Inside the Grant Museum of Zoology | Hidden London

At the Grant Museum of Zoology in London you will find cabinets filled with skeletons, taxidermy and specimens preserved in fluid. While this small but perfectly formed museum certainly sounds rather macabre, and some displays are rather stomach-churning, it’s also very educational.

Ever since I was a child I’ve had a fascination with seeing dead things. I guess you could call it morbid curiosity. I read somewhere that a common thread among serial killers is a fascination with dead things that begins in childhood, so before you start pointing fingers, I can assure you that I’m no such thing! Though I am partial to watching true crime fiction. Anyone else?

Anyway, I feel like I’m digressing. So, serial killers aside, today I want to talk about The Grant Museum of Zoology because it’s one of London’s hidden gems. It’s free too, making it perfect for people looking for affordable and interesting things to do in London.

Origins of the Grant Museum of Zoology

The museum was founded by Robert Edmond Grant. He was a professor at UCL and was one of the two people who introduced evolution to Charles Darwin. In fact, UCL was the first place in an English university where evolution was taught.

From what I have read, Grant’s knowledge of the natural world heavily influenced Darwin in his early years. Before the famous evolutionary biologist set sail on his famous Beagle expedition he turned to Grant for advise on how to store the specimens he collected.

Inside the Grant Museum of Zoology

As you enter the unassuming doors, you enter a realm of wooden cabinets filled with curious creatures and specimens you never knew existed. It looks like something out of Harry Potter or a mad scientist’s workshop.

Cabinets are filled with jars containing creatures in formaldehyde (preservative fluid), many of which have been preserved for over 100 years. You’ll see baby pigs and moles crammed inside big glass jars; hundreds of different types of amphibians and animal skeleton heads.

In total, the museum contains 67,000 creatures, many rare and endangered species, including extinct animals, from the dodo to the Tasmanian Tiger.

Each specimen is labelled and descriptions vary in length. Some just outline the name of the animal and some outline their unique characteristics.

It’s fascinating, educational, and rather mind-boggling. The content, and the way the exhibits are displayed provide an excellent opportunity to learn lots of awesome things about the weird and wonderful world of animals and the natural world we live in.

The Surinam toad

Now I want to draw your attention to one exhibit that blew my mind: the Surinam toad.

The Surinam toad, native to South America, has one heck of a horrific birth. Tens, if not, hundreds of eggs hatch straight out of her back! Just look at it post-birth – it looks like she’s been shot in the back by a machine gun. Ouch!

Honestly, I can’t look at it without winching. The damage after child birth is unreal. Now the prospect of having a child doesn’t seem so horrendous after I compare myself to this poor lass! Yeh, I wouldn’t want to be a toad, least of all a female surinam toad.

And if you’re curious to see the birth happen in real time, check out this National Geographic video:

Would I recommend visiting the Grant Museum?

Absolutely! It’s great for adults and kids alike. Visiting is like the science trip that wished you had done at school. It’s fun, engaging and filled with all kinds of strange and wonderful things.

The Grant museum is only a small museum, no bigger than one large room, but it’s packed to the brim with wondrous displays. Think creepy crawlies, slithering centipedes, and teeny tiny microorganisms. This is a museum which will fright, excite and truly unlock the wonderful diversity of life. I dare you to enter…

I’ll leave you with a few more photos and interesting facts that I learn from my visit.

Elsewhere is an exhibit of male Midwife toads, found in Western Europe. The way they reproduce is fascinating and much more ‘wholesome’ than the Surinman toad.

In a nutshell, the female expel their eggs, and the men fertilise the eggs externally. After doing so, the males carry their eggs around their legs to protect them from predators. Nature really does have a way of protecting itself, eh?

Who knew anacondas had such, well… big bones? Am I the only person who believed snakes slithered around in a spineless state of being?

Is it wrong to think these pickled pig embryos look cute?

It’s easy to say, the Grant Museum of Zoology is the type of museum that will leave you gasping in horror and smiling with fascination in equal measure. It’s a lot of things, but boring is not one of them.

Address: Rockefeller Building, 21 University St, London WC1E 6DE

Further reading: For similar museums, check out the curiosities on displays at Hunterian Museum in London, the Surgeons’ Hall Museums in Edinburgh, and the KunstKamera Museum in St Petersburg. You won’t be disappointed!