| Natural History Museum (picture by Peter Watts) |  |
Natural History Museum
Photographer Description of Natural History Museum
This panorama shows the inside of one of the best known and most loved buildings in London, the Natural History Museum. The panorama was taken with the vast main entrance hall, from the back of the diplodocus skeleton. The panoramic image clearly shows the beautiful architecture of the museum. Many of the people in the picture are blurred due to the long exposures used when taking these photographs.Natural History Museum - Further Information
The Natural History is one of a cluster of museums of London in South Kensington. Famous for the huge fossils, dinosaur skeletons and other amazing displays, the Natural History Museum is one of the most popular tourist attractions in London, and a permanent favorite with children. It is combined with the Earth Science Galleries, next to the Science Museum and opposite the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum. A long tunnel from South Kensington Tube Station leads under the surrounding roads and allows exit to the museum grounds. In the winter there is usually an ice rink outside the museum. This panorama shows the main entrance hall and famous dinosaur skeleton. Entrance to the museum is free, though tickets may be needed for the temporary special exhibitions.About the Natural History Musuem
A diplodocus skeleton, 8m squid, full size blue whale and how volcanoes work. These are a few of the things you will find at the Natural History Museum in London. The vast collection contains some 70 million items from the natural world, and some of them are on display in this museum in South Kensington. On entering the Natural History Museum you will be confronted by an enormous skeleton of a diplodocus. Dinosaurs have always fascinated children and the museum contains an enormous number of fossils on display. There are also animatronic dinosaurs realistic enough to make you jump.
The museum contains a packed programme every day of presentations and events for people of all ages. You can book a behind the scenes tour round the Darwin Collection to see some of the millions of preserved animals including the 8m squid donated to the museum in 2006. It is easy to spend the best part of a day in London in this one attraction alone.
If the giant squid is not to your fancy then there is plenty more in the Natural History Museum to keep any visitor of any age happy. The galleries are vast and cover almost every aspect of life on earth, including the ecology and changing shape of the planet.
The Earth Science Galleries cover aspects of the physical world allowing you the chance to explore the insides of volcanoes, how continents are formed and why earthquakes happen. Entrance to the Earth Science galleries is either through the Natural History Museum itself, of via a separate entrance on Exhibition Road. Again the entrance hall is impressive and arresting, as you walk past huge statues of Medusa on the Cyclops and ascend an escalator through a massive model of the earth into the interior.
The collection began in the 17C as a bequest to the nation on the death of Sir Hans Sloane. The collection then contained some 70,000 items of various fields of study. It continued to grow and was later split, some is now housed by the British Museum, being of archeological nature. The Natural History Museum building took 7 years to build and first opened in 1881. It is a Romanesque building making extensive use of blue and yellow terracotta bricks to resist London pollution. The detail that has gone into the building is amazing, almost every part is unique, covered in images of plants, animals and fossils. Many of the pillars are also very individual, making the building as varied as the collection it contains.
Address:
Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road
London
SW7 5BD
UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7942 5000
Travel Directions and Getting There:
Piccadilly Line : South Kensington, Knightsbridge
Circle Line and District Line : South Kensington
Bus : 14, 70, 74, 414, C1 and buses to South Kensington Tube
Zone 1 of the London Transport System