New Museums Site

[1] Several important scientific developments of the 19th and 20th centuries were made at the New Museums Site, mainly at the Old Cavendish Laboratory, including the discoveries of the electron by J. J. Thomson (1897) and the neutron by Chadwick (1932), splitting the atom by Cockcroft and Walton (1932), mechanism of nervous conduction by Hodgkin and Huxley (1930s–40s), and DNA structure by Watson and Crick (1953).

The King's Ditch, possibly a Saxon structure, cut through the south-east corner until the early 19th century.

An Augustinian Friary was founded on the site in 1290; some of its buildings remained in the late 16th century and they form part of the fabric of the Old Cavendish Laboratory.

[4] A proposal for the new site was developed by Robert Willis and others, with Anthony Salvin as the suggested architect, but delays ensued over multiple issues, particularly the budget of £23,000.

[5][6] Construction did not start until 1863; the first building, to cut-down plans by Salvin, opened in 1866, and housed museums of botany, mineralogy and morphology.

[8] A building serving zoology, comparative anatomy and physiology, designed by William Fawcett, opened in 1878, and the biology facilities were extended in 1882 and 1884.

[6] The early 20th century saw the completion of the Zoology Building, Examination Halls (1909) and Arts School (1911) on the New Museums Site.