A beautiful window in Victorian eclectic style with Romanesque arches, elaborate mullions and plaques and statues representing animals, there are an eel, a snake and a jackal below this window, but each window has its own unique creatures. The stone pilasters are covered with naturally occurring patterns such as crystals, tree bark, honeycomb and fish scales. The ornamentation is in cast terracotta, a material which was chosen partly to save money when the building was built between 1865 and its opening in 1881.
The architect, Alfred Waterhouse created the museum’s distinctive blue and buff colour scheme by tinting the terracotta clay with ground slate before it was fired. A shortage of materials meant he had to cut back on the amount of blue.
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