One of London’s rather better smaller museums is about to fix it one major failing – its slightly inconvenient opening hours.
From this weekend in fact, the recently refurbished collections of animals in jars and bones on shelves at the Grant Museum will open from 1pm to 5pm every Saturday.
It’s quite an old museum, in that it was founded in 1828 as a teaching collection of the natural world, but has always had a bit of a mischievous glint in its eye. A move from a tiny cramped room to a considerably larger venue across the road has not lost its sense of humour.
How many other museums would replicate the icon of the 1970s – the flying ducks – with tortoise shells, or have a collection of plastic dinosaurs as an actual exhibit.
And do look up, as a trio of skeletons look down over the gallery. Of course, there is their famous jar of moles.
The Grant Museum is just off Tottenham Court Road (map link) and entry is free of charge.
I think this is great. I wanted to go here and I don’t know if I would have ever got around to it, presuming they had kept their weird hours, if they hadn’t participated in a UCL treasure hunt on a Friday evening which gave me access to this one and the Petrie museum etc. I love this kind of macabre medical stuff.
Thanks for this update, I’ve come across it a couple of times, but it’s always been closed before. Going this weekend!
I am looking forward to visit this quirky museum one day.