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Design Museum London

The top 25 museums in London

London’s so flipping cultural – we’ve got world-class museums coming out of our ears. These are some of the best

Written by
Rosie Hewitson
Contributors
Chris Waywell
&
Alex Floyd-Douglass
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London is absolutely world class when it comes to museums. Obviously, we’re biased, but with more than 170 of them dotted about the capital – a huge chunk of which are free to visit – we think it’s fair to say that there’s nowhere else in the world that does museums better. 

Want to explore the history of TfL? We’ve got a museum for that. Rather learn about advertising? We’ve got a museum for that too. History? Check. Science? Check. 1940s cinema memorabilia, grotesque eighteenth century surgical instruments, or perhaps a wall of 4,000 mouse skeletons? Check, check, check!

Whether you’re teaming up with like-minded friends or going it alone, London’s museums are great places to spend a bit of time. Here are some of our absolute faves. 

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Best London museums

The V&A
  • Museums
  • Art and design
  • South Kensington

What is it? Based in South Ken, The V&A is a vibrant hub of decorative art, design, fashion and textiles. The permanent collection contains 2.3 million (yes, 2.3 million!) objects, and because it's so big, you could easily spend a day walking around. Many of the exhibits are free to visit too, so you don't even have to spend any cash if you don't want to.
Why go? To check out some amazing art and eat cake in the sunny Italianate courtyard. Bliss.

  • Museums
  • History
  • Bloomsbury

What is it? Only the first-ever national museum to open to the public. No biggie. Given its epic heritage, it's no surprise that the British Museum’s displays have been unparalleled since it opened in 1759. Start exploring and find artefacts ranging from the Rosetta Stone to the Parthenon sculptures.
Why go?  Value for money. The main galleries are free, so if you like a bargain, start early and take in as many of the 50,000 objects they have on display as possible – just a fraction of their entire eight-million-strong collection. Woah.

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  • Art
  • Galleries
  • Trafalgar Square

What is it? A first-class and entirely free-to-enter artistic institution in the heart of Trafalgar Square. Founded in 1824, The National Gallery is home to more than 2,000 works from artists such as da Vinci, van Gogh, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Turner, Picasso, Matisse and Cézanne.
Why go? To learn more about the world’s acclaimed artworks and even try your hand at sketching in the galleries.

Natural History Museum
  • Museums
  • Natural history
  • South Kensington

What is it? Full of more nature-based information than David Attenborough, this is the magnificent South Kensington home of around 80 million plant, animal, fossil, rock and mineral specimens. 
Why go? To come face-to-face with animatronic dinosaurs, a man-sized model of a foetus, a dodo, a giant sequoia tree, an earthquake simulator, glow-in-the-dark crystals and much more. Plus, it’s also a world-class research institution.

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  • Museums
  • Art and design
  • Kensington

What is it? A fascinating museum that completely devotes itself to contemporary design in every form. From temporary exhibitions, pop-ups and bookable displays, they've got it all.
Why go? The museum has a newish home in Kensington, right next to Holland Park Kyoto Garden where you can take a short walk for some rest and recuperation, and then over to Pappa Roma for some inexpensive authentic Italian food.

  • Art
  • Galleries
  • Charing Cross Road

What is it? A huge museum on the corner of Trafalgar Square, housing the most extensive collection of portraiture in the world. The NPG has everything from oil paintings of stiff-backed Tudor and Stuart royals and gloriously unflattering political caricatures, to contemporary photographs of football stars, musicians, artists and celebs. Its collection numbers some 220,000 works, dating from the 8th century to the present day.
Why go? It’s just reopened after a three-year renovation costing more than £40 million. Pay it a visit to see have a snoop around its brand new wing funded by Sir Leonard Blavatnik (who paid for the Tate’s new building too), check out cool new doors by Tracey Emin, and stay for a drink at swanky new basement cocktail bar Larry’s.

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Science Museum
  • Museums
  • Science and technology
  • South Kensington

What is it? You don’t have to be a physics or chemistry nerd to have an incredible time at the Science Museum. Founded in 1857, all seven floors of the building house have hands-on exhibits, mad-looking inventions from throughout history and shiny machines. Highlights include a sixteenth-century artificial arm and a cross-section of a real-life Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet.
Why go? To discover the incredible ‘Information Age’ exhibition – which is where the Queen sent her first tweet, signed ‘Elizabeth R’.

