Norwich Castle Natural History Galleries Curator Tour

Officially the most visited galleries within Norfolk Museums Service’s ten public sites; the natural history galleries at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery represent diverse, disparate and internationally important biological and geological collections, numbering some 1.5 million individual specimens. In 2009, the 1960s-designed ‘Mammal Gallery’ was completely changed, transforming it into the flagship ‘Natural History Gallery’ for the county of Norfolk – truly reflecting and providing an insight into these varied and important collections. At the same time, the ‘British Bird Gallery’ and ‘Ted Ellis Norfolk Room’ also had major refreshes. In this lighthearted virtual tour of the public natural history gallery spaces, we look at these updates; how they’ve withstood a challenging and dynamic period within the heritage sector, as well as investigating newer additions (such as an exquisite Blaschka model display), and looking at plans for integrating contemporary central themes into the permanent displays of the future – such as decolonisation, LGBTQ+ history and gender balance within collections. There are also insights into measures to protect both visitors and staff during the pandemic, as well as the challenges of managing a partially open museum during a £13.5 million National Lottery Heritage Funded building project entitled ‘Norwich Castle: Royal Palace Reborn’.