Horniman Museum & Gardens, Forest Hill, London

Simply perfect, the ultimate museum, and this is such spectacular garden!

I love this museum – I’m now 55 and have loved it since I was 3. The museum has some really gruesome exhibits which tend to be tucked away now rather than highlighted as they were when I was a child (the torture chair being just one example). Just out of interest – does anyone else remember there being live alligators in a pit or did I just imagine that?

A wonderful museum I have so many happy childhood memories of.

I look forward to seeing it once the redevelopment of the gardens is completed (should be magnificent) but even now it’s more than worth checking out again and again.

The music gallery is a particularly wonderful little gem, but the whole museum is stuffed to bursting with an eclectic and wonderful range of exhibits. As magical today as it was when I was a wee one.

Lots of fun!

The Horniman Museum and Gardens are a South London gem. The Gardens are currently undergoing extensive re-development scheduled for completion in 2012, but don’t let that put you off. It’s going to be quite a transformation.
The museum is like a dinky version of the Albertropolis museums of South Kensington, bit of V&A, bit of Natural History. They have a superb Aquarium and the Music Gallery has got to be one of the finest collections of musical instruments anywhere. The over stuffed Walrus is now legendary. The museum is a manageable scale if you have kids, not as overwhelming as the the bigger London museums. The permanent and temporary exhibits are always immaculately presented. This is a dynamic modern museum that presents its collections and events in a contemporary, relevant and accessible context.
The Museum building is fully accessible during the Gardens refurb’ and has a nice cafe with stunning Victorian conservatory and retail shop. The building itself is worth a look. The unusual clock tower is a local landmark for the Forest Hill area and the main facade features a beautiful mosaic. The site is only minutes from the new Overground Station at Forest Hill meaning it’s now a short trip from Central London as it’s now part of the tube network.

I'm rather frightened to go back there after 40 years!!I would like to keep the memories as they were-the smells the dingy lighting,my dad playing the unusual tribal instruments.Our friends were the anthropologists,Poignant,who supplied alot of the material & exhibits.They made it such fun to go round there.We were 6,4 & 2 the first time.The youngest had to be taken for a walk around the park to let us older ones continue on our adventure.We spent hours there :) * I did take my son in the 80s and he loved it-I didn't.

I spent many happy hours in school holidays roaming around this unique South London museum as a kid, so it's got a very special place in my heart.

I don't know if the Horniman children's club even exists any more but if it does I can recommend it very highly to any parents in the area. My sister and I were regularly dropped off here in the morning and sent off to the education centre inside where we'd be given fun tasks and bit of art and craft to do as well as free reign of the museum.

As far as the actual exhibits went, the two that remain etched in my memory to this day are (of course) the giant walrus and the human adult and baby skeletons that scared me silly, but I would always go and have a look anyway. There is also a great collection of musical instruments from around the world and an aquarium. Horniman Gardens are well worth a visit, too.

The Horniman is a special one, very close to my heart. I volunteered there for a couple of years, and got to know the staff and the galleries very well.

All top notch stuff, and the temporary exhibitions are changed fairly regularly. Oh, and they host events suitable for families with incredible regularity. Worth a look in!

The Horniman (stop smirking) is one of London's quirkier museums. That's totally a good thing in my book, but it took me ages to get round to visiting it because its Forest Hill location is far from central. But don't let being on the wrong side of the river put you off - it's a very short bus ride from Forest Hill station, which is on the shiny new East London Line.

Being a free museum based in the 'burbs, the Horniman Museum was rammed with children when I visited on a Saturday afternoon. It didn't detract from the enjoyment of my visit, but it's worth keeping in mind.

Highlights included the merman, various pieces of taxidermy (fat walrus!) and a torture chair. It's basically full of oddities. I've heard that the garden is well worth a peek, but it's currently being refurbished so I didn't get the chance to have a look.

Like most of London's wonderful museums it's free, but I think you have to pay to visit the aquarium.

This museum is local to me and you can always find somewhere free to park. The aquarium is nice and they have a few jelly fish and other creatures that the kids will like. The other exhibits are nice many consist of taxidermy(stuffed animals) and there is a beehive in a seethrough case, so you can see the bees doing whatever it is that bees do!
They also have special exibitions that change often so check out their website to see whats on.

