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You’ve made it to the beautiful city of London, historic capital of England, and after a restful sleep you’re all ready to go out and explore. Stopping for a quick breakfast at a cafe you’ve made it to central London. There’s so much to do and not enough time to do it in. So what do you choose? Looking at your wallet you realize you’ve spent 80% of your daily allowance on a muffin and a cup of coffee. London’s not a cheap place to visit and you didn’t budget too well for your day out. Sucks doesn’t it? Or does it? The most amazing thing you could probably find out now is about the free museums London has to offer.
I’ll repeat that…FREE museums. As in plural, not just one museum but many of them. And before you ask, no it’s not all the weird, crappy “I have a shrine to the Beatles in my living room” museums, but the biggest and best that museums have to offer.
The best free museums London can show you
I will tell you that I am a bit of a museum geek. I love them and can walk around for hours. Plus they always have the best gift shops! When you grow up in the UK (especially the North) you have to understand that even on the best days it might rain. Therefore you always have to have a “rainy day activity” planned just in case. Enter the mighty museum!
All national museums became free in 2001 (they sometimes still charge for feature exhibits, but permanent collections are free). Such a great idea, and without which so many people would not be able to experience some of the history and beautiful.
There are more free museums than you can possibly visit in one trip, so I’m going to tell you about some of the free museums London has and why they are my favorite. If you want to find out more about the Free museums initiative and which museums in the UK are included you can check out the list here.
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The National Gallery
If you’ve made your way down from Piccadilly Circus and are in the middle of the one and only Trafalgar Square, then you really can’t miss the National Gallery. It’s the beautiful building with all the columns that looks down on the lions that guard Trafalgar Square. You can stand on the balcony of the museum for a great view over the square and down the mall to Big Ben.
The National Gallery is room after room of some of the most historic paintings. Even if it weren’t filled with famous works of art, the building is impressive. There are many artworks on display by Monet, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Rembrandt. Homegrown artists like Turner and Constable fill rooms with their paintings. But my favourite, and probably one of the most well know pieces in here in Vincent Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”.
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Natural History Museum
Whenever I came to London as a kid my parents would take me here. I love this museum. It was the first place I ever saw a dinosaur. I should clarify that this was a dinosaur skeleton replica, not some weird Jurassic Park-style encounter. I’ve been obsessed with dinosaurs since then, and first seeing this huge diplodocus in the main hall was amazing. Even more amazing that my Dad, who grew up in London, got his love of dinosaurs from visiting the same museum as a child, and seeing the same dinosaur skeleton. After 110 years on display they recently removed it for a blue whale skeleton, but I’ll always associate this museum with dinosaurs.
But the museum isn’t just about dinosaurs, it has pretty much anything you can think of associated with our planet. Fossils, animal displays, rocks and minerals, plants. You name it, this place has it all. Charles Darwin himself collected specimens that are still on display here. Another cool thing I like is that the museum has an earthquake simulator.
Victoria and Albert Museum
If you’ve been to the National History Museum, you only have to take a few steps outside and you’ve reached another renowned museum. Named after England’s famous Queen and her husband, the Victoria and Albert Museum, this one is focused more on decorative arts. There are paintings, but also jewelery and fashion, sculptures and ceramics, and even furniture.
Another beautiful old building – seriously London, aren’t you sick of hogging all the awesome architecture – the museum has been open since the mid 1800s. This museum I didn’t actually appreciate as much when I was a kid. It was one of the classic “look don’t touch” museums, and didn’t really have as much to interact with as the Natural History Museum. However, there are a lot of great displays, and in particular the Asian Art collection is amazing.
Tate Modern
Like the National Gallery, this one also houses many paintings. Although, unlike the National Gallery the art here is, as the museum name suggests, more modern. I love to see the beautiful classical artworks, but after a while if you’ve seen one cherub you’ve seen them all right?! Tate modern will put you in a completely different head-space, but still excite you with all the famous names housed under this one roof. Thankfully what is inside is infinitely better than the look of the museum from the outside:
It’s not all paintings, there are some pieces of art too, and film art etc. The main reason for me going here in the first place though, was to see the Metamorphosis of Narcissus by Salvador Dali. But once I was in the gallery, working my way up and down escalators linking floors of artwork, I saw some other pieces that drew my attention (that counts as an art pun right?!).
Works by the likes of Pablo Picasso, and the iconic Andy Warhol can keep you entertained for a while in this museum. I’ll admit some of what Tate Modern has to offer is a little out there for me so I didn’t spend as long as I would have in other museums. But it was worth it to see what I found interesting. Plus, it’s a free museum. Even if there’s only one thing you want to see I’d say make the effort to go in. Located on the South Bank of the Thames just off the Millennium bridge it’s only a short walk to Southwark which has an excellent cathedral, and a beautiful walk along the river past Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
Interested in some more free art in London? Try this street art walk through Camden Town.
British Museum
This museum has been around since the mid-1700s. Let that sink in for a moment. This museum is over 250 years old! While there may still be controversy surrounding how the museum acquired some of the artifacts, and whether they should own them, you have to admit it’s an impressive collection. Like most of the other museums in London, it’s another terribly grand building that just screams “museum”. Inside, it’s easy to get lost for hours – keep tight hold of your kids and loved ones or you’ll lose them in Ancient Egypt and won’t see them again until Greece and Roman times!
The biggest WOW! factor for me has to be the Rosetta Stone which began our understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs. By now you must realize that my parents put a lot of stock in teaching me about history. So it won’t come as a surprise that when I was 9 they bought me an Egyptian Hieroglyphics set for Christmas. I had the book to teach me about them, and the little rubber stamp set. Yep, I was the cool kid in school!
Ancient Egypt was always a fascination of mine, probably for this very reason. But I also was really interested in Roman and Greek history – we learned all about the Roman and Greek Gods in school which come with some pretty awesome stories for a kid to learn about. This museum, therefore, checks off all the boxes my geeky self has on a museum must-have list.
Free museums London – staying nerdy in the capital
So there you have it, enough history, art and…historical art to keep you busy in England’s Capital, London. Rainy day, sunny day, heck even if you’re passing and have a spare half hour. I’d say any of these museums are worth whatever time you can spend there. The museums being free means you don’t have to feel bad about leaving after an hour and “not getting your money’s worth”. It also means you don’t have to budget to only go to one museum, but can go to more than one. Kids love running around museums…I mean calmly walking at a slow pace, so it can keep them entertained too.
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Of course these are just some of my favorites, there are a number of other free museums in the city too. The Science Museum, the Imperial War Museum, Tate Britain. As well as an endless supply of museums you pay to visit which are worth looking at too – the Museum of London, London Transport Museum, Sherlock Holmes Museum. It should be noted that although the museums I have talked about are free general entry, there are special exhibits within the museums that charge if you want to see them.
If you’ve enjoyed reading this post, please leave a comment or share using the social media buttons below. What do you think of the free museums London has to offer? Have you been to these or any other good museums in London?
Love London museums. It’s great that you can see and learn so much without spending a penny. There’s a few here I haven’t seen that I will have to get on my next visit.
London is SO expensive, but you’re so right, there is so much free stuff to see, and I haven’t seen all of it yet! The V&A is so great, I really want a chance to spend a full day at the Natural History Museum too – I always end up tired by the dinosaurs so there’s so much I haven’t seen!
I think the best thing is getting there first thing when it opens and while everyone else sprints off towards the dinosaurs, head in a different direction and see something new. I fall into the same trap each time, but it’s a great place!
Loved to see and read about so many museums in London in your post. London is a historical city and museums keep the part of that history alive for ever. Nice post.