Well I never

A couple of weeks ago my friend Mark posted some amazing pics he'd taken at the Grant Museum which is part UCL's Collections. Now some of you may know I work at UCL and I must admit that I had never been despite having worked there for 11 years now. To my shame I only found out where it was during a walk with OH a few weeks ago.

So last week I took the trusty camera to check it out one afternoon. The space was incredible though I was also taking the opportunity to experiment with my camera so there are a lot of black and white images I'm afraid.Oh and if you're squeamish I'd stop reading now....

It was a very eclectic collection but it's still a working collection which means that people can access the specimens for research

So amongst the exhibits there are areas where you can sit down and work. You can just make out a group making use of the available space behind a huge skeleton

 This amazing room is the Micrarium which is full of tiny, tiny things.

Here are samples of pufferfish of all shapes and sizes

And seaweed (I think). It was floor to ceiling samples of all shapes and sizes

This was a flying bat though it looked a little alien if I'm honest

There were hundreds of skeletons of all creatures great and small.

Quite a few of the specimens had been dissected. Here is a dissected white rabbit. You could also sponsor the specimens for a year. I was interested to note that a Freddie Robbins had sponsored this and wondered whether it was the knitting artist Freddie Robbins who also featured on an episode of Grand Designs.

This is a close up of dissected orangutan brain (I did warn you it wasn't for the squeamish!)

And finally one of the museum's iconic specimens. A jar of moles. Random I know... If you have the chance do go and visit this surprising find. It's open 1-5pm and it's free so what are you waiting for!!