I came here during the last timeslot of the day, 3:30 PM…read more The British museum is tailor made for someone like me. The exhibits span hundreds of years. The architecture of this museum is quite unique, especially the triangular shaped windows. The gift shop in this museum spoke to me. Everything was so cute and character themed. I wished I could've booked an earlier time slot as there was not enough time to see everything by closing time.

It's not every museum that has a line wrapped around the building when it opens on a Monday…read moremorning. But the British Museum is the world's oldest public national museum, has the largest collection of artifacts of any museum in the world, and is the second most visited attraction in all of the United Kingdom. The museum is free to visit, but we reserved a timed entry ticket for when they opened on Monday morning. I suggest you do this, because people who had tickets were walking right through into the museum after a bag check, while people who had not bought tickets ahead of time were having to wait in another line to get in. The museum is so large and has so many artifacts, that it can be a little overwhelming. For that reason, we relied on the list of highlights of the museum to point us to certain artifacts we didn't want to miss: the Rosetta Stone; the colossal bust of Ramesses II (c. 1250 BC); Hoa Hakananai'a (basalt statue from Easter Island); the Ife head (Nigeria, ca. 1300-1400s); the Sutton Hoo ship burial (dating back to 7th century Britain); the Lewish Chessmen (Scottish, ca. 1150-1175); and more. Prepare for crowds and to be a little overwhelmed by people and artifacts and the size of the museum. If you want to see everything, be prepared to spend an entire in the museum. Since it's free, you can do as we did and just spend a couple of hours - that's all we had - and see what you can see (the highlights list helped)! But it's a great museum and easily one of the most important museums in the country.

Unlike many other art museums of similar caliber and vastness, the National Gallery has free…read moreadmission. I enjoyed walking through each of the main areas because I felt like I progressed through distinct eras of art history. If you want to rest your eyes from gazing at paintings, there is a nice balcony area that provides a view of Trafalgar Square and Big Ben in the distance. You can also grab a coffee and pastry as there's a small cafe near the main entrance. One special exhibit included the reunion of two famous impressionist paintings of La Grenouillère by Claude Monet and Pierre Auguste-Renoir. I feel fortunate to have viewed these two celebrated paintings side by side as I had learned that it's been nearly 20 years since the National Gallery reunited them in a public exhibit. Because of the significant amount of art you can view here with free admission, I'd definitely recommend visiting the National Gallery.

I visited the National Gallery with my husband when we were exploring London for a few days earlier…read morethis month. The truth is we meant to visit the National Portrait Gallery (which is right around the corner), but I didn't realize my mistake until we were already trying to figure our way around the National Gallery and we decided to stay for a while. I found the museum difficult to navigate even with a map, so we just sort of wandered. We saw incredible paintings. The highlights for me were works by Henri Rousseau, Max Pechstein, Jan van Goyen Ferdinand Hodler... We saw an incredible Manet (The Execution of Maximilian) and a painting by Paul Gauguin that was unlike any other Gauguin I've ever seen. These were just some of my favorites, but the galleries are chronological and have works by every painter you could think of: Botticelli, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Gainsborough, Hogarth, Turner, Monet, Seurat, van Gogh... It's not your museum for modern and contemporary art, but if you're in the mood for European art from 1200-1900, the National Gallery will blow you away. They also host temporary exhibits and have several great options for a drink or a bite to eat. We stopped by Ochre, where we really enjoyed their happy hour. It's free to visit (although they appreciate donations), so you can pop in for however much time you have, whether that's a half our or three! The National Gallery might not have been our intended museum and we couldn't stay too long or miss out on the museum next door, but it really wowed me. Next time, I'll visit on purpose and save more time to explore and enjoy.

Came here to see the Harry Potter exhibit after walking by on our honeymoon. Despite the Queen's…read moreJubilee it was not that crowded. Staff were friendly. Wish it was a bit more in depth in some areas and immersive in others but was nice to see.

