Free entrance to main museum and gardens, you can pay extra for temporary exhibits and the aquarium. Very popular soft play if you have children, ditto small crazy golf for kids outside. On a sunny day it’s a glorious place to have a picnic. There’s also a small outside animal enclosure with goats, alpacas and various other creatures - this too is free.

Excellent way to spend a few hours. Museum has a large collection of displays covering anthropology, natural history and musical instruments. Entry is free unless you want to see the acquarium and/or butterfly House. The gardens are also worth exploring. Great views of London. @MyBucketListAt60

Had not been here for about 30 years and was pleased to find that the museum is still an exceptional place to visit. It cannot be fully appreciated in one go as there are so many great areas to investigate. The gardens are extensive and the aquarium and butterfly house are also worth seeing. Went on a Saturday as I can imagine that weekdays will see many school visits - which I am strongly in favour of nevertheless. I shall certainly return. Deservedly voted Museum of the Year.

I went with family including a young child in a pushchair. The museum is very welcoming and family friendly. There were lifts to access the different floors and baby changing facilities. The cafe served tasty food and was reasonably priced. Part of the museum is free - the musical instruments, the stuffed animals, the world collection. Other parts have a fee [the butterfly house, the temporary softplay, the aquarium and the current exhibition of brick dinos}. We had art fund, which gave us free entry to all but softplay, or there was a membership scheme. The place was teeming with life from babies and school groups to old people. Our young child loved the fish, the softplay and playing with bricks in the dino display. The park is free and extensive. It included a playground and animals, a flower garden and a band stand. The museum won the Art Fund Museum of the year in 2022 and it certainly was used by the local community. This was my first visit and I intend to return.

I have fond memories of visiting the museum on school trips in primary school and now my daughter is 5 I felt she was at the right age to appreciate it too. She had a great time and was fascinated by what was displayed. We had paid in advance to visit the butterfly garden but it was out of action due to issues with the heaters so we bought tickets for the aquarium instead and she also loved this. We had lunch at the cafe which was busy but the staff were so lovely and hardworking. I stupidly forgot to wait for my tea and had already sat down but a lovely young lady who was bringing out the food orders kindly retrieved it for me. Next time we visit I’ll take a packed lunch to enjoy outdoors in the lovely gardens. The view from the bandstand was also fabulous.

Lovely visit as always today. Being bank holiday weekend,a few food and craft stalls to see too. Particularly liked a stall which incl hand drawn and printed cushions and mugs. So lovely,had to treat myself. Such a perfect place to visit with family and friends.

Fantastic and free museum in the neighborhood. I found the natural history and anthropology really interesting and well presented, really a jewel in South London. Music section was nice too especially the samples of music from the different instruments. Didn't get to see the gardens due to the rain, but will definitely return

Excellent museum let down by unruly children. This is an excellent museum where you could easily spend the whole day. Free entry to the museum with certain sections such as aquarium requiring payment. Nice cafe but go early as post lunch most of the cakes were sold out. Lovely seating area in the conservatory. Nice gardens with trails. Museum itself is excellent with three exhibitions - natural history, world culture and musical instruments. Plus an exhibition (currently) on the history of tea. I can see who this was voted the best museum in the UK and I can heartily recommend it for its well curated collections. However, it was heavily let down by its acceptance of out of control, unruly and screaming children everywhere. A moving floor visual in the world culture section made this whole area unbearable as it encouraged running, jumping and screaming from children. Parents exerted no control and not did museum staff. The museum really needs to address this as it made the museum inaccessible for the disabled. I would advise those with neurodiversity, autism etc to carefully consider visiting as you need noise cancelling headphones.

A day out with the grandchildren and a bit further afield. We travelled by train to South London and the Horniman Museum. We booked our visit in advance and also paid to see the butterfly house. It is a short walk from the station. There is a good café there. The butterfly house was a big hit with the children, and they were thrilled when butterflies landed on them. The butterfly house is small, but we were surprised that we spent an hour there. We had a picnic in the gardens and from the top of the hill we had some great views of London. The weather clouded over in the afternoon so we spent time in the museum. The over-stuffed walrus was a must see. The children enjoyed the musical instruments section - it do not realise there were so many brass instruments. We left mid-afternoon to miss the evening rush. All in all and very good day out.

This has been on my list of “place to visit” since just before the pandemic. I had chosen it because it sounded different from the normal museum We travelled to the museum by train (3 each way) and a walk from the station. We had a quick visit to the cafe for a hot drink and cakes. Excellent choice of cakes and they were lovely. Café was clean with a seating area outside. If it had been a sunny warm day it would have a lovely to sit outside. We had limited time there so only visited the natural history and world culture exhibitions and an exhibition (currently) on the history of tea. It was here that I found some information about its founder. Also there were activities which I did which related to tea. There were lots of children there as part of a school visit but they were well behaved and there was plenty of space I so enjoyed the world exhibition which is different as it had lots about the “lost history” of Africa. It was some recognition of the narrative white people created and set out to change this. I like that it tackled issues e.g. migration, slavery, etc The exhibits of different native clothes and artifacts from around the world were interesting. It was intriguing walking around the displays taxidermised animals (birds, fish, etc). We are so used to seeing them on TV in natural history programmes. It was quite quaint looking at them as innate objects. We then did a quick visit of the garden. Because of the time of year there was not a lot to see and some parts were closed off as work was being carried out. But I did enjoy walking around the outside animal enclosure with goats, alpacas and various other animals including the largest rabbit I had ever seen. We did have an amazing view of central London and because of the weather it looked a surreal grey/silver. I would visit again as I know I missed parts. Also assume that the museum hosts other exhibits sometimes.