Booth Museum

Brighton has a small Natural History Museum largely made up of Edward Booth’s collection (founded in 1874) which he gave to the city in 1890. I visited the museum as a child and enjoyed its untouched (and somewhat down at heel) ambience. As I mentioned a few posts back I have moved to Brighton and went to visit the museum today. I went with some trepidation, fearing that it had all been smartened up and over explained. Miraculously the museum is well kept in a state of almost suspended animation and is completely wonderful – still down at heel and slightly faded but with a wonderful collection of birds in small diorama boxes. They do not have pictorial backgrounds  – just a sky blue – but they do have quite elaborate foregrounds. I will post some details of these in a day or so. There are hundreds of these boxes – small glass cases –  with carefully observed worlds in them.

It is well worth a visit – I noticed on the website that it will be closed between 25th of February and 1st of March 2013.