BANK OF ENGLAND MUSEUM
Threadneedle Street, EC2
020 7601 5545
www.bankofengland.co.uk
Mon-Fri 10.00-17.00
Price:Free
The Bank of England Museum tells the story of the world’s most famous bank from its foundation in 1694 to its role today as the United Kingdom’s central bank.
Pounds, Pence and Money Boxes.Until 1 November.Colourful exhibition of over 500 money boxes from the Bank’s vaults. The Bank of England Museum is a fascinating walk through time, looking back at the history of this venerable institution from its inception by royal charter in 1694.
BRITISH LIBRARY
96 Euston Road, NW1
020 7412 7000
www.bl.uk
Mon-Fri 9.30-18.00, Sat and Sun 9.30-17.00
Price: Free.
The British Library is the UK’s national library and one of the world’s greatest collections of publications, maps and manuscripts.
Front page:Celebrating 100 years of the British Newspaper.Until 8 October.A journey through the golden age of newspapers. This wonderful library, housed in ultramodern buildings, is divided into public and member areas. To enter the reading rooms you need to apply for a reader's card, but the public areas, including 3 exhibition galleries, are open to all. Illuminated Manuscripts Gallery, Shakespeare original folios, the Gutenburg Bible, and original author's manuscripts, as well as changing exhibits and an events program make this a must visit if you love books.
BRITISH MUSEUM
Great Russell Street, WC1
020 7323 8299
www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
Sat-Wed 10.00-17.300; Thurs-Fri 10.00-23.00
Price:Free.
Opened in 1753 and the world’s oldest museum housing fabulous collections of human cultural history including iconic exhibits such as The Rosetta Stone and The Elgin Marbles.To look at every exhibit would take a lifetime such is the size of the museum’s renowned archives.You can spend a lifetime seeing this museum. Archaeology, drawings, coins, armour, and on and on. One of the great museums of the world.
Clouet to Seurat.Until 1 October.Examining the outstanding achievements of French draughtsmen.
CARTOON MUSEUM
35 Little Russell Street, WC1
020 7850 8155
www.cartooncentre.com
Tues-Sat 10.30-17.30, Sun 12.00-17.30
Price: £3, child free.
Exhibits the very finest examples of British cartoons, caricature and comic art from the 18th century to the present.
CHARLES DICKINS MUSEUM
48 Doughty Street, WC1
020 7405 2127
www.dickensmuseum.com
Mon-Sat 10.00-17.00; Sun 11.00-17.00
Price £5, £3 child.
Take a journey back to the age of the legendary Victorian novelist via a great collection of Dickensian artefacts.
CLINK PRISON MUSEUM
1 Clink Street, SE1
020 7378 1558
www.clink.co.uk
Mon-Fri 10.00-18.00, Sat & Sun 10.00-21.00
Price £5, child £3.50
Discover London’s nefarious past on the site of the original Clink Prison which held prisoners from the early Tudor years until 1780. Museum of the prison that bills itself as the oldest in England. Instruments of torture and an adults-only room.
DESIGN MUSEUM
Butler’s Wharf, SE1
08708 339955
www.designmuseum.org
Daily 10.00-17.45.
Price £7, child £4.
Shrine to contemporary design specialising in architecture, industrial design and the built environment.
Designing Modern Britain.Until 26 November.Explores how design has modernised Britain in the last century and shaped our lives today.
Formula One.1 July-29 October.Discover the design innovations at the heart of Grand Prix technology as well as seeing these iconic machines up close and personal.
DR JOHNSON’S HOUSE
17 Gough Square, EC4
020 7353 3745
www.drjohnsonshouse.org
Mon-Sat 11.00-17.00
Price: £4.50, child £1.50.
Visit the home where Samuel Johnson created his legendary dictionary and see a first edition among the fascinating artefacts on show.
FIREPOWER THE ROYAL ARTILLERY MUSEUM
Royal Arsenal, SE18
020 8855 7755
www.firepower.org.uk
Wed-Sun 10.30-17.00.
