See further down for a great day out at the Natural History Museum....................
The Natural History Museum
If anyone who has heard the news that Dippy the Diplodocus Dinosaur has left the British Museum and has decided not to visit – THINK AGAIN! Even though he was such an icon who will be touring the UK next year, there are plenty more “fish in the sea – as well as dinosaurs”! The building itself is quite remarkable both outside as well as inside – fabulous design, architecture and brickwork – old and new.
I was initially disappointed that the main Hintze Hall was closed due to redevelopment – a gigantic blue whale skeleton will be its new main feature in the autumn. The museum is free to get in, and even though the queues were very long, they went down quickly (bags were searched when you got inside).
As the main entrance and hall was closed, I had to go in through one of the side entrances - Queens Gate, and was delighted that this was the nearest entrance to the dinosaur exhibition, but before reaching that, I went through the mammal section. What an amazing sight! The blue whale in particular, was so much bigger than I had ever expected, the life size model was the length of the whole exhibition room.
There were numerous animals around the edges as well as in the centre of the room, and many more whales and dolphins were suspended from the ceiling.
I enjoyed learning about the narwhals with their 3-metre spiral tusks that are actually the creatures’ tooth and a sensory organ; and the dugongs, manatees and sea cows – something you don’t hear much about normally.
Other rooms were full of birds, both extinct, endangered as well as normal birds, reptiles, amphibians and spiders. There is a section on how the body works which was fascinating – even more so for families with children; showing them how babies grow and are born; to how the eyes and even how DNA works.
I was so excited when I got to the dinosaur section and even though I was just expecting bones, skeletons and drawings – I could not have been more wrong.
The museum had literally bought dinosaurs to life, not only with full size skeletons, footprints – but also with the real-life T Rex that moved about and roared at the crowd. What a sight he was!
There were interesting and amusing theories on how the dinosaurs became extinct as well as lots of information about how they lived, moved about and then died out.
Further along the corridor, with skeletons of water based animals and dinosaurs, and past the spider section, I arrived at yet another huge dinosaur skeleton, at the bottom of an escalator that led up into a red planet.
What an amazing feeling it was going up into this red planet above – this section had me completely captivated for hours.
There were exhibitions on the planets of our solar system, volcanoes, tsunami, earthquakes, (even an area where you could experience it was to be in an earthquake), and how the continents were arranged over the past 500 million years – all absolutely fascinating.
There were so many rocks, precious stones and different fossils of small and large animals, fish and plants and so much interesting reading information. After a while I felt like my brain wouldn’t take in anymore, so I enjoyed the last hour or so just enjoying looking at the exhibitions of fish, corals, shells and other underwater creatures.
There was a section dedicated to Charles Darwin and some wonderful copies of original drawings and paintings done almost two hundred years ago; and many original animals that looked rather old and worn out.
Apparently these are original specimens and although the museum no longer collects animal for taxidermy displays, it still wants to show these animals even though their colours are aged and appear faded. The final part of my day was visiting the Zoology Building; this is where thousands of specimens are stored in jars and kept safely locked away.
Also in this section is the Attenborough Studio, but nothing was happening in there the day I went. I could see the workshop (behind glass) where the new huge Blue Whale is being prepared ready for its place in the Hintze Hall – that is going to be a fabulous specimen. There are 4 different places to eat and drink in museum as well as an area to eat your own picnic (if you have bought one), and several very reasonably priced shops – with some excellent educational as well as adorable furry toys for sale.
There are plenty of toilets and cloakrooms to leave your bags and coats if you didn’t want to carry them around with you all day. My only disappointment was that I couldn’t get in to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, it was sold out even before I arrived at 9:50 that morning – so if I ever come again, I will buy tickets online beforehand. Even though I had spent almost 6 hours there (when I was only expecting 2-3 hours – that is what their website says is average), I had not seen everything. You could not see and take in everything in only one visit – so I will definitely be going again but when the Hintze Hall is open with its new exhibit.
Hope you all enjoyed visiting the Natural History Museum with me!
Lynne
I was initially disappointed that the main Hintze Hall was closed due to redevelopment – a gigantic blue whale skeleton will be its new main feature in the autumn. The museum is free to get in, and even though the queues were very long, they went down quickly (bags were searched when you got inside).
As the main entrance and hall was closed, I had to go in through one of the side entrances - Queens Gate, and was delighted that this was the nearest entrance to the dinosaur exhibition, but before reaching that, I went through the mammal section. What an amazing sight! The blue whale in particular, was so much bigger than I had ever expected, the life size model was the length of the whole exhibition room.
There were numerous animals around the edges as well as in the centre of the room, and many more whales and dolphins were suspended from the ceiling.
I enjoyed learning about the narwhals with their 3-metre spiral tusks that are actually the creatures’ tooth and a sensory organ; and the dugongs, manatees and sea cows – something you don’t hear much about normally.
Other rooms were full of birds, both extinct, endangered as well as normal birds, reptiles, amphibians and spiders. There is a section on how the body works which was fascinating – even more so for families with children; showing them how babies grow and are born; to how the eyes and even how DNA works.
I was so excited when I got to the dinosaur section and even though I was just expecting bones, skeletons and drawings – I could not have been more wrong.
The museum had literally bought dinosaurs to life, not only with full size skeletons, footprints – but also with the real-life T Rex that moved about and roared at the crowd. What a sight he was!
There were interesting and amusing theories on how the dinosaurs became extinct as well as lots of information about how they lived, moved about and then died out.
Further along the corridor, with skeletons of water based animals and dinosaurs, and past the spider section, I arrived at yet another huge dinosaur skeleton, at the bottom of an escalator that led up into a red planet.
What an amazing feeling it was going up into this red planet above – this section had me completely captivated for hours.
There were exhibitions on the planets of our solar system, volcanoes, tsunami, earthquakes, (even an area where you could experience it was to be in an earthquake), and how the continents were arranged over the past 500 million years – all absolutely fascinating.
There were so many rocks, precious stones and different fossils of small and large animals, fish and plants and so much interesting reading information. After a while I felt like my brain wouldn’t take in anymore, so I enjoyed the last hour or so just enjoying looking at the exhibitions of fish, corals, shells and other underwater creatures.
Apparently these are original specimens and although the museum no longer collects animal for taxidermy displays, it still wants to show these animals even though their colours are aged and appear faded. The final part of my day was visiting the Zoology Building; this is where thousands of specimens are stored in jars and kept safely locked away.
Also in this section is the Attenborough Studio, but nothing was happening in there the day I went. I could see the workshop (behind glass) where the new huge Blue Whale is being prepared ready for its place in the Hintze Hall – that is going to be a fabulous specimen. There are 4 different places to eat and drink in museum as well as an area to eat your own picnic (if you have bought one), and several very reasonably priced shops – with some excellent educational as well as adorable furry toys for sale.
Hope you all enjoyed visiting the Natural History Museum with me!
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