More information : Built 1873-81, designed by Alfred Waterhouse. It is constructed of buff and grey terracotta and has a pitched slate roof. There are twenty seven bays and the building is three and a half to four storeys high. Two spired towers are on either side of the entrance and there are two end bays to each side which have octagonal towers with steep pavilion roofs. The basement and ground floor have square headed windows and the first floor windows are round headed. The building is decorated with fine terracotta ornamentation including animals to first floor cills. The interior has fine
terracotta details to all the galleries, and paintings to the central hall. (1)
The Natural History Collection opened in 1881 but it goes back more than 250 years. It began with the donation of Sir Hans Sloane's collection of natural curiosity to the nation in 1753. This collection originally formed part of the British Museum but with the accumulation of other important collections such as that of the botanist Joseph Banks, the natural history collection needed its own premises. The superintendent of the British Museum's natural history collection, Sir Richard Owen, persuaded the government of this need and plans were drawn up to build a new museum.
The original architect chosen for the project was Captain Francis Fowke, however after his sudden death in 1865 this contract was taken up by the architect Alfred Waterhouse. The mineralology and natural history collections were in place by 1882 but the collections were not officially declared a museum until 1963.
The museum is Romanesque in style with an impressive façade of high spired towers and a grand entrance of rounded arches. Inside is a large Central Hall which leads to the main staircase and access to the second floors of galleries. The ceiling is decorated with paintings and depictions of plants and animals. The North Hall has 162 decorated panels with plants. The building is decorated inside and outside with buff and cobalt-blue coloured terracotta tiles many of which are decorated with carved reliefs of plants and animals. These elaborate plant and animal decorations represent biological diversity and the west wing is decorated with living creatures whilst the east has extinct ones. (2)
Please refer to this source for information on the architectural details of the museum. (3)
The site was acquired in 1864 and Francis Fowke was chosen as the architect. On his death Waterhouse was commissioned. Building began in 1872 and the museum opened in 1881. The building is Romanesque in style and is symmetrical. Its main floor is raised above basement workshops. Its main features are two tall towers (58m high) which flank a large entranceway with multiple arches. The building's iron frame is covered with terracotta slabs (buff and grey-blue in colour). The elevations are decorated with a large amount of ornamentation which relates to the subject matter of the museum. The East wing has extinct species (reflecting the geological collection) and the West wing living species (reflecting the zoological collection).
The inside is planned in relation to the collections (by the superintendent of the museum Sir Richard Owen). The entrance hall leads to a very large hall with a glass and iron roof and a monumental staircase which leads to the first floor. The second floor is reached from a bridge across the entrance side. There is a long exhibition hall along the front of the building to the west and east of the entrance hall decorated with terracotta representations. The west gallery on the ground floor has mezzanines.
There have been later additions: the whale hall to the north in 1929-32, to the west the entomological block in 1935-8 and which was extended in 1949-52. The north extension (linking with the Science museum) was built in 1955-8 and with a second stage in 1973. The East wing was added with stores and laboratories in 1971-5. (4)
The Natural History Museum was built to designs by Alfred Waterhouse, 1873-81. The spirit building was built in three phases, 1921, 1926, 1928-34. Built from concrete to house collections kept in spirit or alcohol. The spirit building was being demolished and rebuilt in 2001-2. (5)
During the Second World War a number of Darwin's fossil mammal specimens were taken to the Natural History Museum and it now stores a large collection of Darwin's specimens including many from the Beagle voyage. The museum has recently acquired the Kohler Darwin Collection which is the world's largest collection of works by and about Charles Darwin, including a first edition presentation copy of On the Origin of Species. (6)
As part of the 200th birthday celebrations of Charles Darwin a new plaque on the marble Darwin statue was unveiled at the Natural History Museum. The plaque has a Darwin quote: "Freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men's minds, which follows from the advance of science". The Darwin statue which weighs 2.2-tonnes has been moved into a central position at the top of the main staircase in the Central Hall as part of the Darwin200 programme of events celebrating the bicentenary of Darwin's birth. The statue was created by Sir Joseph Boehm and unveiled at the Natural History Museum on 9 June 1885. In 1927 it was moved to make way for an Indian elephant specimen, and then moved again in 1970 to the North Hall. (7-9)
National Grid Reference TQ2670979075 (centroid of the object) identified by digital ordnance survey mapping. (10)
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