Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum in South Kensington is one of the largest and most visited natural-history museums in the world, holding some 80 million specimens across zoology, geology, botany and mineralogy. Alfred Waterhouse completed the monumental Romanesque-Revival building, clad inside and out in terracotta animal reliefs, in 1881; it is now a Grade I listed building. Since 2017 the entrance hall, Hintze Hall, has displayed the blue-whale skeleton Hope where Dippy the Diplodocus stood for decades - a deliberate message about the marine-mammal crisis. The collection traces back to the physician Hans Sloane, whose specimens, acquired in 1753, formed the seed of the British Museum. Admission is free, with ticketed temporary exhibitions such as Wildlife Photographer of the Year.