Museums & Attractions

1. Foundling Museum
Thomas Coram, shipwright and businessman, was so horrified by the abandoned children he saw in London he spent 17 years raising funds to build the Foundling Hospital. The hospital doubled up as the country’s first public art gallery and concert hall, with paintings donated by William Hogarth and recitals by fellow governor George Frideric Handel.
Best exhibit The donated Hogarth paintings.
40 Brunswick Square, WC1 (020 7841 3600/ www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk) Russell Square tube. Adm £5, £4 concs, under-16s free.

2. V&A Theatre Collections (formerly the Theatre Museum)
The Theatre Museum, a branch of the V&A, traces the history of performing arts since the sixteenth century, with a vast collection of memorabilia. There are daily activities relating to costume and make-up that will appeal to all ages; however, the museum is currently under threat. Visit www.savelondonstheatres.org.uk to join the campaign to keep it open.
Best exhibit Over a million (count ’em) original programmes and playbills.
V&A Collections Centre, Blythe Road, W14 (020 7942 2697/www.theatremuseum.org.uk)Kensington tube. Currently closed, performance and theatre collections galleries are due to open from February 2009.

3. Dr Johnson’s House
Although the museum takes up all four floors of the house in which Johnson wrote his dictionary, it’s the atmosphere that intrigues here – and the exhibits largely consist of old furniture, portraits of Johnson and Boswell, and the occasional case of ephemera (letters, spectacles etc). There’s also a short, hammy biographical video on the second floor. Kids can dress up from a selection of Georgian costumes on the top floor. Best exhibit A rather random brick from the Great Wall of China on the landing.
17 Gough Square, EC4 (020 7353 3745/ www.drjh.dircon.co.uk) Chancery Lane tube. Adm £4.50, concs £3.50, children £1.50.

A casualty at the MCC Museum

4. MCC Museum
For those seeking respite from World Cup fever, there can be few better refuges than the MCC Museum – as far from football as it is possible to get while still managing to incorporate 22 men, one ball and the bafflement of passing Americans. Visitable either on match days or as part of the thrice-daily Lord’s Tours, the oldest sporting museum in the world is opposite the members’ entrance to the famous pavilion. It deals with its lack of space by cramming as many exhibits into tall glass cases as is possible (old bats, newspaper clippings, score cards and a stuffed sparrow – it was killed by a shot by Jahangir Khan in 1936).

Thoroughly in keeping with the game, this is a museum that rewards the patient. Upstairs, you can see the museum’s most prized attraction – the stupidly small Ashes urn. Back on the ground floor, the Brian Johnston Memorial Theatre screens moments from great matches at Lord’s for visitors. Entrance comes as part of the Lord’s Tour, itself a thorough two-hour stroll round the historic ground, marshalled by an affable MCC member. The highlight is your chance to wander around the pavilion. The tour takes in the Long Room, committee room, bar (adorned, quite properly, with a new portrait of Shane Warne), visitors’ dressing-room and balcony. After a quick detour to check out the real tennis court, it then snakes round the ground, visiting each stand, the NatWest media centre and the famous Lord’s weather vane.
Best exhibit Inevitably, that urn.
Boundary Rd, NW8 (020 7616 8656/ www.lords.org) St John’s Wood tube. Open during Lord’s Tours (£8, concs £6, children £5) or on match days (£3, concs £1).

5. Old Operating Theatre Museum
GRIM SURGICAL IMPLEMENTS
This is the oldest operating theatre in Britain, complete with wooden spectator galleries, lodged up in the roof of a baroque church. St Thomas’s Hospital is long gone from this site but its hair-raising collection of pre-anaesthetic surgical instruments survives.
Best exhibit The saws, of course!
9a St Thomas St, SE1 (020 7188 2679/ www.thegarret.org.uk) London Bridge tube/rail. Adm £4.95, children £2.95.