Horniman Museum
  • Things to do
  • Forest Hill

What is it? An eccentric south-London anthropological museum, with an aquarium, a Victorian conservatory and extensive grounds offering great views of London. The Natural History Gallery is dominated by an ancient walrus (overstuffed by Victorian taxidermists, who thought they ought to get the wrinkles out of the animal’s skin). There’s also a permanent gallery dedicated to African, Afro-Caribbean and Brazilian art and a collection of around 1,600 musical instruments. There are loads of activities for families on offer, including a nature trail, weekend workshops and a hands-on base where children can touch museum objects.
Why go? The Horniman is a rite of passage for south-London families. It’s a lovely, manageable size, has a wildly diverse collection and its setting is beautiful.   

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  • Museums
  • Military and maritime
  • Lambeth

What is it? A powerful museum shining a light on people’s experiences of conflict from the First World War to today. A few minutes walk from Waterloo, IWM is made up of permanent galleries, such as the ace Curiosities of War exhibit, and temporary displays, exploring recent conflicts and terrorist attacks.
Why go? For impressive and extensive collections, including the profoundly moving and troubling permanent Holocaust gallery (not recommended for under-14s).

  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Museums
  • History
  • Hoxton
  • Recommended

What is it? Housed in a set of Grade I-listed eighteenth-century almshouses, this lovely little Hoxton museum has for more than a century offered a vivid physical history of the English interior. Its permanent exhibits display a sequence of typical middle-class living rooms based on real London homes dating from 1600 to the present.
Why go? Roaming between a Victorian parlour, an Arts & Crafts drawing room an ’90s loft-style apartment is an interesting way to take in domestic history, with any number of intriguing details to catch your eye, from a bell jar of stuffed birds to a particular decorative flourish on a chair.

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National Maritime Museum
  • Museums
  • Military and maritime
  • Greenwich

What is it? Hello, sailor! An ode to all things nautical and a treasure trove of watery artefacts, maps, art and memorabilia. The museum is part of the Royal Museums, Greenwich, which also features the Queen’s House gallery, the Cutty Sark clipper ship and the Royal Observatory.
Why go? To be wowed by almost 2.5 million historical items, such as Admiral Nelson’s uniform from the battle of Trafalgar. 

London Transport Museum
  • Museums
  • Transport
  • Covent Garden

What is it? Step one foot inside Covent Garden's hub of transport history and you'll leave a bonafide trainspotter. Alright, maybe you won't be lingering trackside, notepad in hand, in a hurry, but you'll be amazed by the wonders that are the vintage red Routemasters, early tube trains, maps, transport signs and uniforms. Plus there's a beautiful array of posters, artwork and photographs capturing London from 1860 to the present day.
Why go? Besides the top-class exhibits, one ticket grants you entry on multiple visits for an entire year. What's not to like?

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  • Museums
  • History
  • Holborn

What is it? The London home of architect Sir John Soane, who designed the Bank of England, Dulwich Picture Gallery and numerous other significant buildings. Soane (1753-1837) obsessively collected art, furniture and architectural ornamentation. In the nineteenth century, he turned his house into a museum, to which he said ‘amateurs and students should have access. The result is this perfectly amazing place.
Why go? See above. There’s nowhere like it in London. In the world, probably. Quite apart from the collection, the decoration of Soane’s home is extraordinary. Mirrors and light wells channel and direct daylight, and walls open out like cabinets to display paintings (Canaletto, Turner, Hogarth). The Monument Court contains an alabaster sarcophagus so fine it’s almost translucent, carved for the pharaoh Seti I (1291-78 BC).

