A Day at the Museum...

There are over 240 museums in London.  Of these, many set the bar as world class museums.  The Natural History Museum is one of those.

The Natural History Museum started out as part of the British Museum.

The foundation of the British Museum was the collection of Sir Hans Sloane.  Sir Hans Sloane will be the subject of another blog.  Amazing individual.   He allowed his collection to be purchased by the government at a very ‘hard to resist’ price.  There was a period of time when much of Sloane’s collection of dried plants and animal and human skeletons was sold off.  There are rumors of bonfires of some of the specimens.  The inability of the museum to maintain the collection became notorious.  Thankfully many of these faults were corrected in 1856 with the guidance of a new superintendent by the name of Owen.

Owen saw that the natural history collection needed more space – a building separate from the British Museum and land was purchased in South Kensington for a permanent building to house the Natural History collection.

Alfred Waterhouse was appointed to finish the museum after the first architect died shortly after being appointed.  He made substantial changes to the agreed upon plan.  Work began in 1873 and the museum was opened in 1881.

Alfred Waterhouse was the son of mill owners.  His siblings were all professionally successful.  Alfred’s desire was to become and artist but his parents would have none of that so he became a more respectable architect.  He is credited with several well known buildings but this is my favorite.

At a time when London was fueled by dirty, sooty coal fires, Waterhouse chose terracotta tiles for the interior and exterior of the building.  Terracotta resists staining like other stone exteriors and can be washed.  The insides of the building are framed by cast iron arches.  

The cast iron and the terracotta were all brought in from the interior counties or what they call 'the midlands'.  The Industrial Revolution was in full swing and moving Britain forward at an accelerated pace.

But Waterhouse was an artist - take a look at the beauty in this building...  The stairs seem to 'float' in air.  I never tire of this building - everywhere I look I see Waterhouse's stamp of artistry.

 The art is everywhere...

Take a look at the detail of the front doors.

Closer....

Closer still

Come see it all for yourself!  Come on down to the Natural History Museum!