6. Bank of England Museum
LIFT A GOLD BAR
Tacked on to the end of the Bank of England, this museum is housed in a replica Sir John Soane interior, the largest such replica in the world. It offers a good blend of modern, child-friendly attractions and dusty older corridors that the grown-ups will enjoy. The museum tells the history of the Bank and currency in the UK, and there’s lots of stuff about forgery.
Best exhibits A bar of gold you can pick up and a full set of NatWest piggy banks circa 1983.
Threadneedle St, EC2 (020 7601 5545/www.bankofengland.co.uk) Bank tube/DLR. Adm free.

7. Apsley House & Wellington Arch
This Robert Adam-designed house is crammed with artworks plundered by or presented to Wellington during his career, including some impressive candelabras and a giant neoclassical statue of Napoleon. There’s not much in the way of biographical detail but you’ll pick up plenty while trying to reach the complementary Wellington Arch via a tortuous underpass enlivened by informative mosaics. The Arch itself has viewing platforms and a permanent display about other London arches.
Best exhibit Wellington’s death mask.
149 Piccadilly, W1 (020 7222 1234/ www.english-heritage.org.uk) Hyde Park tube. Adm £5.10, concs £3.80, children £2.60.

8. Museum in Docklands
Housed in a historic warehouse, this excellent museum is devoted to the river and the docks. The Roman, Danish and Saxon history of the river is presented via exhibits and a series of videos narrated by Tony Robinson, before the museum takes on the birth of the docks and the lives of those who worked there. There’s also a section called Sailortown, recreating the sounds, smells and sights of nineteenth-century Wapping.
Best exhibit The model of Old London Bridge.
West India Quay, Canary Wharf, E14 (0870 444385/www.museumindocklands.org.uk) West India Quay DLR. Annual ticket (allowing unlimited visits) £5, concs £3, under-16s free.

9. Museum of St Bart’s Hospital
After a short video explaining the history of Bart’s and its founding in 1123, this museum offers a crash course in the changing face of London hospitals. Displays explain how Bart’s developed, while offering plenty of mean-looking instruments and bottles marked ‘POISON’ to gawp at. There are also two Hogarth murals to admire, plus a great book full of illustrations of injuries, ruptures, lesions and pus.
Best exhibit The old wooden skull used to practise drilling and football skills.
St Bartholomew’s Hospital, West Smithfield, EC1 (020 7601 8152/ www.bartsandthelondon.nhs.uk) St Paul’s tube. Adm free.

10. Ragged School Museum
The canalside warehouses that housed Dr Barnardo's Ragged Day School during the late Victorian period are now home to a museum of the East End which examines the experiences of the children who attended the school.
46-50 Copperfield Rd, E3 (020 8980 6405/www.raggedschoolmuseum.org.uk) Mile End tube. Open Wed, Thur 10am-5pm, first Sun of month 2-5pm. Adm free.

11. London Canal Museum
GIGANTIC ICE WAREHOUSE
The London Canal Museum is housed in a former nineteenth-century ice warehouse used by Carlo Gatti for his famous ice cream, and it includes an exhibit on the history of the ice trade and ice cream. This is the most interesting part of the exhibition as the collection looking at the history of the waterways and those who lived and worked on them is rather sparse.
Best exhibit The barges outside; walk along the towpath from the museum to Camden Town.
12-13 New Wharf Rd (off Wharfedale Rd), N1 (020 7405 2127/www.canalmuseum.org.uk) King’s Cross tube/rail. Adm £3, concs £2, children £1.50, under-eights free.

12. Royal Artillery Museum
BIG-CAT FIREARMS
Housed in two buildings at the Royal Artillery’s base abutting the Thames, the museum covers the history of guns and gunpowder from Ancient China to contemporary Iraq. The first floor mixes antique weaponry with informative history, while the ground floor is given over to some serious hardware.
Best exhibit A mortar in the shape of a tiger.
Royal Arsenal, SE18 (020 8855 7755/ www.firepower.org.uk) Woolwich Arsenal rail. Adm £5, children £2.50.

