It is goodbye to Dippy and hello to Hope as the finishing touches are made to the Natural History Museum 's newest star.

The 25.2 metre long skeleton will welcome visitors to the Museum from Friday (July 14), suspended from the roof of Hintze Hall.

She replaces the beloved Dippy the Diplodocus who arrived in London more than 100 years ago, marking the biggest transformation of the main gallery in its 136 year history.

Visitors to the Museum can see the skeleton in the main hall from Friday (July 14)

The museum has released this video which shows the painstaking process in assembling the whale's skeleton in the main hall.

"Hope is the only blue whale skeleton in the world to be hung in the diving lunge feeding position," said Lorraine Cornish, the museum's head of conservation.

"Suspending such a large, complex and historical specimen from a Victorian ceiling was always going to be challenging, but we were determined to show her in as lifelike position as possible and we are thrilled that the result is truly spectacular."

The real blue whale skeleton is 126-years-old and will be joined in the main hall and the ground floor alcoves by hundreds of new specimens chosen to celebrate the wonder and beauty of the natural world.

They include a 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite, a Mantellisaurus dinosaur skeleton, giraffes and a blue marlin.

The Museum has named the skeleton Hope

Hope is not new to the museum as the skeleton arrived and went on display in the Mammal Hall in 1934, suspended above a life-size model of a blue whale.

It is the skeleton of a whale that became stranded in 1891 in Wexford Harbour in Ireland and has been named Hope as a symbol of humanity's power to shape a sustainable future.

In the Twentieth Century, blue whales were hunted to the brink of extinction with only 400 thought to be left in 1966, following this they were legally protected from commercial hunting and the population has steadily grown to around 20,000 today.

Director of the Natural History Museum, Sir Michael Dixon, said: "This is a landmark moment for the museum and for the millions of people from all over the world who visit us.

"The transformation of Hintze Hall represents a new era for us as a Natural History Museum for the future.

The real blue whale skeleton is 126-year-old

"Putting our blue whale, Hope, at the centre of the Museum, between living species on the West and extinct species on the East, is a powerful reminder of the fragility of life and the responsibility we have towards our planet.

"We are living at a critical point in the history of the Earth. This generation's decisions will have an unprecedented impact on the world we live in."

The Museum's Patron, HRH The Duchess of Cambridge, and Sir David Attenborough will attend a launch reception on Tuesday evening (July 13) ahead of the public opening.

Visitors will be able to walk under the gigantic skeleton from 10am on Friday at the Natural History Museum in Kensington .

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