natural history museum

If you haven’t visited the Natural History Museum since you were a child, now is the perfect time to go.

Dippy – the giant dinosaur who filled up the main room of the building for so long – has been replaced by Hope, a 25.2-metre-long blue whale skeleton who hangs from the ceiling.

Staff moving Hope the blue whale from its home in Mammal Hall at the Natural History Museum, where it had hung since 1938, to its new spot in the main hall made an unexpected discovery. They found it was being held together with copies of the Kent Messenger from the 1930s. They were being used to hold the bones together, and some copies from the 1932 Christmas Eve edition were packing out intervertebral discs.

It’s free to view the mind boggling collection of animals, fossils and skeletons – so expect long entry queues. The annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is held here, although ticket prices apply for this. nearest tube: south Kensington