13. Sherlock Holmes Museum
The last word in factional conceit, 221b’s study is a loving Victorian recreation and a splendid photo op. Bedrooms are fittingly scattered with iconic personal effects, make-believe papers and paraphernalia, and waxwork tableaux from the stories have recently been added upstairs.
Best exhibit Mr Holmes’ armchair by the fireplace – the perfect place to relax with a pipe.
221b Baker St, NW1 (020 7935 8866/ www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk) Baker St tube. Adm £6, under-16s £4.

14. Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture
This outpost of Middlesex University focuses on British domestic design from 1870 to the present, Themed temporary design from 1870 to the present. Themed temporary exhibitions draw out quotidian treasures from its collections. Part of the fun is revelling in nostalgia for a lost way of life, be it butcher boys, 'make 'n' mend' or Soda Streams.
Cat Hill, Barnet, EN4 (020 8411 5244/www.moda.mdx.ac.uk) Cockfosters tube. Adm free.

15. Musuem of London
The history of London, from prehistoric times to the present told through reconstructed interiors and street scenes, alongside displays of original artefacts found during the museum's archaeological digs. The Stuart, Victorian and Twentieth Century galleries are currently closed for a redevelopment project which will transform them by late 2009, opening up 25 per cent more gallery space. The early galleries will remain open throughout.
Museum of London, 150 London Wall, London, EC2Y 5HN (0870 444 3851/www.museumoflondon.org.uk) Mon-Sat 10am-5.50pm, Sun 12noon-5.50pm (last adm 5.30pm) St Pauls/Barbican tube.

16. Churchill Museum
It’s fitting that the man who had 300,000 people file past his coffin before his state funeral now has a museum dedicated to his life. The Churchill Museum is part of the Cabinet War Rooms, preserved to recreate the Cabinet meetings held below ground in WWII. Churchill’s extension explores both his childhood and career while his voice booms out those famous speeches.
Best exhibit Churchill’s half-smoked cigars.
Clive Steps, King Charles St, SW1 (020 7930 6961/ www.churchillmuseum.iwm.org.uk) Westminster tube. Adm £11, concs £8.50, under-16s free (museum ticket is valid for the Cabinet War Rooms).

17. Jewish Museum, Camden
This branch of the Jewish Museum (the other is in Finchley) concentrates largely on documenting the experience of Jews in Britain. Exhibits change every three months and there is a commitment to making it a fun place to take the kids.
Best exhibit A huge, ornamental ark which is used to house Torah scrolls.
129-131 Albert St, NW1 (020 7284 1997) Camden Town tube. Adm £3.50, senior citizens £2.50, concs £1.50. Currently closed pending major refurbishment; planned completion early 2009.

18. Kirkaldy Testing Museum
This purpose-built space housing a massive nineteenth-century hydraulic machine, designed to measure the strength of industrial materials, was discovered by chance in 1974 by civil engineer Dr Denis Smith. Realising its historical significance, Smith managed to secure the four-storey building as the HQ of the Greater London Industrial Archaeological Society. Anyone can visit on the first Sunday of each month.
Best exhibit The Machine. Designed in 1866 by Scotsman David Kirkaldy, it was one of only two such devices ever made (the other disappeared in Belgium). The machine could be used to test the strength of everything from bricks and concrete to aluminium and steel. It can be temperamental, but if you’re lucky, you may see it in operation.
99 Southwark St, SE1 (01372 722989) Blackfriars or Southwark tube. Open first Sunday of the month 10am-4pm. Donations appreciated.

19. Geffrye Museum
LOUNGE CULTURE DOWN THE CENTURIES
Lavishly charting the changing face of British domestic interiors, the Geffrye Museum is set out a bit like IKEA might have been in the year 1600. Named after former Lord Mayor Sir Robert Geffrye, it’s possibly the city’s most stylish museum, boasting a fine restaurant and an art installation in the basement. Best exhibit Gardens showing the evolution of horticulture since the seventeenth century.
Kingsland Rd, E2 (020 7739 9893/ www.geffrye-museum.org.uk) Old St tube/rail then 243 bus. Adm free.

