[3] It is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and is constituted as a company and registered charity under English law.

The Horniman housed some of the Benin Bronzes until 28 November 2022, when they were signed back unconditionally to Nigeria, from where the pieces were looted in 1897 by British troops.

[15] On the London Road wall of the main building is a neoclassical mosaic mural entitled Humanity in the House of Circumstance, designed by Robert Anning Bell and assembled by a group of young women over the course of 210 days.

Charity stands to the right bearing figs and wine, followed by white-haired Wisdom holding a staff, and a seated figure representing Meditation.

[17] A 20 ft (6.1 m) totem pole, carved from red cedar, stands outside the museum's main entrance.

It was carved in 1985 as part of the American Arts Festival by Nathan Jackson, a Tlingit native Alaskan.

The carvings on the pole depict figures from Alaskan legend of a girl who married a bear, with an eagle (Jackson's clan crest) at the top.