Your Trip to London: The Complete Guide SEE FULL GUIDE prev next Theater in London Live Music in London Shopping in London One Week in London: Itinerary Day Trips From London London's Best Tours Beaches Near London The Best Fish & Chips in London London's Top Restaurants Eating With Kids in London London's Best Bars Craft Beer in London The Best Time to Visit London Weather & Climate London's Airports Hotels in London Neighborhoods to Know Driving in London Public Transport in London London's Top Attractions Free Things to Do Things to Do With Kids London's Best Parks Museums in London Your Trip to London: The Complete Guide close Overview Europe England London's 10 Best Museums By Nicole Trilivas Updated on 07/11/19 With over 250 registered art institutions, the city of London is one of the world’s greatest cultural capitals. The city’s iconic museums are a huge draw—especially for first-time visitors. Exploring these intellectual landmarks of art and history in person is not only a priceless experience but also a free one: Baring special temporary exhibitions, most of London’s national museums are completely free of charge. So without cost to worry about, these are the must-see museums for art lovers and culture vultures on their first trip to London. 01 of 10 British Museum TripSavvy / Gautier Houba View Map Address Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG, UK Get directions Phone +44 20 7323 8299 Web Visit website Bucket List 4.2 If there’s one museum to see in London, this is it. From Egyptian mummies and pieces of the Parthenon to the game-changing Rosetta Stone and an enormous Easter Island figure, the British Museum in London's West End—covering a whopping 18.5 acres—is not just one of London’s best museums, but one of the world’s. Organized by geographic territories, modern-day Indiana Joneses could spend weeks exploring these halls, which date back to 1753. Preplan your visit by mapping out the highlights in advance. Don’t miss the dizzying Great Court, a two-acre wide inner courtyard covered by a memorizing glass ceiling with the museum’s statuesque Reading Room at its center. 02 of 10 Victoria and Albert Museum ED REEVE / Getty Images View Map Address Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL, UK Get directions Phone +44 20 7942 2000 Web Visit website The V&A museum knows how to make a good first impression. Dangling in its epic entrance foyer is a colossal blue-and-green Dale Chihuly's blown glass chandelier, and that’s just the beginning. Established in 1857, the museum’s collection spreads over seven floors and is comprised of decorative arts and design in virtually every medium from virtually every time period. Highlights include the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci; ceramics by Picasso; a copy of the first collected edition of the works of Shakespeare; treasure troves of art from Medieval and Renaissance Europe; and one of the most comprehensive jewelry collections in the world. 03 of 10 Tate Modern TripSavvy / Gautier Houba View Map Address Bankside, London SE1 9TG, UK Get directions Phone +44 20 7887 8888 Web Visit website Housed in an industrial power station at the foot of the River Thames, the Tate Modern is one of the world’s largest and most prestigious contemporary and modern art museums. Exhibiting British and international works dating from 1900 to today, the Tate Modern displays contemporary masters like Rothko, Matisse, Picasso, and Dali, alongside modern mavericks like Yayoi Kusama, Tracey Emin, and Marina Abramovic. The cavernous and imposing Turbine Hall plays host to temporary exhibitions of considerable scale. In the past, these dwarfing displays have included Olafur Eliasson’s "The Weather Project" made up of an eerily glowing giant sun. Also, from the vantage point of the museum’s tenth floor, there are perfect views of St. Paul’s Cathedral. 04 of 10 Tate Britain Stephen Rafferty / Getty Images View Map Address Millbank, London SW1P 4RG, UK Get directions Phone +44 20 7887 8888 Web Visit website Sister gallery to the Tate Modern is the Tate Britain, a bastion of British art. Sporting old-world marble floors, spiral staircases, and Grecian columns, the Tate Britain is a veritable temple of British art from 1500 to today. Get swept away by the world’s largest collection of stormy and atmospheric Turner oil paintings and a considerable assemblage of the most ethereal and romantic Pre-Raphaelite portraits of mythical and literary characters. Continue to 5 of 10 below. 