Horniman Museum to Reopen Revamped Nature Gallery in February 2027

The Horniman Museum in Forest Hill, south London, has confirmed that its Nature Gallery will reopen on Friday 5 February 2027, following a closure that began in March 2024. The refurbishment is part of the museum's £12.5 million Nature + Love project, which also coincides with the museum's 125th anniversary. The revamped gallery will display more than 2,300 objects from the Horniman's natural history collection, including the museum's most beloved exhibit: its famously overstuffed walrus, which dates to 1901 and was filled to an unusually round shape because the Victorian taxidermists who prepared it had never seen a live walrus. The new gallery will feature interactive and multi-sensory exhibits, ceiling projections showcasing footage filmed in the museum's gardens, a display on plastic pollution created in collaboration with local Deptford schoolchildren, and a hands-on Nature Discovery Den for families with young children. The gallery will explore humanity's relationship with nature, including themes of extinction, climate change, and future environmental stewardship. The museum is currently running a crowdfunding campaign seeking £30,000 towards the gallery's completion. While the Nature Gallery remains closed, the Horniman is currently running its Voyage to the Deep exhibition, inspired by Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.