An historic Forest Hill museum needs help to redesign its historic site and bring a multi-million pound new gallery to the public.

The Horniman Museum and Gardens plans to open its new 600square metre World Gallery in June 2018, with 3,000 objects to tell the story of what it means to be human.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has given a £3.3million grant but the remaining funds rely on a crowdfunding and the museum is calling on the public to champion it.

A crowdfunder was launched on September 27 but with less than three weeks left it has only reached 18 per cent of its target, hitting slightly over £5,000 of its £30,000 goal.

The new free anthropology gallery aims to celebrate what it means to be human with objects from around the world to touch, smell and play with. Older objects include a shark’s jaw and an Egyptian coffin.

The new objects will include ancient Cypriot Pottery, modern Sardinian festival costumes, the prow of a Libyan boat salvaged off the coast of Sicily in 2013, canoes from the Pacific Islanders, 15th century bronze casting from Africa, and much more.

The World Gallery is due to open in June 2018 and needs to raise £4.6 million to make it happen, so the crowdfunding amount is a small portion of the overall total.

Victoria Pinnington, director of communications at the Horniman Museum, said: “Over the years, the impressive building that Frederick Horniman gave to the community started to fall into disrepair.

“Damp walls, inflexible spaces and poor lighting were affecting the collections and the experience of our visitors.

“Research revealed that, although innovative at the time of their development, the old African Worlds and Centenary Galleries were seen as having outdated content, interpretation and style of display.

“Unable to show the breadth of our collections, visitor numbers were decreasing. We realised we needed to bring new life to our galleries and anthropology displays.”

Janet Vitmayer, chief executive of the Horniman Museum and Gardens, said: "The opening of the World Gallery will put Anthropology back on centre stage at the Horniman.

“It will reconnect us with Frederick Horniman’s desire to share his excitement and enthusiasm for the way collections can open our minds to the many different ways people live their lives.

"The strength of our extraordinary collections lie in shining a light on these human stories across time and across continents.

“We are very grateful to all our wonderful partners who have invested in this project so far. I very much hope that our local community and friends further afield will join the crowdfunding campaign and also be part of the World Gallery.”

The crowdfunder is open until October 31 and backers can get tickets to an opening tour, special tours of the Horniman’s Butterfly House, and a personalised poem by the museum’s walrus.

The fundraiser is available at the website crowdfunder.co.uk/worldgallery