Horniman Museum and Gardens

Horniman Museum and Gardens
#27

⭐ Highligts

The Walrus

London’s famous overstuffed walrus

Taxidermists in the 1880s had never seen a live walrus, so they over-filled the skin until the folds disappeared, creating the museum’s most loved oddity.

Compare its smooth skin to photos of wrinkled real walruses.

📍 Ground floor, Natural History Gallery

Music Gallery

Global instruments collection

An award-winning space showing thousands of instruments from every continent, with sound stations that let you hear how each family sings and resonates.

Use the listening posts to match sound to instrument shapes.

📍 Ground floor, Music Gallery

World Gallery

Cultures and stories worldwide

Open since 2018, the gallery brings together objects and voices from across the globe, exploring identity, belief and everyday life through vivid displays.

Follow one theme-music, dress, or belief-through several cases.

📍 Ground floor, World Gallery

Aquarium

Living ecosystems in miniature

From coral reefs to mangroves, small tanks show how habitats work as systems; look for seahorses and the mangrove roots alive with tiny creatures.

Pause at feeding times; check screens for today’s schedule.

📍 Lower ground floor

Gardens View

16 acres of hillside gardens

Laid out on a south London ridge, the Grade II-listed gardens sweep over 16 acres and frame one of London’s loveliest skyline panoramas.

Climb to the bandstand for the best skyline photo at sunset.

📍 Terraces and bandstand, outdoors

Opening Hours

Sunday: 10:00 – 17:30
Monday: 10:00 – 17:30
Tuesday: 10:00 – 17:30
Wednesday: 10:00 – 17:30
Thursday: 10:00 – 17:30
Friday: 10:00 – 17:30
Saturday: 10:00 – 17:30

South London's Horniman is a museum of connections: nature, music, people and place threaded through galleries and hillside gardens. Inside, the award-winning Music Gallery lets you hear how instruments from every continent are made to sing; the World Gallery (2018) explores identity and belief with vivid, humane storytelling; natural history is headlined by the famously overstuffed walrus-equal parts curiosity and conservation prompt. Paid add-ons-the small aquarium and seasonal butterfly house-suit families, while 16 acres of Grade II-listed gardens open onto one of London's loveliest skylines. It's free entry for the museum, tickets for some experiences. Come unhurried: pair an hour inside with a slow garden loop, or budget two to three hours if you're doing everything.

📖 Wikipedia🌐 WebsiteGoogle Maps

🤓 Fun Facts

Horniman won the Art Fund Museum of the Year award in 2022.

The gardens cover 16 acres and are listed at Grade II for historic interest.

In 2022 the museum returned 72 Benin objects to Nigeria after a provenance review.

The famous walrus was overstuffed in the 1880s because taxidermists hadn’t seen a live one.

Frederick Horniman opened the museum in 1901 using wealth from his family tea business.

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