Illuminating India at the Science Museum
Courtesy of Galerie Thomas Zander
Courtesy of Galerie Thomas Zander

Free exhibitions in London

Put your wallet away and head to one of London’s totally free museum and gallery exhibitions

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City life can be expensive, but you can always get your culture fix for free in London. Our city is home to countless world-class and totally free museums, with incredible exhibitions that don’t cost a single penny. From shows at some of the top ten museums in London to alternative exhibitions in the city’s weird and wonderful museums, here’s our guide to free art and musuem exhibitions in London all year round. 

RECOMMENDED: More budget-friendly culture in our guide to free London.

Free exhibitions in London

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  • Exhibitions
  • South Kensington
A new free photography exhibition illustrates the beauty and fragility of the Pantanal – the world’s largest wetland that sprawls across Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay. Over 60 images, captured by two of Brazil’s leading documentary photographers, will be displayed. Visitors will discover the Pantanal’s wonderful biodiversity – which includes jaguars, howler monkeys, caiman and marsh deer – alongside the ravages of wildfires and deforestation. 
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  • Exhibitions
  • Holborn
Get ready to scream, because the ‘rockstar of the English baroque’ – yep, you heard that right – is getting his own major exhibition in London this spring. Three hundred years after his death,  the OG ‘starchitect’ Sir John Vanbrugh will get a show dedicated to his iconic architecture at Sir John Soane’s museum. Vanbrugh brought England some of its most-admired country houses, including Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, and is known for his dramatic use of light and shadow, recessions and projections. 

Discover the best free museums in London

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