Price: £5, child £2.50.
Major museum space that celebrates the Royal Regiment of Artillery’s birth in 1716 and tells the story of the original gunners and the history of artillery from past to present.
Dragons:Artillery of the East.Until 3 September.Examines the development of weapons and warfare in China and Asia over the course of the last 600 years.
THE FOUNDLING MUSEUM
40 Brunswick Square, WC1
020 7841 3600
www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk
Tues-Sat 10.00-18.00, Sun 12.00-18.00.
Pice:£5, child free.
The museum recounts the fascinating story of the Foundling Hospital, London’s first home for abandoned children via a remarkable collection of art and social history adjacent to the original site of the Hospital. A unique combination of art and social history, one of London's newest museums recreates the 18th century hospital established to care for the 1000 babies abandoned in the capital every year, and which, through William Hogarth, one of the Foundling Hospital's original governors, sparked the formation of the Royal Academy of the Arts. Today the museum houses works by Hogarth and his contemporaries, in fully restored interiors.
FREUD MUSEUM
20 Maresfield Gardens, NW3
020 7435 2002
www.freud.org.uk
Wed-Sun 12.00-19.00.
Price:£5, child £2.
After escaping Nazi persecution, Sigmund Freud made this house his final home.The study is a painstaking recreation of his apartment in Vienna and the house is full of Freudian ephemera. The London home of the founder of modern psychoanalytical method, Sigmund Freud and his family after their escape from Austria in 1938. The library and study, where Freud worked, have been preserved exactly as they were during his lifetime. The house contain's Freud's extensive collection of antiquities, and exhibits related to the work of Anna Freud' Sigmund's daughter, who lived here until her death in 1982. The most famous of all the exhibits must surely be Freud's couch, where his pyschoanalysis patients relaxed during sessions. The London home of the founder of modern psychoanalytical method, Sigmund Freud and his family after their escape from Austria in 1938. The library and study, where Freud worked, have been preserved exactly as they were during his lifetime. The house contain's Freud's extensive collection of antiquities, and exhibits related to the work of Anna Freud' Sigmund's daughter, who lived here until her death in 1982. The most famous of all the exhibits must surely be Freud's couch, where his pyschoanalysis patients relaxed during sessions.
GEFFRYE MUSEUM
Kingsland Road, E2
020 7739 9893
www.geffrye-museum.org.uk
Tues-Sat 10.00-17.00, Sun 12.00-17.00
Price:Free.
Delightful small museum profiling the changing style of the English domestic interiors in a series of period rooms from 1600 to the present. In counterpoint to the period rooms of the Geffrye museum, the grounds contain a series of period gardens as well as a walled herb garden.
Domestic Archeology.Until 28 August.Mixed-media audio visual investigative journey into the living room and its meanings.Presented by The Light Surgeons.
GILBERT COLLECTION
South Building, Somerset House, Strand, WC2
020 7420 9400
www.gilbert-collection.org.uk
Daily 10.00-18.00
Price: £5, child free.
The Gilbert Collection is London’s newest museum of decorative arts.Donated to the nation by Sir Arthur Gilbert, it includes outstanding works of European silver craftsmanship, gold snuff boxes and Italian mosaics.
HANDEL HOUSE MUSEUM
25 Brook Street, W1
020 7495 1685
www.handelhouse.org.
Tues-Sat 10.00-18.00, Thurs 10.00-20.00, Sun 12.00-18.00.
Price:£5, child £2.
The home of George Frideric Handel from 1723 until his death in 1759 celebrates Handel’s life and works, displaying portraits of the composer and his contemporaries in finely restored Georgian interiors. This museum is located in the attractive Georgian house where composer George Frideric Handel lived from 1723 until his death in 1759. The museum celebrates Handel's life and works and offers regular recitals of Baroque music in the superb setting of the perod rooms. The museum is really 2 houses, numbers 25, where Handel lived, and number 23, the upper floor of which was the home of rock star Jimi Hendrix in 1968-69.