Oh and its free to enter.

great fun for kids. if you have any , just take them there.

I love the Horniman Museum. Not only does it have a comedy name, but it's also conveniently close to home, and a handy place to take visiting friends and family to when the crowds and chaos all get a little too much. (Showing my Mum the leafy surrounding area as we trundled through on the bus was a comfort - at least now she isn't continuing in her conviction that the entire South East London area is a warren of crack dens, knife crime and street-roaming murderers.)

Having a taste for the macabre, the weird and wonderful assortment of Victorian taxidermied creatures is right up my alley, especially the slightly shabby around the edges ones which look like they've been there for decades (including the chubbiest walrus the world has ever seen).

I love the aquarium too, it was on the small side last time I visited but I've heard that it's been expanded since so it may be time to reinvestigate, but anywhere which lets you peer at seahorses and jellyfishes for free is always going to do well with me.

Not too struck on the cafe as in my opinion it's insanely over-priced, but the grounds are gorgeous so if the sun's shining take some sandwiches and have a picnic, and if not get the bus into Dulwich or Herne Hill and have a pub lunch there instead.

This is a fantastic museum ( for both kids and adults) with loads to see but not so much that you'll feel knackered when you're through has the usual stuffed animals&fossils also a huge collection of musical instruments, a collection of er....ethnographic stuff - think tribal masks, japanese kimonos and so on also my favourite exhibit the dead mermaid! - or the front half of a monkey sewn onto the back half of a fish ( dead obviously ) also has excellent aquarium featuring loads of beautiful fish, jellyfish, seahorses and y'know i can't remember it all just go it's great.

This place is fantastic, I was taken as a boy in shorts and was fascinated and now I take my kids and they range from 4-9yr olds and they all love it. They have really done this up and added lots for everyone in the family :)

First visit here for us aged 8, 39 and 80 - and all absolutely loved it!!!
A fairly smallish but wonderful collection and little London gem away from the hussle and bussle of the main musuems of South Ken. Nestled out in SE23.
For me the highlight was the amazing aquarium - from the gorgeous colours of the deep tropical waters, to the British sea side to the garden pond!! A amazing aray of underwater lovelies and plenty of interactive stuff for the kids (and saddo 39 year olds!!) to knock about with.
The beauty of it all - totally free. Yayyy!!!!
If the kids are driving you nuts already this Summer hols and the purse strings
are tight pop allong to the Hornimann for a few hours - it's an absolute treat!

The Horniman is a free museum full of facinating things.

My favourite bits inculde the music room with old and strange instruments and the textile space where they display textiles from their collection and change them every year (because all the lovely robes, hats, shoes, and other garments would be damaged by the light if they were on permanent display).

The aquarium is also ace (it used to be a seahorse in a small tank, now there's loads of interesting fishies and plenty to see). The bees are cool too, although they're not always there.

There is an exhibition space where they host exhibitions you have to pay for, these are usually quite small, so if you're facinated by the subject it's worth the money, but if not, give it a miss.

I love this place! Its fun, full of interesting artifacts and very user friendly... and I love the gardens too. If you want to spend some time relaxing and being with friends, or your lover, I would thoroughly recomend Horniman.

Got kids? Take them here one weekend - you won't regret it.

Fantastic museum and Forest Hill’s only real selling point, I suppose! It was renovated fairly recently and the interior is now very modern and the museum has always been very clean and well-maintained. The staff (presumably volunteers) are all very enthusiastic and knowledgeable and the museum has lots of interesting galleries, particularly (in my opinion), the music hall. The aquarium was recently renovated and is still small, but excites even the trickiest young child!
They often do little art and craft workshops for young children, especially during holiday weeks, and it is a bit of a hidden gem in London really! Make sure you check it out!

Since they made London Museums free, The Horniman is the one i return to again and again. In quirky Forest Hill, its a beautiful mish-mash of ideas, designs,cultures and exhibits. Like your macabre? The victorian taxidermy is both scientifically interesting and a tiny bit chilling, the music rooms (hand-on sections too!) are fascinating, the building itself is beautiful, and a stroll through the well clipped garden followed by an ice cream in the gazebo, or feeding the chickens is a must. I haven’t even mentioned the aquarium or historical costumes!