London bids farewell to its beloved, overstuffed walrus
Southeast London has temporarily lost one of its most famous residents: a giant taxidermy walrus that has been on display for more than a century.
For most of the past 120 years, the walrus has sat in the middle of the Natural History Gallery at the Horniman Museum and Gardens. The museum displays the collection of Frederick Horniman, a wealthy tea trader who lived in Victorian England.
The gallery, which in addition to the walrus holds other taxidermy animals, skeletons and insects, is being shuttered while the museum redevelops the space, with a focus on “environmental sustainability and a commitment to fighting the climate emergency,” according to the museum's website. (The rest of the museum, which also includes a large collection of musical instruments and an aquarium, will remain open.)
When the gallery reopens, in 2026, visitors will be able to see the walrus in the same spot where they left him — sitting prominently in the middle of the room atop a fake iceberg, said Louis Buckley, a senior curator at the museum. The collection will include more context about how Horniman came to own the walrus. The museum's website notes that Horniman's wealth was “reliant on the exploitation of people living in the British Empire.”
During his lifetime, Horniman amassed a collection of ethnographic objects, natural history specimens and musical instruments. When his collection grew too large to fit in his home, he commissioned architects to build a museum, which opened in 1901.
In the renovated gallery, the walrus will “encapsulate a lot of different themes we are exploring,” Buckley said. Other than a closer look at how Horniman's objects arrived in the museum, climate change and humans' relationship to nature will also be explored.
Horniman bought the walrus around 1886 from an exhibition in London. The walrus itself is probably from the Hudson Bay area of Canada, Buckley said, although it is unknown who hunted and killed it.
On Sunday, the overriding mood at the museum was one of enthusiasm and walrus appreciation. Against the sounds of squealing — and sometimes crying — children on a rare sunny March day, visitors said they had made a pilgrimage that day specifically to say goodbye.