Tomorrow (Wed 30th June) marks the final day for the Grant Museum in its ancestral home before it closes down.
The Grant Museum is the only remaining university zoological museum in London. It houses around 62,000 specimens, covering the whole Animal Kingdom. Founded in 1827 as a teaching collection, the Museum is packed full of skeletons, mounted animals and specimens preserved in fluid. Many of the species are now endangered or extinct including the Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine, the Quagga, and the Dodo.
Never fear, for it is closing to be moved to a new location, conveniently just across the road, but that wont open until next February.
However, if you want to see one of London’s more charming and old-fashioned museums – then tomorrow is the last chance for quite some time.
When the museum opens in its new home, I fully it expect it to retain its Victorian charm of being large glass cases packed full of skeletons and jars of pickled animals. This museum makes no concessions to the modern fads for computer screens and day-glo plastic shelving.
The desiccated exhibits are the stars of this museum.
It is quite small, and if you have attended the evening talks they hold down in the nearby auditorium, you’ll be familiar with the tube-train like crush that can build up afterwards as everyone goes in to have a look with a glass of wine in hand. Hopefully the new venue will be a bit larger.
Go, go tomorrow, go before it is too late.
The museum is open all day and closes its doors for the last time at 5pm.
Location on map – go in to UCL via Malet Place and it is signposted on the left side.
Blast! I’ve been meaning to visit this museum for over a year, and I didn’t realise it was closing. Have to wait until next year now.