Dinosaurs: Monster Families, Horniman Museums

The Horniman Museum is one of London's most exciting hidden gems. Despite opening in the Victorian era, when Frederick John Horniman first had visitors come to admire his house and extraordinary collection of objects, this eclectic museum isn't on the radar for lots of London families. But it should be.

Far more intimate than the Natural History Museum, it has a range of startling displays, including an aquarium and a gallery dedicated to African art and culture, which take visitors around the world and deep into the earth's natural history.

This February, the Horniman Museum's exhibition explores the monstrous world of pre-historic dinosaurs, unveiling secrets from how dinosaurs look after their eggs nests and babies.

Turning away from the narrative of dinosaurs as cold-hearted monsters, the Horniman Museum looks at dinosaurs as mothers and fathers and their young, this family-focused interactive exhibition offers another side to way we think about and understand these extraordinary pre-historic creatures.

Families will get the chance to meet 'Baby Louie', a near-complete skeleton of a dinosaur embryo as it would have been inside its egg, can tough a real dinosaur leg bone and dig like an palaeontologist in the discovery pit to see what dinosaur remains they can find. Those family members who like to think of dinosaurs as terrifying monsters will have their chance to come face-to-face with a T-Rex's relative, a life-size Tarbosaurus skeleton cast, and feel the fear.

Younger children will also fun interactive exploration stations, where dinosaurs 'fill' the room with illustrations by artist Luis V Rey to give a sense of house these monstrous creatures moved, lived and looked.

Although the museum is in Dulwich, families can make a day of it enjoying the beautiful house in its green settings and the rest of the free exhibitions on offer.