The Horniman Museum and Gardens is a museum in

Forest Hill Forest Hill or Forrest Hill may refer to: Places Australia * Forest Hill, New South Wales, a suburb of Wagga Wagga * Forrest Hill, New South Wales, a suburb of Albury * Forest Hill, Queensland * Forest Hill, Victoria ** Forest Hill Chase Sh ...

, London, England. Commissioned in 1898, it opened in 1901 and was designed by

Charles Harrison Townsend Charles Harrison Townsend (13 May 1851 — 26 December 1928) was an English architect. He was born in Birkenhead, educated at Birkenhead School and articled to the Liverpool architect Walter Scott in 1870. He moved to London with his family in 1880 ...

in the

Modern Style The Modern Style is a style of architecture, art, and design that first emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid-1880s. It is the first Art Nouveau style worldwide, and it represents the evolution of the Arts and Crafts movement which was native ...

. It has displays of anthropology, natural history and musical instruments, and is known for its large collection of

taxidermied Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body via mounting (over an armature) or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word ''taxidermy'' describes the proc ...

animals. The building is Grade II* listed. It is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and is constituted as a

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

and

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...

under

English law English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures. Principal elements of English law Although the common law has, historically, be ...

. In 2022 the museum won Museum of the Year, an award made by the

Art Fund Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for many gifts and bequests, as ...

History

The museum was founded in 1901 by

Frederick John Horniman Frederick John Horniman (8 October 1835 – 5 March 1906) was an English tea trader and founder of the Horniman Museum in London. He was brought up and lived in Croydon, Park Hill area. Life Frederick, born in Bridgwater, Somerset, was born ...

. Frederick had inherited his father's

Horniman's Tea Hornimans is a brand of tea currently owned by JDE Peet's. History The original tea trading and blending business 'Horniman's Tea Company' was founded in 1826 in Newport, Isle of Wight, by trader John Horniman. In 1852, he moved the company t ...

business, which by 1891 had become the world's biggest tea trading business. The proceeds from the business allowed Horniman to indulge his lifelong passion for collecting, and which after travelling extensively had some 30,000 items in his various collections, covering natural history, cultural artefacts and musical instruments. In 1911, an additional building to the west of the main building, originally containing a lecture hall and library, was donated by Frederick Horniman's son

Emslie Horniman Emslie John Horniman (1863 – 11 July 1932) was a British anthropologist, philanthropist and Liberal Party politician. The son of Frederick Horniman, sometime Liberal member of parliament for Penryn and Falmouth, Horniman was educated priv ...

. This was also designed by Townsend. A new extension, opened in 2002, was designed by Allies and Morrison. The museum won the

's Museum of the Year award in 2022. In November 2022, the museum returned a collection of 72 items that were stolen from the Kingdom of Benin, including Benin Bronzes, to Nigeria's

National Commission for Museums and Monuments The National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), also referred to as National Museum of Nigeria was Founded in 1979 by the Federal Government of Nigeria with decree 77 of 1979 to be in charge of the collection, documentation, conservatio ...

Collections

The Horniman specialises in anthropology, natural history and musical instruments and has a collection of 350,000 objects. The

ethnography Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

and music collections have Designated status. One of its most famous exhibits is the large collection of stuffed animals. It also has an

aquarium An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...

noted for its . The Horniman housed some of the Benin Bronzes until 28 November 2022, when they were signed back unconditionally to Nigeria, from where the pieces were looted in 1897 by British troops.

Floor directory

Transport connections

Gardens

The museum is set in of gardens, which include the following features: * A

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

listed conservatory from 1894 which was moved from Hornimans' family house in Croydon to the present site in the 1980s. * A bandstand from 1912 * An enclosure for small animals * A Butterfly House * A nature trail * An ornamental garden * Plants for materials, medicines, and foods and dyes * A sound garden with large musical instruments for playing * A new building, the Pavilion, for working on materials that are outside of the collections, such as from the gardens. The gardens are also Grade II listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.

Mosaic

On the London Road wall of the main building is a neoclassical mosaic mural entitled ''Humanity in the House of Circumstance'', designed by Robert Anning Bell and assembled by a group of young women over the course of 210 days. Composed of more than 117,000 individual tesserae, it measures and symbolises personal aspirations and limitations. The three figures on the far left represent Art, Poetry and Music, standing by a doorway symbolising birth, while the armed figure represents Endurance. The two kneeling figures represent Love and Hope, while the central figure symbolises Humanity. Charity stands to the right bearing figs and wine, followed by white-haired Wisdom holding a staff, and a seated figure representing Meditation. Finally, a figure symbolising Resignation stands by the right-hand doorway, which represents death.

Totem pole

A totem pole, carved from red cedar, stands outside the museum's main entrance. It was carved in 1985 as part of the American Arts Festival by Nathan Jackson, a Tlingit native Alaskan. The carvings on the pole depict figures from Alaskan legend of a girl who married a bear, with an eagle (Jackson's clan crest) at the top. The pole is one of only a handful of totem poles in the United Kingdom, others being on display at the British Museum, the

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum (opened in ...

in Edinburgh, Windsor Great Park, Bushy Park, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford, and at Alsford's Wharf in Berkhamsted. p.3 There is also a totem pole in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter. It is displayed in their World Cultures galleries.

CUE building

The Horniman Museum contains the CUE (Centre for Understanding the Environment) building. This opened in 1996 and was designed by local architects Archetype using methods developed by

Walter Segal Walter Segal (15 May 1907 – 27 October 1985) was an architect who developed a system of self-build housing, the Segal self-build method. Based on traditional timber frame methods modified to use standard modern materials, his method eliminat ...

. The building has a grass roof and was constructed from sustainable materials. It also incorporates passive ventilation.

Gallery

Image:Horniman Museum interior.jpg, Museum main gallery Image:HornimanGreenBuildingsmall.jpg, The CUE Building Image:Conservatory at the Horniman Museum.jpg, The exterior of the conservatory Image:Horniman Museum Conservatory.jpg, The interior of the conservatory Image:HornimanBandstandsmall.jpg, The bandstand from 1912 Image:cmglee_Horminan_bandstand.jpg, The bandstand viewed from below in July 2013 Image:Horniman Museum - geograph.org.uk - 1253435.jpg, The Horniman totem pole Image:Horniman_fruit_bat_skin_skeleton.jpg, A preserved fruit bat showing how the skeleton fits inside its skin Image:Horniman_turtle_carapace_skeleton.jpg, A preserved turtle skeleton showing how the carapace connects with the rest of the skeleton Image:Horniman_Museum_walrus.jpg, Canadian walrus Image:cmglee_Horniman_natural_history_gallery_giraffe.jpg, The Natural History Gallery with the overstuffed walrus replaced with a giraffe model in July 2013

References

External links

*
Forest Hill image galleryThe Horniman Museum on Museums London directory of museums in London
{{authority control Grade II listed parks and gardens in London Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Lewisham Museums sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Natural history museums in London Charities based in London Musical instrument museums in England Anthropology museums Asian art museums in the United Kingdom Music museums in London Museums in the London Borough of Lewisham Museums established in 1901 Buildings and structures completed in 1901 Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Lewisham Grade II* listed museum buildings Arts and Crafts architecture in England Art Nouveau architecture in London Art Nouveau museum buildings Museums established in 1911 Organisations based in the London Borough of Lewisham