#horniman

The Horniman Museum and Gardens

I feel it terribly clichéd to describe the Horniman Museum as an eccentric collection, but it is nevertheless an apt description for the place. The museum started out as the private collection of the tea-trader Frederick John Horniman; using the wealth from his business, Horniman began collecting many varied objects during his travels, eventually amassing over 30,000 separate objects. Finally running out of space in his house, he opened the museum in 1901. Over the years, the building has been extended and redeveloped to house the main collections, consisting of natural history, anthropology, musical instruments, and an aquarium.

The natural history gallery is described as “historical” by some, in reference to its old glass cases and taxidermy specimens dating back to the 19th century. The highlights include an overstuffed walrus (the taxidermists not knowing about the walrus’ wrinkled skin), a mummified crocodile, and a fake mermaid.

The musical instrument gallery is an almost overwhelming collection of instruments from across both history and the world; interactive tables throughout the gallery will play the sounds of some of them. Notable objects include a giant tuba and a Carlton drum kit.

The aquarium is particularly fascinating, recreating environments of the various fish, amphibians, and invertebrates on show. Beginning with a Victorian parlour aquarium filled with starfish and shrimp, you can then walk past British ponds and coastline, a round jellyfish tank, a coral reef, mangrove swamp, and the Amazon rainforest (home to my favourite animal there, the Amazonian milk frog). A word of warning: the aquarium is best avoided at weekends and school holidays, if you would prefer your visit to be less filled with children excitably exclaiming that they have “found” Nemo or Dory…

I would recommend taking time to explore the gardens outside as well – look out for the prehistoric garden with skeletal dinosaur!