NHM to reopen ‘lost’ gallery after 80 years
A gallery of the Natural History Museum that has been closed to the public for more than 80 years is to reopen next month.
The space on the second floor of the South Kensington museum had held its skeleton and mammal displays, but it was closed in 1943 after the NHM was damaged in a bombing attack. After that it was used to store the botanical collections.
But it will reopen on September 16, initially for 18 months, with a free exhibition about the changing relationship between humans and the natural world. The exhibition, Nature and Us, is to be part of the NHM’s transformation developing over the next five years.
Nature and Us will include a miniature of a Crystal Palace dinosaur to show how scientists and artists imagined prehistoric life, the Victorian skeleton of a seal and a replica jaw of a 14,000-year-old domestic dog.
"Reopening this remarkable gallery is an exciting moment for the museum” said its director, Doug Gurr. “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."
Image shows the osteology – skeletons – gallery in 1893, courtesy of the trustees of the Natural History Museum