Last night, while some of us were being swept away by the razzle-dazzle of bonfires and fireworks, the Museum was being swept away at the glittering BT Visit London Awards ceremony in London’s Westfield shopping centre. We collected not just one, but three coveted awards.

- Winner of the People’s Choice Evening Standard’s Best London for Free Experience

- Winner of the gold award for Marketing/PR Campaign of the Year for our brilliant Darwin exhibition campaign

- Winner of the silver award for Business Venue of the Year

Our Director of Public Engagement, Sharon Ament said, 'It is so good to see that we have, once again, been voted by the public as a firm favourite and the quality of our marketing and the Museum as a venue for events is recognised.'

Museum representatives receiving our three awards last night

So thank you to all the visitors who voted us the Best London for Free Experience. We owe it all to you… and the dinosaurs. Keep on coming.

And of course, a really big thank you to Charles Darwin who has been with us every step of the way this year for his bicentenary celebrations, overseeing our exhibition and magnificent Darwin Centre building, and generally being the inspiration behind almost everything we do here.

The marketing image that left its mark

This unforgettable image of the bearded man himself, finger on pursed lips, seen all over tube stations, bus stops, inside the Museum and adorning our very own eye-stopping Darwin exhibition website, will haunt many of us for some years to come.