Today, the Natural History Museum, London, announced the first new permanent gallery to open since 2016, Fixing Our Broken Planet, which will open 3 April 2025. The gallery and a new programme of events and activities, also launching this year, will explore the biggest challenges facing our planet and will empower people to make change.
The new gallery will bring together pioneering research from the Museum’s world-leading scientists with advice from environmentalists and young changemakers on how to better care for the planet and its future. It will be a definitive destination for those looking to explore the threats to our natural world whilst discovering where solutions can be found.
Alongside and the first of the programme’s headline events aimed at assembling a growing community passionate about speaking up for the planet, Fixing Our Broken Planet: Generation Hope returns with a series of free workshops, panels and talks created in collaboration with young climate leaders from across the world, will return from 29 April – 3 May.
Museum Director, Dr Doug Gurr, says: “Our scientists have been working to find solutions for and from nature. Fixing Our Broken Planet places this research at the heart of the Museum, allowing us to offer visitors positive ways in which they can act for the planet.
“By combining the inspiring science and advocacy found in the gallery with the voices of Generation Hope changemakers, we’re showing that we all have the power to make change.”
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Fixing Our Broken Planet – our new gallery
Opening 3 April 2025
This unveiling is the first milestone for NHM150, the Museum’s plan to transform its South Kensington site from a catalogue of natural history to a catalyst for change ahead of the Museum’s 150th anniversary in 2031.
Visitors will be given practical, evidence-based choices they can take to combat the planetary emergency as our demand for food, materials and energy soars. They will come face to face with over 250 specimens including a Sumatran rhinoceros, parasitic worms and whale’s earwax; each telling an important story about our fragile relationship with the natural world. The specimens, research and suggested actions throughout the gallery emphasise how our own health is entangled with the health of every living thing.
Research on display shows how fungi is used to fertilise crops, how bacteria can be harnessed to extract copper from mine waste, how bison are helping to engineer forests in the UK to store more carbon and how vital DNA analysis on mosquitos is being used to fight mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria.
The Fixing Our Broken Planet gallery is in the original 1881 Waterhouse building and required full restoration. The transformation revived its original Victorian features while using sustainable materials and methods to bring the space back into public use. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s Public Bodies Infrastructure Fund (PBIF) awarded the Museum with significant funding to rebuild the gallery whilst retaining its heritage and charm.
Arts Minister, Sir Chris Bryant, says: “To create effective lasting change for the planet we must inspire all generations. This new free permanent gallery, part funded by DCMS, will showcase research from the brilliant scientists at the Natural History Museum, helping to educate, challenge and entertain the public on the natural world while demonstrating how we can all make a difference.”
The Museum secured a grant of £1.64m from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), part of UK Research and Innovation, to support the ‘Fixing Our Broken Planet’ programme. NERC-funded research, including winning entries from NERC’s annual Impact Awards, will be displayed within the gallery.
Wellcome has also committed a £1.25m sponsorship over the next 5 years to the ‘Our Health’ gallery space and other upcoming activities on climate change and its health impacts.
Professor Louise Heathwaite, Executive Chair of the Natural Environment Research Council, says: “The Natural Environment Research Council is pleased to support the Natural History Museum’s new permanent gallery, ‘Fixing Our Broken Planet’, with a grant of £1.64m.
“The innovative new gallery will enable visitors to understand the biggest environmental challenges facing our planet and how we can address them. It will highlight the incredible work of our scientists who are finding solutions for a sustainable future. We are delighted to be partnering on this project, which demonstrates how positive action and the strength of working together are the key to protecting our planet.”
A wide variety of trusts, foundations, companies and individuals are supporting the Fixing Our Broken Planet gallery and programme including Natural Environment Research Council, Wellcome, GSK and Ørsted.
The Fixing Our Broken Planet gallery will be free for visitors to enjoy from Thursday 3 April 2025.
