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Natural History Museum, London

The Natural History Museum and the Science Museum are the legacy of the Great Exhibition of 1851. This was the project for which Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, is best remembered. The profits from the Great Exhibition went into the South Kensington museums complex.

The Natural History Museum in London's Cromwell Road is the country's biggest museum dedicated to the natural world. It is also an important research centre, and the museum's scientists are available everyday to answer any questions that visitors might have. The museum displays a vast collection of exhibits. The dinosaurs are always popular, as is the mammal and blue whale display. There is an opportunity to experience an earthquake, and to find out what happens when a volcano erupts. Apart from some temporary exhibits, everything that the museum offers is free.

Events allowing visitors to meet scientists take place at the Darwin Centre. A behind the scenes tour will take you past some of the museum's 27 kilometers of shelving holding 22 million specimens, including some of those collected by Charles Darwin during his historic voyage on The Beagle 1831 - 1836. Events run throughout the day. Ask at the Darwin Centre Information Desk.

 

On a personal note what really strikes me about the Natural History Museum is the building itself. There's a cathedral quality about it. The exterior is reminiscent of a gothic cathedral, and once inside a visitor looks up at all the vaulting space and the stained glass of a huge religious building. In the tea shop you will sit with statues of Charles Darwin and Thomas Henry Huxley, two men who overturned the Biblical view of the history of life. And yet there they are in this cathedral-like setting. As I sat in the Natural History Museum tea shop, having a cup of tea and a scone, I thought of how the church once believed, and in some places still believes, that the world is only a few thousand years old. This view dates from 1654 when Bishop Usher published his considered view that the Creation took place on 23rd of October 4004BC, and the great Flood took place from 7th of December 2394BC to 6th of May 2348BC. And then I thought of the vast eons of time which have opened up due to the researches of people like Darwin.

Richard Fortey, a Natural History Museum researcher, tells me that the earth is now known to be about four and a half thousand million years old, and traces of life have been followed back three thousand five hundred million years. The depth of time is overwhelming. The forces shaping life over those lengths of time are similarly staggering. Perhaps Bishop Usher wanted to replace the true depth and mystery of life with a reassuring time span of a few thousand years. That is understandable. But the church should be about going beyond the petty confines of daily life, and the Natural History Museum is the place to go if you want to do that. By the time I'd finished my scone it seemed only right that the Natural History Museum should have a building that reflected in a symbolic way the vast universe and life of which we are a part.

Opening Times: The Natural History Museum is open every day except 24th-26th December, 10am until 5:50pm , last admission is 5:30pm.

A three hundred and fifty million year old fossilised tree from Glasgow, displayed outside the Natural History Museum

Directions: The Natural History Museum is in South Kensington and has entrances from Cromwell Road and Exhibition Road. Click here for an interactive mapcentred on the Natural History Museum.

Access: all floors are accessible by lift. The Exhibition Road entrance is level. Guide dogs are welcome and water can be provided on request. A large print map of the museum is available, and wheelchairs can be hired.

Contact:

switchboard +44 (0) 20 79425000; life galleries: +44 (0) 2079425011; Darwin Centre: +44 (0) 20 79426128

web site: www.nhm.ac.uk