  • Museums
  • Natural history
  • Bloomsbury

What is it? Founded in 1828 for the purposes of teaching comparative anatomy and housed inside a former Edwardian library, University College London’s Grant Museum displays highlights from a 68,000 specimen collection. It features many rare and extinct creatures, including skeletons of the dodo and the zebra-like quagga (which lived in South Africa and was hunted out of existence in the 1880s, plus plenty of real oddities, not least a jar of moles. 
Why go? It just reopened in February 2024 after a year-long £300,000 refurb. Head over to check out six fascinating new showcases exploring humanity’s impact on biodiversity and highlighting the use of the collections in several cutting-edge research projects conducted by the university.

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Museums
  • Childhood
  • Bethnal Green
  • Recommended

What is it? Part of the Victoria & Albert Museum, and known as the V&A Museum of Childhood until its recent refurb, this Bethnal Green museum has been amassing childhood-related objects since 1872 and is home to one of the world’s finest collections of children’s toys, doll’s houses, games and costumes.
Why go? It shines brighter than ever after extensive £13 million refurbishment, which has given it an impressive entrance and massively upgraded facilities. The museum has lots of hands-on stuff for kids dotted about the many cases of historic artefacts, which range from Victorian praxinoscopes and bonkers 1970s puppets to ‘Incredibles’ figurines and Barbie Dolls.

  • Museums
  • King’s Cross

What is it? UK’s first ever LGBTQ+ museum offers a valuable peek into centuries of queer history. Its director John Galliano is a former editor of Gay Times, and has pulled together an impressive collection of donors, supporters and contributors from across the queer rainbow.
Why go? As one of London’s newest museums – it opened in May 2022 just before the 50th anniversary of London’s first pride march – Queer Britain feels properly urgent and exciting. Its first ever display is a riot of voices, objects and images covering over 100 years of queer life through the lenses of of activism, art, culture and social history. And it’s free!

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  • Things to do
  • Spitalfields

What is it? A time capsule attraction in which visitors are immersed in a unique form of theatre. Decked out by eccentric American creator Dennis Severs, the ten rooms of this original Huguenot house recreate snapshots of life in Spitalfields between 1724 and 1914 in a ‘compelling still-life’. With hearth and candles burning, smells lingering and objects scattered apparently haphazardly, it feels as though the inhabitants had deserted the rooms only moments before. 
Why go? For a fascinating insight into the lives of Londoners over the last 300 years. It’s a particularly special place to visit during the festive season, when the whole house is adorned with period Christmas decorations.

Museum of Brands
  • Museums
  • History
  • Ladbroke Grove

What is it? Founded in 1984 by consumer historian Robert Opie, this Notting Hill museum houses highlights from a collection of some 12,000 items tracing the history of branding in Britain over the past 200 years. Its a real maze of dark cabinets stuffed with wrappers, magazines, posters, toys, boxes and other colourful curios arranged in date order.
Why go? A nostalgia-stuffed tribute to the many, many things we buy, this is a museum that will appeal to any lover of stuff. One cabinet holds every iteration of can and bottle produced by Guinness, another is packed with cereal boxes from Kellogg’s, even Brasso gets its moment to , *ahem*, shine. 

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Museums
  • History
  • Whitehall
  • Recommended

What is it? Tucked away beneath Westminster and completed a week before the start of World War II, the Cabinet War Rooms were at the heart of Churchill’s wartime strategies, helping the Prime Minister and his inner circle to plan their moves, and keeping the King and the armed forces fully briefed on daily progress. Now part of the Imperial War Museum, the Churchill War Rooms have been preserved as they were in 1945.
Why go? For a fascinating insight into how the British Government operated during the momentous conflict. As well as the key aspects of wartime government revealed here, it’s in the little details that you get a sense of life in the bunker. For example, there was a daily-updated weather noticeboard so that workers knew what was going on above ground. During air raids, the notice would be changed to ‘windy’ as a joke.

  • Attractions
  • Community centres
  • Brixton

What is it? This much-needed centre for black British history looks out onto Windrush Square, which is named after the ship that brought Caribbean workers to war-torn ’40s Britain. Black Cultural Archives preserves these peoples’ stories in its vaults, alongside temporary exhibitions which show how people of African and Caribbean origin have shaped UK history.
Why go? 
For a great insight into Black British history, culture and achievements. Recent temporary exhibits have covered the legacy of Windrush, the contemporary Black British art scene, and Black resistance to scientific bias, while the archives themselves house 50 square metres of archival materials.

