The once-hidden gallery sits just above the museum’s main entrance and, in size and location, mirrors the minerals gallery on the second floor of the museum’s main Waterhouse building.

Historically, it served as both an osteology (skeleton) gallery and a mammals gallery. After the Museum’s original herbarium was damaged during the Second World War, the gallery was repurposed to house the botanical collections and closed to the public.

That’s when it was sealed off from the public.

The herbarium has now moved out, and after some light-touch restoration, the gallery, still with its distinctive wooden storage walls, has opened to the public.

It’s quite a visually distinctive space, clearly showing its heritage as a storage room that’s been opened up. The wooden doors are all locked, but I was told they once housed thousands of plant samples, laid flat and separated by sheets of paper. Sadly locked, as the smell inside the boxes is probably marvellous.

Something that’s not obvious until you start looking carefully is that the room isn’t lined with rows of cupboards against a wall. In fact, the wooden cupboards are free-standing structures that happen to be the same size as the glass display cases that once filled the room when it was full of dead animals.

A nice touch is that they’ve recreated a couple of research desks where staff would once have worked, and – easy to miss – one of the spaces is also open to wander around the back. Where you can see how animal sounds were recorded – or read about a talking fish’s penis.

The rest of the room is housing a temporary exhibition, Nature and Us, supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), where visitors can explore our evolving relationship with the natural world. The exhibition mainly looks at how we humans interpret the rest of nature – from questions about bugs as friends or foes, to domestic dog breeding, and the Crystal Palace “dinosaurs”.

A contrast is set up between a 40,000-year-old carved ivory statue – and a 1980s Star Wars toy that was found dumped in the sea, but is now covered in bryozoans – tiny animals that thrive on plastic.

If you’ve ever seen someone holding a tiny jade sculpture on Antiques Roadshow, nearly dropping it after being told how much it’s worth… then the gigantic lump of jade may make you see pound signs.

Although it does also look like a giant green coprolite (dino poo).

And umm, there’s also some transparent sperm, which candidly is the photo most people are going to share on their socials.

It’s a modest-sized exhibition of a few choice objects, but candidly, the room’s the star of the show.

The exhibition will be open for about 18 months, and feedback from it will inform the museum’s longer-term plans for the room.

To find the new gallery – it’s right above the main entrance in the Hinze Hall (with the flying whale) – head up to the Giant Sequoia tree slice, and you’ll find it there.

(note, it will be closed on the morning of Fri 18th Sept)

Today’s London news round-up:

A pro-Palestine activist who spray-painted slogans on to a statue of Sir Winston Churchill has been found not guilty of criminal damage. Standard

Miniature model maker Dean Sarsfield writes about his hobby, which recently had him downsize a much-loved Holborn pub — and now has him nominated for a prestigious art prize. Londonist

Sadiq Khan has said he will continue “banging the drum for London” as he prepares to take his seat in the House of Lords. Standard

Council worker in mayor’s parlour tells of his 12 years in prison – and the pain of an unlimited jail sentence Camden New Journal

A synagogue in west London was attacked just after 700 people had left a service to mark the Jewish New Year. Metro

A luxury florist to stars including Victoria Beckham has won a High Court battle with a rival who set up a business with an almost identical name. Standard

Mayor Sadiq Khan has launched London’s first dedicated action plan for Deaf and Disabled Londoners PSE

First look: Inside the £1 billion renovation of London’s most glamorous new hotel CN Traveller

West Ham United’s official attendance figures at the London Stadium have been called into question Football Ground Guide

RNLI volunteers praised for lifesaving work at major London events  Teddington Nub News

Transport for London (TfL) says it is currently developing detailed proposals for a publicly-owned bus company in London. BBC News

And from ianVisits:

Night time Halloween trail coming to Kew Gardens

London goes Bayeux Barmy with beers, teas and two more tapestries

Exhibition shows off when hospital surgery really was a theatre

GWR’s unusual route to keep trains running during Paddington closure this Christmas

Things to do in London tomorrow

Evolution of the Justice System – Londoners as Lawyers, Judges & Jury
Clerkenwell
Join Patrick Voss to look at how lawyers, judges and juries developed from Magna Carta to today and how Londoners shaped modern justice.

An Evening With Mr Talking Pictures TV
Fitzrovia
A talk with the founder of the cult nostalgia TV channel, Talking Pictures.

