Culture Vulture 3 - The Natural History Museum

Another site to cross off my list was definitely the Natural History Museum.  Yet again this is a beautiful building filled with fascinating and beautiful objects. The building is so grand it could be a cathedral rather than a museum.

I especially like the gargoyles perched up by the windows!

The entrance hall of the museum is well-known with the Diplodocus skeleton cast that greets you as you walk in. Incidentally Dippy, as the statue has been nicknamed, has been in the museum since 1905.  During the Second World War all of his 292 bone casts were taken apart so that he could be placed in the museum's basement to avoid damage during the London bombing raids.  He has stood in his current place at the museum entrance since 1979.

And of course one of the coolest parts of the Natural History Museum are the displays about dinosaurs, with LOTS of skeletons, on the floor and suspended from the ceiling. You can walk amongst them at ground level and walk along a walkway and look down on them from above, or at eye level!

The Tyrannosaurus Rex model above actually moved his head and tail around and roared at people!  The dinosaur below was sleeping, you could see his chest moving and hear him breathing, occasionally he twitched his tail or blinked at you.

As well as dinosaurs this museum is also filled with fascinating animal specimens from around the world, both skeletons and full body models.  I was a bit scandalised to see that the Tasmanian Tiger and Tasmanian Devil were both very faded though!

If you're not familiar, the Tassie Devil (bottom pic) should be black with white bits (not brown) and the Tasmanian Tiger (top pic) should have black stripes from partway along it's back to down it's tail.  But then I was slightly mollified to find that the big cats and the panda were all pretty faded too.  I thought museums would take better care of their specimens, i.e. not leave them in the sun to fade?!

Anyway, there were also lots of animal models in the blue room, where a model of a blue whale and various whale skeletons are suspended from the ceiling, that is pretty cool to see!

I also really enjoyed the "Darwin Galleries"; lots of examples of zoological and botanical drawings that count as both art and scientific record.

The images below were a huuuge pencil drawing on a massive sheet of paper!

As I mentioned before, the building itself was fascinating, I loved discovering the little details like those below in the ornamentation of the walls and stairways.

Even the ceiling has panels of botanical artwork, and note the monkeys climbing the arches!

A statue of the great man, Mr. Charles Darwin himself:

And a skeleton of a dodo in the "Treasures" gallery.

This big cabinet was in the bird gallery, it was really awesome to look at, but also sad; all those dead hummingbirds! :(

Pictured below: the culture vulture! ;)

There was also a very interesting segment of the museum about the Earth itself: geology, volcanoes and earthquakes.  There was a room that simulated part of an earthquake in Tokyo, every few minutes the floor would move from side to side with lots of noise!

There was also this massive model of a planet that you moved through on an escalator.  It was very cool, but I got a bit of vertigo going into it and had to hold on for dear life so didn't get very good photos in that part!

The Natural History Museum is a fascinating place to visit, for adults and children alike.  I spent hours wandering around and had to exercise a lot of restraint in the gift shop!  It is also home to the annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit, but you need to book and pay to see that.  If you are interested in exploring the museum some more (in person or virtually) the website can be found here.

Stay tuned for more exciting sights next week, when I visit the Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as upcoming entries about Oxford and Stratford-Upon-Avon!

Culture Vulture 2 - The National Gallery and Pollock's Toy Museum

At the moment I am frantically attempting to see all of the attractions in London (and the UK) that I can before I move to Holland in two months.  A couple of weeks ago I crossed two such sights off my to-see list and visited the National Gallery and Pollock's Toy Museum.

The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square is obviously a very recognisable spot, I love going there and standing at the entrance to the gallery to look out over the fountains and Nelson's Column down to Big Ben.

There are three plinths with statues of historical figures in Trafalgar Square and the fourth is used as an installation space for temporary sculptures.  When I first arrived in London the sculpture was of a boy on a rocking horse which I thought was quite clever (since all the other ones are on horseback).

Now however, it has been changed, to a blue cock.  Get your minds out of the gutter, a cock is another word for a rooster!

Funnily enough, even though I've been to Trafalgar Square plenty of times, this was the first time I'd actually gone into the gallery to look around.  It's a lovely building, even the floor is a work of art with the mosaic in the lobby.

Unfortunately you're not allowed to take photos of the artworks, so you'll have to visit it yourself one day, or have a look at the website here.  I did get a few sneaky photos of the interior of the building though, shhh!

After a few hours taking in all the high-brow artwork I decided to go in another direction and visited Pollock's Toy Museum.  

Described by Lonely Planet as "simultaneously creepy and mesmerising" this museum houses an incredible array of old toys from around the world.  You have to traverse three floors of rickety winding staircases to see all the rooms which are absolutely crammed with fascinating examples of toys and boardgames.

I was incredibly excited to discover the ORIGINAL puppets from the Sooty and Sweep television show, they had been given to the museum by the creator Harry Corbett. I loved Sooty and Sweep and Soo as a kid, even saw them live in Hobart once!

There were lots of teddy bears in the museum as well, I was interested to discover that the name "Teddy Bear" came about after Theodore Roosevelt appeared in a political cartoon refusing to shoot a bear cub while hunting and the image became known as 'Teddy's Bear'.  A clever store owner from New York capitalised on this by creating a bear and getting the president's permission to call it Teddy's Bear. The name has stuck.

 The tag below reads: "Eric born 1905 the oldest known teddy bear."

 This tag says: "Teddy Bear c.1920 made by Schuco. His moving head is operated by turning his tail."

There were also some beautiful old doll's houses from different eras, and of course lots of dolls from around the world.

I thought this Britannia doll should look a little less defeated though...

The sign behind this doll said: "Doll with glazed porcelain head on a stuffed leather body and limbs. German 1860-70"

A South African doll, made of felt by a woman in Durban.

I kind of liked these old Chinese man dolls too, with their little bird in a cage!

Overall it was a fascinating place and well worth a visit if you get the chance.  Website here.

That's it for another week, watch this space for more posts about my adventures soon!