Best Way to Visit the London Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum in London hosts a wide variety of specimens from different times in natural history. It is one of the three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, a district just West of Central London in the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

The museum is home to life and earth science models, with over 80 million items contained in five different collections: entomology, botany, mineralogy, palaeontology, and zoology.

Unsure what all of those terms mean? So are we. But, we took that as a sign we needed to go see what all the hype was about. And we figured out the best ways to go visit the Natural History Museum.

So take the tube to South Kensington and bring a few pounds for the donation box – we’re going to take a half-day trip to the museum on this rainy London afternoon.

Big Bus London Hop-On Hop-Off Tour

London Uk Bus – By Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons / “London (UK), Bus — 2010 — 6” / CC BY-SA 4.0

The first thing is first – if you are only in London for a few days or a couple of weeks, then you might be trying to pack in everything to your trip. We totally understand. In such a big and exciting city, there must be a lot on your list.

You could take the infamous red double-decker bus on a tour around England’s capital, taking in all of the sights and historical buildings. If you decide to go on this tour, then one of your stops will be here at the Natural History Museum. Maybe consider hopping off – and staying off – and taking a tour through the museum. You won’t regret it.

Check out the current exhibitions online

Natural History Museum London – By jhlau — a.canvas.of.light / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

If you are unsure if you’re going to find anything of interest when you take strip to the museum, you can do some research beforehand – although we’re pretty sure you’re going to love it regardless.

If you go to the Natural History Museum’s website, it will have listed the current exhibitions and attractions happening. By clicking on each exhibit, it will l tell you about the price, the theme, and what you can expect to find.

What’s on?

Natural History Museum in London – By Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56323180

Want to combine the excitement of going to an event with the cultural education of gong to the museum? Well, look no further. You can either walk or cycle by the Natural History Museum and see if they have any banners out front describing their upcoming events, or you can check online again at the “what’s on?” section.

This subsection on the site will tell you all about the current events happening at the museum, the dates of future events, the time, and the pricing for the events.

Even right now during the COVID crisis, there are currently 5 events online. One of them is the dinosaur activities for families, lasting two months, giving family-friendly dinosaur-themed activities for families to do from the safety and comfort of their own home.

So, you’ve decided you’re going to visit! Great.

Cromwell Road Natural History Museum – By Txllxt TxllxT / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

Once we are all allowed to get back into the world again, hitting a museum can be a fun spot to learn some new things, get out of the house, and maybe do something you normally wouldn’t on a typical day.

If you are thinking of visiting but intimidated by the sheer size of the Natural History Museum, you can check out the maps and labeled description of the museum on their website.

This shows you all of the free galleries across four zones of the museum, in orange, blue, green, and red. Once you see the zones, you will notice that each one has a specific theme.

The blue zone focuses on dinosaurs, animals, mammals, marine invertebrates, and images of nature. The green zone centers around birds, bugs, reptiles, minerals, treasures, and fossils. The red zone features volcanoes, earthquakes, evolution, nature, and weather. Lastly, the orange zone is centered around the Darwin Centre and the Wildlife Garden.

What is the Darwin Centre?

London Queensgate Mews view SE on the Darwin Centre Natural History Museum – By .Txllxt TxllxT / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)

The Darwin Center contains a Cocoon, Attenborough Studio, and Zoology spirit building. The cocoon atrium houses hundreds of museum specimens, such as beetles, butterflies, huge plants, tarantulas, and historic plants. The Attenborough Studio hosts scientific demonstrations from the Nature Live team, incorporating interactive talks with topical discussions. The Zoology Spirit building contains numerous specimens preserved in massive jars and tanks, like Archie – the 8.6-meter long giant squid.

Cool! So what is the Wildlife Garden like?

Panorama of the Natural History Museum Wildlife Garden – By John Cummings / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

The Wildlife Garden is home to thousands of native British plants, containing over 3,100 species. What can you expect to see here? Well, a whole lot.

You can walk along with the beautiful plants and fauna and admire the male wrens, carrying nesting material and feeding their young. Large red damselflies and broad dragonflies race around the pond, while bees like the chocolate mining bee and red mason bee will be circling around as well.

If you are a flower lover, you should keep an eye out for the spotted orchid, primroses, wood anemones, and bee orchid leaf rosettes on the woodland glades.

Once this garden is back open to the public, you can easily spend a nice day outside here, and spend a rainy and chilly day inside of the educational and exciting museum.

With such a convenient location right off of the South Kensington tube, we can’t think of a better place to spend a day outside of the hustle and bustle of the City of London. Take a little tube trip out to the posh Kensington Borough, and test your natural history knowledge.

Reload that Oyster card and get your thinking cap on – it’s time to head over to the Natural History Museum.