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  • Museums
  • Bloomsbury

What is it? The museum, library and headquarters of the Dickens Fellowship, and the house where Dickens lived from 1837-39, and wrote ‘Oliver Twist’. A mixture of reconstructed rooms and gallery space, the Clerkenwell venue features original Victorian furniture and fittings, refurbished attics and kitchens and an education centre next door. Visitors are taken back in time as they explore Dickens’s life through displays of his personal belongings, paintings and writing.
Why go? For a glimpse into how one of one of London’s most famous writers lived and worked, not to mention how Victorian London. The museum also hosts temporary exhibitions, which have recently covered subjects including the impact of fog on Victorian London life, Victorian cookbooks, scientific thinking during the period, and Dickens’ friend and contemporary Wilkie Collins, while regular events include costumed tours, candlelit late openings and a weekly reading club.

  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Museums
  • Bloomsbury
  • Recommended

What is it? Opened in 2004 on the site of the original Foundling Hospital, Bloomsbury’s Foundling Museum tells the story of England’s first hospital for abandoned children. Founded by philanthropist and campaigner Thomas Coram in 1739, the hospital looked after some 25,000 children during its 200 years in operation, bt was also notable for housing the first public art gallery in the UK. One of eighteenth century London’s most fashionable venues, the gallery was (and continues to be) an important source of revenue for Coram’s charitable work.
Why go? To check out treasures donated to the hospital by the likes of Gainsborough, Reynolds, Hudson and Hogarth, as well as loans and donations from contemporary artists including Tracey Emin and Yinka Shonibare, eighteenth-century interiors preserved from the original hospital, and highlights from an extensive collection of Handel artefacts (the composer was another key figure involved in fundraising for the hospital during his lifetime.)

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  • Museums
  • Isle of Dogs

What is it? Housed in a 200-year-old former storage warehouse, the Museum of London Docklands tells the story of the Thames port and the people from all over the world who settled there. Thousands of objects and pictures – many rescued during the 1970s and 1980s when containerisation and competition forced London’s port to move downstream – trace the area’s history, from the arrival of the Romans to the rise of Canary Wharf.
Why go? If you love a bit of London history, this one is for you. Historic photographs and printed material from the Port of London Authority Archive show the vast scale of the docks at the turn of the twentieth century and workshop reconstructions illustrate the many traditional port trades, now mostly lost. Metropolitan Fire Brigade footage and captured Nazi footage documents the impact of the Blitz on the area and oral testimonies explore the port’s role in secret wartime projects. There’s also an excellent soft play area, the Mudlarks Gallery, for under-8s. 

  • Museums
  • History
  • London Bridge

What is it? Situated in a herb garret in the roof of St Thomas’s Church in Southwark, the Old Operating Theatre Museum is Britain’s oldest surviving purpose-built operating theatre. Built in 1822 as part of the women’s ward for St Thomas’s Hospital, it predates both anaesthetics and antiseptics. Visitors enter via a vertiginous spiral staircase to view a semicircular operating theatre restored with original furniture and equipment, including a nineteenth-century operating table, surgical instruments and pathological specimens. 
Why go? For a unique (and often horrifyingly grisly) insight into the history of medicine and surgery. Sanitised reenactments – just as gruesome as the operating tools that look like torture implements – are a highlight of the museum’s events programme, although more squeamish visitors might prefer to check out a comedy night, art exhibition or craft workshop instead.

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  • Museums
  • Film and TV
  • Elephant & Castle

What is it? Nestled round the back of Elephant & Castle in a former workhouse that was once home to a young Charlie Chaplin and his family, Lambeth’s Cinema Museum is an Aladdin’s cave of movie memorabilia, artefacts and film-making equipment founded by a pair of cinephiles and avid collectors in 1984.
Why go? Consider yourself a bit of a film buff? Then don’t miss the opportunity to geek out over the Cinema Museum’s vast and idiosyncratic collections, which feature everything from art deco cinema seats and 1940s ushers’ uniforms to around 75,000 posters, thousands of books, an estimated one million plus photos and 17 million feet of film. 

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