London Vacation Guide

Museums and Galleries

London hosts an outstanding collection of world-class museums, including three of the world's most visited. As well as these internationally famous collections you can find nearly 250 other museums across the city.

Best of all, many of these let you see their permanent collections for free, including must-visit places like:

In contrast to this, independent museums will usually charge you to enter. This is also true of temporary exhibitions at the free-to-enter museums above. Although amounts differ, it is usually around £10-£15. However, the money-conscious tourist can see a significant number of masterpieces without having to spend a penny.

At the British Museum (London‘s most popular museum and the second most-visited in the world) for example, visitors can see the Parthenon marbles, the Rosetta Stone and one of the world’s biggest collections of mummies all for free. And that is just some of the 80,000 objects on display in the museum at any given time.

Alongside this museum and other renowned collections are over 250 art galleries. Although some require an appointment and/or have limited opening hours, most are open to the public and free to visit. From the classical to the contemporary, all forms of art imaginable can be seen in London. Work from famous artists from Da Vinci to Damien Hirst can be seen in the city, alongside thousands of other world-famous works and the famous works of the future.

Aside from these world famous establishments, there is an almost unbelievable number of minor museums in London covering a very diverse range of subjects. Although the big museums and galleries like the V&A, Tate and British Museum are not to be missed, many of London’s quirkier or lesser known museums are well worth your time.

From the handheld fan to Sigmund Freud, many subjects have surprisingly fascinating museums all of their own, with Greenwich’s Fan Museum and the Freud Museum in Hampstead just two of the many exhibition spaces that fit that description.

Dental equipment, Sherlock Holmes, gardening …all three of these things have museums dedicated to them in the capital, their sites sitting alongside the museums and galleries you might expect in a big city, like the Natural History Museum or Museum of London. And with so many of them free, there really is no excuse but to explore them whilst in London, which has a reputation for being an expensive city for both residents and visitors alike, so why not take advantage of the fact they are free?