The Bird Museum

Booth Natural History Museum

“Booth Museum was always ‘The Bird Museum’ to me it was never ‘The Booth Museum of Natural History’. It used to be a great place for going on a wet day but then we also got taken there from school for drawing lessons. Years later, I actually started work for the local authority and one day a week I had to go and do their secretarial work. Then after that, when I lost my sight, I actually went there again to do a craft workshop.”

Comments about this page

  • I have very fond memories of the Booth museum: it obviously featured quite prominently in my art A-level taken at nearby BHASVIC, but myself and my friends also adopted it as a frequent lunch/free-hour hang-out. We were genuinely fascinated by the birds and the skeletons in the back room, albeit always in a slightly horrified way. I also have a much earlier memory from Brighton Museum from way before its revamp: one of its slightly random collections was a small, high-ceilinged room, similarly lined with glass cases of stuffed birds. Around the picture rail above were a dozen or so mounted heads (deer, I guess, I can’t remember). It was even more compellingly creepy than the Booth museum. Anyone else remember it?

    By Kate (25/02/2009)
  • I wonder if you are thinking of The Cabinet Of Curiosities, an enthralling little room situated at the end of the Fine Arts Gallery during the early 90s? One curiosity was described as a mermaid. Children must have found that room fascinating, if somewhat frightening.

    By Joe Reid (01/11/2010)
  • That certainly sounds about right – it was just after the large room that contained the cork-shop hut, I think, on the upper floor. The museum has been revamped very well, but I always think museums should have a touch of the random and the creepy like I remember Brighton Museum having when I was a kid. You never quite knew what weirdness you were going to happen across next!

    By Kate (03/03/2011)

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