Our Gardens

Open daily from 18 July

(Closed 24-26 December)

Our gardens are free, no ticket required.

Visiting the Museum too? Get a free ticket.

South Kensington, London

Download a map (278KB)

Escape the hustle and bustle of city life in our gardens.

Follow the story of how life on Earth has changed over time in our new gardens, from the days of the dinosaurs through to today.

As you move through our gardens, follow in the footsteps of evolution. Along the way feel ancient fossils, spot a grazing Hypsilophodon and tread among the footprints of your oldest ancestors.

Then leave the past behind as you step into the present day. Into an urban world, but one that makes space for wildlife. As you explore our grassland, wetland and woodland habitats, experience how nature can thrive in urban spaces.

Sink into your surroundings and soak in the sights and sounds of nature as you discover the creatures that have made their homes here. Take time to tune into the birds singing in the trees, to watch the ripples dance across our pond and to contemplate a future that works for people and the planet.

Star specimens and exhibits

watch dragonflies hover over our wildlife pond
listen to birdsong and soak in the sounds of nature
gaze up at our full-size, bronze Diplodocus supported by Kusuma Trust
hear from our local community about the plants they chose for our gardens
contemplate the future of nature in our Conservation in Action Yard

Adventure awaits in our new gardens – a paradise for little explorers and time travellers.

Your little adventurers will love exploring our new gardens. Whizzed back into the past, they’ll get to touch the oldest rock in Britain and feel real fossil ammonites and trilobites. As they trace history with their fingertips, beneath their feet, footprints hint at a prehistoric world.

Emerging into our Jurassic jungle, spot a Hypsilophodon grazing among small palms, before setting off on the trail once more. Is it just us or are the prints starting to become more familiar? As they tread inside the footsteps, your little explorers will get to see how they measure up to their earliest human ancestors. But that’s not all!

More adventure awaits them over at our new pond. From newts to dragonflies, it’s brimming with wildlife. A haven in the heart of the city, our garden is the perfect place for little ones to look at and listen to nature. Here, they can sing along with the birds, get mucky in the soil, hunt for bugs and beetles or just lie back and watch the clouds go by.

There’s so much to discover on your next visit. Let the adventure begin!

Star specimens and exhibits

come face-to-face with our full-size, bronze Diplodocus supported by Kusuma Trust
look out for newts and frogs in our wildlife pond
spot a grazing Hypsilophodon
feel the ridges on a real fossil ammonite
weave among the tree ferns and cycads in our Jurassic jungle

Visiting, access and important information

Tickets

Our gardens are free to enter without a ticket. The East Garden will be open daily 10.00-17.50 and The West Garden will be open during daylight hours. We are not installing lighting across the gardens in order to protect our local wildlife.

If you'd also like to enter the Museum as well, please get your free entry ticket on our website to guarantee your entry and skip the queue during busy times.

Toilets

There will be a Changing Places facility next to the Nature Discovery Centre supported by AWS.

All toilets are marked on our map.

Find out more about Access at the Museum.

What can you see (and hear and smell and touch) in the gardens?

Our new gardens are a living laboratory, offering nature of all shapes and sizes an inner-city habitat. From the tiniest microorganisms that keep our soil healthy, to the foxes and pigeons that have built homes in our grounds - there is so much to discover in our new gardens.