Accessing Our Collections

The majority of the Museum’s collections are in storage, but most collections are accessible provided we are given enough time to prepare for your visit. Sometimes items are on loan, or inaccessible due to health and safety reasons (such as being on display).

To make sure the items you are interested in are available, contact us and we can provide an object/specimen list.

The collections are open to anyone aged 18 and over who has a valid research request.

Research requests are assessed by the Collections Team, who will make a decision based on our Research Policy.

We are happy to receive requests from independent researchers not affiliated with a University. Unfortunately, we cannot provide ‘behind the scenes’ tours.

There are some requests we cannot fulfil, such as:

• Access to the inside of the dioramas
• Moulding / mould making from specimens
• Examination or sampling of Human Remains

To visit the collections please fill in a research request form giving us as much detail as possible about your proposed research.

Not sure what items you need to see? Please email our collections team.

If you are a student your university will need to provide a letter, on headed paper, confirming you are a student on one of their courses/affiliated with the university and that you have suitable experience to work unsupervised with our research collections.

If you are not a student and not affiliated with a higher education institution, we may ask you for a little bit of information regarding your experience of working with museum collections. This is to make sure we can offer you any assistance you may need in accessing and studying our collections.

Yes. The Museum is an independent charity and bench fees are important in helping us continue to provide staff assistance and access to research collections.

Bench fees can be found on the research request form.

Access to the collections will generally be 9:00-16:30 Monday to Friday.

The office, and access to the museum, officially opens at 9am but there are normally people onsite by 8 so please let us know if you think you would like to gain earlier access to the site and we can confirm if this is possible.

We ask all contractors or researchers to be offsite by 16.30 to allow time for full site lockdown.

By prior arrangement it may be possible to provide access at weekends or on Public Holidays but this will be in exceptional circumstances only

Various B&Bs are available in Birchington.

The nearest chain hotel is the Premier Inn in Margate, which is next to Margate train station.

Canterbury is also an accessible option – it is about 45 minutes away by bus, and also accessible by train.

There is a Holiday Inn Express and Premier Inn in Manston/Minster but we don’t recommend staying at the hotels in Manston/Minster unless you have your own transport as there are no bus routes serving this area.

The closest bus stop to the Museum is The Square, Birchington. Services 8, 8A run between Margate and Canterbury, stopping at The Square.

It’s about a 15-minute walk up to the Museum via Park Lane.

There is parking outside the museum free of charge. If you need to pull in front of the entrance to unload materials this is fine but we do ask it is completed as quickly as possible in order to avoid blocking emergency service access and deliveries to other businesses onsite.

See our ‘Getting here’ page for more information.

Onsite there is a café (opposite the museum entrance,) Felicity’s serves cooked breakfasts, sandwiches, light meals and fresh cakes and is open every day except Mondays.

On the Quex Park site there is also a farm shop which sells pastries, sausage rolls etc and has an attached restaurant which sells a variety of different meals and snacks.

The nearest town is Birchington (also our nearest train station) which is a five minute drive or 15-20 minute walk and has a multiple small grocery shops.

At the museum itself we have a staff kitchen. The fridge, kettle, coffee machine, sink and microwave are all accessible for you during your visit as is standard tea and coffee (and milk) please do bring any other supplies which better suit your personal preference and taste though. Most team members have their own mugs and then there are a selection which can be used by visitors.