Natural History Museum

What we love…

Not only does the London Natural History Museum have one of the most historically significant natural history collections in the world, the building itself is a work of art. The Victorian German Romanesque style with it's grand terra cotta facade has become one of London's most beloved landmarks.
Inside you'll find over 70 million items covering a range of zoology, botany and palaeontology. The museum also specializes in taxonomy—the study and classifying organisms based on natural and evolutionary relationships—so you'll find plenty of exhibits explaining the discovery of new species.
The galleries are split up and color coded to make finding your way around this huge collection a little easier. If you're into dinosaurs, mammals, marine life and human biology you'll want to head to the Blue Zone. The Green Zone covers evolution, mineral, birds and insects. The Red Zone covers the wonders of geology with interactive galleries displaying life on planet earth. The Orange Zone has a fantastic wildlife garden that's open during the warmer months (April-October), as well as the Darwin Centre where visitors can see scientists at work. The Darwin Centre isn't covered under the free entrance fee, there's a fee of £10-17.50 (children & adults).
Don't miss the permanent exhibit called Treasures in the Cadogan Gallery located in the Green Zone. This exhibit displays 22 of the museums most historically significant pieces, and presents the story that goes along with each. You'll learn about the very first dinosaur fossil that was ever found, Charles Darwin's Origin of Species research, the archaeopteryx fossil (earliest known flying bird), and Alfred Russel Wallace’s personal collection insect collection that introduced the world to thousands of new species.
The museum is fairly large so if you want to see everything you'll likely spend most of your day there, but like the other museums in London there's no admission fee, so if you have to come back on another day you could do that too.