Museum · England · Still standing

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum in London is a large public museum housed in Alfred Waterhouse's Romanesque terracotta building on Cromwell Road, opened in 1881. It displays vast life- and earth-science collections and is best known for its vaulted central hall and large mounted dinosaur cast that dominated the space in the early 20th century.

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Photograph via Wikimedia Commons

First raised

1881

Its prime

1905

Today

Still standing

As it stood in 1905

What Natural History Museum looked like in its prime.

A monumental Romanesque façade of warm buff-and-cream terracotta and brick, split by two tall square towers capped with steep pyramidal roofs and pinnacles. The central axis has a deep recessed entrance of concentric rounded archivolts above three doorways, with paired round-arched windows and horizontal polychrome banding. The walls are covered with dense terracotta reliefs of plants and animals. A wide, low flight of steps leads to the porch where a flagpole rises between the towers, scale emphasised by small groups of visitors.

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6 places to explore in 1905.

The record describes 6 distinct spots at Natural History Museum, including 3 interiors: main entrance portal and doors, hintze hall central floor with diplodocus cast, upper gallery balustrade overlooking the central hall. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more photos, more angles and more of the immersive experience.

Cromwell Road approach and stepsMain entrance portal and doorsExterior terracotta relief frieze (flora & fauna)Hintze Hall central floor with Diplodocus castUpper gallery balustrade overlooking the central hallWest lawn and wildlife garden

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