16 Natural History Museum, Tring, Herfordshire

This outpost of London’s Natural History Museum has been a visitors’ delight for over a century. Six floors showcase 4,000 specimens on public display in taxonomic order, classified into related groups: stuffed birds and animals, menacing sharks hanging from the ceiling, insects in pull-out cases and plenty more. You can wonder at the skeletons of long-dead creatures, such as the giant ground sloth from the Pleistocene era, or examine a set of fully dressed fleas (clothes made in Mexico in 1905). NM

Open daily, free; www.nhm.ac.uk