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Natural History Museum Review

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Natural History Museum

Address: Cromwell Rd., South Kensington, London, SW7 5BD
Phone: 020/7942-5000
www.nhm.ac.uk

Category: Museums/Galleries
Location: Kensington, Chelsea and Knightsbridge

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Fodor's Review:

The outrageously ornate terra-cotta facade of this enormous Victorian museum is strewn with relief panels, depicting living creatures to the left of the entrance and extinct ones to the right. It's an appropriate design, for within these walls lie more than 70 million different specimens. Only a small percentage is on public display, but you could still spend a day here and not come close to seeing everything. The museum is full of cutting-edge exhibits, with all the wow-power and interactives necessary to secure interest from younger visitors.

Highlights

A giant diplodocus skeleton dominates the vaulted, cathedral-like entrance hall, affording you perhaps the most irresistible photo opportunity in the building. It's just a cast, but the Dinosaur Gallery (Gallery 21) contains plenty of real-life dino bones, fossils—and some extremely long teeth. You'll also come face to face with a giant animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex—who is programmed to sense when human prey is near and "respond" in character. When he does, you can hear the shrieks of fear and delight all the way across the room.

A dizzyingly tall escalator takes you into a giant globe at the Earth Galleries,where there's a choice of levels—and Earth surfaces—to explore. Don't leave without checking out the earthquake simulation in Gallery 61.

The centerpiece of a major expansion is the new Darwin Centre, built to house some of the (literally) millions of items they don't have room to display, including "Archie," a 28.3-foot giant squid. At this writing, it's due to open in September 2009.

Tips

"Nature Live" is a program of free, informal talks given by scientists, covering a wildly eclectic range of subjects. They happen every day at 12:30 (also 2:30 on weekends) in the Nature Live Studio, by the Marine Galleries on the ground floor.

The museum has an outdoor ice-skating rink from November to January, and a very popular Christmas fair.

Free, daily behind-the-scenes Explore tours of the museum can be booked on the day—although space is limited, so come early.

Got kids under seven with you? Check out the museum's "Explorer Backpacks." They contain a range of activity materials to keep the little ones amused, including a pair of binoculars and an explorer's hat. They're free, but you'll need to provide a £25 credit-card deposit.

Cost: Free
Open: Daily 10-5:50
Tube: South Kensington

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