Hampstead's Freud Museum

20. Freud Museum
A beautiful Hampstead house and the great psychoanalyst’s home after he fled Austria, the Freud Museum is not only preserved as it was when Sigmund died, but as it was in Austria when he fled in 1938. He had the position of everything in his study written down, so it could be exactly recreated in London.
Best exhibit The original couch.
20 Maresfield Gardens, NW3 (020 7435 2002/ www.freud.org.uk) Finchley Rd tube. Adm £5, concs £3, under-12s free.

21. Pollock’s Toy Museum
This rickety (yet lovingly kept) museum is packed to the rafters with vintage and antique toys from around the world.
Best exhibit Be sure to have a look at the room full of dolls that all have their heads trained on the glass partition – it’s too eerie for comfort.
1 Scala St, W1 (020 7636 3452/www.pollocksmuseum.co.uk) Goodge St tube. Adm £3, students £2, children £1.50, under-threes free.

22. Museum of the Order of St John
This is three museums in one. The first shows the history of St John’s Gate: built in 1504 as the south entrance to the Priory of the Knights of St John, it’s also been a coffeehouse, owned by Hogarth’s family, and a tavern. In the eighteenth century it was a printing house for Gentleman’s Magazine. The second part of the museum concentrates on the Order of St John, founded in Jerusalem in 1099. Armoury and regalia are on display, as well as exhibits showing the Order’s devotion to nursing. The third and final part is an interactive display on the Order’s modern incarnation – the St John’s Ambulance.
Best exhibit A 1785 version of ‘The Dictionary’ by one Samuel Johnson.
St John’s Lane, EC1 (020 7324 4070/ www.sja.org.uk/museum) Farringdon tube/rail. Adm free, donations (£5, £4 concs) requested for priory and crypt tours.

23. Charles Dickens Museum
It’s easy to walk past the only surviving London house in which Dickens lived. You have to ring the doorbell to gain access to this unassuming townhouse with just a small plaque to mark it out from its neighbours. Inside, there are four floors of Dickens material, from posters advertising his public speaking to rare editions of his work, in a house decorated as it would have been during Dickens’ tenancy (1837-1839).
Best exhibit A grille from the Marshalsea jail where Dickens’ father was imprisoned.
48 Doughty St, WC1 (020 7405 2127/ www.dickensmuseum.com) Chancery Lane or Russell Square tube. Adm £5, concs £4, children £4, family ticket £14.

24. Hunterian Museum
SURGICAL SPECIMENS AND ODDITIES
Wandering among this collection of thousands of medical specimens and cases of surgical instruments is fascinating. Much of it was amassed by eighteenth-century surgeon, anatomist and dentist John Hunter, although it has since been added to. It’s not gruesome, though. The museum is located within the dignified HQ of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Reopened in 2005 following a two-year, £3 million renovation, it’s now super-stylish, with the clearly labelled glass specimen jars displayed neatly along clean glass shelves. Best exhibit Pickled organs from soldiers who fought in the Battle of Waterloo, Winston Churchill’s dentures and the skeleton of Charles Byrne, the ‘Irish giant’.
Royal College of Surgeons of England, 35-43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2 (020 7869 6560/ www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums) Holborn tube. Adm free.

25. Sir John Soane’s Museum
You’ll never forget your first visit to the home of architect Sir John Soane. It’s stuffed with curios and is almost exactly as Soane left it when he died in 1837. Among the treasures are an Egyptian sarcophagus that Soane was so elated at acquiring that he partied for three days.
Best exhibits Hogarth’s ‘An Election’.
13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2 (www.soane.org.uk) Holborn tube. Adm free.

26. Bramah Museum of Tea and Coffee
MOUSTACHE PROTECTORS
If there were an award for the most eccentric and lovingly assembled museum in London, the Bramah Tea & Coffee Museum, only two minutes from London Bridge Station, would surely scoop the prize. This ramshackle collection chronicles the commercial and social impact of the tea and coffee trade in Europe over the last 400 years, and many of the articles come from tea master Edward Bramah’s personal collection.
Best exhibit For the hirsute tea-gulper, customised teacups with special moustache guards.
40 Southwark St, SE1 (020 7403 5650/ www.bramahmuseum.co.uk) London Bridge tube/ rail. Adm £4, concs £3.50, family ticket £10.

