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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.
Waterhouse's terracotta cathedral, with the animals modelled into the walls and columns.
Victorian & EdwardianYou can go insideFree
Also in Museums and Science & Engineering.
Alfred Waterhouse won the job in 1864 and the museum opened in 1881, and he made a decision that no other Victorian institution matched: the entire building, inside and out, is faced in terracotta, which is cheap, moulded rather than carved, and washes clean in London's air. Then he had the animals modelled into it. Living species are on the west side and extinct ones on the east, so the columns and arches carry monkeys, pterosaurs and fish, all of them made by Gibbs and Canning of Tamworth. The central hall is a Romanesque nave with a whale in it. It is the clearest case in London of a building that argues its own subject.
| 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 |
| Sunday | 10:00 – 17:30 |
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.