This much-loved London museum has just taken the top spot as the UK’s most popular attraction for the first time

Where in the UK can you wander beneath a blue whale affectionately named Hope, gaze upon a glittering, cursed amethyst and amble past a taxidermied giant panda on a coffee break between fascinating exhibitions? Any guesses?

It’s the Natural History Museum, of course – the spectacular South Kensington museum many Londoners first encounter on school trips in their early years. Housing more than 80 million artefacts and specimens across countless galleries and myriad hidden vaults, no two…