HERMITAGE ROOMS
Somerset House, Strand, WC2
020 7845 4630
www.hermitagerooms.org.uk
Daily10.00-18.00.
Price: £5, child free.
Decorated in the style of The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the galleries contain magnificent treasures from the Hermitage and other collections.
The Road to Byzantium:Luxury Arts of Antiquity.Until 3 September.Extraordinary collection of classical Greek, Roman and Byzantine artworks.
HORNIMAN MUSEUM
100 London Road, Forest Hill, SE23.
020 8699 1872
www.horniman.ac.uk.
Daily 10.30-17.30.
Price:Free.
Fascinating family friendly galleries with excellent natural history, musical instrument and world culture collections as well as an impressively relaunched aquarium. Opened in 1901 to display the bequests of collector Frederick John Horniman, this is one of London's most worthy museums, with permanent and temporary exhibits on Ethonography, Natural History and ... musical instruments! This last collection comprises some 7000 objects made to produce sound, dating from 1,500 BC to the 1990s. There is also an aquarium and a programme of events and courses.
IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM
Lambeth Road, SE1
020 7416 5320.
www.iwm.org.uk
Daily 10.00-18.00
Price:Free.
Unique museum in its coverage of conflicts, especially those involving Britain and the Commonwealth, from the First World War to the present day via a wealth of artefacts and reconstructions, includes the Holocaust exhibition. Exhibits on the First and Second World Wars, art galleries, and "Blitz Experience" and "Trench Experience" exhibits (in case you missed the real things the first time around!).
The Animal’s War:14 July-April 2007.The unsung animal heroes of wartime.
JEWISH MUSEUM
Raymond Burton House, 129-131 Albert Street, NW1
020 7284 1997.
www.jewishmuseum.org.uk
Mon-Thurs 10.00-16.00; Sun 10.00-17.00.
Price: £3.50, child £1.50.
Dedicated to increasing knowledge and understanding of Jewish history, culture and religious life. Museum detailing the history of Jewish life in Britain. Complementing the Camden Town museum is a branch in Finchley; visit the museum's website for details.
KENSINGTON PALACE
Kensington Gardens, W8.
020 7937 9561/08707 515180
www.hrp.org.uk
Daily 10.00-17.00
Price: £11, child £7.20 (exhibition entry included in entry charge).
Diana, Princess of Wales.A stunning new exhibition of photographs of Diana, Princess of Wales, alongside a display of her elegant evening dresses.
MUSEUM IN DOCKLANDS
West India Quay, E14.
08704 443856
www.museumindocklands.org.uk
Mon-Sat 10.00-17.50, Sun 12.00-17.50.
Price £5, child free.
Modern, interactive displays and galleries detailing the history of the River Thames and its docks from the Roman Empire to the present day reinvention as London’s high-rise business district.
MUSEUM OF BRANDS, PACKAGING & ADVERTISING
2 Colville Mews, Lonsdale Road, W11
020 7908 0880
www.museumofbrands.com
Tues-Sat 10.00-18.00, Sun 11.00-16.00
Price £5.80, child 2.
A journey through 200 years of consumer behaviour via a 10,000 piece collection of packaging and advertising.
MUSEUM OF GARDEN HISTORY
Lambeth Palace Road, SE1
020 7405 8865
www.museumgardenhistory.org.
Daily 10.30-17.00
Price: £5 voluntary donation.
Green fingered history of the art of gardening including garden displays and profiles of famous gardeners. The museum is housed in an old church, now restored. In the churchyard stand the tombs of the Tradescants, father and son, plant hunters and royal gardeners. Nearby is the tomb of Captain Bligh of Mutiny on the Bounty fame. There is a permanent exhibit of gardening history and antique tools.
MUSEUM OF LONDON
London Wall, EC2
0870 444 3850
www.museumoflondon.org.uk
Mon-Sat 10.00-17.50, Sun 12.00-17.50.
