The Natural History Museum - London Museums - London

The Natural History Museum is one of the most popular in London and is the third major museum along with the V&A and Science that are close to each other in the Cromwell Road area near South Kensington.

It’s based in a magnificent, purpose built, cathedral like building that makes you feel like there’s something worth seeing inside.

The Natural History used to be part of the British Museum but in the mid 19th century their collection was growing to large and a competition was held to build a new museum to hold their natural history exhibits. The current building was opened in 1881 and it became independent of the British Museum in 1963.

The Natural History is a museum that is gets very busy during the summer and school holidays but its worth spending some time on your visit. The museum’s famous for its dinosaur skeleton’s, a 85ft long Diplodocus greet’s you after you enter and walk through the central hall, but also has a collection of 70 million items.

The museum’s divided into four zones, Red, Blue, Green and Orange. The Red Zone includes galleries focusing on the earth and the forces that have shaped it, what people take from it and its place in the universe. The Blue Zone looks at dinosaur’s, reptiles, sea life, human biology among others while in the Green Zone the galleries tell the story of fossils, minerals, birds, primates plus seven other galleries.

The Orange Zone features the Wildlife Garden and the Darwin Centre which hold’s the museum’s collection of 22 million specimens in over 400,00 jars, this collection was first started in 1753.

All the permanent exhibitions in the museum are free but they also host temporary or visiting exhibits through the year and some of these may require you purchase a ticket. Currently the Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year is on from October 21 2006- April 29 2007 and tickets for this are £6, under 5’s free.

An exhibition for the kids called Dino Jaws has been on since June and runs until April 2007. Tickets for this are £8 adults, £5 children.

The museum has three cafes and restaurants, a coffee bar and a picnic area and three shops selling books, gifts and toys. Free maps of the museum are available from the central hall information desk in a number of languages.

This Christmas the Natural History Museum is staging its Christmas Fair and installing a Skating Rink again. The skating rink and fair are in a spectacular location,especially at night, at the right side sunken area at the front of the museum. The Christmas fair and viewing platform for the skating are free, the actual skating costs £10 weekdays and £12 weekends for adults and £7.50 all week for kids.

It’s open 10am-10pm from 9 November 2006 - 21 January 2007, closed Christmas Day. Skates are included in the price of the ticket or you can bring your own. A nice way to cap a day’s visit.

The Natural History Museum is located on the Cromwell Road in Knightbridge, the nearest tube station is South Kensington