NHM: Attention To Detail

More detailed in large ("L").

This is one of the NHM details that I have been meaning to blip for ages, but have never quite prioritised... Today I was going to blip the museum from the Wildlife Garden, but having photographed this, I thought that I'd better blip it or it'd never quite make it onto blip...

This is an air vent cover; an intake for the Waterhouse Building's rather advanced ventilation system. The building is ventilated by ducts that run through the fabric of the building: boilers and fans move the air around with air being drawn in from outside, and released out of the top of the towers. It was seriously ahead of its time! I think the most remarkable thing though is that even the air vent covers received Alfred Waterhouse's characteristic attention to detail, with the various vents featuring a variety of natural motifs (including this spider and other arthropods, various floral and foliage designs, and also shells and sea creatures)...

p.s. Yes, it does have spiders living in it!