Best Museums in London
London is home to 11 world-class museums. From ancient collections to contemporary art, here is your complete guide with opening hours, prices, and directions.
Free Entry
The British Museum
Dedicated to human history, art and culture, located in the Bloomsbury area of London.
- Admission
- Free standard admission
- Founded
- 1753
Free Entry
The National Gallery
An art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London.
- Admission
- Free standard admission
- Founded
- 1824
Free Entry
Tate Modern
Britain's national gallery of international modern and contemporary art, housed in the former Bankside Power Station on the South Bank of the Thames.
- Admission
- Free standard admission; charges for special exhibitions
- Founded
- 2000
Free Entry
Tate Britain
The national gallery of British art from 1500 to today, on the banks of the Thames at Millbank.
- Admission
- Free standard admission
- Founded
- 1897
Free Entry
Victoria and Albert Museum
The world's largest museum of applied and decorative arts and design, with 2.27 million objects.
- Admission
- Free standard admission
- Founded
- 1852
Free Entry
Natural History Museum
A cathedral of nature in South Kensington, holding 80 million specimens from across the natural world.
- Admission
- Free standard admission
- Founded
- 1881
Free Entry
Science Museum
South Kensington's free museum of science, technology, medicine, and industry.
- Admission
- Free standard admission
- Founded
- 1857
Free Entry
National Portrait Gallery
The world's first portrait gallery, holding the most extensive collection of British portraits ever assembled.
- Admission
- Free standard admission
- Founded
- 1856
Free Entry
The Wallace Collection
An aristocratic collection of European fine and decorative arts in Hertford House, given to the nation in 1897.
- Admission
- Free standard admission
- Founded
- 1900
The Courtauld Gallery
An intimate gallery in Somerset House holding one of Britain's greatest collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting.
- Admission
- £11 standard admission
- Founded
- 1932
Free Entry
Imperial War Museum
Britain's national museum of conflict from the First World War to the present, in a former asylum in Lambeth.
- Admission
- Free standard admission
- Founded
- 1917