The Natural History Museum in London is set to reopen a gallery that has been closed to visitors for more than 80 years.
Nature and Us gallery to open in September
The Nature and Us gallery at the museum in Kensington will welcome visitors again from September 16, in time for the start of the new school term. The gallery has been closed to the public since the Second World War.
It will explore humanity’s evolving relationship with the natural world through 50 objects. Among the exhibits are a Crystal Palace dinosaur, a Victorian skeleton of a monk seal and a Star Wars toy from the 1980s encrusted with bryozoans.
Closed since 1943
The space was originally closed in 1943 after the museum’s herbarium, which houses its plant collection, was damaged during the war. Plants displaced by the damage were moved into the gallery for safekeeping, forcing the exhibition space to close to visitors. It remained out of public view for more than eight decades.
Its reopening forms part of NHM150, the Natural History Museum’s transformation programme, which will see a new or revitalised gallery open each year in the run-up to the museum’s 150th anniversary in 2031.
Historic space and interactive exhibits
Visitors will also be able to touch a replica jaw of one of Britain’s earliest known domesticated dogs, dating to around 14,300 years ago and offering evidence of the long relationship between people and dogs.
Dr Doug Gurr, director of the NHM, said: “Reopening this remarkable gallery is an exciting moment for the museum. For the first time in over 80 years, visitors will be able to step into this beautiful historic space and explore our changing relationship with the natural world. It’s another important step in our NHM150 transformation as we create new spaces that inspire people to become advocates for the planet.”
Location and history
Located on the second floor of the main museum’s Waterhouse building in South Kensington, the space historically served as both an osteology (skeleton) gallery and a mammals gallery. After the museum’s original herbarium was damaged during the Second World War, the gallery was repurposed to house the botanical collections and closed to the public. Its original wooden herbarium cabinets remain in place, reflecting its history as a working scientific collections space.
Content in Nature and Us is experimental and visitors can have their say and inform which stories will appear in the permanent gallery opening in 2029.
