I go to the Natural History Museum a lot. From the age of about 18 I’ve been interested in zoology and have spent a lot of my free time learning about evolution and reading scientific tomes about animals. London has some excellent museums for learning about animals and the Natural History Museum is by far the biggest.
One of my favourite things about the Natural History Museum is their diverse program of events. Like all big museums there is a “Lates” event once a month and the usual half term activities for kids, but the Natural History museum also has lectures, conference days and amazing evenings such as the Dino Snores (literally my dream event) and the Night Safari series which is a unique opportunity to learn from scientists working in the field. I highly recommend their Spirit Collection tours as well which run every day. For an interested amateur like me it’s an incredible place to be able to go and learn!
Some of my favourite exhibits are the prehistoric animals (such as the wooly rhinoceros!) and the geology wing – you have to pass through the giant revolving world to access it. I also absolutely love the large mammals hall (although it’s depressing to think about the majority of those animals being endangered) and obviously I’m a big fan of dodos, the national bird of Mauritius (my homeland). The whole museum itself is covered in carvings of animals and plants so even if you’re wandering between halls there’s something to see. It’s just a brilliant place to spend a day!
If Wes Anderson were to curate a museum gallery it would surely be the Horniman natural history collection. The thoughtfully laid out displays, pastel backgrounds and gratuitous use of ‘Futura’ font lend the gallery a certain Anderson aesthetic. Without my sketch book I happily wandered around taking photographs and scribbling notes on which animals to further research. There was such a feeling of tranquility and calm in the upstairs gallery especially and I spent about an hour alone, just me and the exhibits. After, I sat in the medicine garden listening to the wind chimes and thinking about all the thousands and thousands of creatures in the world, and how at one time we were all the same.
TAPE PARADE 