The Evolution Timeline is a central feature of the new garden, telling the story of our island’s geological past through rocks, plants, and representations of extinct creatures. Ancient Scottish Lewisian gneiss, over 2.7 billion years old, marks the beginning, followed by granites tracing the Earth’s shifting crust, limestones full of fossils formed in tropical seas, and sandstones laid down as desert dunes. The timeline features mosses, ferns, and species such as the giant millipede Arthropleura, various mammals, and a bronze Diplodocus cast. At least 26 different rocks are used throughout the canyon and timeline, all but two sourced from across the UK, from Cornwall to the Outer Hebrides.

A new permanent 660 sqm timber and stone kitchen and café provides a space adjacent to the garden for rest and nourishment. It is multipurpose, functioning as a café, events space, and seasonal indoor storage and display for exotic plants from the Evolution Garden. The design aims to be ‘of the garden’, referential yet not pastiche, drawing on historic garden building typologies and formal structures like orangeries. Stone elevations reference the Waterhouse terracotta façade and the geological strata of the landscaping and timeline wall. Stone columns frame openings to a buffer space that displays botanical exhibits in winter and becomes an open cloister in summer, supporting energy efficiency through passive solar heating and shading.

The Nature Activity Centre is a 220 sqm timber and stone building nestled within the Nature Discovery Garden. It combines facilities for scientific work and monitoring with learning activities and garden maintenance to support the volunteer community essential to the gardens. The new centre improves access, legibility, and interpretation of the garden, expanding the Museum’s scientific work, encouraging community science, and providing a training space for future urban ecologists. The Garden Kitchen and Nature Activity Centre share an architectural language reflecting the site’s geological concepts, with stone facades that vary by datum level. Limestone plinths of Purbeck Spangle rise to Ancaster and Clipsham columns, transitioning into wet cast stone lintels above.

The design of the 5 acres of gardens aims to conserve and enhance biodiversity, including the 3,300 animal species in the existing Wildlife Garden dating from 1995. With a habitat protection programme at its heart, the scheme extends woodland, grassland, scrub, heath, fen, reedbed, hedgerow, urban UK habitats, and wetlands, including a relocated pond with a sunken walkway for school groups to take part in pond dipping. The new pond was designed to be biologically diverse, controlling reed growth with habitat breaks and steep banks. A miniature island of stones and gravel provides refuge for ducks, coots, and moorhens.

The Urban Nature Project champions sustainability through locally sourced timber and UK limestone, passive design, and a holistic water strategy. Natural ventilation, airtightness, and thermal performance are maximised, while Air Source Heat Pumps provide renewable energy, and rainwater is channelled to nourish the gardens. The result is a resilient, regenerative model.

“The museum’s newly transformed gardens are a collaborative triumph, offering a walk through geological time in a landscape of ancient rocks and Jurassic planting that’s a haven for wildlife, Londoners and dinosaurs alike.”

Rowan Moore – The Observer