“The Natural History Museum is more than a museum. It is practically a cathedral to deep time” Dr Stephen King
Dr Stephen King knows the Natural History Museum exceptionally well, and this walk benefits from that familiarity at every turn. It evolves alongside the museum itself – new discoveries, revised displays, fresh lines of inquiry. A real scientist guiding you means this is anything but an off-the-peg script. Expertise, scholarship, freshness, selectivity and care bring out the full flavour.”
A journey into deep time – an illustrated vision of the distant worlds whose surviving traces fill the Natural History Museum.
Most visitors see the dinosaurs.
This walk shows you what they miss.
Join scientist Dr Stephen King – so you’re exploring the Natural History Museum with someone who combines professional expertise with top flight guiding – for a behind-the-scenes journey through one of the world’s greatest museums. Its 80 million objects span billions of years – and Dr King brings that immense story vividly to life.
The suspended blue whale skeleton dominates Hintze Hall, the great central space of London’s Natural History Museum.
You’ll:
- Touch a 4-billion-year-old meteorite
- Discover the science behind the largest animal ever to live
- See real scientists at work
- Hear the stories behind the specimens, the building, and the people who shaped it
The Natural History Museum rewards close looking – even its walls and arches are alive with carved creatures.
And there’s more.
We go beyond the galleries into the museum’s hidden history – including its unexpected wartime role as a centre for secret operations.
We also step away from the busiest routes to explore quieter corners and overlooked spaces most visitors never find.
This is a lively, interactive walk. Questions are encouraged throughout.
One of the museum’s many animal carvings – in this case the famously extinct dodo.
If you want more than a museum visit – if you want insight, access, and stories you won’t find on the labels – this is the walk.
Most visitors wander aimlessly through the museum. A scientist – in this case – Dr King teaches you how to see it.
The skeleton of a woolly mammoth displayed in one of the great Romanesque galleries of the Natural History Museum, where architecture and natural history combine to dramatic effect.
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THE GUIDING
IT’S ALL ABOUT WHO YOU MEET UP WITH
A giant ground sloth skeleton rearing against a tree trunk in the Natural History Museum
Andrew McDonald –
Wonderful walk through a mesmerising location led by a true enthusiast.
We finished the tour feeling that there are luckily still great institutions out there for us all to enjoy.
A great guide makes all the difference!
Debbie Bartholomew-Cook –
This walk with Dr. Stephen was outstanding! We have been to the Natural History Museum before , but we never fully appreciated it until this walk. Dr, Stephen passionately told us about the history, the architecture, while also highlighting many different exhibits. It was great having a guide take us through the back entrance to avoid the crowds. We saw so much and learned even more in less than two hours. Priceless!
Sue –
Walk title, intriguing. Leader, fantastic. Building, magnificent. Sorted then.
One half alive, the other extinct, classification explained simply.
A cocoon with an iffy lift, millions of specimens in an alcoholic stupor, and enough insects to be classified as a top grade plague. It was there for all to see.
From touching the oldest thing on the planet to checking the facial features of sculpted monkeys, we did it all.
We met a palaeontologist that used dynamite to retrieve specimens & saw Q’s real workshop, an exploding rat Mr Bond? We noted weird fish that had really weird mating habits & the beautiful skeleton of Hope, complete with spare bones. I am still having difficulty though, unhearing about what must be the oddest paperweight in all of creation. Don’t think they sold them in the gift shop either.
Dinosaur? Attenborosaurus conybeari of course!