London free museums: which ones, and what to see in 90 minutes
Britain dropped admission charges at its national museums in 2001 and never put them back, which is why London has more world-class free museums than anywhere else on earth. The problem is not cost, it is stamina. Almost everyone does the same thing: they walk into the British Museum with no plan, wander for three hours, see a fraction of it and leave too tired to do anything else. Ninety minutes with a target beats three hours without one, every time.
- Time
- 90 minutes each, and no more
- Cost
- Free, all of them
- Best for
- Rain, jet lag, and anyone travelling with a budget
13 min readChecked
The rule that makes all of this work
Pick three things before you go in, see those three things, then leave and have a coffee. You will remember more of a 90 minute visit with a list than a four hour visit without one, and you will still have an afternoon left.
Every museum below is free to enter. Temporary exhibitions inside them are usually not, and that is where the money goes. The distinction matters: "free museum" means the permanent collection, which in most of these is the best part anyway.
Free does not mean unbooked. The British Museum, the V&A and the Natural History Museum all want a free timed ticket at peak times, and Sir John Soane's has a queue because the house only holds so many people.
The new one: London Museum at Smithfield, from 28 November 2026
The Museum of London closed its London Wall site in December 2022 and has spent four years moving into two Victorian market buildings at Smithfield. It reopens as the London Museum on 28 November 2026, free, in the General Market building designed by Stanton Williams and Asif Khan with the conservation architects Julian Harrap.
The detail worth knowing: a six metre window looks straight onto a live Thameslink line running past the galleries, which the museum says is a first anywhere. It opens late on Fridays and Saturdays with DJ sets. The inaugural programme, London Tastes, runs from November 2026 to August 2027 and is about the city's food, led by Ruby Tandoh and Jonathan Nunn.
The 1960s Poultry Market next door, which will hold temporary exhibitions and the collection stores, is not part of this opening. That comes in 2028.
- Opens
- 28 November 2026
- Where
- Smithfield EC1 9AG
- Price
- Free
- Meanwhile
- London Museum Docklands is open
Farringdon for the Elizabeth line, Circle, Hammersmith and City, Metropolitan and Thameslink
West India Quay E14, free, daily 10am to 5pm, and the best single account of London and the slave trade anywhere in the city
If you are in London in the first week of December 2026, this is the thing to do. New national museums open about once a decade.
The big five, and the three things to see in each
These are the ones every list gives you. The difference is what you do once you are inside.
British Museum
Great Russell Street WC1B 3DG · daily 10am to 5pm, late on Fridays · free
Go at opening or after three, never between eleven and two. Three things: the Rosetta Stone, the Assyrian lion hunt reliefs in Room 10, and the Sutton Hoo helmet in Room 41. The Great Court roof by Foster is the best photograph in the building and it costs nothing to stand under it.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road SW7 2RL · daily 10am to 5.45pm, Fridays to 10pm · free
The most beautiful museum in London and the least well used by visitors. Three things: the Cast Courts, where Victorian plaster copies of Trajan's Column stand in two halves because it would not fit; the Jewellery gallery; and the John Madejski Garden, which is where you sit down. On until 8 November 2026: Schiaparelli, Fashion Becomes Art, which is ticketed.
Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road SW7 5BD · daily 10am to 5.50pm · free
The building is the exhibit. Alfred Waterhouse covered it in terracotta animals, living species on the west side and extinct ones on the east, which almost nobody notices. Three things: Hope the blue whale in Hintze Hall, the earthquake room, and the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, which is ticketed and worth it.
Science Museum
Exhibition Road SW7 2DD · daily 10am to 6pm · free
Next door to the Natural History Museum and much quieter, because families queue for dinosaurs. Three things: Stephenson's Rocket, the Apollo 10 command module, and Information Age. Doing both South Kensington museums in one day is a mistake unless it is raining and you have children.
National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery
Trafalgar Square WC2N 5DN and St Martin's Place WC2H 0HE · free
Two separate galleries that share a block. The National Gallery is the paintings, the Portrait Gallery is the faces, and the Portrait Gallery reopened in 2023 after a three year rebuild that fixed the entrance. Forty-five minutes each, and the Portrait Gallery's top-floor restaurant has a view down Whitehall to the Elizabeth Tower.
The ones Londoners actually go to
Smaller, stranger, and in most cases better than the big five if you have already done the big five.
Sir John Soane's Museum
13 Lincoln's Inn Fields WC2A 3BP · Wednesday to Sunday 10am to 5pm · free, no booking
An architect's house, left exactly as it was in 1837 because he got an Act of Parliament to make it illegal to change it. Sarcophagi in the basement, a Picture Room with walls that swing open to reveal more walls of paintings, and mirrors everywhere. Capacity is tiny so there is often a wait. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Wallace Collection
Hertford House, Manchester Square W1U 3BN · daily 10am to 5pm · free
A private collection in a Marylebone townhouse, never lent and never added to, which is a condition of the bequest. Frans Hals' Laughing Cavalier, a courtyard restaurant under glass, and no crowds at all. Ten minutes north of Oxford Street and nobody on Oxford Street knows it is there.
