This museum has a very quaint building - covered with multicolored tiles, intricate shapes, more like a church than a museum, it is an independent landmark. But as soon as the visitor enters inside - he forgets about the external design, because in the huge entrance hall there is the same huge replica of the skeleton of the diplomat. In length it is 32 m - there is something to see, and this is just the beginning.

History

The Natural History Museum has appeared, like many other English museums, thanks to a private collection. In the 17th century, a doctor worked in London - a very fashionable, treated aristocratic patient - named Hans Sloan. All his life he studied the natural sciences and collected a collection of related rarities.

Man Hans Sloan was very successful, he treated as many as three English monarchs, so for a long life (and he lived almost a hundred years - from 1660 to 1753) the collection I gathered a huge one, and because I knew about the issue, it was not just big, but also very, very good, one of the best in the country.

Hans Sloan was an advocate of education, for many years headed the Royal College of Medicine, was the head of the Royal College society (the most serious in the world at that time), Having changed Isaac Newton's post, he founded the first non-church children's shelter in Britain, was the first doctor of Britain to receive the nobility for personal merit, and the first person in the world who guessed to mix chocolate with hot milk, thus creating a hot chocolate maker he, by the way, is a medicine).

After the death of Hans Sloane, it turned out that he bequeathed his entire huge collection of the nation. Almost at the same time, the nation received two more gifts - two large libraries, so the Parliament decided to create a public museum for the storage of this national property, which was simply called "British". Thus, one of the largest museums in the world appeared - the British Museum, and the natural science collection of Hans Sloan became part of the museum exposition.}}

The museum grew, the collection became more and more diverse, the science section ceased to be the only one, expanded - and in In 1863 it was decided to transfer it to a separate building. The museum is still in this building, growing ever larger, with the only difference - in 1866 it was separated from the British Museum and became an independent museum of natural history.

Museum building

The museum building was built in 1880 the famous at that time architect - Alfred Uaterhaus. It was largely due to him the notion of "Victorian Gothic" emerged, but he designed the museum in Romanesque style. It was decided to cover the outside walls with terracotta tiles, so that the dirt from the famous London smog was less likely to settle on them - it was liquidated already by the beginning of the 20th century, and the tiles remained. The building is decorated with sculptures depicting animals and plants, surrounded by a small park.

Exposition

The museum consists of two parts - research and exhibition.

The research section is closed from the public, it conducts research and stores the closed parts of the collection - for example , specimens of animals (bones, scarecrows or drawings) that have already disappeared from the face of the earth (to find out how they looked, you can only on museum materials). Studies have been conducted there for many years, many serious scientists have worked with the museum, including Darwin and Wallace.

The second part is, in fact, the museum itself, that is, the gallery with the exhibits. There are a lot of them, and all of them are open to the public.

The Natural History Museum exhibits exhibits related to nature (alive and lifeless) and its development.

Natural History Museum has a gigantic collection, at its disposal about 80 million exhibits. You can see the bones of prehistoric animals, many reconstructions, disappearing or disappearing species of animals, collections of shells, bones, minerals and much more. All this is very much, there are rare things that exist in a single copy.

The most popular part of the museum is the Dinosaur Gallery. There is an equal liking for adults and children alike

Also there are always exhibitions related to nature in the museum, some of them are paid, tickets cost from 7 GBP (price for spring 2014), but they are always very good and unusual.

For children

The museum is fully child-oriented, and its creators succeeded in ensuring that the dry academic discipline was revealed to children as a fun, bright and interesting adventure . All exhibitions were designed and voiced in such a way that it was first of all interesting for the child . Many interactive things - you can twist, twist, listen and t . d ., there are simulators (earthquake simulator, for example) . Many activities for children - the child will be allowed to touch a copy of the dinosaur bone, hold some harmless living creature and t . d . Although it is necessary show that there is an adult fun and without it .

Practical information

The museum is open daily (even on all holidays except Christmas) from 10:00 to 17:50, and on the last Friday of every month - until 22:30. Admission is free for all.

It should be noted that there are always a lot of children and children's school trips in the museum, so it's always noisy.

The museum is located here: London, SW7 5BD, Cromwell Road, Natural History Museum. He very close to the metro station "South Kensington", there is an underground passage from the lobby of the station directly to the museum. The station is almost always overloaded

All museum systems are designed for children and family visits: there are children's toilets and changing rooms, changing rooms are wheelchairs, in all cafes and restaurants a children's menu, etc.

Around the museum

@ The museum is located in the center of the museum quarter in an area called South Kensington. This is a beautiful, quiet area in which you can take a walk with a child. Nearby is a large park - Kensington Gardens, many good cafes and restaurants, and two more large museums - the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Science Museum.

Natural History Museum in London

Hall, Natural History Museum in London

One of the halls, Natural History Museum in London

Stained Glass, Natural History Museum in London

Natural History Museum in London at night