The Natural History Museum's free Hintze Hall audio guide is a 24-track SoundCloud playlist. Sir David Attenborough narrates the introduction to Hope, the 25.2-metre blue whale skeleton suspended above the hall, and interviews the museum's senior curator of vertebrates on the track. The remaining 23 stops are voiced by a museum narrator and feature short interviews with the specialists who curate each specimen or display case. Total listen time runs about 50 minutes if you play it straight through.
You can stream it on personal headphones during your visit or listen at home. It is free, it does not require an app, and it covers the hall that every Cromwell Road visitor enters first.
What the 24 tracks cover
The playlist follows the architecture of Hintze Hall: the blue whale overhead, the ten ground-floor Wonder Bays, the upper-balcony cases, and the hall itself.
Track 1: Welcome
A 1:17 orientation stop. Sets out the layout and points you toward Hope.
Track 2: Blue Whale (Hope)
The Attenborough track. 2:11. Attenborough introduces the skeleton, and Richard Sabin, senior curator of vertebrates, explains the diving-lunge pose and the whale's backstory: a female juvenile stranded in Wexford Harbour in 1891, kept in storage for 42 years, first displayed in 1934, and hoisted into Hintze Hall on 13 July 2017 when she replaced Dippy the Diplodocus. 221 bones. 4.5 tonnes of skeleton. Stand directly underneath her, near the central axis of the hall, for the intended effect.
Tracks 3 to 7: The east Wonder Bays (life today)
Five ground-floor alcoves on the east side of the hall, each dedicated to a living or recently living organism.
- Track 3, Giraffes (2:25). Dr Natalie Cooper on the tallest living animal, alongside a full skeleton and taxidermy mount.
- Track 4, Blue Marlin (2:21). Oliver Crimmen, senior curator of fish, on the first complete blue marlin washed up on British shores, recovered in 2016.
- Track 5, Turbinaria Coral (2:03). Miranda Lowe on a 120-year-old, 300-kilogram coral specimen.
- Track 6, Seaweeds (about 2:00). Professor Juliet Brodie on the museum's botanical collections.
- Track 7, Insects (about 2:00). Dr Gavin Broad on the parasitoid wasps representing the diversity of insect orders.
Tracks 8 and 9: The west Wonder Bays (origins and evolution)
- Track 8, American Mastodon (2:01). Professor Adrian Lister on the Ice Age mammal whose complete skeleton stands in the hall.
- Track 9, Mantellisaurus (2:05). Professor Paul Barrett on the holotype Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis, 85% complete, the most complete dinosaur skeleton ever found in the UK. It was moved here from the Dinosaurs gallery in the 2017 redisplay.
Tracks 10 to 12: Deep time
- Track 10, Fossil Trees (2:02). Dr Paul Kenrick on a 385-million-year-old tree.
- Track 11, Banded Iron Formation (2:04). Professor Richard Herrington on a 2.6-billion-year-old rock.
- Track 12, Imilac Meteorite (about 2:00). Dr Caroline Smith, principal curator of meteorites, on a 4.5-billion-year-old slice from Chile that is older than the Earth itself.
Tracks 13 to 22: The upper-balcony cases
Five Victorian display cabinets line the upper balcony, reconstructed cabinets of curiosities that trace how the museum's collection was assembled. Each case has an intro track and a detail track.
- Tracks 13 and 14, Explorers. Dr Adrian Glover on the Challenger expedition; Professor Sara Russell on Scott's Antarctic expedition.
- Tracks 15 and 16, Collectors. Dr Tim Littlewood, head of life sciences, and Dr Victoria Pickering on Sir Hans Sloane and the collecting tradition.
- Tracks 17 and 18, Founders. Sir Michael Dixon and Professor Gowan Dawson on Richard Owen and William Henry Flower.
- Tracks 19 and 20, Preparators. Bird curator Hein van Grouw and author Karolyn Shindler on Dorothea Bate and the technicians who prepared the specimens.
- Tracks 21 and 22, Thinkers. Professor Ian Owens, director of science, and Professor Ian Barnes on Linnaeus, Huxley, Darwin, and the extinct Toxodon.
Tracks 23 and 24: The building itself
- Track 23, Ceiling (about 2:00). Dr Sandy Knapp on the botanical panels painted across the ceiling and the ironwork that holds them. Look up from under Hope.
- Track 24, Architecture (about 2:00). Professor John Holmes on Alfred Waterhouse, who designed the building, and Richard Owen, who drove it into existence. The hall opened on 18 April 1881. Its central axis aligns with the Royal Albert Hall and the Albert Memorial, part of Prince Albert's Albertopolis.
Which tracks are worth hearing
If you have ten minutes, play tracks 2, 9, 12, and 23 in that order. You will have heard Attenborough on the blue whale, Paul Barrett on the UK's most complete dinosaur, Caroline Smith on a rock older than Earth, and Sandy Knapp on the ceiling panels you are standing under.
If you have the full 50 minutes, play it in order. The sequence is choreographed: life today on the east, origins on the west, deep time in the centre, the building's own story at the end.
How to find it
The playlist lives on the museum's SoundCloud page at soundcloud.com/nhmlondon, and individual tracks are embedded on nhm.ac.uk. No login, no download, no app. Personal headphones are recommended. The hall is loud, especially mid-morning when school groups arrive. For quieter listening, aim for the first hour after opening or the last hour before closing.
Hope is directly above you as you enter from Cromwell Road. The Wonder Bays flank you on both sides. The upper-balcony cases are reached by the staircases at the rear of the hall, beside the giant sequoia slice (felled in California in 1891 at age 1,341, in the museum since 1893).
How this compares to the rest of the museum
The 24-track Hintze Hall guide is one piece of a wider free audio offering. The museum also publishes the Our Story playlist, several gallery-specific guides (Volcanoes and Earthquakes, Evolution Garden, Nature Discovery Garden, Wildlife Photographer of the Year), and accessibility-focused audio-described tours. For context on how those fit together, see attenborough nhm audio guide on the Attenborough-narrated content across the site, and our story attenborough vs audio guide on how Our Story differs from the Hintze Hall guide.
FAQ
Who narrates the Hintze Hall audio guide?
Sir David Attenborough narrates the introduction to Hope the blue whale (Track 2). The remaining 23 tracks are voiced by a museum narrator and feature interviews with the curators and scientists responsible for each specimen or display.
Is the Hintze Hall audio guide free?
Yes. It is free to stream on SoundCloud at soundcloud.com/nhmlondon. No app, no sign-up, no download required.
How long is the Hintze Hall audio guide?
24 tracks, each about 2 minutes, totalling roughly 50 minutes played straight through.
Is Hope the blue whale real?
Yes. Hope is the genuine skeleton of a female juvenile blue whale that stranded in Wexford Harbour, Ireland, in 1891. 221 real bones, 4.5 tonnes, 25.2 metres long.
What replaced Dippy the Diplodocus in Hintze Hall?
Hope the blue whale, installed 13 July 2017. Dippy, a plaster cast of Diplodocus carnegii, had stood in the hall from 1979 until January 2017. A bronze cast named Fern now stands in the Evolution Garden outside.
Where should I stand to listen?
Directly under Hope for Track 2, then walk the east Wonder Bays for Tracks 3 to 7, the west Wonder Bays for Tracks 8 and 9, and the central alcoves for Tracks 10 to 12. The upper balcony houses Tracks 13 to 22. For Tracks 23 and 24, return to the centre of the hall and look up.
Written by the Musa editorial team. Musa builds interactive audio tours for museums. If you want a guide that answers your questions as you walk, rather than a linear playlist, try a Musa tour at your next museum visit.