The whale is back at the Museum of Zoology in Cambridge. Come and stand under the whale in its new, purpose built, glass entrance hall.   The 21 metre (70ft) Fin Whale skeleton had been in storage for 4 years, during the building programme.   It was one of the first exhibits to return to the museum, ahead of the re-opening. It was first on public display 150 years ago at the Central Cricket Ground in Hastings, where visitors were charged a sixpence admission fee.

The museum has owned the whale since 1866, the year after it was washed up dead in Pevensey Bay in Sussex. The Fin Whale is the second largest species of whale, after the Blue Whale. When alive it is thought it would have weighed about 80 tonnes, the equivalent of eight double decker buses. The re-hanging process took two people around four weeks, due to its enormous size and weight.

Museum staff and specialist installers spent many weeks putting the whale back together and hanging it in its new home, the Whale Hall.

The whale was hung at the old Museum of Zoology, which was on the same site as the new museum today. Find out more ...