The Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, which is the only remaining university zoological museum in London, has reopened to the public.

The museum, with a history of over 170 years, houses around 67,000 specimens, covering the whole Animal Kingdom.

Founded in 1828 as a teaching collection, the museum is packed full of skeletons, mounted animals and specimens preserved in fluid. Many of the species are now endangered or extinct, including the Tasmanian tiger or Thylacine, the Quagga, and the Dodo.

The museum contains many of Robert Grant’s original specimens as well as those of Thomas Henry Huxley.

The Grant Museum also has a selection of spectacular glass models made by the Blaschka family in the late 1800s. The museum’s collection of Sir Victor Negus’s bisected heads is both arresting and beautiful. The collection is reminiscent of the work of the artist Damien Hirst.

In over the years much has befallen the museum. In 1884, a ceiling collapse destroyed a number of specimens, the 1890s saw more ceiling collapses and flooding and in the 1970s the roof was completely missing. During World War II the whole collection was evacuated to Bangor in Wales and on more than one occasion the museum has been under threat of closure.

In recent years, however, the museum has gone from strength to strength. In 1997 it was renamed in honour of its founder Robert Grant.

As from yesterday, the museum is open to the public everyday between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Admission is free.

Situated inside the Rockefeller Building, as part of University College London in University Street, the Grant Museum is next to the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology and 10 minutes walk from the British Museum.