The London Film Museum is essentially the James Bond Museum, with the "Bond in Motion" exhibits…read moreoccupying the vast majority of the space. It is a rather small museum though, and even if you take the time to look at every detail, one to two hours will be more than enough. The main exhibits are the hot cars that 007 gets to drive, as well as a few other cool surprises - remember the car that turned into a submarine when it hit the water (The Spy Who Loved Me)? Or the plane with folded wings that emerged from a trailer (Octopussy)? Many of those exhibits include detailed specifications as well as videos of the scenes that highlight the vehicles. Some exhibits also play the theme songs in the background. Other memorabilia that Bond fans would love include original costumes, props, photo of backstage scenes, theatrical posters, etc. Admission is GBP14.50 (about USD18), which is rather expensive for such a small place (hence only 4 stars). But Bond fans, don't you dare say it's too expensive so you'll never go. Never Say Never Again! You Only Live Twice! You can go tomorrow since Tomorrow Never Dies. Go see it with your own Golden Eye. After all, this museum is For Your Eyes Only...

Somerset house is supposed to have a great ice skating rink and holiday d decorations right in the…read morecenter of London. If I'd known about that in advance I would have never come as I never developed skills to ice skate having lived all my life in California. Normally I would not pay money to see a museums in London as all the big government funded museums for the public are free of charge for entry. However we were walking down the embankment area next to the Thames and came across free public bathrooms something unheard of in Europe. The bathrooms were connected to a restaurant which was part of the somerset house. Wife and I feeling relieved gladly paid the money for the entry fee. Several buildings with paintings and photographs from around the world both of people and of animals in their natural setting. Looked like a series of pictures from covers of national geographic magazines. Ended up paying 30 GBP or $39 for two entries, an expensive public bathroom visit.

Funky little art gallery / museum in a historic building…read more When I was passing by I saw this strange exhibition called 'Cute'. I didn't expect to see this pop-art show here. I'm going to make this a regular stop while in London because I like the weirdness of it all.

I would recommend if you're interested in viewing this collection to schedule a tour, so that you…read moreare given access to the upper rooms as well as avoiding queuing to access the bottom floors only

This is a museum like no other, it is full of architectural artifacts and was used partly as a…read morestudy and library for himself and student architects. It is free, but expect to wait about 20 minutes to enter the home and do leave a donation or purchase a book to help support the museum. I especially enjoyed the Monk's parlor with it's gothic style and the dome area and corridor as these were packed full of artifacts. There is so much to look at, you may want to come again.

Marvelous place, the Tate Modern, though unfortunately my children did not see the appeal…read more I had fond memories of our first visit, back in 2010, and wanted to peek into the Tate during a family outing along South Bank last month. I love London's free museums, which make this sort of perfunctory drop-in both easy and practical. Our kids didn't like the Musée d'Orsay, so we didn't have high hopes for the Tate, especially after a long walk from the London Eye. We'd barely gotten them up the escalators and into one of the exhibit halls when they started saying they wanted to leave. We admired what we could of the heavy-hitting collection. We also talked to our children about some of the art, and maybe a trickle of it got through. There was a still life I loved, that turned out to be a Picasso, and a Mondrian painting I'm pretty sure I learned about in first or second grade. Our six-year-old volunteered that he liked a still life of a beer mug by Fernand Léger, and both kids were drawn, just a little, to Warhol's Marilyn Diptych. I hope the boys remember this quick visit, but if not, I certainly will. Maybe I'll bring them back when they're older, and we can give the Tate the time it deserves.

I visited the Tate Modern for the first time earlier this month when I visited London for a few…read moredays with my husband. The Tate opened in 2000, but a new building opened in 2016. The museum is located in the former Bankside Power Station, and the museum's Turbine Hall is an incredibly large and open space (but I did wonder why they don't utilize the space to display any large sculptures since it's such an enormous and unused space). It's a striking space, it's one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the world. It's free to visit, but exhibits may have a cost unless you're a member of the museum. When we visited earlier this month, they had three exhibits: Frida: the Making of an Icon (though January 3, 2027); Ana Mendieta (through January 17, 2027); and Julio Le Parc: Light. Color. Action (through May 3, 2027). The Frida exhibit costs 25 pounds, the Mendieta 18 pounds, and the Le Parc 15 pounds. That means that if you wanted to visit all three exhibits, it would cost 58 pounds a person which is, I think, outrageous. I couldn't justify spending that much, so I picked one exhibit - the Frida exhibit - and then just explored the free galleries after our visit to the exhibit. The Frida exhibit (which was organized in collaboration was the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston) was interesting. I've been lucky enough to see much of Frida Kahlo's works before in Mexico and Texas. But the exhibit included many works I had never seen before, and it also included works by artists that were friends or contemporaries of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and works by artists that were inspired by her. The inclusion of "Fridamania," the transformation of Kahlo into an icon, image, brand, made the exhibit different from other Frida exhibits I've seen. The exhibit was extremely crowded - but you have to expect that with an exhibit like this! I found the museum a little confusing to navigate, but we just wandered for the time that we had. Some of the works that really struck me were pieces by Gerhard Richter (the Cage paintings), Belkis Ayón, Sam Nhlengethwa, Carl-Henning Pedersen, Alberto Giacometti, David Hockney, Salman Toor, Mark Rothko, and more. The museum is definitely worth visiting, but I just didn't love it as much as I expected. Since it's free, I'm sure I'll be back to explore more of the permanent collection another time, but I did find it a little difficult to navigate and thought the exhibition admission prices were prohibitively expensive.

