A Reason to StopFree on the App Store

Grant Museum of Zoology

UCL's own zoology museum near Euston, a real 1828 teaching collection of animal specimens still used by students, best known for its jar of eighteen preserved moles.

Open in A Reason to StopFree on the App Store. iPhone, iOS 26 or later.
Grant Museum of Zoology, UCL's own zoology museum near Euston
Photo: Roger Templeman, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Did you know

Founder Robert Edmond Grant, who set up the collection in 1828, is thought to have influenced a young Charles Darwin during Grant's earlier time teaching at Edinburgh, making this one of the few London museums with a direct personal link to Darwin's own scientific formation.

Local tip

It's a genuine working teaching collection, not a polished public museum, so expect close-packed specimen jars rather than curated displays. The jar of moles is the famous one, but the bisected animal heads nearby are just as memorable.

Finding it

Address
21, University Street, Fitzrovia, London Borough of Camden, Greater London, England, WC1E 6DE
Nearest station
Goodge Street (Tube), 268 m away

Details change, so check with the place before you set off.

More places nearby

  • Petrie Museum of Egyptian ArchaeologyMuseum · 90 m awayA UCL museum holding over 80,000 objects of Egyptian and Sudanese archaeology, one of the largest and most important collections of its kind outside Egypt itself.
  • Wellcome CollectionMuseum · 250 m awayA free museum exploring medicine, the body, and human belief through the eclectic collection of a Victorian pharmaceutical magnate.
  • Speedy's Sandwich Bar & CafeCafe · 350 m awayA real, working cafe on North Gower Street that doubles as the exterior of '221B Baker Street' throughout BBC's Sherlock.
  • The Wiener Holocaust LibraryMuseum · 500 m awayA free exhibition space and research library on Russell Square documenting Nazi persecution and the Holocaust, which describes itself as the world's oldest institution devoted to its study.

More hidden gems

See all 69 hidden gems in London