Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity

Develop your passion for nature

The Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity is located on the lower ground floor of the Darwin Centre. 

Watch the video clip to find out more about the centre and meet its staff.

Today, 18 May, the centre celebrates its official press launch, as part of the events leading up to the International Day for Biological Diversity on 22 May.

Entrance is free
Booking required
Find out more about biodiversity

The Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity is for anyone with an interest in UK natural history. 

Marmont Centre team

Angela and Tony Marmont and the team at the Centre for UK Biodiversity

It will be a hub for amateur naturalists, enthusiasts and other societies to study British wildlife. A place to investigate all aspects of the natural world, from animals, insects and plants to fossils and minerals. 

The centre will respond to people’s concerns about UK biodiversity by taking a lead in the national citizen science debate.

What the centre offers

  • an identification and advisory service
  • a fully equipped visitor space for your own research
  • access to our UK reference collections and UK natural history library
  • workshop and meeting room facilities
  • hands-on resources and nature surveys
Identification and Advisory Service (IAS)
  • Drop-in on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays 10.00 – 17.30pm: Found something unusual in your bath or a new plant in your garden? Discovered a strange creature on the beach, a fascinating fossil or beautiful mineral? Dedicated staff in the centre will help identify these. Drop in to meet an identification enquiries officer.
  • Online identification forums:  Use our online NaturePlus identification forums to submit images or descriptions of what you want to identify. Our staff and enthusiasts will help with identification and comment.
    Visit our NaturePlus identification forums online
  • Identification by post:  Send in photographs of your objects or specimens by post to: Identification & Advisory Service, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD. 
  • Identification by phone: Call our dedicated IAS line on +44 (0)20 7942 5045.
Visitor space for research and access to our collections

Book a visit to the centre and pursue your interest in British natural history. Whether you need the help of an enquiries officer or want to research a particular specimen, there are over 10,000 drawers of plants, animals, moths and butterflies to study.
Book your visit online

A boy using his Nature Plus card in the Marmont centre.

Using NaturePlus at the touch screen display

Hands-on resources and nature surveys

Discover specimens in the collection drawers at the centre's alcoves. Watch how amateur naturalists use the collections and explore interactive displays.

Use the NaturePlus card and scanner at the touch-screen display to collect information to follow up later online.

Find out about and register online to join in current citizen science and mass participation projects such as the water and seaweed surveys using NaturePlus.

The successful Open Air Laboratories network (OPAL), which runs various citizen science projects, has a base in the centre.

Explore nature with OPAL
Find out about NaturePlus online
Join in the OPAL water survey

Get involved and join in a wildlife survey

Take part in the Big Seaweed Search 

Supported by

Professor Anthony and Mrs Angela Marmont

Part of

2010: International Year of Biodiversity

Identification forums

Red-headed cardinal beetle, Pyrochroa serraticornis

Share identification tips on UK plants, insects, animals, rocks and minerals.  Museum experts will help to answer your queries and identify your specimens.

Identification forums
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