NHM: Central Hall Pillars

Better in large ("L"): the small version is just too small!

One of the most unusual things about the Natural History Museum's architecture is the attention to detail: there is so much variety in the repeated structures (the columns, the decorations and carvings, the ceiling tiles, the bosses...). It makes exploring the museum all the more interesting: forget the exhibits (momentarily), the building itself is an adventure! Outside, there are gargoyles beneath the roof and sculptures of animals (extinct ones on the east wing, and extant ones on the west wing) beneath the large windows. Even the air vents (the museum has an elaborate integrated heating system that was way ahead of its time) are decorated. The minerals gallery has columns decorated with carvings of extinct animals, but one (the coelacanth) proved only to be lost and not actually gone: we realised it wasn't extinct when one was found swimming off the coast of South Africa in the 1930s!

These columns (around the central hall on the first floor level) feature designs inspired by the patterns found on the bark of fossilised trees.