Natural History MuseumThe Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, Kensington, London (the others are the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum). The Natural History Museum home to life and earth science collections comprising some 70 million items.The foundation of the Natural History Museum collection was a bequest by Irish doctor Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753). Sloane's collection, which included dried plants, and animal and human skeletons, was initially housed in Montague House in Bloomsbury in 1756, which was the home of the British Museum. In the late 1850s, Professor Richard Owen, Superintendent of the natural history departments of the British Museum saw that the natural history departments needed a bigger, separate building. Land in South Kensington was purchased, and in 1864 a competition was held to design the new Natural History Museum. The winning entry was submitted by Captain Francis Fowke who died shortly afterwards. The scheme was taken over by Alfred Waterhouse who substantially revised the agreed plans, and designed the façades in his own idiosyncratic Romanesque style. Work began in 1873 and was completed in 1880. The new museum opened in 1881, although the move from the old museum was not fully completed until 1883.
There are five main collections in the Natural History Museum: Botany, Entomology, Mineralogy, Palaeontology and Zoology. There is also a wildlife garden containing native fauna and flora. The Natural History Musuem is renowned for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons, particularly the large Diplodocus cast which dominates the entrance. More recently the Natural History Museum dinosaur exhibition has been extended with the addition of a very life-like animated model a very noisy T-Rex of Jurrasic Park fame. There is also a scattering of raptors to keeps the kids on their toes. The Natural History Museum's newly-developed Darwin Centre (named after Charles Darwin) holds a collection of millions of preserved specimens, interactive materials and new workspaces for the Museum's scientific staff. Lectures and demonstrations at the Natural history Museum occur daily, and are sometimes webcast. The shared space is designed to bring visitors into close contact with working scientists. The Darwin centre is also home to Archie the squid, an 8 metre long giant squid taken alive in a fishing net near the Falkland Islands. The squid is currently on display in a prominent position in the large specimen room, in a reinforced glass tank containing a mixture of formaldehyde and saline solution. The Natural History Museum is a must for all ages and the time that you spend in the Natural History Museum will stay in your memories for a long time. Further information can be found at the Natural History Museum official website.
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