The Grant Museum - new location for old-style displays

UCL’s Grant Museum of Zoology is once again open to the public, after moving across the street to more spacious premises at the corner of Gower and University Street in Bloomsbury, London.

Its new home is an old library, and a variety of animal and hominid skeletons grin widely as they preside over visitors from the balcony – not unlike a scene from a Hammer Horror movie, or perhaps the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Anatomical curiosities on display include an eyebrow-raising walrus penis bone, a narwhal tusk, Tasmanian tiger and devil skeletons, dodo remains, a large jar of preserved baby moles, and a hefty brain coral reassuringly labelled, “This is not a brain”.

The room is dominated by its largest displays – a quagga, a giant deer skull with suitably enormous antlers, a mammoth tusk, a dugong, a tiger, an Asian elephant skull and a one-horned rhino.

Despite some new features such as a series of interactive iPad displays that invite visitors to comment on topics such as animal conservation and the role of science in society, it still has a 19th century feel to it. There are no plasma displays, cartoons for visiting school groups, or animatronic dinosaurs. 























The new space allows the Grant Museum to hold regular movie screenings, lectures and events aimed at all age groups. The event listing can be found here. Museum staff are also engaged in research, and you can follow some of their activities on the Grant Museum blog.
Click below to see the Grant Museum’s relocation.
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