Architecture

Buildings where the building is the reason to go: the inside-out, the Art Deco, the concrete, and the ones that make no sense at all until somebody explains them.

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Horniman Museum and Gardens

A tea trader's museum of 1901, with a clock tower like nothing else and a walrus inside.

Victorian & EdwardianYou can go insideFree

Photo by No Swan So Fine, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Also in Museums.

Frederick Horniman made a fortune in tea, filled his house with what he brought back, and in 1901 gave the lot to the public in a purpose-built museum by Charles Harrison Townsend. Townsend is the reason to come: the front is a broad arch under a huge mosaic panel, and the clock tower beside it is a stripped, rounded shape that belongs to no style anyone can name - Arts and Crafts pushed towards Art Nouveau and away from every Victorian convention. He designed the Whitechapel Gallery on the same principles. Inside are the musical instruments, the aquarium and the over-stuffed walrus, and the gardens behind have one of the best views in south London.

Where
Animal Walk, Forest Hill, SE23 3BX
Nearest station
Forest Hill · 9 min walk

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