I love weird medical history museums and this one scratched that itch in my mind during our London…read morevisit!! Like, if you want to see my face light up and entertain me for at least 2 hours...take me to a medical museum. Animal, plant, and human specimens on display all next to each other. Like animal skulls in one display, and human bones in the next room, and then the next room is a bunch of specimens showing the fetal development of a lizard or something. Such an interesting collection of items in an interesting organization. Bright and clean, it is really interesting so see this kind of this set up so modern-like (in comparison to the other medical history museums I have visited). It is free to visit, but they request and recommend that you register for a timed ticket online ahead of time. If you are squeamish, I would suggest not visiting here. But if you are a little weirdo freak like me...DO IT. Clearly, it isn't for everyone. But if you thing this is up your alley, pay a visit to the Hunterian!

Well first of all it's free to visit. Ahem! FREE....to visit. For a tourist, it's almost virtually…read moreunheard of in London other than some of the art museums and other minor attractions or if you've got the London Pass. Anyway, my sister and I being the nerds that we are decided to check this place out. *Spoiler Alert* It's a museum of mainly surgical/medical specimens. So if you got creeped out by all those animals in jars of formaldehyde in high school chemistry or biology then you might want to sit this one out. Honestly, it's not that creepy but more so very interesting. Even if you don't have an understanding or appreciation for medical science, I still think most people would find this place highly educational and mind-boggling. I'm sure most people have watched a medical surgery show on TV or saw vids on the internet of things of that nature or weird animals. So, this museum kind of sums that up but in thousands of glass jars filled with all sorts of animals, body parts, tumors, cancers, and bones. The variety in genus and species is astounding. The main floor is seemingly endless jars of things. There isn't a huge amount of information or placards but you can read the jars and kind of figure it out or write it down later and search it online. I found myself asking how? and why? or what in the heck is that? I like that it made me think back to things I learned in college without even noticing it. I didn't take any photos as they said not to and also I didn't think it would be appropriate. The have a small gift shop & have guided tours on some days so check the website. I know I said it's free, and it is but it's suggested to donate about £3 to keep things running. Still mega-cheap. It kind of blows (no pun intended) that a large portion of the museum and the majority of what was contained within was destroyed or badly damaged by bombs in World War II. Such is war I guess, but we live and learn and the rebuilt museum is almost better than ever.

This was by far the most interesting site we visited in London! We bought tickets a few days in…read moreadvance and came at 3p. There was no line and someone came to the door to get us. We checked in and grabbed out audio tour. There was a kid's version of the audio guide and it was great! You start off walking through the space and learning a bunch of history. A little before midway is the museum, which we spent of our time in. The exhibits and displays were very well put together and interactive. From there, we continue on the one-way path and saw where they did the mapping, which was largely unchanged and was my favorite room. We were there about 2 hours and felt that we saw everything.

