A few weeks ago, the public got to see a giant flying whale arrive in the Natural History Museum.
The whale has replaced Dippy the Diplodocus, which was a key selfie moment for visitors, even though most of them were unaware that it’s actually a plaster cast model, not a real skeleton.
Now a real skeleton hangs over their heads, in the form of a very dead blue whale.
That removed the ground level feature from the main hall, which is now a vast empty space with a single desk for visitors — all the more convenient to be reused out-of-hours for revenue raising private events.
While people certainly stopped and photographed, and tried to selfie the whale, it’s actually a lot more impressive from the upper levels.
I would say that the steps of the huge arch that runs over the main entrance are the best, or if you don’t mind peering through tinted windows, at the back of the hall in their treasures gallery.
Now that the whale has been elevated and the ground cleared, it seems to have made the focal point for the hall change slightly, and I saw a lot more people looking at the objects in the alcoves that line the hall rather than seeing a big dinosaur and then moving on.
The comment on out of hours events is, unfortunately not true. As one of the suppliers for the Museum I can speak with some experience on this. The new information desk is slightly larger and has reduced the seated capacity of the Hintze Hall by about 30 guests for dinner. Happy to prove this via private correspondence.