27. Guildhall Clock Museum
Situated in a single room within the Guildhall Library building, this collection of watches and clocks is reckoned to be the oldest in the world. The collection tells the story of clockmakers in London and Europe and contains some of the most decadent and spectacular timepieces you’ll ever lay your eyes on.
Best exhibit Ornate marine timepieces (one dating back to 1724 was acquired for £75,000).
Guildhall Library, Aldermanbury, EC2 (020 7332 1868/1870) St Paul’s tube. Adm free.

28. Grant Museum of Zoology
If you’re not fazed by the skeletons of a walrus, a baboon and a giant iguanadon that face the entrance, you’ll find many a fascinating animal specimen here (quite a lot of them preserved in glass jars, and plenty of skeletons). Part of University College London, it might at first appear chaotically cluttered, but specimens are carefully categorised into evolutionary groups.
Best exhibit A dodo (whose bones are stored in a box and laid out in specially cutout padding).
University College London, Gower St, WC1E (020 7679 2647/ www.grant.museum.ucl.ac.uk) Goodge St tube. Adm free.

29. Museum of Rugby
You can almost smell embrocation in the air as you wander round this evocative and interactive collection of oval-ball artefacts and memorabilia. Permanent exhibits show how the sport has spread around the world from its roots in English public schools, and trophies, tickets, caps, kit and commentaries evoke great games of the past. The excellent stadium tour includes a peek in the England changing room, while would-be Jonny Wilkinsons will prickle with goosebumps as they walk down the players’ tunnel on to the turf.
Best exhibit Get hands on and test your strength on a scrum machine.
Rugby Rd, Twickenham, TW1 1DZ (0870 405 2001/ www.rfu.com/microsites/museum) Twickenham rail. Adm £9, concs £6, family ticket (two adults, three children) £30.

30. Museum of Garden History
Housed in a restored church next door to Lambeth Palace, this museum records and celebrates gardening. Its permanent display includes a collection of antique tools and there are exhibits exploring how new species of flowers, shrubs and trees were imported to Britain in the days when the process entailed epic sea voyages. Best exhibits The tombs of celebrated seventeenth-century plant hunters John Tradescants and his son, also called John, as well as Admiral Bligh of the Bounty, who lived locally.
St Mary-at-Lambeth, Lambeth Palace Rd, SE1 (020 7401 8865/ www.museumgardenhistory.org) Lambeth North tube. Suggested donation £3, concs £2.50.

31. Guards Museum
The Guards Museum tells the story of the Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards, Scots Guards, Irish Guards and Welsh Guards – the five regiments that, together with the Household Cavalry, the Life Guards, and the Blues and Royals, make up the Household Division of the Army. The museum is mostly given over to displays of uniforms, pictures and regimental silver but if you’ve always wondered just how uncomfortable those bearskin hats are, ask staff if you can try on the one they keep for the purpose.
Best exhibit The potty from a doll’s house with which Florence Nightingale used to administer liquor to the men she realised weren’t going to make it through the night.
Wellington Barracks, Birdcage Walk, SW1 (020 7414 3271/www.theguardsmuseum.com) St James’s Park tube. Adm £3, students £2, under-16s free.

The Museum of Immigration and Diversity

32. Museum of Immigration and Diversity
Just one building between Brick Lane and Spitalfields Market tells much of the story of immigration into London’s East End. This museum has been the home of a Huguenot master silk weaver fleeing persecution from Louis IV’s France, a nineteenth-century synagogue, a community centre where anti-fascist marches were planned and now it’s at the heart of the Bengali community. It houses a small exhibition exploring immigrants’ stories. The museum only holds occasional openings as it needs money for repairs.
Best exhibit The synagogue built in the garden.
Museum of Immigration and Diversity, 19 Princelet St, E1 (020 7247 5352/ www.19princeletstreet.org.uk) Liverpool St tube/rail. Occasional openings – see website. Adm free.

