Natural History Museum
Inside this splendid building are housed some 70 million different species collected from around the world by botanists like Charles Darwin and Joseph Banks alongside hi-tech interactive exhibitions and displays on the living world.
The museum was first opened in 1881 after physician and naturalist Hans Soane passed on his collection of fossils and natural speciments to the British nation. As the space in the British Museum reached its limits, the 'Natural history Museum' was born. With time, the collections of other scientists were added to the museum's inventory.
Originally the museum was planned as a Renaissance building after Captain Francis Fowke won the competition for the design. Unfortunately he died shortly afterwards, so the project was passed on to Alfred Waterhouse. Waterhouse altered Fowke’s design to a German Romanesque design and built up the amazing Waterhouse Building that we know today.
In the museum’s exhibitions and galleries you can come face to face with Tyrannosaurus Rex and other dinosaurs, explore the human body, experience the power of earthquakes with an earthquake simulator and get up close to an assortment of creepy crawlies.
The museum also houses a collection of Darwin’s original writings and artefacts piecing together how he came to his theory of natural selection and in the newly built Darwin Centre, over 20 million zoological exhibits are showcased.
The museum is still a working research centre employing 300 researchers and scientists.
Tube Station: South Kensington
