Natural History Museum

One of the world's greatest natural history museums, the NHM houses an extraordinary collection spanning four and a half billion years of natural history. Walk beneath Hope, the 25-metre blue whale suspended in Hintze Hall, explore dinosaur skeletons, and discover the museum's research into climate change and biodiversity. The Waterhouse Building, opened in 1881, is a Romanesque masterpiece decorated with terracotta animals and plants. Nature and Us, a gallery closed since 1943, reopened in September as the first step in the NHM150 transformation, and the 62nd Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition opened on 16 October and runs into next summer.