33. Petrie Museum
BRITISH MUSEUM WITHOUT THE CROWDS
There’s a scholarly air here, but don’t let that put you off. With its 80,000 exhibits, the Petrie (pronounced pee-tree) is bursting at its seams with items from the Nile valley dating back 5,000 years. Unlike Howard Carter, who excavated Tutankhamun’s tomb and was taught by Petrie, Petrie was more interested in everyday Egyptian objects and there are pots, bowls, jewellery, combs, tiles and so on on display.
Best exhibits Mummified head, with hair.
University College London, Malet Place, WC1 (020 7679 2884/ www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk) Goodge St tube. Adm free.

34. The Fan Museum
The world’s only museum dedicated to fans. It’s a tiny space consisting of two rooms with an overall collection of 3,500 antique fans, some of which date as far back as the eleventh century.
Best exhibit If you’re not a fan fan, head for the Orangery where teas are served at 3pm on Tuesdays and Sundays.
12 Crooms Hill, SE10 (020 8305 1441/ www.fan-museum.org) Greenwich rail or Cutty Sark DLR. Adm £3.50.

Contemporary and classic design at the Design Museum

35. Design Museum
Opened in 1989, this riverside museum by Tower Bridge encompasses modern and contemporary industrial and fashion design, graphics, architecture and multimedia.
28 Shad Thames, London SE1 (0870 909 9009/ www.designmuseum.org). London Bridge/Tower Gateway tube/rail. Daily 10am-5.45pm (last admission 5.15pm). Adm £7, £4 concessions, free for under-12s.


36. Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum
This recently revamped and enjoyably interactive museum surveys tennis throughout the world from its medieval beginnings. Highlights include a 3-D ‘ghost’ of John McEnroe and an insight into the science of the game that uses the same camera techniques as ‘The Matrix’. The tour takes in No 1 Court, the press room and, when building work allows, Centre Court.
Best exhibits Kit from the 1880s onwards, and the Wimbledon trophies.
Church Rd, SW19 (020 8946 6131/ www.wimbledon.org/museum) Southfields tube then 493 bus. Adm tour and museum £14.50, concs £13, museum only £7.50, concs £6.25.

37. Spencer House
SPECTACULAR SECRET GARDEN
Built 1756-66 for the first Earl Spencer (one of Diana’s ancestors), Spencer House is London’s finest surviving eighteenth-century private palace. Eight meticulously restored state rooms are open to the public on Sundays only. Tours of the house, which take in paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds begin every 15 minutes.
Best exhibit The spectacular garden, designed by Henry Holland, covers almost half an acre and backs on to Green Park (next opening June 25).
27 St James’s Place, SW1 (020 7499 8620/ www.spencerhouse.co.uk) Green Park tube. Adm £9, concs & under-16s £7. No children under ten or unaccompanied by an adult admitted.

38. Cartoon Museum
Chortle your way round this amusing new museum, which displays British cartoons, caricatures, comics and animations. On the ground floor, snigger at time-honoured works by Hogarth and Gillray, WWII cartoons depicting Churchill and more recent subjects of satire: Bush and Blair. There’s an excellent selection of amusing books and cards in the shop, an extensive library and a regular cartooning workshops.
Best exhibits Relive your youth on the upper gallery, where the comic strips on display include the Beano, 2000AD and Rupert.
35 Little Russell St, WC1 (020 7580 8155/ www.cartooncentre.com) Russell Square tube. Adm £3, concs £2, students & under-18s free.

39. Brunel Engine House
Within the elegant confines of this red brick engine house is the tale of the design and construction of the Thames Tunnel, the oldest tunnel in London. Visitors are able to learn of the struggles of fires and floods experienced during its construction, as well as visit the tunnel itself, which runs directly beneath the engine house. This was the first tunnel to be dug under a river through soft earth, and is still in use today, as part of the London underground network. The museum is currently celebrating the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of young Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who helped design the tunnel with his father, Marc Brunel.
Best exhibits There are display boards detailing the historical significance of the engine house, but to get the most out of it take one of the guided tours.
Railway Avenue, SE16 (020 7231 3840/ www.brunelenginehouse.org.uk). Rotherhithe tube. Adm free.

