LONDON.- The Natural History Museum has announced it will be throwing open the doors to a gallery which has been closed to the public since 1943. The gallery will initially reopen for 18 months on 16 September with Nature and Us, supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), where visitors can explore our evolving relationship with the natural world through 50 remarkable objects.
Key specimens and historic objects appearing in Nature and Us include a miniature model of a Crystal Palace dinosaur, illustrating how early scientists and artists imagined prehistoric life; Jenny, a Victorian skeleton of a monk seal that reveals how wild animals were once exploited for entertainment; a bryozoan-encrusted Star Wars toy from the 1980s, showing how everyday objects can acquire new meanings through nature and time; and a 400,000-year-old handaxe whose discovery transformed our understanding of when humans first existed.
Visitors will also be able to touch a replica jaw of one of Britain's earliest known domesticated dogs, dating to around 14,300 years ago and offering evidence of the long relationship between people and dogs. Content in Nature and Us is experimental, visitors can have their say and inform which stories will appear in the permanent gallery opening in 2029.
The beautiful space, located on the second floor of the main Museum’s Waterhouse building, historically served as both an osteology (skeleton) gallery and a mammals gallery. After the Museum's original herbarium was damaged during the Second World War, the gallery was repurposed to house the botanical collections and closed to the public. The gallery's original wooden herbarium cabinets remain in place, reflecting its history as a working scientific collections space.
Dr Doug Gurr, Director of the Museum said, "Reopening this remarkable gallery is an exciting moment for the Museum. For the first time in over 80 years, visitors will be able to step into this beautiful historic space and explore our changing relationship with the natural world. It's another important step in our NHM150 transformation as we create new spaces that inspire people to become advocates for the planet."
Nature and Us and the reopening of this gallery is the next step in the NHM150 campaign to transform the Museum’s iconic South Kensington building, connecting visitors with science and nature by placing the Museum’s groundbreaking research at the heart of its gardens and five transformed galleries. This follows the phenomenal success of the Museum’s Fixing Our Broken Planet gallery, visited by 3 million people since opening in 2025.
The campaign is creating space by opening a brand new or revitalised gallery every year until 2031, sharing the wonder of the Museum’s immense and scientifically invaluable collections with 1 million more visitors a year, and engaging 10 million school children, families, and changemakers.
The Museum’s series of far-reaching advocacy programmes - including Fixing Our Broken Planet, the Urban Nature Movement and Wildlife Photographer of the Year, look to engage visitors to South Kensington as well as national and global audiences, building on its mission of creating over 100 million advocates for the planet.
Claire Andrews, Head of Community Engagement at Natural Environment Research Council said, “UKRI NERC is proud to support Nature & Us at the Natural History Museum, building on the success of Fixing our Broken Planet. By opening access to these remarkable collections, the space will help audiences explore our evolving connection with nature, while building towards a permanent gallery in 2029. We are confident that Nature and Us will captivate minds and motivate visitors to explore their own relationship with the natural world, and how science can drive meaningful action for our planet."
The Museum thanks Lead Funder the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), part of UK Research and Innovation, and Associate Funder Bjrn Savn CBE, with additional thanks to Dr Ned F. Kuehn, Roger Gahagan, Edith Murphy Foundation and The James & Shirley Sherwood Foundation for funding Nature and Us.