05 of 10 National Portrait Gallery Neil Setchfield / Getty Images View Map Address Saint Martin's Place, London WC2H 0HE, UK Get directions Phone +44 20 7306 0055 Web Visit website Where else but the National Portrait Gallery can you find oils of the Brontë sisters and William Shakespeare alongside black and white photographs of the Spice Girls and a mixed media portrait of J.K. Rowling? Featuring a collection of famous Brits from the Tudor period to the present day, the National Portrait Gallery—just off Trafalgar Square—is a must for Anglophiles. On Friday nights, the gallery is open after-hours for the Friday Lates program, which includes a DJ and a bar in the Ondaatje Wing Main Hall. 06 of 10 Science Museum Feargus Cooney / Getty Images View Map Address Exhibition Road, London SW7 2DD, UK Get directions Phone +44 330 058 0058 Web Visit website Ideal for left-brainers, London’s Science Museum celebrates scientific, technological, and mathematical achievements—but that makes it sound so serious. With interactive exhibits, flight simulators, an IMAX theater, and even a milkshake bar, a trip to the Science Museum is far from the snore-worthy science lessons from back in the day. Some of the coolest things to spy? A 1970s Black Arrow rocket; an early steam locomotive; and the world’s first jet engine. Also, on level two, you can find The Clockmaker’s Museum, a collection of the world’s oldest and most fascinating clocks, watches, marine chronometers, and even sundials. Popular with kids, avoid the crowds by staying clear of the Science Museum during the British school holiday period. 07 of 10 National Gallery Stuart Forster / robertharding / Getty Images View Map Address Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN, UK Get directions Phone +44 20 7747 2885 Web Visit website Culture Vultures 4.2 From Michelangelo to Monet and Raphael to Rembrandt, almost all of the old European masters can be found on the walls of the National Gallery, overlooking London’s famous Trafalgar Square. Crowd favorites include Van Gogh’s "Sunflowers"; Botticelli’s "Venus and Mars;" and Monet’s "The Water-Lily Pond." (If you’re short on time, you can pre-plan your trip around the gallery’s 30 must-see paintings.) 08 of 10 Churchill War Rooms sjhaytov / Getty Images View Map Address King Charles Street, London SW1A 2AQ, UK Get directions Phone +44 20 7416 5000 Web Visit website The Imperial War Museum is a collection of five museums and sites with the mission to preserve the history of British conflict starting from WWI to the present day. One of the collection’s most fascination inclusions is the Churchill War Rooms, a subterranean bunker under the streets of Westminster. (A close second would be the Royal Navy ship HMS Belfast, which is permanently moored in the River Thames.) Walking through the underground labyrinth of war rooms is literally walking in the footsteps of Sir Winston Churchill and his war cabinet during WWII. These corridors provided shelter during German air raids and acted as a top-secret headquarters of sorts to map out the path to victory for the Allies. History is found in every nook and cranny: The Map Room has been left untouched since August 16, 1945, one day after the end of the war. Continue to 9 of 10 below. 09 of 10 Natural History Museum Johnnie Pakington / Getty Images View Map Address Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK Get directions Phone +44 20 7942 5000 Web Visit website Showcasing neo-gothic spires and decorative flourishes, the gorgeous Natural History Museum was built as a ‘cathedral to nature,’ and nowhere is this more apparent than in the echoingly immense Hinzte Hall at the main entrance. Once the home to African elephant specimens and jaw-dropping casts of a Triceratops and Diplodocus, the museum’s main hall now floats the real skeleton of a blue whale high above visitors’ heads. Though no longer in the entry hall, you can still find dinosaurs here, such as the first fossil ever found from a T. rex. Other natural treasures in the museum’s collection of over 80 million specimens and samples include the world's largest collection of colored diamonds, which can be found in the Vaults. 10 of 10 Royal Museums Greenwich Paul Panayiotou / Getty Images Royal Museums Greenwich is a group of four museums in the green and peaceful southeast London neighborhood of Greenwich. The historic complex, a UNESCO's World Heritage site, includes the National Maritime Museum; the Queen's House art gallery; the Royal Observatory (where you can stand on the famous Prime Meridian line); and the world’s last tea clipper ship, the Cutty Sark. The area also boasts postcard-perfect vistas of London’s skyline from across the Thames. Though some of the attractions are free (such as entry to the National Maritime Museum and the Queen's House), some attractions are ticketed, such as entry to the Royal Observatory, which cost £14.40 online (as of July 2019). Theater in London Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Share Pin Email Tell us why! Submit Share Pin Email