London Museums

You may be surprised to hear this but a lot of London's major museums and art galleries offer free admission. Here's a list of the best of the big names you can visit for free all year round.

There are lots of free museums and galleries in London, from the large-scale to the single room type. This list focuses on the best of the small free London museums that are certainly worth a visit.

London has many museums dedicated to its famous past residents where you can find out more about these iconic figures of London's history.

London has a huge variety of museums to suit everyone's interests. This quiz helps you to find out about some of the weird and wonderful on offer in London.

The Bank of England Museum tells the story of the Bank of England from its foundation in 1694 to its role today as the United Kingdom's central bank.

This is where you can find out what life was like for civilians on Britain's home front during World War Two with a 'Blitz Experience' with sights, sounds and smells.

The Cartoon Museum in London is dedicated to preserving the best of British cartoons, caricatures, comics, and animation.

The Charles Dickens Museum at 48 Doughty Street is the only surviving London home of Charles Dickens and opened as a museum in 1925.

Find out about the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms in London including history, contact details, and a review.

Even for a non-smoker, the cigar museum in the basement of JJ Fox & Robert Lewis in St James's, central London, is well worth a visit. They have had many well-known customers over the years including Winston Churchill.

The Courtauld Gallery is displayed in Somerset House, a stunning 18th century Neoclassical palace. The Courtauld Gallery's art collection covers the 14th century up to today.

The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art opened in London in 1998 in a restored Grade II listed Georgian building, and contains six galleries, an art library, cafe and bookshop. The Collection is known internationally for its core of Futurist works, as well as figurative art and sculpture dating from 1890 to the 1950s.

The Fashion and Textile Museum is a center for contemporary fashion, textiles, and jewelry in London. Founded by iconic British designer Zandra Rhodes, and operated by Newham College, the museum houses permanent and changing exhibitions.

Find out more about the London Film Museum and read my review.

The Florence Nightingale Museum in London celebrates the "lady with the lamp". Florence Nightingale was a nurse in the Crimea War in the 1850s. The Museum has been redeveloped and reopened in 2010.

The Library and Museum of Freemasonry in London contains an extensive collection of objects with Masonic decoration including pottery and porcelain, glassware, silver, furniture and clocks, jewels and regalia.

The Freud Museum in Hampstead was the home of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, and houses Freud's famous psychoanalytical coach.

A museum of domestic interiors, The Geffrye Museum shows the changing style of the English domestic interiors in a series of period rooms from 1600 to the present day.

The Grant Museum of Zoology has about 55,000 specimens, covering the whole Animal Kingdom. It's small and spooky and lots of fun, and it's free so you can pop in regularly.

Visitor information to help you plan a trip to The Guards Museum, next to St. James's Park in London.

Handel House Museum in central London celebrates Handel's life and works, displaying portraits of Handel and his contemporaries in finely restored Georgian interiors and bringing live music back to his house.

Visitor information to help you plan a trip to the Household Cavalry Museum at Horse Guards, London.

The Hunterian Museum is at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. The Museum is inspired by the life and work of the surgeon John Hunter (1728-1793).

The Imperial War Museum is unique in its coverage of conflicts, from the First World War to the present day. It seeks to provide for, and to encourage, the study and understanding of the history of modern war and how it affects our lives.

Find out more about the Jewish Museum in London which reopened in 2010 after a £10 million transformation.

Leighton House was the home and studio of leading Victorian artist Frederic, Lord Leighton and has undergone a 1.6 million refurbishment to bring it closer than ever to its original appearance when Lord Leighton died in 1896.

Find out about the London Transport Museum including history, contact details, ticket details, and a review.

Visitor Information and a review of The Museum of Brands, Packaging, and Advertising in London's Notting Hill which documents social history through consumer products. You will see over 12,000 items from shampoo bottles to toys and postcards.

Find out about the Museum of Childhood including history, contact details, and a review.

The National Army Museum has five floors of exhibits showing the history of the British Army and its impact on others. There are four permanent gallery displays and an extensive program of exhibitions, events, and activities.

The Natural History Museum is one of the big three museums in South Kensington, London. It is a wonderful Victorian building housing the weird and wonderful of the natural world. World famous for its dinosaur skeletons.

The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology has 80,000 objects but only has space to display a small percentage. They welcome children and have activities available.

The Royal Air Force Museum is in northwest London and is always free to visit. It's located on an Aerodrome and is the only London attraction to house over 100 aircraft from around the world. There's a 3D cinema and interactive and fun activities making this a great day out for all of the family.

The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre opened in 2005 to celebrate the life of this great children's author. It's a short train ride from London and here's all the information for need to plan a visit.

The Saatchi Gallery moved to its new home in Chelsea in 2008. The 70,000 sq.ft. gallery in the Duke of York HQ building on King's Road, Chelsea offers free admission to all shows as part of the Saatchi Gallery's aim to bring contemporary art to the widest audience possible. Plus you're allowed to photos everywhere in the building.

The Science Museum was founded in 1857 with objects shown at the Great Exhibition held in the Crystal Palace. The permanent displays are free and they have exceptional temporary exhibitions for all the family.

According to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's detective books, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson lived at 221b Baker Street, London between 1881-1904 and this is now a museum dedicated to their lives.

Sir John Soane was an architect and avid collector of antiquities and art. He merged 3 houses on Lincoln's Inn Fields to be his home and museum which he left to the nation in 1837.

Smythson of Bond Street is a luxury stationers and leather goods retailer and their main store is on Bond Street in London. At the back of the store there's a small museum, which though small, is worth seeing.

Tate Britain is the national gallery of British art from 1500 to today. Each room is organized around a theme. Displays change regularly.

Tate Modern is the UK national gallery of modern art from 1900 onwards. Tate Modern is housed on a converted power station next to the River Thames, opposite St. Paul's Cathedral.

The Wallace Collection in London is a national museum displaying eighteenth and nineteenth century European paintings and French objets d'art.

Wellcome Collection is a modern museum and gallery bringing together science and art. Sir Henry Wellcome enthusiastically collected over a million medical objects and Wellcome Collection displays as many as possible to help visitors discover more about the development of medicine through the ages and across cultures.

The Whitechapel Bell Foundry made the Big Ben bell for the Houses of Parliament and the original Liberty Bell. They have a free museum you can visit on weekdays to find out more.

The 24 Hour Museum is the UK’s National Virtual Museum and is a comprehensive online guide to the UK’s museums, libraries, archives, galleries, and heritage sites.

Twenty- and twenty-first century design objects on display.

Opened in April 2006, highlights include a 'walk-through' of the men's dressing room as it was in the 1980s, with John McEnroe. Expect interactive touch screens with a collection of traditional and contemporary tennis memorabilia, all exploring the story of the game and the Wimbledon Championships, from past to present, in a vibrant and entertaining way.

The museum has a collection of objects illustrating medical history, and the history of St. Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals. The Operating Theatre (operating or emergency room) is found in the roof space of an English Baroque Church.

The Fan Museum is the first and only museum in the world devoted in its entirety to all aspects of the ancient art and craft of the fan.

The purpose of the Ragged School Museum is to make the unique history of the East End of London, and in particular of the Copperfield Road Ragged School, accessible to everyone.

Explore London's history, culture, and religions from the collections of the Museum of London, London's Transport Museum, The Jewish Museum, and Croydon Museum and Heritage Service.

British postal services helped to shape the modern world. The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA) works to make this human story of communication, industry, and innovation accessible to everyone.