| Description | In 1856 Sir Richard Owen (1804-1892) was appointed as Superintendent of the Natural History Departments of the British Museum. He immediately campaigned for more space for the museum's overcrowded natural history collections. In 1859 he submitted a sketch plan for a new building to the Trustees of the British Museum.
The site eventually purchased for the museum in 1863 was originally occupied by the 1862 International Exhibition. The design competition run by the government's Office of Works for the new natural history museum was won by Captain Francis Fowke, architect of the International Exhibition building.
The Waterhouse Building
Fowke's sudden death in 1865 led to the contract being awarded instead to Alfred Waterhouse (1830-1905), a young Manchester-based architect. By March 1868, Waterhouse had revised the initial plans. While retaining key elements of Fowke's design, such as the rounded-arch windows, he altered the overall style from Renaissance to Romanesque, indicating the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites, primarily John Ruskin. Also apparent is the inspiration Waterhouse drew from the design of German cathedrals he visited while travelling in Europe.
Building at South Kensington did not begin for several years. At one point an alternative site was proposed on the Embankment and then the new First Commissioner of Works imposed funding restrictions. In 1873, the builders, Messrs George Baker and Son, finally commenced work. On completion in 1880 the museum was the first iron-framed building in England to be faced exclusively with terracotta, supplied by Gibbs & Canning of Tamworth, Staffordshire. Tiles both inside and outside the building include design elements drawn from natural history. Waterhouse drew the illustrations for the models from specimens supplied by Sir Richard Owen. These were then turned into 3D models by a Monsieur C Dujardin, foreman at the architectural modellers, Farmer & Brindley.
The eastern exterior, wherein mineral and fossil collections were to be displayed, incorporates images of extinct species while the western exterior includes representations of living zoological species. A statue of a man, (commonly assumed to be Adam), seen by Owen as the pinnacle of all natural creation, was located on the central gable but this was not replaced after damage during World War II.
However, economies imposed on Waterhouse meant that he was not able to include the wings designed to run at right angles along Exhibition Road and Queen's Gate. Later additions to the Museum have to a large extent replaced those buildings envisaged in his original plans.
Additions to the South Kensington estate:
The original building did not include sufficient storage space for storing 'wet' specimens, i.e. those items kept in spirit, which pose a considerable fire risk. Alfred Waterhouse, with help from Albert Günther, then Keeper of Zoology, designed a separate building to store such items in 1882-1884. This eventually became known as the Old Spirit Building and was demolished in 1953.
The New Spirit Building was built at the rear of the building over the course of around seventeen years. Beginning in 1921, the first section was completed in 1924, at which point the majority of the zoology spirit collections were transferred. Two separate extensions were opened in 1930 and 1935, and finally mezzanine floors were added in 1938, allowing the remainder of the collections to be housed.
A lack of adequate storage space was also a constant problem for keepers of the entomology collections. Construction of the Entomology Block, funded by the Empire Marketing Board, began in 1934 and the first half was completed in 1936. The remainder of the building work began in 1938, but came to a halt in 1940 due to the Second World War. The block was completed in 1952.
In 2002, Darwin Centre Phase One was completed for Zoology staff and spirit collections. Designed by architects HOK International, it was built between 1999 and 2001 on open ground to the west of the main museum and situated within one metre of the Spirit Building.
The demolition of the Spirit Building and the Entomology Building, by then both in a poor state of repair, made way for construction of Darwin Centre Phase Two. Designed by C F Møller Architects and containing the concrete-clad Cocoon, work began in June 2006 and was completed in September 2008. Housing Entomology and Botany collections and staff, and new public areas, Darwin Centre Phase Two opened to the public in September 2009. The two buildings together now comprise the Darwin Centre.
The Whale Hall, now part of the Mammals galleries, was built between 1930-1932, and featured a display of whales from 1935. The famous model of the Blue Whale was on display from 1938.
The Palaeontology Wing on the eastern front, now a listed building, was designed by the architect John Pinckheard and opened in 1977.
The Geological Museum, at first the museum of the Geological Survey, opened in July 1935, having been designed by Sir Richard Allinson (also responsible for the Science Museum) and J H Markham, and built between 1930 and 1933. The Flett Lecture Theatre, next to the Earth Galleries entrance, opened during 1976, and was named in honour of Sir John Smith Flett (1869-1947), director of the Geological Survey at the time of its arrival in South Kensington. The museum became part of the Natural History Museum in 1985, and was transformed into the Earth Galleries during 1996-1998.
The Natural History Museum's South Kensington estate has also incorporated further expansion behind the scenes over the years. Additions include the Northwest Building, comprising the mammal tower, lecture theatre and part of the General Library, built between 1955 and 1958, and opened in 1959; and the Northeast Building, comprising the Library, Directorate, and Administration offices, completed and opened in 1973. |