My husband and I visited the Churchill War Rooms when we were in London for a few days about two…read moreweeks ago, and it was fascinating. The Churchill War Rooms is a museum that allows you to visit the Cabinet War Rooms, the underground complex that housed a British government command center through the Second World War. Before the War, the British government estimated that aerial bombing of London could potentially kill 200,000 individuals per week. That ended up being an overestimation, but the British government knew they would need a secure place to run the government during bombing raids. The construction of the Cabinet War Rooms is the result. The War Rooms weren't in use by many staff at all times of the War, but they were used throughout the War. Churchill hated being in the War Rooms and was reluctant to spend much time there. When you visit, you can wander through the War Rooms. You can see the Cabinet Room through glass (the room where Churchill and his advisors met with the three chiefs of Staff). You can see the Map Room, Office-Bedrooms of important staff, Clementine Churchill's room, Churchill's Office-Bedroom, and more. There's also a Churchill Museum - a fairly large museum with Churchill artifacts and that tells the whole history of Churchill's life before, after, and during the War. The Churchill War Rooms are incredible and well worth a visit for anyone interested in the Second World War or Churchill. However, I had read that the museum gets very busy and crowded. That made me nervous, because I get grumpy in crowded spaces and inevitably just run through the space without paying much attention so that I can get out of there. Then I learned that they offer an early-bird tour, a guided tour that starts before the museum opens for the day. It costs about 20 pounds more than general admission, which I think is totally worth it. Since the tour occurs before the museum opens to the public and is guided, you can see and experience the museum in a much more in-depth way. Our tour guide was incredible. I learned so much from her. After the tour, you can get a headset and then head back into the museum to see any space you missed (the Churchill Museum is not included on the tour, so we wandered back to see some of that). Our tour started at 8:30 am, and when they let the public in at 9:30, the museum became totally packed! I didn't make it much longer since I couldn't get close to much with so many people in the museum. I highly recommend the early bird guided tour. But if that's not for you, I would recommend going later in the day. If you go when they open, you'll be going in with hundreds of people. Later in the day at least admission has been staggered! There's incredible history at the Churchill War Rooms. Incredible history to see and learn about. I think almost anyone would enjoy a visit here. I highly recommend it on a trip to London.

A lovely museum for kids and adults alike. My favorite room was the war room that talked about how…read morethe underground trains were used as shelters and more. My kids favorites were the upstairs train toys, craft room and getting a real train ticket and the stamp scavenger hunt. Bathrooms and picnic lunch eating areas are all downstairs. Water bottle fill up station as well. We spent about two hours here and saw everything. The only downside was that one of the elevators was broken when we came so we had to walk a bit more to get the other one. This is also in a really nice part of town to walk around after!

Really cute place for all ages. The historical trains and buses are impressive. Highly recommended…read morestop when in the SoHo area.

Begun by the founder of Burroughs-Wellcome, the first company to introduce medicine in pill form,…read morethis marvelous free museum specializes in things related to health and the human body. Or science, medicine, life, and art. Or health, life, and our place in the world. Just looking at those descriptors sort of ensured that there'd be something compelling here and there was. A lot. One floor is given over to the collection itself, which is a quirky assemblage of old medical devices and the like, including old sexual devices. Free guided tours are one way to enjoy this part of the museum though I cop to liking the rest of the place even more. The other floors contain exhibits and art which ranged from interesting to fascinating to heartwarming and inspirational. A couple examples: * Words which, when pressed, would light up the associated internal body parts. It's fair to say I don't know where anything inside my body is except maybe my heart and stomach. Now I do. Or I did, for a moment there. * The origins of a mental health project in Africa, where mental health providers are sparse and grandmas we're trained to fill the gap. The results? Improved mental health in the community and the grandmas. There was just so much neat stuff here and not just in the museum exhibits. The ground floor cafe has very good food (try the eggplant parmesan baked individually in a sweet little French crock) and don't miss the gift shop where you'll likely blow all that you saved by coming to this free museum. I certainly did. I left wanting to return to the Wellcome Collection and that was before I even looked at their web site and saw all of the talks and group activities they regularly offer (Death Cafe anyone? Grief Group?). I wish the Wellcome Collection were in my own community as I'm certain I'd take advantage of much more that they have to offer.

It's free!! This…read moremuseum's reading room alone made me think about what I'm missing in my life. It is probably the most fantastic space I've seen in the last ten years of my life. Walking in here just made me experience a moment of pure nerd joy. So many comfortable places to sit and work. Whether you're an artist or a scientist or writer, this is a wonderful and inspirational facility. The collection itself has amazing pieces with many medical/ anthropological curiosities. You can easily spend a whole day here interacting with the many exhibits or participating in spontaneous activities. My only warning is that this place is more geared towards adults and not children.