Imperial War Museum
Lambeth Road SE1 6HZ · daily 10am to 6pm · free
The Holocaust Galleries and the First World War Galleries are the two serious pieces of museum-making in London. It is not a day out for small children and it is not meant to be.
Tate Britain
Millbank SW1P 4RG · daily 10am to 6pm · free
The one people skip for Tate Modern. It holds the Turner bequest, which is the largest collection of one artist's work anywhere, and the Clore Gallery that houses it is quiet on a weekday afternoon in a way the Modern never is. The Tate Boat runs between the two in eighteen minutes.
V&A East Storehouse and V&A East Museum
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park E20 · free
The newest things on this list. The Storehouse opened in 2025 and is a working store you can walk into, half a million objects on open racking, designed by Diller Scofidio and Renfro. The Museum next to it opened on 18 April 2026 with free permanent galleries and ticketed exhibitions. Stratford on the Jubilee line, and five minutes from Westfield if you are combining it with a shopping day.
Barbican Conservatory
Silk Street EC2Y 8DS · free but ticketed
Not a museum, and it belongs on this list anyway. Over 1,500 species of plant under glass on top of a brutalist concert hall, the second-largest conservatory in London, and free. Tickets release about a month ahead and go. Book the moment you know your dates.
Which paid ones are worth breaking the rule for
- Churchill War Rooms
- £34
- Tower of London
- £38, or £41.80 with a donation
- Courtauld Gallery
- From £14
- Postal Museum and Mail Rail
- From £16
- Design Museum
- Collection free
The cabinet rooms exactly as they were abandoned in 1945. The best paid museum in London and the only one on this page we would pay full price for twice
Needs three hours and it is a castle, not a museum. Book the first slot of the day or do not bother
A small collection of very famous Impressionists inside Somerset House. Forty-five minutes, and it is across Waterloo Bridge from the Queen's Walk
You ride a narrow-gauge train through the Post Office's abandoned tunnels under Mount Pleasant. Unusual enough to justify the ticket
Kensington High Street. The permanent Designer Maker User gallery costs nothing, the exhibitions are ticketed
A museum day that works
Two museums a day is the ceiling and one is often better. Three pairings that do not wreck you:
- Bloomsbury: British Museum at ten, walk twelve minutes to Sir John Soane's for two, finish at the Wallace Collection or in Lamb's Conduit Street.
- Trafalgar Square: National Gallery, then the Portrait Gallery, then walk ten minutes to the Courtauld at Somerset House. Three galleries, two of them free, all within ten minutes of each other.
- South Kensington: one of Natural History or Science, not both, then the V&A, then Hyde Park. The tunnel from the tube station comes up inside all three, which matters in February.
Do not put the British Museum and the V&A in the same day. They are forty minutes apart and each one deserves a fresh pair of legs.
What it costs
With your own guide
Private day, your itinerary
You tell us what the day is for. We build it. Up to 8 hours.
- Up to 5 people
- £340
- 6 to 8 people
- £480
Want a tailor-made London trip? Tell us who’s coming and what you’d love to see. Request your personalised quote
What else you will spend
Rough, and on the day, whether you come with us or not.
- Travel
- £8.90
- The museums
- Nothing
- Ticketed exhibitions
- £14 to £34
- Lunch
- £12 to £22
Daily cap, zones 1 to 2
Every one on this page is free. Some want a free timed ticket
Only if you want one. Wildlife Photographer of the Year from £17, the Churchill War Rooms £34
A museum cafe, or ten minutes out to something better
Things people get wrong
- Turning up at the British Museum at midday in August. It is the single most crowded hour in any London building.
- Assuming free means walk-in. Several want a free timed ticket and the Barbican Conservatory needs one a month ahead.
- Trying to see everything in one museum. The British Museum has eight million objects and you are going to look at nine of them either way, so choose which nine.
- Going to Sir John Soane's on a Monday or Tuesday, when it is shut.
- Skipping Tate Britain because it sounds like the boring Tate. It has the Turners.
Questions people actually ask
Are London museums really free?
The national museums are, and have been since 2001. That covers the British Museum, the V&A, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain, Tate Modern, the Imperial War Museum, the National Maritime Museum and the London Museum. Temporary exhibitions inside them are ticketed.
When does the new London Museum open?
On 28 November 2026, at Smithfield in the City of London, EC1 9AG, and entry is free. It replaces the old Museum of London site at London Wall, which closed in December 2022. A second phase in the Poultry Market building follows in 2028.
Which London museum is best for a first visit?
The British Museum if you want the famous objects, the V&A if you want the most beautiful building, the Natural History Museum if you have children. Pick one, give it ninety minutes and a list of three things, then leave.
Do I need to book free London museums?
Usually not, but the British Museum, the V&A and the Natural History Museum all offer free timed tickets that are worth taking at busy times. The Barbican Conservatory is free and does require a ticket, released about a month ahead.
How many museums can you do in a day in London?
Two, and one is often better. Ninety minutes each with a target beats a whole day of wandering, and you will remember more of it.