The Horniman Museum Is Still A Big Draw

At Hunters Forest Hill, we are very proud of the Horniman Museum and its importance in the local area. The museum has featured in a lot of media recently, and we have covered some of the highlights for you below.

The Horniman Museum and Gardens is based out of the centre of London in Forest Hill. Chief executive of The Horniman Museum and Gardens Nick Merriman, spoke to the BBC and said; “Our visitors are mostly local. About 70% come from local boroughs or Kent and Surrey and we have huge numbers of repeat visitors.”

The museum has been welcoming many guests of late

The article says that the museum has been receiving up to 35% of their normal visitor numbers, but Mr Merriam says that the maximum capacity for the venue has been reached “several times” of late.

The article discusses how The Horniman receives a lot of its income from Arts Council England and the Government. Mr Merriman believes this is an advantage for the museum, and that there is some positive to be found from the pandemic.

Mr Merriman believes there will be significant and lasting change from the current state of affairs. He hopes that the museum sector will move from focusing on chasing visitors to offering a “a good experience to a wider range of people”. He also said; “We can't pretend things will go back to what they were. The model for constant growth is not possible and has been exposed for being fragile and unsupportable.”

In another boost to The Horniman in terms of awareness, it was recently cited by Stylist Magazine as a fantastic first-date venue that doesn’t break lockdown rules.

The section promoting the Forest Hill museum says; “The Horniman Museum and Gardens in Forest Hill is home to 16.5-acre gardens, including the Grasslands Garden, Sunken Gardens, Medicine Garden and Prehistoric Garden. You can also discover the Clocktower, the Conservatory and more on the Architectural Walk. You’ll of course have to meet and stay outside, but you can easily spend a couple of hours exploring.”

The Blueloop website also placed the Horniman in the top ten London museums. Ranking the Forest Hill venue as seventh in the capital, the blurb on the site ran; “Horniman Museum and Gardens is home to around 350,000 objects. The collection includes internationally important anthropological items and musical instruments as well as a wide array of taxidermied animals. The museum aims to help visitors to connect with global cultures and the natural world. In keeping with this mission, it is one of a number of top London museums to declare a climate emergency.”

The article also offers some handy facts about the insect collection at the Horniman, stating it hosts more than 4,700 butterflies, over 2,000 beetles and close to 500 specimens of other insects.

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