London has one of the richest museum heritages in the world and, rare among great capitals, its national museums are free: since 2001 entry to the permanent collections has been free, with charges only for temporary exhibitions. You can therefore pop in for an hour to see one work and come back the next day. Here are the main ones, by area.
Bloomsbury and Trafalgar Square
- British Museum: the most visited in the country, with two million years of human history, from the Rosetta Stone to the Parthenon sculptures.
- National Gallery: on Trafalgar Square, more than 2,300 European paintings from the 13th to the early 20th century. Masterpieces include Botticelli's Venus and Mars, Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks, van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait, Velázquez's Rokeby Venus, Constable's The Hay Wain, Turner's The Fighting Temeraire and Van Gogh's Sunflowers. For the bicentenary the Sainsbury Wing was completely renovated.
- National Portrait Gallery: next to the National Gallery, portraits spanning five centuries of British history, from the Tudors to today's celebrities.
South Kensington
The museum quarter was born from the proceeds of the Great Exhibition of 1851, championed by Prince Albert.
- Natural History Museum: in a Romanesque-Victorian building that looks like a cathedral, with a blue whale skeleton hanging in the central hall, the dinosaur gallery and the mineral collections.
- Science Museum: from Stephenson's Rocket locomotive to space capsules, with many interactive galleries for children (some paid).
- Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A): the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, with fashion, jewellery, ceramics, sculpture, casts of Italian monuments such as Trajan's Column and the Raphael Cartoons. In Stratford, East London, the new V&A East site has opened.
On the Thames
- Tate Modern: in the former Bankside power station, opened in 2000, modern and contemporary art from Picasso to Warhol, Rothko to Louise Bourgeois. The vast Turbine Hall hosts a monumental installation each year; the tenth floor of the new wing offers a free view over the city.
- Tate Britain: in Pimlico, British art from the 16th century to today, with the largest Turner collection in the world and the Pre-Raphaelites.
- Imperial War Museum: in Lambeth, the history of modern conflict, with moving galleries on the First World War and the Holocaust.
Hidden gems
- Wallace Collection: a grand townhouse with paintings by Titian, Rembrandt, Fragonard and Frans Hals's Laughing Cavalier. Free.
- Sir John Soane's Museum: the house-museum of the architect who designed the Bank of England, packed with antiquities, paintings by Hogarth and Canaletto and an Egyptian sarcophagus. Free.
- Courtauld Gallery: at Somerset House, outstanding Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, including Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergère. Paid.
- Churchill War Rooms: the underground bunker from which Churchill ran the war, left as it was in 1945. Paid.
Practical tips
For the British Museum, the National Gallery and the busiest museums free online booking is recommended, and sometimes required, especially at weekends and in school holidays. Many museums open late on Fridays, ideal for visiting with fewer crowds. A donation at the entrance is welcome and helps keep entry free. See also what to see in London, London on a budget and the London guide.