United Kingdom of Culture: The Unexpected

From talking lions to real life dragons, explore unusual and surprising treasures

Discover the history behind Harry Potter's world

A trove of magical heritage

Brush up on your magical knowledge

Play video

Settle in for a quiz with the British Library experts

The journey from a train journey to boy wizard

Ten Strange Things You Didn’t Know About the History of Magic

Quills at the ready, your magical lessons await

Begin your home learning here

Astronomy

Defence Against the Dark Arts

The British Library

Potions

The British Library

Herbology

The British Library

Alchemy

The British Library

Care of Magical Creatures

The British Library

Exploring the Ripley Scroll

Zoom into the precious manuscript

A wizarding whip around the UK

Explore sites from your couch with Google Earth

Harry Potter: A History of Magic

Discover more wonders from the British Library's exhibition

Real life creatures from the Natural History Museum

We'll start in the Tank Room

The Hidden World of the Tank Room

The Natural History Museum

The tank room in 360 degrees | Natural History Museum

Meet the Fish Curator

The most complete Stegosaurus skeleton

Behind Closed Doors at the Natural History Museum

Giant squid Architeuthis dux

Anglerfish - micro-computed tomography visualisation | Natural History Museum

Farah Ahmed

Bringing lost beasts back to life

Get re-aquainted with the dodo and the rhomaleosaurus

The Rhomaleosaurus comes back to life in Virtual Reality

Dodos walk the halls

Meet Edward The Dodo #PreviouslyOnEarth

Hintze Hall's changing residents

Not your average neighbour

ExploreHope the Blue Whale

ExploreDippy the Diplodocus

The weird and the wonderful

From eel shops, the underground, and beyond. Can you guess what these objects are?

Keeping it Eel

Waltham Forest

The hidden secrets of the Underground

London Transport Museum

The Traflagar Square lions find their voice

Please feed these lions

Get to know the lions and create your own poetry

Introducing an interactive sculpture in London's Trafalgar Square by Es Devlin

See the lion up close in 3D

Brought to life again via photogrammetry

More from the nation's collections

British Museum

United Kingdom

National Museums Scotland

United Kingdom

Science Museum

United Kingdom

London Museum

United Kingdom

United Kingdom of Culture

Explore the UK through its culture

United Kingdom of Culture: The Arts

Old Masters to pop art