Great Engineering Leaps – Archimedes to Brunel and Beyond
Southwark
Enjoy great science talks with a drink in your hand. This month: discover 3,000 years of incredible engineering advances and the people who made them possible… in under an hour.

This free news roundup is delivered at 5pm daily via Substack – sign up for free here.

From Friday 16th October, there will be a 1.5 km trail through Kew Gardens, including Dracula’s Lair, a haunted Cursed Tomb, a dark Medieval Dungeon, and a mysterious Forest Ritual tucked away among the trees.

Elsewhere, an imposing executioner stands guard in the Medieval Dungeon, Dracula hides in the shadows of his lair, and a horned ritualist conducts a spooky woodland ceremony surrounded by mysterious figures.

The famous Headless Horseman reappears to haunt the Gardens once more, guided by a tunnel of grinning pumpkin heads that light the way through the darkness.

Adding to the atmosphere, fire performers will light up the night, complemented by a variety of seasonal food and drink options.

There are three session categories available each evening, allowing visitors to choose their preferred level of spooky fun:

• Daylight – up to 6pm. Ideal for younger children and families.
• Twilight – from 6pm to 7.30pm, with the scares beginning to ramp up.
• Moonlight – after 7.30pm, offers the darkest and spookiest experience, but still suitable for all.

Tickets are on sale now from here.

Date and time

• 16th to 24th October 2026: 6pm to 10pm
• 25th October to 1st November 2026: 4pm to 10pm

Prices

Off-peak rates

• Adults: £19.50
• Children (4-15): £13
• Family (2 x Adults + 2 x Children): £64

Peak rates

• Adults: £24
• Children (4-15): £18
• Family (2 x Adults + 2 x Children): £80

The Beer Tapestry

Opposite the British Museum is, or more correctly was, the Museum Tavern pub, but for a few weeks it’s The Beer Tapestry pub, having been renamed after a tapestry that’s hanging inside the pub.

The pub, run by Greene King Brewery, commissioned the artwork to tell the history of beer brewing in England over the centuries. To mark the occasion, Greene King Brewery also crafted a limited-edition ale, ‘The Beer Tapestry’, a dark copper cask beer available at the pub until the end of September.

To see the Beer Tapestry, visit the Museum Tavern, renamed The Beer Tapestry on Great Russell Street throughout September 2026.

The Shaun the Sheep Tapestry

A 7-metre long tapestry at the Natural History Museum is a movie tie-in and shows Shaun, Bitzer and the residents of Mossy Bottom Farm in reimagined scenes from the film through traditional embroidery techniques. Adding to the artwork, Tom Daley knitted a miniature sweater vest for Shaun emblazoned with the words “Shaun the Sheep”, which appears in the final section of the tapestry.

The artwork will be on display in the Natural History Museum’s Darwin Centre’s West Wing until 1st November

The Tapestry exhibition

An exhibition of contemporary tapestries created by world-leading artists will open at the Guildhall Art Gallery from 23rd October.

The Afternoon Tea-pestry

The Montague Hotel, just around the corner from the British Museum, has a tapestry-themed afternoon tea

Bayeux Lager and Mead

If the Beer Tapestry above doesn’t appeal, then the British Museum’s own restaurant can serve you specially brewed lager or mead to go with your meal.

The exhibition opens with a painting of the room that gave the operating theatre its name – as originally they were theatres with seating around the sides, for medical students, but also often the curious public.

And as you will see, prior to the discovery of anaesthesia, the unfortunate patient remained awake throughout the procedure.

The arrival of anaesthesia and antiseptic surgery transformed both the experience of the patient and the design of the room. Wooden fittings, which were difficult to keep clean, gave way to marble, metal and white tiles. Surgeons increasingly wore sterilised gowns and gloves, while separate anaesthetic rooms allowed patients to be put under away from the audience.

A series of photographs taken at Charing Cross Hospital in 1897, 1902 and 1906 show that transition.

Plans for the new University College Hospital in the exhibiton show three operating theatres on separate floors. For all their modernity, the double-height rooms still retained the original horseshoe-shaped student gallery.

Probably most fascinating are the early 20th-century hospital postcards depicting operating theatres. Hospitals sold them to raise money and to advertise their latest facilities, while patients could use them to send updates home.

