Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is divided in two main types of galleries: Life galleries and Earth galleries.

Life galleries

In these galleries you find all kind of exhibitions, varying from dinosaurs to fishes, amphibians and reptiles. The complete evolution of earth is shown and the origin of several species is explained. When we visited the museum there was a special temporary exhibition about myths and monsters (this exhibition is now closed).

The Myths and Monster show was really great. There were several sculptures of monsters that were made by the impressions of tales passed on from generation to generation. These figures where in my opinion really good, it seemed as if they were real, still alive and could attack you any moment. The sculptures were all covered with big white curtains which made it impossible to make pictures of them :+(. However, there also was a statue of an alien which they forgot to cover, hence the picture of it :+).

Next, we went to the dinosaur gallery. Here they have complete dinosaur skeletons, which give you a good idea of the size of some of these animals. I can tell you that I am not a shorty, but even I felt like a little boy when I was standing next to one of them :+). Also a lot of skulls and bones are displayed. Here too, several sculptures were displayed , for instance a head of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a couple of dinosaurs eating there prey. The last one was in my opinion one of the best displays they had in this gallery. There are several displays that give you information about the environment these dinosaurs were living in, their evolution and the scientific theories about the extinction of the dinosaur. Apparently there are several (different) theories, according to one of them, it is caused by the environmental change after impact of a meteorite in the sea close to Mexico.

We also visited some of the other Life galleries, but none of them made such an impression on me as the two mentioned above.

Earth galleries

In these galleries you will find all the information you need about our planet Earth, from the birth of the planet, the creation of fossils, minerals, gemstones and energy resources.

We visited the gallery about volcanoes and earthquakes. Here you are explained about the tectonic plates, which are drifting over each other or away from each other, making the continents to drift away from each other, creating mountains and volcanoes, but also causing earthquakes. There are massive displays showing you all the active volcanoes in the world and giving you information about the active ones.

Next to that, you can get information about the influences of an earthquake. You are standing in the middle of a replica of a Japanese shop in Tokyo. A couple of television sets show you a video of the effects of the earthquake, registered by one of the security cameras. Then you can experience the feeling yourself, the floor starts to shake and all kind of goods drop on the floor. I can tell you that it is quite a frightening experience. Several years ago, we had a small earthquake in Holland which woke me up, although a strange experience, it did not scare me at all. I just turned over in my bed and fell asleep again :+). But then that one was a much lighter earthquake on the Richter scale then the one in Tokyo.

We also visited the gallery about the influences of wind, water and heat on the surface and shape of our earth. In here all the aspects are explained by hands on experiences. For instance you can see the effects of waves on the seabed, the erosion of rocks and mountains caused by water and wind etc..

I think this museum is a perfect place to visit, and I recommend it to families with children. They will love to play around with the hands on experiences. Everything is explained in a plain and simple way and you might take your children here to teach them more about the earth, volcanoes, the evolution of life on earth etc.. However, I think the entrance fees were to high also because you just can not see and experience everything in the museum in one day.

For more information visit the website of the Natural History Museum

Unfortunately this museum is not covered by the London Pass. However, if you also plan to visit several other museums in London you might be interested in the London Pass, offering you free access to many museums and attractions in London.