The Horniman Museum is a hidden gem in south London – I confidently call it hidden as I’ve mentioned it to several local friends and many of them have never heard of it before. The museum’s founder, Frederick Horniman – whose wealth came from tea trading – was an extensive traveller and collector and the museum showcases many of his finds. A short walk from Forest Hill train station the museum sits amid beautiful gardens and offers exhibitions on everything from natural history to musical instruments, along with a small aquarium, butterfly house, animals (such as alpacas and goats) and temporary activities and exhibits such as crazy golf, messy play (on certain weekdays) – and at the moment, Lego brick dinosaurs and an under the sea-themed soft play.
I’ve written before about visiting the Horniman with babies and toddlers so this time will cover the new additions: the Brick Dinos exhibit and Under the Sea soft play. We didn’t do the crazy golf, which looked good though quite small.
But first a quick recap of why I love the Horniman:
The butterfly house is lovely though very hot! My daughter, now five, didn’t remember our last visit when she was two so was delighted by the butterflies. It’s £7 per person though which seems a lot if you only spend five minutes in there due to the temperature like my husband did… our daughter lasted 10 and I stayed for a few minutes longer as I didn’t mind the heat.
Animal walkthrough (free): I always forget this is only open from 12.30-4 so we saw some goats then had to come back later – at which point the goats were inside their house and we couldn’t see them! We did see alpacas, sheep, guinea pigs and rabbits. It only takes a few minutes to walk through – definitely took longer when I was pushing a buggy!
The gardens (free): Plenty of space for a picnic, lovely views over London, ornamental gardens to admire and a ‘sound garden’ with large wooden and metal instruments that my daughter enjoyed playing.
The museum (free): A good-sized natural history section plus other areas like world exhibits (children love the interactive sea image on the floor)
The aquarium (£5 for adults, £2.50 for children): Again we went round it a lot faster and it felt even smaller now that I have a five year old who can’t read the signs so didn’t linger long at each tank and went through it at pace, but she did at least stop for a little while at the colouring table.
There are always temporary exhibits and sometimes special events at the Horniman as well and since it was Father’s Day one of my reasons for booking (other than that my husband hadn’t been to the Horniman since he was a child) was the Brick Dinos exhibit.
There’s a market on Sundays; the day we went was a food market and second hand stalls.
Brick Dinos
A selection of dinosaurs built from Lego – some are very small scale and others much larger. We enjoyed looking at the models though it would have been nice to know a bit more about the building e.g. how many lego bricks each one (particularly the larger models) used. There’s a good range of dinosaurs represented including some I wasn’t familiar with, along with a few objects (fossils if I recall) from the museum. The exhibit is really hands-on and great for children – there are several stations where you can build your own lego models, including adding them onto a volcano, or completing a lego picture of a dinosaur on the wall. There were several dinosaur books for various ages, a dressing up box and a sandpit where children could climb in and dig for fossils. My daughter spent quite a long time playing while my husband watched a video about the exhibit; at £9 per adult and £4.50 per child it felt fairly good value for money even though the exhibition itself is fairly small, due to the interactive elements.
Under the Sea soft play
My daughter loves soft play and had a good time, but I found this a bit disappointing. It’s designed for age 6 and under and at 5, my daughter seemed already a bit old for it. She played for the full hour but most of the children there were quite a bit younger and the climbing structure was very small. There was a dressing up box which she liked and the overall theme was quite nice. It cost £7.50 per child and £2.50 per adult – I know some soft play venues charge adults as they add to overall capacity or use facilities (e.g. where there is a café) but in this case there was simply a row of plastic chairs along the side of the soft play against a wall for the adults to sit, and I did slightly resent paying £5 for me and my husband to just sit there doing nothing (as you can’t take food or drink in either). If we went back I wouldn’t bother with the soft play again – though if you have younger children, perhaps aged 2-4, I think they would enjoy it more. The soft play is open until 3 September.
Mini Moo Life 
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