * By car Driving to the Museum is not easy and parking is expensive, there is limited meter parking on Exhibition Road
Pictures of The Natural History Museum (London)
The entrance
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Advantages: Costs no money, very interesting Disadvantages: -
GIRLFRIEND_FROM_GERMANY 20.02.2004 (21.02.2004)
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