Brighton Natural History Museum Secures £140,000 Funding For Major Revamp

(c) Brighton & Hove Museums

A natural history museum in Brighton is set for a major upgrade after securing nearly £140,000 in funding to improve its main gallery and expand its displays of exotic plants and animals.

The Booth Museum of Natural History, which was founded in 1874 by naturalist Edward Thomas Booth, houses more than 600,000 specimens including insects, fossils, minerals and dinosaur bones.

Booth Museum of Natural History has been closed since April 2025, but organisers have now confirmed it has received a grant from the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund to support its refurbishment.

Lee Ismail, Head of Collections Management at Brighton & Hove Museums, said the funding was “extremely welcome”, adding that the site has seen very little investment over recent decades.

He said previous refurbishment plans scheduled for 2020 were cancelled due to the pandemic.

The upgrade will include changes to the entrance, with plans to remove archways to create a more open and welcoming space, while preserving the museum’s distinctive Victorian character.

The historic bird dioramas created by Edward Booth will be retained, with plans to restore display cases and flooring to reflect the museum’s original design.

The refurbishment will also allow for a new focus on climate, habitat and biodiversity education, alongside a wider range of previously unseen specimens going on display for the first time.

These include species such as the golden mole, echidna, toucan, emperor scorpion, snapping turtle and giant African land snail.

Ismail said the aim is to help visitors understand both the threats facing wildlife from climate change and human activity, as well as examples of species adapting and thriving in urban environments.

Among the museum’s oldest exhibits are shells dating back around 55 million years.

The Booth Museum is expected to reopen in early 2027.