Our journey to the Horniman Gallery took us away from the hustle and bustle of central London and gave us a chance to explore nature and music in a new a different way. We entered the building and first explored the natural history gallery. It was refreshing to step away from paintings and historical documents and artifacts and experience a different side of history in the form of taxidermic animals. One Villanova student commented that “It was nice to see a different side of London. So many of our excursions have been centered on art because there is so much great art in the city, but at the same time we can't forget the natural history side of London.” The Horniman Natural History Gallery was influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement of the time and we were able to make connections to the William Morris Collection. Many of the original showcases remain the room is packed full of taxidermy, skeletons, and specimens preserved in fluid and even a giant walrus.
From the natural history gallery, we visited the Hands on Base Gallery and were excited to delve into history. So rarely are we able to actual handle historical artifacts and investigate museum pieces up close and from such a wide variety of objects from Mexican masks to endangered animals. The Hands on Base Gallery was reminiscent of children’s discovery museums and made us feel like children again. After exploring the hands-on Space we went upstairs and viewed the music gallery. This was yet another unique experience for us as we haven’t been able to explore music in any other museums yet. There were thousands of instruments all around the gallery from all over the world.
After our visits inside the galleries, we ventured outside to visit the gardens. Thanks to the beautiful weather we had that day we enjoyed the sunshine as we walked through the gardens. The flowers and conservatory reinforced the notion that we had seeped away from the busy city as we got to spend some time relaxing on the Horniman’s beautiful grounds.
For more information:
http://www.horniman.ac.uk/
http://www.horniman.ac.uk/