Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2023
Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2023
Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2023

Free art in London

See great art in London without splashing the cash on an admission fee

Chiara Wilkinson
Contributor: Rosie Hewitson
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We all know that it costs an arm and a leg to enjoy a day out in London these days. Step out the front door and you’re probably already down a tenner – so once you’ve factored in transport, food, drinks and tickets for whatever takes your fancy, you’re looking at some serious damage to your poor old bank balance.

But not all is lost: you’re in a cultural capital, for goodness’ sake. Let’s not forget that we can enjoy some world-class art in world-class galleries, right here on our doorstep, free of charge. Pretty much every major museum in London is free to enter, as well as every gallery – and while the temporary exhibitions will usually take a fee, you can still see some of the greats (we’re talking your Monets, Michelangelos and Emins) at places like the Tate Modern and National Gallery without splurging a penny of your hard-earned cash. 

Below, you’ll find all of the free art and photography exhibitions happening in London right now, but that’s not everything: don’t miss out on the permanent collections of some fantastic free museums and galleries right here. Enjoy.

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Free art exhibitions in London

  • Art
  • Trafalgar Square
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended

You won’t find any grandeur or pomp in this concise exhibition of 15 muted and unflashy works, but you’ll experience an intensity rarely achieved in the portraits of nobility portraits in the adjacent rooms. Millet’s images of peasants at work are rhythmic and visceral, unsentimental but deeply sensitive in their depictions of the beauty and harshness of a life working the land. 

  • Art
  • Sculpture
  • Regent’s Park

Frieze Sculpture returns for another year, transforming Regent's Park, one of London's prettiest green spaces, into a massive outdoor gallery. Expect massive sculptures curated by Fatoş Üstek, on the theme of ‘In the Shadows’, which means they'll be engage with the idea of darkness from many perspectives, whether that's inner darkness or the interplay between light and obscurity. The exhibition will be complemented by a programme of performances and talks, all free to the public.

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  • Art
  • Hyde Park

Video games are the medium for Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley. The young artist uses them to ‘imaginatively archive and empower Black Trans stories’ - this isn’t just point-and-shoot, slack-jawed gaming for the sake of it, this is one of contemporary society’s most important cultural forms being used to give voice to marginalised identities. 

  • Art
  • Trafalgar Square
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended

It’s hard to know if Italian Renaissance master Andrea Mantegna was issuing a doom-laden warning or just a doe-eyed love letter to history. Because written into the nine sprawling canvases of his ‘Triumphs of Caesar’ (six of which are on show here while their gallery in Hampton Court Palace is being renovated) is all the glory and power of Ancient Rome, but its eventual collapse too.

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  • Art
  • New Cross

Lawrence Lek’s largest UK institutional exhibition is set to take over Goldsmiths CCA later this year, with the artist responding to the gallery’s architecture through both new and existing work. The London-based creative’s work is often dark and playful, and fuelled by his own brand of science-fiction that raises questions around the age of machine consciousness and social change.

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