Natural History Museum's Dippy the dinosaur to go on holiday

One of London museum's best-loved exhibits - a giant Victorian cast of a diplodocus - to be loaned to any museum in UK big enough to host it

Anyone with a very large spare room is invited to apply for a very large house guest: Dippy the dinosaur, one of the best-loved museum specimens in Britain, is going sofa surfing.

The Natural History Museum is inviting any indoor museum in the UK with enough space to accommodate the giant Victorian cast of a diplodocus to apply to host Dippy for at least a four-month visit after it is dismantled and removed from the South Kensington institution's magnificent central hall, where it has been the star attraction for the past 35 years.