The Horniman Museum

During the Easter holidays I thought it would be lovely to visit the Horniman Museum and explore it as I had never been there before. It was a gorgeous sunny day, fresh and bright after early morning rain, and I didn't really know what to expect but I particularly wanted to see the gardens and the Victorian conservatory.

The large conservatory is a seating area for the restaurant where I enjoyed a lovely bowl of soup for lunch. It is also hired out for weddings and I can imagine it would look absolutely stunning by candle light.

Inside there was a range of displays including a large Natural History section full of so many animals and birds native to the United Kingdom, such as this gorgeous badger sett.... 

....... to ones from further afield, such as a now extinct Dodo and one of the highlights of the museum, the Walrus. 

The massive walrus, which was brought to London by the Victorian hunter James Henry Hubbard, who collected it from the Hudson Bay in Canada, was put on display in the Horniman Museum in 1890.

I am not really keen on taxidermy per se, but I guess you have to view it in the context of the time it was created, and these specimens were important in the study of Natural History.

It also must have been amazing for the Victorians to be able to see and appreciate these animals for the first time, and even for us, when images on television and the internet are so prolific, it is still interesting to see them in such displays.

That doesn't always mean that they are accurate. The walrus in the museum is an unusual taxidermy specimen as it appears stretched and 'over stuffed' with none of the skin folds that the walrus has in the wild. It is thought that the reason it is not so true to life is because over 100 years ago very few people had ever seen a live walrus. It is still one of the most popular exhibits in the museum.

There also the enjoyable African section. I loved the mummies in particular, as I have always had a fascination with Egyptology that at the time of my visit I was feeding by reading the thoroughly enjoyable but widely improbable Amelia Peabody mystery books by Elizabeth Peters. There heroine is the determined and intelligent Victorian female Egyptologist, Amelia Peabody, who gets into countless scrapes and manages to fight her way out of most of them with her specially adapted parasols, while catching criminals and murderers along the way.

This gorgeous lion is also in the African section. It is so unusual as well. I adore it!

But my favourite display was the Romanian Easter eggs, which were simply exquisite, and the fascinating exhibit, 'Mummers, Maypoles and Milkmaids' with photographs of English regional rituals and celebrations, such as May Day and Wassailing, taken by Sara Hannat.

It is an interesting museum with an eclectic and slightly surprising range of displays. Perhaps that is because it was originally a private collection and reflects the whimsy and interests of its founder and original curator.

The museum was opened in Victorian times, when Frederick John Horniman, a tea trader and avid collector, opened his house as a museum and moved into another residence, as he could no longer contain his extraordinary collections and wanted to show it off to visitors.

It seems it is the museums diversity, as well as the aquarium and the gardens, that seem to make it such a popular place for young families to visit as well. Aside from expecting places to be busier with families in the Easter school holidays, it does seem to be a favourite place for people to come with their young children throughout the year.

And to top it all of the gardens, and the views of London, were spectacular. Perched on top of Forest Hill as it is, with fair reaching views, it was a lovely place to be on such a lovely Spring day.