40. Royal Air Force Museum
FLY A PLANE
Fancy a career as a pilot? In the interactive Aeronauts Gallery you can take a pilot aptitude test to discover whether you are, or not, the ‘right stuff’, plus there’s a simulator (extra charge) to help you identify if you’d be able to keep your lunch down. Other attractions include 80 aircraft and a multimedia account of the Battle of Britain.
Best exhibit ‘Milestones of Flight’: some of the most important RAF aircraft along with classics from the US, Germany, Japan and France.
Grahame Park Way, NW9 (020 8205 2266/www.rafmuseum.org.uk) Colindale or Broadway rail. Adm free.

41. Handel House
Seemingly removed from the modern world, Handel House offers much to soothe and inspire, not just for disciples of the eighteenth century composer, but for lovers of Georgian architecture, interiors and portrait painting. Handel lived here from 1723 to 1759, while composing the ‘Messiah’. You move from room to room, opening doors as if exploring a private residence and Handel’s music plays delicately during frequent recitals.
Best exhibit The museum’s treasured facsimile of the original ‘Messiah’ manuscript, complete with notations and smudges.
25 Brook St, W1 (entrance behind in Lancashire Court) (020 7495 1685/ www.handelhouse.org) Bond St or Oxford Circus tube. Adm £5.

42. National Army Museum
Predictably, weapons feature prominently in here: the 2,500 edged weapons, 200 pole arms and 1,850 firearms should keep bloodthirsty teenagers interested. But it’s the human side of the exhibits that make the National Army Museum work, including oral histories from World War I veterans, and the order that launched the Charge of the Light Brigade.
Best exhibits Florence Nightingale’s lamp, and Lord Raglan’s Crimean telescope.
Royal Hospital Rd, SW3 (020 7881 2455/www.national-army-museum.ac.uk) Sloane Square tube. Adm free.

Monkey business at Forest Hill's Horniman Museum

43. Horniman Museum
A 25-foot Alaskan totem pole outside the main entrance gives a clue as to what’s in here: a wealth of quirky anthropological and natural history treasures. You can while away hours perusing the place, but the Grade II-listed natural history gallery – refreshingly devoid of computer touchscreens – possibly contains the most memorable: a comically over-stuffed walrus (the work of an over-zealous 1880s taxidermist).

There’s much fun to be had in the music gallery, too, where the impressive collection of 7,000 instruments includes an Iranian zarb, 600 concertinas and a pair of Egyptian clappers dating to 1,500BC. Wandering through the rest of the museum, you’ll discover an Egyptian mummy, a Nigerian Ijele (a special ceremonial African mask), Inuit seal-skin clothing, Vodou altars and a functional beehive.

The aquarium, which first opened in 1903, has just been rebuilt and officially opens on July 14. It will be filled with 150 different species of animals and plants from such far-flung climes as Fijian coral reefs and mangrove swamps to British ponds. It won’t contain the museum’s merman; that transpired to be a hoax – a joker had attached a fish’s tail to a monkey’s body (it’s on display in the Centenary Gallery).
The Horniman Museum must be south London’s most cherished public attraction. The collection is built upon that of Victorian tea trader Frederick John Horniman, who began acquiring objects in the 1860s. The buildings are a mix of the original Victorian and recent additions – which won a prize for architectural excellence from RIBA in 2004. The gardens’ spectacular views make for pleasurable picnicking. And, if you’re still not convinced, it’s free.
Kathryn Miller
100 London Rd, SE23 (020 8699 1862/www.horniman.ac.uk) Forest Hill rail. Adm free.

44. Kew Bridge Steam Museum
LONDON'S ONLY STEAM RAILWAY
For genuine steam enthusiasts this museum hosts Cornish engines (in their original engine housings) and rotative engines (collected from pumping stations around the country). On Sundays (March-November), there’s also a chance to ride on London’s only steam railway.
Best exhibit The Cornish engines. They use so much steam that they’re only run occasionally – check the website for details.
Green Dragon Lane, Brentford, TW8 (020 8568 4757/ www.kbsm.org). Kew Bridge rail. Adm £6.50, £5.50 concs, children under-15 free.

