Natural History Museum London • An Exhibit of Our World

Hello again and welcome back to another tour in London thru the eyes of a foreigner. We have stayed in London for months now and there are so many places to explore. Since our budget is very limited and London is expensive we aim to visit first the places that are free.

On the top of the list is the Natural History Museum of London located in Cromwell Rd, South Kensington. It is one of the most visited places in London and should not be missed if you are visiting.

This is one of the major museums here in London. The other two are Science Museum and Victoria and Albert museum which we will also visit soon.

The museum was completed in 1880 and today houses more than 80 million items that include paleontology, zoology, entomology, botany, and mineralogy.

To visit you may need to book your free ticket online.
National History Museum
You would choose the date and time you will be visiting. We arrived ahead of our schedule but surprisingly we were allowed to come inside no tickets or bookings were asked at the entrance.

The galleries of the museum are divided into four areas.

Orange Zone

Attenborough Studio
Cocoon
Wildlife Garden
Zoology Spirit Building

Blue Zone

Dinosaurs
Fishes, Reptiles Amphibians
Human Biology
Images of Nature
Jerwood Gallery
Mammals
Mammals Blue Whale
Marine Invertebrates

Green Zone

Birds
Creey Crawlies
East Pavilion
Fossil Marine Reptiles
Giant Sequia
Investigate Center
Minerals
Treasures
The Vault
Waterhouse Gallery

Red Zone

Earth's Treasury
From the Beginning
Human Evolution
Lasting Impressions
Restless Surface
Vocanoes and Earthquakes

It would be impossible to check everything as this place is huge. It would be best to download or by a copy of the map at the entrance. It was our mistake and we were going around in circles in the galleries. Highlight the places that you would like to spend more time managing your visit.

We entered thru the entrance near the Red Zone. Here the skeleton of Sophie the Stegosaurus will greet you. It is known to be the most intact skeleton of this dinosaur. The skeleton alone has already grabbed our attention. It made us more excited to see what other wonders are on display at this museum.

The sides of this hallway will give you a glimpse of what other items you can expect. Be sure not to spend too much time here as there are so other things to see.

The Red Zone

The escalator will take you deep into the earth's crust and will showcase earthquakes, volcanoes, the earth's treasures and evolution.

Here you can experience the 1995 Kobe earthquake in Japan with a magnitude of 7. You will feel how it was like during that earthquake and make sure to grab on to something.

At this point, I was getting a bit bored with all the rocks on display and more about the earth's crust. Maybe some of you would be fascinated with rocks and formations but I guess it was not for me.
We just breezed along this gallery until we reached the From the Beginning Gallery. Here things get more interesting for us.

We began to see more fossils on display and we were getting excited in this area.

Enclosed in a glass is a prehistoric creature called Bradysaurus which I have never heard of. Standing this close to its skeleton can be quite frightening imagining if it were alive.

Another highlight in the gallery is this large fossilized fish. I missed checking the name of the fish as we were overwhelmed with all of the species here. Each specimen gets more and more interesting.

At this point, I was getting confused if I am looking at a real skull of a Trex which we only saw in the movies. Or could this just be a plaster copy of the skull but it didn't matter anymore as we were just astounded with the display.

In this are there are suitcases that you could open and inside are different specimens of rocks. I didn't open all of them as I had enough of rocks but there could be a surprise in the other suitcases. I just decided to skip this part as there is still so much to see.

These piles of bones belonged to two species of elephants the woolly mammoth and the straight-tusk elephant. It looks like the whole thing was excavated and placed on the display.

The skull appears to be from a prehistoric sabretooth cat or tiger. Reminds me of the movie Ice Age and just imagine they were still alive today.

The sabretooth cat along with a bird that looks like an ostrich is called a moa bird. This bird is native to New Zealand and was hunted out 600 years ago.

Still part of the red zone is the Earth's Treasury gallery. Here you will see rocks, minerals and gemstones.

This is the section for precious stones Diamonds, Rubies and Beryl. I must have missed the other gemstones on display.

There are a lot of shops here including a Jurassic Park store. I wanted to buy a Jurassic Park t-shirt maybe next time as it is a bit expensive. Fans of the movie will love this shop which includes a life-sized raptor display.

Just at the end of the store is the entrance to Human Evolution Gallery. The gallery features skulls and a life-sized display of a Neandertal.

This is a footprint of an apelike creature that lived around 3.7 million years ago called Australopithecus afarensis.

The Green Zone

In this area you will see specimen of birds, creepy crawlies and marine fossils. This gallery will keep you amazed with all the specimens on display.

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In this display case are various species of small birds. I didn't know that there were birds as tiny as these. It would be difficult to see or identify the names of the birds as they are not labeled.

The popular Dodo bird was made extinct due to hunting and the destruction of its habitat. Became extinct in 1681 and such a shame as it would be nice if we still have them around.

One these walls are fossils of prehistoric marine life. If you could look up medieval maps sometimes there are illustrations of sea monsters. These fossils prove that sea monsters did exist long ago.

Before exploring the marine fossils just across it is a display of a plaster skeleton of a giant sloth. Made from the cast of two or more skeletons of the actual sloth from 1848. As you could see it is frighteningly colossal.

Moving back to the marine fossils you will be amazed and a little bit terrified seeing these sea monsters.

Dinosaurs from the sea are what nightmares are made of. Imagine if some still exist today or maybe they are just hiding beneath the deep blue sea.

Dinosaurs are on display almost everywhere here including this restaurant located near this gallery.

Another shop in the Green Zone is big and a great place to buy some souvenirs. Just expect it to be a little bit pricy.

A good souvenir here is minerals and crystals. I think this area is the cheapest which you could purchase for £1.50 each.

Now we have reached the Creepy Crawlies Gallery. The gallery showcases crustaceans, spiders and other insects.

This looks like some sort of vending machine. Pressing a button will show which insect eats which food. I didn't pay much attention to it and just pressed a couple of buttons.

These are coconut crabs and I believe we have these in the Philippines but their numbers are slowly decreasing.

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This is a game to build your spider. It was meant for small children but I took some time to play with it just give the correct answer about a spider and you will complete the game. Fortunately I did answer them all correctly.

There are not a lot of specimens in this area but the kids will love it as there are some games to keep them entertained.

This ends our tour for now as there is still a lot to show you. Next, we will show you the popular Hintze Hall which shows a skeleton of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling. A very popular place in this museum as you could see in photos of it is social media.

We will show you the Blue zone which also houses the dinosaur gallery which is my favorite gallery of them all. Hope to see you again soon for more of the Natural History Museum of London.

Cheers!