Dippy has returned!

• Dippy the Diplodocus is back for a limited time at the Natural History Museum, London
• The nation's favourite dinosaur was welcomed home by children from Canary Wharf College
• The free installation opens on Friday 27 May and tickets can be booked now

The Natural History Museum’s iconic Diplodocus cast - Dippy - is back at the London Museum in an exciting new installation. Dippy Returns: The Nation’s Favourite Dinosaur will be free to visit, runs until 2 January 2023 and celebrates the landscapes visited by Dippy around the UK on its national tour.

Dippy’s appeal is well known, with over 2 million people visiting Dippy on Tour around the UK in the last 3 years. Every venue Dippy visited reported record-breaking visitor numbers, and a recently concluded report has suggested that Dippy on Tour resulted in an economic benefit of just under £36m across the eight regions visited.

Dr Doug Gurr, Museum Director, said, ‘We are beyond thrilled to welcome Dippy home to the Natural History Museum.

‘Always proving popular and having just completed a smash hit tour where over 2 million people around the UK visited our Jurassic giant, we are certain Dippy will bring a smile to visitor’s faces this summer at the Natural History Museum.

‘While on tour Dippy encouraged people to engage people with nature and inspired them to protect it, and we hope that our new installation will continue to do just that. At a time when biodiversity is under threat it is more important than ever to protect the natural world and build a future where both people and planet thrive.’

Children from Canary Wharf College were among the first to see Dippy this week ahead of the installation opening to the public on 27 May. As well as being presented with a talk about the biology and ecology of the diplodocus they also learned about Dippy’s unique history, which includes being on display at the Natural History Museum for over one hundred years and travelling to all four corners of the United Kingdom on tour.

Throughout Dippy on Tour the much-loved diplodocus cast was witness to the changing state of the nation’s wildlife and the habitats that need our protection. Dippy Returns will feature visitors’ reflections from when they met the Jurassic giant and how such meetings inspired them to reconnect with the precious nature on their doorsteps.

At a time when UK biodiversity is in sharp decline, Dippy has given people a much-needed reminder of the joy local landscapes can provide and their importance to a healthy planet.

Although visitors may be surprised not to be greeted by Dippy upon entering the Museum’s Hintze Hall, Dippy has actually moved around a lot over the last century, and not just on the UK tour.

Dippy has been displayed in many different parts of the Museum including the Reptiles gallery, Hintze Hall and even a brief stint in the basement to protect the specimen during World War II. This time, Dippy will be on display in our Waterhouse gallery, where it was previously displayed in the 1970s.

Dippy Returns: The Nation’s Favourite Dinosaur runs from 27 May 2022 to 2 January 2023 and free tickets can be booked here. The Natural History Museum is currently seeking a new partner to host Dippy a long-term loan at the conclusion of the installation. Venues can apply now to host Dippy here. 

Ends

Notes to editors

Natural History Media contact: Tel: +44 (0)20 7942 5654 / 07799690151 Email: press@nhm.ac.uk

Images and video of Dippy available to download here.

A summary of the economic impact report of Dippy on Tour is available here.

The Natural History Museum is both a world-leading science research centre and the most-visited indoor attraction in the UK last year. With a vision of a future in which both people and the planet thrive, it is uniquely positioned to be a powerful champion for balancing humanity’s needs with those of the natural world.

It is custodian of one of the world’s most important scientific collections comprising over 80 million specimens accessed by researchers from all over the world both in person and via over 30 billion digital data downloads to date. The Museum’s 350 scientists are finding solutions to the planetary emergency from biodiversity loss through to the sustainable extraction of natural resources.

The Museum uses its global reach and influence to meet its mission to create advocates for the planet - to inform, inspire and empower everyone to make a difference for nature. We welcome millions of visitors through our doors each year, our website has had 17 million visits in the last year and our touring exhibitions have been seen by around 20 million people in the last 10 years.