The Horniman Museum in Forest hill, South London is an amazing educational facility. It was started by the English tea trader, artefact collector and public benefactor, Frederick Horniman, who gifted it to the London County Council at the turn of the nineteenth century. It opened in 1901.
The museum is more than a collection of items: it is also extensive botanical gardens which show the cultural use of plants around the world and it also contains a fine aquarium.
The Horniman Aquarium
The aquarium presents a range of environments including a realistic wave action on a rocky seashore. The exhibits range from Britain’s own shores to a Fijian coral reef. The entire exhibition could only be called spectacular. In tanks of living coral, fish interact with sea anemones; sea horses play; tubefish peep out of sandy holes, peering around like underwater meercats . Such curiosities as the four-eyed fish, the giant frogfish, the orangefin anemonefish, spider crabs, cleaner shrimp and a variety of beautiful jellyfish are there.
The Musical Instrument Exhibit
The Music Gallery is one of the unique exhibits at the Horniman. In keeping with its interactive and youth-oriented profile, the Horniman Music gallery has listening stations so that various instruments on display can be heard and occasional live performances are held. Even more remarkable, some instruments can be handled at the Hands On Base ( an interactive part of the exhibit where real artefacts can be handled, masks and clothing tried on, and objects closely examined). The collection of 1600 instruments is ranked the biggest in Britain.
According to the Horniman Museum website, the collection amounts to 350,000 pieces. They include many unusual cultural artefacts such as voodoo dolls and altars, elaborate Native American head dresses, dance masks, toys, models and weapons. The natural history section has the traditional stuffed animal and birds one associates with nineteenth century museums, but the enormous, lifelike walrus and the extinct Dodo will surely impress.
To see what a great museum can do to make history and art fascinating for all ages, a visit to the Horniman is a must.
The museum is open daily from 10:30 to 5:30, except for 24-26 December. Entrance to the main museum exhibits is free. The collection includes the infamous medieval torture chair. The Horniman Museum may be readily reached by buses 176, 185, 197, 356, P4 – which stop outside the Museum and Gardens on London Road, or is just a 5-10 minute walk from Forest hill Station, where it is even signposted from Platform Exit 1.
