The new 270-cover restaurant - one of the largest museum restaurants in the UK - is the third and most important of the Museum’s visitor catering zones to be re-vamped in the space of 12 months. In order to create a much larger main restaurant than its predecessor, the Natural History Museum had to obtain listed building consent to break through the original building fabric to an adjacent gallery, providing the additional space. Amongst other things this extra space has allowed the designers to ‘open up’ the kitchens and bring them front-of-house - a highly unusual move for a museum restaurant - so as to create an extra sense of theatre for visitors in the seating area.

The restaurant, part of a comprehensive £3m re-fit and facilities refurbishment programme, completes a strategic re-modelling of the museum’s eating and refreshment facilities to create distinct levels of ‘offer’ and visitor choice ranging from simple snacking to formal dining, with the amenities now comprising a simple coffee and snack bar, a larger cafe and deli-bar, and now the stylish new table-service restaurant.

The catering and refreshment facilities have been re-structured and interior-designed by PATH Design in conjunction with historic buildings architects RWCA, and with construction by Parkeray. The 3-phase, year-long overhaul has been project-managed by Cultural Innovations, who have been responsible for co-ordinating the consultant team and for procurement of fit-out contractors, catering equipment and furniture suppliers. The new catering contractors are benugo, who have developed innovative approaches to ensure quality of cuisine and service in the high-volume restaurant.

Zoe Watts, Head of Events and Catering at the Natural History Museum, said: ‘Our aim in this project has been to ensure our eating and drinking facilities match the Natural History Museum’s pre-eminence as a world-leading museum. We have increased visitor choice and quality of food and service, and we have embraced the challenge of providing a fantastic offer which meets the wide-ranging needs of our main visitor profiles. We believe our new restaurant is now at the cutting edge of international museum restaurant design offers high-quality cuisine and will add to our visitors’ experience of the Natural History Museum.’


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