45. Sikorski Museum
Named after General Wladyslaw Sikorski, a war hero and leader of the Polish government-in-exile, this museum was set up to document the social and military history of Poland. Like the nearby Institut Français, there is the feeling that it’s been set up purely for Polish ex-pats, as all of the exhibits are labelled in Polish, but there are guided tours in English. Best on show here is one of the Enigma deciphering machines that were used by Polish mathematicians to crack codes.
Best exhibit Although the line, ‘Hey kids, we’re going to the Sikorski Museum!’ doesn’t have a particularly appealing ring to it, younger visitors may enjoy the full-size model of Wojtke the 'soldier bear' mascot of the Polish soldiers.
20 Princes Gate, SW7 (020 7589 9249/www.sikorskimuseum.co.uk) South Kensington/Knightsbridge tube. Adm free.

46. Museum of Methodism & Wesley’s Chapel
You don’t need to be a Methodist to receive divine inspiration here – the building alone is worth a visit. Wesley described his chapel as ‘perfectly neat but not fine’. Riddled with self-doubt, he was never one for boasting. Fine it is, with an elegant courtyard.
Best exhibit If you can, go for one of the Tuesday lunchtime recitals in the chapel to soak up the celestial atmosphere.
Wesley’s Chapel, 49 City Rd, EC1 (020 7253 2262/ www.wesleyschapel.org.uk/heritage)Old St tube/rail. Adm free, donations welcome.

Marvel at how the packaging of household products has evolved

47. Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising
This 120-year history of consumerism, culture, design, domestic life, fashion, folly and fate, presented as a magnificently cluttered time tunnel of cartons and bottles, toys and advertising displays, is a small part of the collection amassed by Robert Opie – son of the celebrated collectors of children's lore and literature Ioana and Peter Opie – since the day in 1963 when the 16-year-old arrived home with a Munchies wrapper and declared his intention never to throw away anything ever again.
Colville Mews, Lonsdale Rd, W11 (020 7908 0880/www.museumofbrands.com) Notting Hill Gate tube. Tue-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 11am-4pm. Adm £5.80 adults, £3.50 concessions, £2 children, free for under-7s.

48. Florence Nightingale Museum
An advocate of free healthcare, Florence Nightingale raised nursing to a professional level for women and started her own training school for nurses at St Thomas’. Appalled by the conditions the wounded experienced in the Crimean War, she helped to develop new hospitals in the Victorian era, for which she was the first woman to receive the Order of Merit in 1907. Her possessions, letters and portraits are on display here.
Best exhibit To bring Florence’s legacy up to date, there are talks from St Thomas’ current nurses (check website for details).
St Thomas’ Hospital, 2 Lambeth Palace Rd, SE1 (020 7620 0374/www.florence-nightingale.co.uk)Waterloo tube/rail. Adm £5.80, £4.80 concs.

49. London Sewing Machine Museum
Dedicated to Thomas Albert Rushton, founder of the Wimbledom Sewing Machine Company, this museum contains a collection of antique sewing machines, including 600 domestic and industrial sewing machines, dating from the 1850s-1950s. A replica of the first Wimbledon Sewing Machine Shop, originally built in Merton Road can also be visited within the museum.
Best exhibit A unique sewing machine, given as a wedding present to Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter, Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa.
292-312 Balham High Rd London SW17 (0208 767 4724/ www.sewantique.com) Tooting Bec tube. Adm free.

50. London Fire Brigade Museum
It was the Great Fire of 1666 that defined the Capital as we see it today. With assorted fire-fighting paraphernalia, the most interesting element of thos museum is seeing how the equipment has advanced over the centuries. If you are planning to visit, remember to call them up first as they only open up if you book in advance. Also, you might want to leave the kids at home for this one – the tour lasts roughly two hours.
Best exhibit You can occasionally watch new recruits training with modern kit (call for details).
Winchester House, 94a Southwark Bridge Rd, SE1 (020 7587 2894) Southwark tube. Tours by appointment only. Adm £3, £2 concs, £2 children.