The Natural History Museum in South Kensington is one of London's most loved free attractions, known as much for its cathedral-like building as for its dinosaurs and the blue whale skeleton that hangs in its main hall. It is popular with families and can get very busy, so a bit of timing goes a long way. Below you will find Tube directions, how entry works, the best times to go and what to see.
About the Natural History Museum
The museum's collections began as the natural history specimens of the British Museum, many of them from Sir Hans Sloane's collection. As they outgrew Bloomsbury, the anatomist Richard Owen pushed for a dedicated building, and the museum opened on Cromwell Road in 1881. The architect Alfred Waterhouse covered the building in terracotta tiles moulded with plants and animals, living species on one side and extinct ones on the other.
Today the museum is also a major research institution, with tens of millions of specimens behind the scenes and scientists working on everything from minerals to insects.
Getting to the Natural History Museum by Tube
Take the District, Circle or Piccadilly line to South Kensington. Inside the station, follow the signs for the museums into the long pedestrian subway, a tiled tunnel that runs north under Exhibition Road. It comes up close to the museum's Exhibition Road side, so you stay dry on wet days. The walk takes around five minutes.
You can also exit the station at street level and walk up Exhibition Road, turning left onto Cromwell Road for the main entrance. Gloucester Road station is another option, about ten minutes on foot to the west.
For more places to eat and visit around South Kensington, see our London Tube guide.
Entry, booking and tickets
General admission is free. The museum offers free timed entry slots that you can book online on its official website (nhm.ac.uk), and booking can save time in the busiest periods. Walk-up entry is usually possible, but the queue can be long on weekends and in school holidays.
Temporary exhibitions are ticketed, including the long-running Wildlife Photographer of the Year show. Check the official site for current prices, opening hours and which entrances are open, as these can change.
The museum has two main public entrances:
- Cromwell Road, the grand main entrance into Hintze Hall.
- Exhibition Road, which leads into the Earth Hall and is closest to the Tube subway.
Best time to visit the Natural History Museum
Weekday mornings in term time can be busy with school groups, but the queues are usually shortest at opening and in the last couple of hours of the day. Weekends, rainy days and school holidays are the busiest times. If you have children with you and plan to see the dinosaurs, head there first before the crowds build.
Allow two to three hours for the main galleries. A quick visit to Hintze Hall and the dinosaurs takes around an hour.
Highlights inside the museum
Hintze Hall and Hope the blue whale
The central hall is the place to start. Since 2017 it has been dominated by Hope, the skeleton of a blue whale suspended from the ceiling, which replaced the famous Diplodocus cast known as Dippy. Look up at the painted ceiling panels and along the balconies for more specimens.
Dinosaurs
The dinosaur gallery follows a raised walkway past skeletons and fossils and ends at an animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex. It is the most popular part of the museum, and there is often a queue to get in.
Earth Hall and the Red Zone
From the Exhibition Road entrance, an escalator carries you up through a large metal globe into galleries on volcanoes, earthquakes and the forces that shape the planet.
Other favourites
- The Mammals gallery with its life-size model of a blue whale.
- The Minerals gallery, a long room of Victorian display cases holding gems and meteorites.
- The Cocoon in the Darwin Centre, where you can see how scientists store and study specimens.
- Human Evolution and the Treasures in the Cadogan Gallery, which brings together some of the most significant items in the collection.
The gardens
The museum's grounds were redesigned and reopened in 2024 with an evolution-themed garden and a bronze cast of a Diplodocus outside the main building. They are free to walk through and make a good break from the galleries.
Nearby on the same Tube stop
South Kensington is London's museum quarter, so it is easy to combine visits:
- The Science Museum, next door on Exhibition Road, also free.
- The Victoria and Albert Museum, across Exhibition Road, for art and design.
- The Royal Albert Hall and the Albert Memorial, at the top of Exhibition Road.
- Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, about ten minutes' walk north.
- Cafés and French bakeries around the station, a legacy of the area's French community.
For places to eat and other nearby sights, open the Natural History Museum page on Around the Metro.