Redevelopment of the museum’s five-acre gardens into a welcoming, accessible and biologically diverse green space with new outdoor galleries providing a place for visitors, researchers, and scientists to learn about Earth’s changing biological diversity. The project is part of the Museum’s wider Urban Nature Project, a national learning programme encouraging young people to engage with nature and support urban wildlife, developing new techniques and technologies to help better understand urban nature.

Walter Lilly were appointed as Main Contractor to undertake the work to the Museum’s two principal gardens: The Evolution Garden, telling the story of change on our planet over time, and the Nature Discovery Garden supported by The Cadogan Charity, encouraging visitors to connect with nature and ponder Earth’s future.

Evolution Garden

The new Evolution Garden tells the story of life on Earth, told through the immersive timeline of plants, rocks of different geological periods from across the UK and representations of reptiles, birds, dinosaurs and mammals.

Improved Museum accessibility is also a significant part of this project, with step free access from the South Kensington tube station tunnel into the garden, and to the main Museum entrance.

Nature Discovery Garden supported by the Cadogan Charity

The Nature Discovery Garden supported by the Cadogan Charity encourages visitors to connect with nature whilst thinking about the future of our planet.

Key features include:

• Showcasing the fantastic nature on our doorstep.
• Improvements to the existing Wildlife Garden
• Updated paths for improved accessibility
• Raised walkways to protect habitats, as well as a sunken walkway to encourage pond dipping
• A reconfiguration of the existing ponds to increase the wetland area by 20%
• New areas for urban grassland to encourage biodiversity

New building construction

• Nature Activity Centre Supported by AWS – used for scientific projects and educational activities.
• Garden Kitchen – a café/function space, designed in keeping with the architecturally modern Palaeontology building and the Grade I listed Waterhouse Building.

Sustainability

Creating a highly accessible, sustainable design has been at the heart of this net zero redevelopment. Aiming to remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it contributes, sustainable construction methods have included maintaining a diesel free site, eliminating waste sent to landfill, and rainwater harvesting

Photography: The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London