Horniman Museum looking forward to opening its doors again

The Horniman Museum is also hoping to throw open its doors again on May 17, subject to government guidance.

Although the gardens and the animal walk are open now, visitors will be allowed back inside the museum of curiosities, which has displays on anthropology, musical instruments and natural history.

The World Gallery has over 3000 objects which show some of the ways ordinary people live their lives around the world.

Visitors can see intricately tooled Tuareg metalwork, arctic seal and reindeer skin, and smell aromatic herbs used by Bhutanese ritual healers in the Himalayas.

The Natural History Gallery, with its famously over-stuffed walrus will also be open.

More than 1,300 musical instruments from around the world are also on display.

The museum will also have an exciting family friendly exhibition Monkey Business about the world of primates.

From the tiny mouse lemur to the mighty gorilla, visitors can come face to face with more than 60 spectacular taxidermy specimens of monkeys, apes, lemurs, lorises and bush-babies, alongside models, stunning photography and film.

The exhibition examines the key characteristics of primates and how they have evolved and adapted over time, how they communicate, and the tools they have developed to obtain food.

Jo Hatton, Keeper of Natural History, said: “Over half of the world’s primate species are now threatened with extinction. Monkey Business explores how primates face an increasingly uncertain future and explains that it’s not too late to act. Everyone can do something to ensure that our closest cousins thrive and survive.”

The museum also features a butterfly house and an aquarium.