If you want to know more about London you should go to some of its free museums. Many world treasures are here, meaning that in every museum you can have a glance at some of the most iconic or important pieces of history of many countries. This will not only save you some money but could be also a rich experience.
Every time you visit a new place you get the chance to know more about its story and how its culture was built over the centuries. London has a rich, long history with a lot of important events that had an impact worldwide, and you can see pieces from these moments in some of the museums we will mention. If you want to, you can also read this Twitter thread and visit places as you go.
Table of Contents
The British Museum
Being one of the biggest museums in London, the British Museum has some of the most improved exhibitions in the world. Most of the pieces are ancient and were to reveal a lot about the history of humanity, so we recommend that you save a day to walk only its exhibitions and learn everything you can here.
This museum houses more than 9 million objects, many from over the world, like the Rosetta Stone, the one that unlocked many ancient languages to us. Everything has a description, this way you can learn where every piece came from, you can guide yourself with very friendly maps and there are a lot of interactive activities to do.
The Tate Modern
If you are an art enthusiast this is one of the free museums London has to offer that you will love and it will be on the list of places you must go. Here is exhibited one of the largest modern and, postmodern and contemporary art exhibitions in the world. The building is also impressive on its own if you also enjoy an architectural delight
Housing pieces from Monet, Pollock, Rothko, Picasso, and even Hepworth, you will be welcome at every turn with a piece of art by some of the most well-known modern artists. There are pieces from many periods of the life of every artist, this way you can enjoy the changes they went through and understand better their art
Natural History Museum
At first glance, this can appear a typical natural museum, full of taxidermy animals, plant models, and a lot of descriptive text about what is what; but this museum set the rule apart and is one of the most fun in London. Here you will find many interactive exhibitions and some of the most stunning buildings inside the museum.
Many of the exhibitions are kid-friendly and they can interact with a lot of huge models of many dinosaurs and more. In case you go with your family, another amazing attraction is the Fantastic Beasts display, an exhibition of some of the most incredible wildlife in the world.
Museum of London
We mentioned before that the city of London has a rich history and this museum will show you just that. Here you will get to know the history of London from the start, this without skipping anything, not even the wonderful and the weird things that happened here. We suggest you save another whole day for this museum alone and what you can learn here.
The depiction of London this museum does is a more narrative one, you can even learn the events that happened for the city to develop since the prehistoric. You can also enjoy the view outside because the museum was built around some of the remnants of a Roman wall, built 2000 years ago.
The Science Museum
London developed some of the most impressive advances in science and technology in 1850, changing and shaping the world, this makes the Science Museum one of the most impressive free museums London has. Many of the major achievements from English Scientifics is here, also the museum has major steampunk vibes so it’s a perfect place for pictures.
Many exhibitions are interactive being motion rides; you can also enjoy movies explaining many of the discoveries done during 1850. If you are lucky you can be on time for its late-night events, like lectures to silent discos.
The Tate Britain
This art museum is one of our favourites and a hot spot if you like art. The exhibitions show you the art from the Tudor times, depicting a really close image of what art was in London before the modernist hit. You can learn a lot about the country’s art and its differences when we compare it with the rest of the world.
The National Gallery
If you want a more wholesome art experience, you should go to the national gallery, where you can enjoy more than 2300 pieces of art from the mid-1200 to 1900. This is the most complete collection you will see – considering it’s for free in one of the biggest museums in London – depicting the changes art went through.
Here you can watch art pieces from Botticelli, Rembrandt, Degas, Giotto, Titian, and more names that will ring bells if you like art. You can’t miss this museum, the exhibitions are art pieces themselves.
The Victoria and Albert Museum
More of a general museum, everything is striking in this place. This museum was opened by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and is full of exhibitions depicting a lot of the best things in London. In the first place, if you like architecture, the building is a huge Victorian gothic mansion, striking and hard to miss.
Inside you will find pieces of art, statues, and design exhibitions the show how this field develops in London, fashion exhibitions, and many things that represent London’s culture. Another big attraction is the world’s largest collection of post-classical sculptures, representing this art currently.
Queen’s Home
Finally, you could get to know a little more about the monarchy and the royalty of London and the importance of this symbol for the English people. The museum is the former residence of Queen Anne of Denmark and is a delight to explore. These neoclassical groups of buildings have art exhibitions and are London architecture icons.
