Museums and attractions open on New Year's Day

This is an archived page.

Find out which museums, galleries and attractions are open on January 1 2013

It's business as usual for most of London's big museums, so peel yourself out of bed and start your cultural year as you mean to go on. Note that some attractions have reduced opening hours, so be sure to check details in advance.


Art galleries open on New Year's Day

  • National Portrait Gallery

    St Martin's Place, London, WC2H 0HE

    Portraits don't have to be stuffy. The National Portrait Gallery has everything from oil paintings of stiff-backed royals to photos of soccer stars and gloriously unflattering political caricatures.

  • Royal Academy of Arts

    Piccadilly, London, W1J OBD

    Britain's first art school is now best known for the galleries. Expect to pay for blockbusters, but shows in the John Madejski Fine Rooms are drawn from the RA's holdings – ranging from Constable to Hockney – and are free.

  • Somerset House

    The Strand, London, WC2R 1LA

    Open noon to 6pm on Jan 1 2012. The venue houses a formidable art gallery (the wonderful Courtauld), a beautiful fountain court, a terraced café and a classy restaurant. The Embankment Galleries explore connections between art, architecture and design with a series of temporary exhibitions.

  • Tate Britain

    Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG

    Tate Modern gets all the attention, but the original Tate Gallery has a broader and more inclusive brief. Housed in a stately Portland stone-built building on the riverside, Tate Britain is second only to the National Gallery when it comes to British art.

  • Tate Modern

    Bankside, London, SE1 9TG

    This powerhouse of modern art is awe-inspiring even before you enter, thanks to its industrial architecture. Tate Modern was built as Bankside Power Station in 1963. Shut down in 1981, it opened as an art museum in 2000 and has enjoyed spectacular popularity ever since.

  • Wallace Collection

    Manchester Square, London, W1U 3BN

    This handsome house, built in 1776, contains an exceptional collection of eighteenth-century French furniture, paintings and objets d'art, as well as an amazing array of medieval armour and weaponry.

  • V&A

    Cromwell Rd, London, SW7 2RL

    The V&A houses one of the world's greatest collections of decorative arts, in such varied fields as ceramics, sculpture, portrait miniatures and photography.



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