A couple from the same patient show one postcard postmarked 10:15am on 6th March 1905, and the other 3:15pm on the same day. Before and after surgery?

The exhibition jumps forward to modern times, showing how the use of all-white changed to blue and green because it’s easier on the eyes for staff working in surgery, and how surgery theatres shifted from single rooms to more dormitory-like spaces where surgeons can collaborate between operations.

It’s a small one-room exhibition, consisting mainly of paintings, photographs, drawings and architectural plans, but is a fascinating look at one of the biggest but often least understood features of modern medicine.

The exhibition, The Operating Theatre: 250 years of Surgery in Hospitals, is at the Hunterian Museum until 31st October 2026 and is free to visit.

They recommend booking a ticket to ensure entry – details here.

It’s all because repairs to the interestingly named Dolphin Junction will cut rail traffic just outside Slough. The junction allows fast and slow trains to cross between tracks, but with over 400 passenger trains passing through Dolphin Junction every day, it now requires replacement.

The aim is that once the work is completed, trains needing to swap lines will be able to use the junction at higher speeds – lifted from 40mph to 70mph mph. That will reduce congestion, as trains passing through will no longer be held up while others switch between the main and relief lines to clear the junction.

That will help to improve services on GWR and the Elizabeth line.

Overall, the £27.8 million project will require 88 pre-constructed track panels, nine new structures for overhead power lines, and a kilometre of new overhead wire. Work has already begun to install new overhead electrification equipment. With the new track layout, the positions of existing masts and gantries carrying the overhead power lines need to change, along with some signalling equipment. The points operating equipment is also being updated.

Most of the track work will take place during the autumn and over the Christmas to New Year period.

That means train services between Reading and Paddington will be affected on the following dates:

• 28th and 29th November 2026
• 27th December 2026 to 3rd January 2027 (following the usual Christmas shutdown on 25th and 26th December 2026)

Speaking on a test train that ran along the diversion route a couple of weeks ago, GWR’s Head of Train Planning, Matt Campbell, explained what they are doing to keep passengers moving.

The current plan is that GWR will be able to run one South Wales <> Euston, and one Bristol/Exeter <> Euston service per hour.

Most other services that would usually go into Paddington will terminate at Reading, where people can swap onto SWR services into Waterloo. GWR is also looking to run additional trains to Guildford via Reading, where people can also swap onto SWR services into Waterloo.

On the topic of running trains from Reading to Waterloo instead of Euston, Matt Campbell explained that they had looked at it, but the railway into Waterloo is very congested already and really didn’t have the capacity to add GWR trains to the mix.

So Euston it is.

It’s not the first time GWR has used Euston as a backup, as they did over Christmas 2024 due to works at Old Oak Common. That time allowed them to divert off the mainline at Acton and reach Euston via Willesden Junction.

However, for 2026, the closure is much further out, and that means a very different – and for rail nerds at least – very interesting route has been planned.

Trains on diversion will leave the Great Western Main Line (GWML) just west of Didcot and run north to Oxford, and then to Bicester Village. From there, trains will run along the new East-West rail line to Bletchley, then head up to Milton Keynes. The trains can now reverse and will then head straight down to Euston via Watford.

It’s a lengthy route, adding about an hour to the journey time, but GWR Managing Director Mark Hopwood CBE observed passengers generally prefer a single train trip to one where they have to change services partway along. Also, the service will be reservation only to ensure everyone has a seat.

There will also be shuttle services between Reading and Slough, so people can switch to buses for onward connections if they prefer. The Elizabeth line will also be closed between Maidenhead/Heathrow and Paddington, so that won’t be an option.

Rail nerds…

However, for the train nerds, the diversion means a chance to ride a passenger-paying train across the East West railway, passing through the new Winslow station.

Depending on whether Chiltern Railways is able to open the line first, it’s even possible the first standard passenger-paying services across the East West line would be a GWR service on diversion rather than the long-planned Chiltern Railways service.

Now, to catch a GWR service along the East-West line would usually require booking a ticket from Bristol or South Wales.

But…

On Sunday 29th November, one service is due to leave Oxford just after 8am and follow the same route via the East-West line to Milton Keynes, then down to Euston.

So, if you want to travel across the new East-West railway, that’s your chance folks!

–

And finally, the curious name of the Dolphin Junction that is causing all the trouble — is after an old coaching inn, the Dolphin Hotel on the nearby Uxbridge Road, which was redeveloped into the Dolphin Stadium – later the Slough Stadium.

