One of the UK’s biggest free museums opens new £25million attraction with ‘living laboratory’ and gardens
A NEW £25million attraction is set to open at one of the UK’s biggest free museums right in time for the school summer holidays.
Both the Evolution Garden and the Nature Discovery Garden will open to the public at London‘s Natural History Museum from tomorrow.
Part of its new Urban Nature Project, the London museum has transformed a huge five-acre site into free-to-visit green spaces in the heart of the English capital.
Visitors to the two new gardens will be taken on an immersive journey through billions of years of history of the planet.
Walking through the garden, visitors will be able to learn about plants, geology, reptiles, birds and mammals.
A huge bronze cast statue of Dippy – one of the Natural History Museum’s much-loved attractions – will take centre stage in the new attraction.
The new statue has been named Fern by a group of local school children.
Eagle-eyed visitors will also notice footprints and tracks of the first mammals dotted throughout the gardens.
Viewing cones, which have been wedged into the rocks, highlight features on the museum’s facade, including a Pterosaur gargoyle that’s poised to take flight.
A cafe pavilion will also open in September, with picnic spaces opening to the public from tomorrow.
Another building will also provide a new classroom space for schools groups and scientists.
As well as being an attractive offering for tourists, the new site is also set to feature a “living laboratory” where scientists from the museum and budding volunteers can work out how to protect urban nature, with sensors in the garden collecting important information.
The museum’s former garden has also been enhanced, with its pond enlarged and a new wheelchair-accessible walkway being built.
Outdoor tables have also been added, so visitors can watch the pondlife.
The Evolution Garden has been designed by architects Feilden Fowles alongside the landscape firm J&L Gibbons.
In a speech, museum director Dr Doug Gurr called the new garden “a national learning, science and public engagement initiative to make our towns and cities healthier and more sustainable places to live”.
He added: “Over the coming months and years, the nature here will flourish and grow, the scientific understanding will grow and millions and millions of young people will have the opportunity to reconnect with nature, to participate in new outdoor workshops and engage in the all-important work of understanding how nature recovery begins on our doorsteps.”
The Urban Nature Project has been funded by a range of trusts, foundations, companies and individuals including Amazon Web Services, The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Evolution Education Trust, The Cadogan Charity and Garfield Weston Foundation.
OTHER NEW LONDON ATTRACTIONS
Paradox Museum
There are plenty of other attractions set to open in London over the coming weeks, including the Paradox Museum.
Launching today, the exhibit features 25 different crazy rooms with mazes, gravity-defying furniture and mind-bending tunnels.
Much like the Museum Of Ice Cream and the Balloon Museum, this isn’t a museum in the traditional sense – more of an opportunity for plenty of selfies.
But that will suit the hordes of Millennial and Gen Z visitors just fine, because between all the 50 family-friendly interactive displays and optical illusions, there are plenty of Instagrammable moments.
A description on the website reads: “Step into a world where nothing makes sense yet everything feels real. Come, explore, and let paradoxes redefine your reality.”
Victoria & Albert Museum
A huge new exhibition about mega-star Taylor Swift is set to open in the UK later this month.
Some of Taylor Swift‘s personal items will be going on display at the V&A Museum in South Kensington, London.
The huge new exhibition, which is called Taylor Swift | Songbook Trail, will celebrate the creativity of the pop icon’s costumes, music videos and lyrics.
According to the V&A Museum, the exhibition will also explore the artist’s childhood and recording legacy.
Sun Travel's Favourite Museums in the UK
THERE are plenty of great museums dotted across the country, here are some of our favourites.
Victoria & Albert Museum – Sophie Swietochowski, Assistant Travel Editor
London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, which dates back to 1852, simply oozes history from the building itself to what’s in it, but that’s not to say its exhibitions are dated.
A free “songbook trail” from mega star, Taylor Swift, launches next week, plus there are installations from some of the most renowned artists in the world.
I can easily spend a whole day getting lost in its ancient collections tucked away in a hidden corner – sometimes it can feel like you have the whole place to yourself
Beamish – Ryan Gray, Travel Reporter
Beamish is unlike any typical “museum” in that it’s basically a fully-functioning town in County Durham, offering a genuine look at what life would have been like for people during various stages throughout the past.
It has a miners’ pit village, farms, shops, a pub, a school and even a dentist among its businesses and reconstructions, all created to provide people with an experience as close to stepping back in time as possible.
Recently, it has expanded to include a new 1950s town, which includes a toy shop, a welfare hall and a cinema that has been painstakingly brought in and rebuilt from Ryhope in Sunderland.
If I’m ever up in the north east, I try and make sure I pay a visit to Beamish to make the most of my annual ticket. It’s especially great at Christmas when the skating rink is up and carol singers can be found gathering in the town’s bandstand, along with brass bands if you turn up on the right day.
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery – Hope Brotherton, Travel Reporter
It’s safe to say I fell in love with art, history and culture at this Birmingham-based museum.
Following a four-year closure, the museum partially reopened to the public with an exhibition on Victorian Radicals featuring a collection of paintings from the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
You can bet the next time I visit my hometown, I will be wandering through the exhibition.
Meanwhile, this UK town is home to one of the world’s best car museums.
And this world class UK museum reopened earlier this year.
