Leicester Museum & Art Gallery

Leicester Museum & Art Gallery stands on New Walk, a short walk from Leicester city centre. The building opened in 1849 as one of the first public museums in Britain. Joseph Hansom, who designed the hansom cab, drew up the original plans. Over the years the museum has grown, most recently in 2011 when a new Dinosaur Gallery was added. The museum displays science, history and art from around the world and from Leicestershire. The museum holds important fossils and artworks. The Rutland Dinosaur, a 15-metre cetiosaur nicknamed George, arrived in 1975 after discovery in Rutland in 1968. A plesiosaur skeleton found in Barrow upon Soar in 1851 is also on show. The first Charnia fossil, identified from Precambrian rocks, came from Charnwood Forest in 1957. Four Egyptian mummies and more than 400 artefacts tell the story of Ancient Egypt. The museum also holds the UK’s largest collection of German Expressionist art, rescued from Nazi Germany. Visitors find a Dinosaur Gallery with George the cetiosaur, plesiosaur skeletons and a Leedsichthys fossil. The Egyptology section displays four mummies and hundreds of objects in a newly expanded gallery. A wildspace area shows stuffed animals from around the world, including a polar bear mascot. Upstairs, temporary exhibitions change regularly and have featured Richard III, Wallace and Gromit, and Picasso ceramics donated by Richard Attenborough.