The Nature Activity Centre supported by AWS will combine vital facilities for scientific work, monitoring, learning activities, maintenance and supporting the garden's volunteer community.
The Museum's gardens will be opening in summer 2024
The Museum's newly renovated, accessible and biologically diverse green space dedicated to urban nature will be opening in summer 2024.
Learn more about the Urban Nature Project.
As the major building works in our gardens progress, we’re now working on installing the plants, geology, objects and displays that will help tell the incredible story of change on our planet over time.
Keep in touch
Send the construction company, Walter Lilly, an email if you would like to be kept up-to-date with the garden construction, or have any questions regarding the works.
Planting in the Evolution Garden
Planting has begun in the gardens, starting with the largest of the tree ferns in the Evolution Garden. We are planting 185 tree ferns to create a coal forest garden that explores how plants and animals moved onto land during the Devonian and Carboniferous Periods. The landscape will gradually fill as the planting continues.
As visitors weave their way through the Evolution Garden, brass inlays will help to mark the passage of time through a changing world. Going back 375 million years, we start to see the evolutionary journey that led to four-legged land animals.
As visitors find themselves at the mid-point of the gardens they come to the age of humans. After wending their way through 500 million years of Earth’s history, they see the incredibly short space of time that humans have been inhabiting the planet.
Around 2.6 million years ago Earth entered a series of ice ages. Long periods of cold were interrupted by short periods of warmth. Large mammals such as mammoths, giant deer, cats and humans adapted to the cooler climates. The modern horse evolved from its head to its hooves and was able to thrive in grasslands. Multiple toes became a single hoof, which helped the animal to flee predators, like lions, quickly.
These footprints were cast from a group of young people who took part in a photography project in the gardens.
This brass inlay (above) represents a Tiktaalik roseae, one of the earliest known fish to venture onto land. Strong front fins helped it move in water, and elbow-like joints allowed it to move between shallow pools as it searched for prey.
Since refilling and translocating the ponds back in April and May 2023, we’re really pleased that nature is slowly reclaiming the wetland habitat. The pond plants are establishing well and we’ve spotted a large number of willow emerald damselfly along with other species of dragonfly and damselfly as well.
It’s harvest time in our vegetable garden! Our contractors, Walter Lilly, have created an amazing vegetable patch on our construction site. Cabbages, raspberries, aubergines, tomatoes and more are being grown on a spare spot of land. It’s provided an outlet away from the challenging work of transforming our gardens. The plants are even attracting pollinators.
We are currently constructing our Nature Discovery Garden. A project is currently underway with Morely College and Grow2Know to create a planting installation in the gardens, representing our local communities and showcasing the importance of plants in human culture.
The gardens, pathways and buildings are all taking shape.
Our resident fox cubs continue to use the construction site as a playground. It has been a vital part of the construction process to ensure that we make space and care for the nature that calls the gardens home.
The Garden Kitchen will be a multipurpose cafe and events space, providing somewhere to sit and enjoy the new gardens.
Find out more about the Urban Nature Project
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NewsWork begins on the Museum's landmark garden redevelopment
The works are part of the wider Urban Nature Project.
8 September 2022 -
Our plans for the gardens
Read more about the developing plans for the Museum's grounds.
6 April 2020 -
Our response to your feedback
We wanted to know what you think of our plans for the gardens.
3 August 2020 -
Press releaseSir David Attenborough unveils powerful quote about the future of the natural world at the Natural History Museum
Sir David’s quote will inspire visitors to the Museum’s new gardens as part of its Urban Nature Project opening in 2024
30 June 2023 -
A history of the Museum grounds and Wildlife Garden
Take a stroll through the gardens of the past.
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British wildlifeTwenty-five years of wildlife discoveries in the Museum garden
Wildlife Garden ecologist Sylvia Myers introduces some of our favourite finds and how we monitor the plants and animals present.
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Urban wildlife
Find out about creatures you're likely to encounter in towns and cities around the world and how you can help them.
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British wildlifeWhy we should rewild ourselves and the places we live
When we live alongside nature, we end up happier and healthier. We might even end up rewilding ourselves.
Funding
We thank all those who have generously contributed to the Urban Nature Project, including:
