Geological Museum
Coordinates: 51°29′47″N 0°10′36″W / 51.49639°N 0.17667°W
The Geological Museum (originally The Museum of Practical Geology, started in 1835) is one of the oldest single science museums in the world and now part of the Natural History Museum in London. It transferred from Jermyn Street to Exhibition Road, South Kensington in 1935 in a building designed by Sir Richard Allison and John Hatton Markham of the Office of Works.
The Museum of Practical Geology was established in 1837 at a building in Craig's Court, Whitehall, at the suggestion of Henry de la Beche first Director General of the Geological Survey. The museum's library was founded by de la Beche in 1843, mainly by donation from his own library.
Larger premises soon became necessary, and a design for a new building was commissioned from James Pennethorne. This, built on a long narrow site with frontages in Piccadilly and Jermyn Street, housed, as well as galleries, a library, lecture theatre, and offices and laboratories for the Survey. It was constructed between 1845 and 1849, and was opened by Prince Albert in May 1851.
The purpose of the museum, as summarised in the Descriptive Guide, published in 1867, was:
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