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The Natural History Museum. Photo By Diliff. .

Top 10 Astonishing Facts about Natural History Museum

Any new visitor coming to London is spoiled of choice due to plenty of attractions available. However, your itinerary will not be complete without visiting the Natural History Museum in South Kensington.

This beautiful museum is famous for its stunning architecture and dinosaur exhibit, and it is on every visitor’s itinerary.

Below are some astonishing acts about this mega museum;

1. It’s named After Prince Albert, Consort of Queen Victoria.

Prince Albert was heavily involved in organizing the Great Exhibition of 1851. Albertopolis is the nickname given to the area centered on Exhibition Road in London.

Following the success of the exhibition, he advised that the profits should be used to purchase a swathe of land in what’s now known as South Kensington.

The region was developed to include several large educational and cultural sites, including the Natural History Museum.

Today, the region is sometimes referred to as Albertopolis.

It includes the Science Museum, the Victoria and Albert, the Royal Albert Hall, the Albert Memorial, and Imperial College London.

2. Initially it was a Collection by Sir Hans Sloane

The origins of the Natural History Museum go back to 1753.

Sir Hans Sloane, an Anglo-Irish physician, naturalist, and collector left his extensive collection to the nation.

He sold all of his collections to the British Government at a price well below their market value at the time.

This purchase was funded by a lottery.

Originally, the items were housed in the British Museum, but by 1860, Sir Richard Owen had persuaded the government that a new building was needed.

He is also the same man who invented dark chocolate.

3. Designed by Alfred Waterhouse, although the Winning Entry was Captain Frances Fowke’s

A competition was held to design the new museum and the winning entry was submitted by Captain Frances Fowke, a civil engineer who died shortly afterward.

So, the scheme was taken over by Alfred Waterhouse.

 He revised the plans significantly, adding the characteristic facades and ornate decorations that the building has become famous for.

The original plans were also to include wings on either side of the main building, but these were canceled for budgetary reasons.

Work began in 1873 and was completed in 1880.

The new museum opened in 1881, although the move from the old museum was not fully completed until 1883.

Both the interiors and exteriors of the Waterhouse used architectural terracotta tiles to resist the sooty atmosphere of Victorian London.

Today, that space is now occupied by the Earth Galleries and Darwin Centre.

4. The Gargoyles at the Entrance are Curved Animal Images

Unlike most gargoyles, which tend to be grotesques with predominantly human or mythological forms.

The gargoyles around the outside of the Natural History Museum are all intricately carved animals.

If you look closely at the ornate details both inside and outside this beautiful building, you’ll find a variety of other animal carvings too.

5. The Dinosaur at the Entrance is called Dippy

Dippy the Dinosaur at the Entrance of the Museum.Photo by Fernando Losada Rodríguez.

Her name is Dippy and she’s a 26-meter-long diplodocus skeleton, who has been greeting visitors in the main hall since the mid-1970s.

The skeleton was cast from a specimen found in America and has been on display since 1905.

The real Dippy is believed to have lived around 156-145 million years ago, she’s due to tour the UK in 2018 and while she’s gone, she’ll be replaced with a blue whale skeleton.

The blue whale in the zoological section of the Natural History Museum is 30-meter long.

6. It has Become an Iconic Part of Land due to its Stunning Building

The Natural History Museum may have had a humble beginning, but it has become an iconic part of London, thanks to its ever-expanding collection and stunning building.

Romanesque architecture is similar to the style often used in religious buildings.

Romanesque architecture has helped contribute to the nickname, a cathedral of science.

7. It is One of the Most Famous Artifacts in the UK

The Museum possesses the most famous artifacts in the world including the collection of more than 125 million natural specimens and artifacts.

The David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins exhibit features more than 285 fossils and artifacts.

The Sant Ocean Hall exhibition demonstrates how the ocean is connected to other global systems of the world. 

8.There’s A Cup Made from A Human Skull

Skull Cup found at the Gough’s Cave on Display at the Museum.Photo by Ethan Doyle White. Wikicommons.

Found in Gough’s cave in Somerset, this item is about 14,700 years old. In 1903 the remains of a human male, since named Cheddar Man, were found a short distance inside Gough’s Cave. He is Britain’s oldest complete human skeleton, having been dated to approximately 7150 BC It’s believed that the soft tissue was removed shortly after the person died and that it was used as a drinking vessel.

9.Biggest Geological Museums in the World having Held World-Most Famous Exhibition

The museum has a 1.5-million-square-foot building featuring a Roman-style doorway entrance.

The museum is also one of the three largest museums in Albert polis. The museum’s collection includes more than 70 million botanical items, 55 million animal exhibits, nine million archaeological relics, and 500,000 rocks and minerals.

Around four million people visit the museum every year.

In 1985, the museum merged with the adjacent Geological Museum of the British Geological Survey, which had long competed for the limited space available in the area.

 The Geological Museum became world-famous for exhibitions including an active volcano model and an earthquake machine, designed by James Gardner, and housed the world’s first computer-enhanced exhibition, reassures of the Earth.

The Natural History Museum’s mineralogy displays are unchanged.

10. The Darwin Centre is Built into Two Distinct Phases

Statue of Charles Darwin. Photo by Xavier da Costa e Silva.

Statue of Charles Darwin by Sir Joseph Boehm, 1885, is placed in the main hall.

The Darwin Centre is named after the famous Charles Darwin, an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist.

The Darwin Centre was designed as a new home for the museum’s collection of tens of millions of preserved specimens.

Also, new work spaces for the museum’s scientific staff and new educational visitor experiences were included in Darwin Centre.

 Built-in two distinct phases, with two new buildings adjacent to the main Waterhouse building, it is the most significant new development project in the museum’s history.

Phase one of the Darwin Centre was opened to the public in 2002, and it houses the zoological department.

Phase Two was unveiled in September 2008 and opened to the general public in September 2009.

It was designed by the Danish architecture practice C. F. Møller Architects in the shape of a giant, eight-story cocoon and houses the entomology and botanical collections.