Hence Dolphin Junction.

—

Updated 11:30am, corrected a typo

Today’s London news round-up:

A food redistribution hub that aims to deliver up to 10 tonnes of food to charities and food banks each week has opened in east London. BBC News

Hounslow Council left a disabled person sofa surfing after failing to inform them that it had closed their homelessness application.  Brentford TW8

Developers submit planning application for a 851-bed student tower in Elephant & Castle Southwark News

Transport for London (TfL) will be prosecuted over alleged safety failures at Walthamstow Bus Station spanning a period of two decades. Waltham Forest Echo

Supermarket boss fined after being caught using allotment site for commercial purposes Enfield Dispatch

Drone photos have captured resurfacing almost complete and new road markings painted at Gallows Corner. Romford Recorder

What happened to location filming in London? Stephen Follows

Fourth-generation baker Jennifer Rinkoff spills the beans about a new cookbook that celebrates her family’s bakery business, her favourite memories – and future plans Jewish Chronicle

Phone coverage across the London tube? That’s sent me hurtling down a tunnel of despair The Guardian

And from ianVisits:

Tickets Alert: Halloween tours through the Islington canal tunnel

‘London has fallen’ – except the facts tell a very different story

David Černý’s rebellious sculptures shrink for London exhibition

Cancelled train? Your ticket will now work on more operators

London’s Alleys: Cork Street Mews, Mayfair, W1

Things to do in London tomorrow

Sorry, nothing found, have a day off.

This free news roundup is delivered at 5pm daily via Substack – sign up for free here.

You embark at the museum, and then there’s a brief talk in the boat before heading out into the canal to go through the tunnel. The tours are for small groups, and there’s just about enough space in the boat for everyone to sit on the outside. That’s where you want to be for the views of the long tunnel and the 200+ year-old brickwork.

The barge’s chugging sound dominates as you glide into the tunnel mouth, and the bright sunshine is replaced by the reddish-brown light reflecting off the bricks that line the tunnel. The barge has a floodlight to show off the tunnel, and you can easily see the exit in the distance, so it’s not, as some might worry, scary to be in a dark tunnel.

The tour guide points out the industrial history at the far end of the tunnel, where the boat turns around and repeats the journey.

For three days, the tours will be Halloween-themed, with ghost stories and suitable decorations.

The Halloween-themed tunnel trips run from 29th to 31st October at 11am, 12pm and 2pm, and a “Scream Tea” trip at 3pm lasting a little longer and including a cream tea on a Halloween theme.

Tunnel trip

• Adult 16-64: £17.50
• Concession: £15.50
• Child 0-15: £11.25

Scream tea

• Adult 16-64: £26.75
• Concession: £24.50
• Child 0-15: £19.50

The barge has a floodlight to show off the tunnel, and you can easily see the exit in the distance, so it’s not, as some might worry, scary to be in a dark tunnel – or maybe you want it to be?

All tickets include museum entry.

Tickets available here.

The museum is about a 10-minute walk from King’s Cross station.

Research by the Policy Institute at King’s College London found that people considerably overestimate the risk of becoming a victim of crime in London, believe its Muslim population is more than twice its actual size and underestimate the city’s international standing and contribution to the public finances.

The findings suggest that the relentless stream of negative stories, misleading videos and “London has fallen” claims circulating on social media is persuading many people that the capital is far more dangerous and divided than the evidence shows.

It’s nice here, yes really!

London has one of the lowest violent crime rates of any region in England and Wales, recently topped a global ranking of the world’s best cities and pays more in tax than it receives in public spending.

Yet the public’s median estimate is that 30% of Londoners experienced a crime during the year between October 2024 and September 2025. The actual figure was 12.2%.

Even Londoners themselves estimated the proportion at 25%, roughly double the real level.

Half of the public also believe London has the highest rate of violent crime in England and Wales, when it has the lowest. More than a third think it has the highest rate of sexual offences, although it has the joint-lowest regional rate.

The public are similarly mistaken about recent trends. Some 62% believe total crime in London increased between 2019 and 2025, when it fell slightly, by 1.4%. Four in ten think the number of murders rose, although it declined by around 15%.

