From next month visitors to the Natural History Museum in South Kensington will be able to visit the Museum’s £78m Darwin Centre, home to 17 million insect and three million plant specimens.
Described by Museum bosses as “the most significant development at the Museum since it was built in 1881”, the Darwin Centre will allow up to 2,500 visitors a day to see some of the Museum’s scientists at work.
The new centre’s architectural highlight is a 65-metre-long, eight-storey high cocoon – the largest sprayed concrete curved structure in Europe.
Visitors will also be able to see a daily programme of films and live events in the Attenborough Studio and get first-hand information about the natural world from Museum experts in the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity.
For more information on the Darwin Centre visit www.nhm.ac.uk
Dates: Open from 15 September 2009
Opening times: Every day, 10.00–17.50 (last admission to Cocoon 17.00)
Admission: Free, to book timed tickets for Cocoon call 020 7942 5725
Nearest tube: South Kensington
