The Horniman Museum
The Horniman Museum is another of south London’s little-known gems, and arguably contains the most eclectic collections in all of London’s museums.
The museum was founded by Frederick John Horniman, a tea trader who began collecting natural history specimens and cultural artefacts from around the World in the 1860s. Horniman initially opened part of his family home to the public so they could view the riches he had collected, but as the collections increased they outgrew the house and in 1898 Horniman commissioned a new Museum.
The Museum opened in 1901 and was dedicated with the surrounding land as a free gift to the people of London by Frederick Horniman forever for their recreation instruction and enjoyment.
The Horniman Museum has three main collections, anthropology, natural history and musical instruments, as well as a small aquarium and a ‘handling collection’ containing various artefacts that can be, er, handled. It also hosts temporary exhibitions and events.
A plump sausage
The main Natural History Gallery is arranged with themes of evolution, movement and animal groupings. It’s filled with cases containing stuffed animals, skeletons and disected creatures, which are sure to either delight or traumatise any visiting kids.
There are all sorts of weird and wonderful Victorian exhibits, ranging from vultures to 7ft tapeworms. The assorted dog heads mounted to the wall are a particularly macabre highlight.
The hall is dominated by an enormous stuffed walrus which dates back to 1870. The taxidermists, never having seen a walrus before, didn’t realise that it was meant to have folds of skin, and over-stuffed it to the point of it looking like a plump sausage.
The small, newly modernised Aquarium actually dates back to 1903. Its displays include a tropical rainforest complete with brightly-coloured poisonous tree frogs, a Caribbean mangrove swamp, and a tank containing some beautiful Moon Jellyfish.
Mummies, torture chairs and altars
The Horniman has one of the country’s most important ethnographic collections, which is constantly expanding:
Far from being boring, dusty or static, the collection is constantly being extended, researched and brought into public view. Curatorial staff maintain a programme of collecting and commissioning new objects which are often integrated into permanent and temporary exhibitions.
The African Worlds Gallery houses the UK’s first permanent exhibition dedicated to African art and culture. There are some magnificent pieces in here, ranging from Egyptian mummies, giant costumes, ceremonial masks, and sculptures. There are even altars from Benin, Haiti and Brazil.
The Centenary Gallery focuses on the changes in approach of collectors over the last 100 years, and also has a wide range of fascinating pieces, including a torture chair from the Spanish Inquisition, Indian figures, and images of Buddha.
The Horniman also has a number of small temporary exhibitions. When I visited I saw some beautiful, historic textiles from China, and a really good exhibition of photographs showing the progress of clothes donated to UK charity shops as they are recycled and sold in India.
Musical Instruments
The Horniman has amassed a collection of 7,000 musical instruments from around the world, dating from 1500 BC to the 1990s, along with an archive of recordings. 1,600 of the instruments are displayed in the Music Gallery.
The Horniman Gardens
The museum sits atop a hill in 16 acres of beautiful gardens, which received the accolade of Best Park for the South East England in 2005. The views across London from the old bandstand are fantastic.
There’s an ornate Victorian conservatory, a Dutch barn, a sunken garden, which was a riot of colour when I visited, and even the best collection of sundials in England, scattered around a sundial trail.
The Horniman’s African Garden contains sculptures and plants found in various regions of the continent, such as Calyx, Pawpaw and Okra. As if that wasn’t enough, the gardens also have an animal enclosure containing goats, rabbits, chickens and geese.
Visiting
The Horniman is open seven days a week, and is a ten minute walk from Forest Hill station (trains from Victoria, Clapham Junction and London Bridge). P4, 185 and 176 buses stop outside. Admission is free.
There’s a cafe and shop on site, and plenty of educational activities for kids too.
More details can be found on the Horniman’s website (assuming you can reach it – amusingly, the Horniman’s domain name has previously proved something of a problem with spam and web content filters).
hello, as you can see by my name i am a horniman and am fasinated in family history.
As i have recently only found out about my biological farther i do not know much, although a few family members say we are related to John Horniman.
I wish there was a way to find out as it would be fascinating.