That does not mean every type of crime has fallen. Shoplifting and theft from the person have more than doubled, while recorded sexual offences and violence against the person have also increased. The public were generally more accurate in recognising these rises.

But the study suggests those genuine problems are being used to support a misleading narrative that London as a whole has become exceptionally dangerous.

People also believe Londoners feel considerably less safe than they do. The public estimates that 60% of residents feel unsafe walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark, compared with an actual figure of 37%.

The distorted perceptions extend beyond crime. The public’s median estimate is that Muslims make up 35% of London’s population, more than twice the actual proportion of 15%.

There are no no-go areas in London
(unless you ask a black cab driver to go south of the river)

One in three people also believes London contains “no-go” areas where Sharia law dominates and non-Muslims cannot enter. The study presents no evidence for the existence of such areas, although the claim has circulated repeatedly through political commentary and social media.

The study found particularly large misconceptions among Reform UK supporters. Their median estimate was that half of London’s population is Muslim, more than three times the true figure.

Reform supporters also estimated that 40% of Londoners had been victims of crime during a single year and that 70% felt unsafe walking alone after dark. The actual figures were 12.2% and 37% respectively.

However, misconceptions were not confined to the political right. Labour and Green supporters were less likely to recognise that violence and sexual offences had increased, while both groups overestimated the proportion of Londoners who are White British.

The researchers said people across the political spectrum appeared to imagine a version of London that reinforced their existing beliefs.

It’s (not) grim up north London

Public perceptions of the capital’s quality of life are equally gloomy. London came first in the 2025 World’s Best Cities index, but just 6% of people correctly placed it at the top of the eight major cities included in the survey. Some 17% put London last.

Only a third knew that levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution had improved, despite concentrations falling by nearly half between 2016 and 2023. Most believed air quality had either remained unchanged or worsened.

London’s contribution to the rest of the country is also poorly understood. Although 69% recognise that the capital receives more public spending than other regions, only 30% know it pays more in tax than it receives back.

That makes London one of only two parts of the UK to run a fiscal surplus, with the capital helping to fund public services elsewhere in the country.

Online lies feeding IRL lies

The survey found a close relationship between factual misconceptions and wider hostility towards London. Among people who thought at least 70% of Londoners had recently experienced crime, three-quarters believed the city had deteriorated since 2016.

Those who hugely overestimated the Muslim population were also much more likely to believe in Sharia-controlled “no-go” areas.

Professor Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute, said London had become a “lightning rod” for arguments about crime, immigration and the direction of the country.

“This study shows people don’t just have varying opinions about the capital; they’re working from different facts about it – with many being far too negative about the realities in London,” he said.

He added that fragmented political and social-media narratives encouraged people to see the version of London that best fitted what they already believed.

“We’re all entitled to our own opinions on that, but not our own facts,” he said.

—

The findings come from two YouGov surveys of 2,164 and 3,969 adults conducted between 23rd and 27th March 2026 for the Policy Institute’s Mistaken Britain research series.

The full report is here.

The Czech artist David Černý created the bus, and the exhibition is aptly at the Czech Centre, offering a retrospective of some of his more famous works.

Because his works are either very large or site-specific, the exhibition is a series of 3D-printed scale models, with the front and centre featuring the pink Soviet-era tank that made him famous.

The tank was a prominent landmark in Prague to symbolise the end of WWII, but under Communist rule came to symbolise the repression of the state. In 1991, Černý painted it bright pink and placed an upright finger on top. Attempts by the military to cover it up were overturned by politicians in protest at his arrest.

So in London, you can see a small scale model of that famous tank of freedom.

Opposite and looking from a distance, it looks like a butterfly but when you get closer, it is revealed to be, yes a butterfly, but with the body of a Spitfire plane. It was created to remember the thousands of Czechoslovaks who joined the UK in fighting the Nazis during WWII, but were often imprisoned and tortured when they returned home after the war.

One of his most famous works locally is the barcode-faced babies that were created in 1990, and later added to the Prague TV tower. One is here, sitting over a tiny scale model of that exercising bus.

It’s a small collection of the artist’s works, and for those of us less familiar with him and the politics of his time, several information boards dotted around provide context.

The exhibition, David Černý: The Glorious 90s in Prague, is at the Czech Centre, a short walk from Notting Hill Gate tube station until the end of this year.

It’s open Tue to Fri 10am to 5pm and is free to visit.

Details here.