The remainder will be turned into homes, office, retail and leisure space and will include an interactive paid-for visitor experience exhibit.

These colourful life-size creations now live in the wilderness garden and are a much-loved part of the visitor experience.

Subtly and in many cases quite cleverly, the design of the museum avoids resource waste without diminishing the visitor experience or imperiling its artifacts.

I grew up with them as part of the visitor experience and would no doubt feel strangely nostalgic if they disappeared.

You could argue that such big crowds make for a poor visitor experience, but they give a big financial lift to the institution.