Price: Free.
Entire museum devoted to the history of London from as far back as prehistoric times through to today’s 21st century metropolis.If you want to now everything about London, here is the place to start. A marvellous way to spend a rainy afternoon in London. The museum's exhibits are arranged in chronological order from prehistoric times to the present. There are tons to see when visiting this museum, which has gained acclaim from all over the world. Being the largest of museums in the city, a wide-range of information dealing with prehistoric times and the present are covered. Surpassing even our high expectations, improvements made to the Museum of London over recent years have served to reinforce its reputation as the best (and most imaginatively put together) exhibition on the city's historic past. As the largest museum of its kind in the world, over a million objects and artifacts make up its inventory, with displays of Roman relics accompanied by exhibitions covering medieval, Tudor and Victorian England.
Collections are neatly divided between London's early and more recent history, with highlights such as the Lord Mayor's coach, a mock-up of a Newgate prison cell and a section depicting typical Victorian dwellings, shops and pubs. Along with the museum's temporary exhibitions (which change every 6 months or so), a visit here is made all the more rewarding by free entry
There is a relief map of the Thames valley, and models of Old St. Paul's and the White Tower in the time of William the Conqueror, as well as an audio-visual recreation of the Great Fire. The centrepiece of the museum is the Lord Mayor's State Coach, built in 1757 and still used in the annual Lord Mayor's Show.
Satirical London.Until 10 September.Celebrating three centuries of irreverent images.
THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
Cromwell Road, SW7
020 7942 5000
www.nhm.ac.uk
Mon-Sat 10.00-17.50, Sun 11.00-17.50.
Price:Free.
Palatial museum housing the world’s finest natural history collection of over 68 million specimens as well as the famous dinosaur collections and numerous specialized galleries and interactive modern exhibitions. Originally part of the British Museum, the collection grew so large it required a separate identity. The museum features dinosaur skeletons, fossils, human biology, earth sciences, and the ever-popular Creepy Crawlies exhibit.
The Ship:The Art of Climate Change.Until 3 September.Contemporary exhibition examining global climate via artists’ video, photography, sculpture and painting inspired by the artists’ group trip to the frozen Arctic. The museum building is as striking as the exhibits it contains. Designed by Fowke as a cathedral of science, the museum is entered through a set of doors flanked by columns modeled on those at Fingle's Cave in Scotland. The Romanesque style interior is supported on intricately carved and decorated columns. Terra-cotta has been used as a unifying decorative material, and everywhere there are carvings of beats and plants, both imaginary and real. The Wildlife Gallery is a new one acre garden space on the west lawn of the museum, where different British habitats are recreated, including marsh, ponds, oak and bluebell woods, hedgerows and grass meadows.
The museum also presents an ongoing program of Temporary Exhibits with themes ranging from artwork depicting animals to Myths and Monsters, Predators, photographic competitions, and more.
NATIONAL ARMY MUSEUM
Royal Hospital Road, SW3
020 7730 0717
www.national-army-museum.ac.uk
Daily 10.00-17.30.
Price:Free.
Imaginative presentations tell the story of the British Army and the development of the modern soldier through numerous battles, conflicts and historical events, from Agincourt through to the present day.
The Somme.New exhibition commemorating the 90th anniversary of one of the bloodiest battles in history.
NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM
Romney Road, WC2
08708 901103
www.nmm.ac.uk
Daily 10.00-17.00.
Price:Free.
The collection contains 16 galleries with over two million objects related to seafaring, navigation, astronomy and measuring time.Explore the past, present and future of the sea. The largest maritime museum in the world contains some 2500 models of ships, plus paintings, navigational instruments, uniforms, and historical artifacts telling the long story of Britain at sea. Look for the collection of royal barges and the special exhibits on Nelson and Cook. The Museum is housed in Queen's House and includes the Royal Observatory further up the hill.
THE OLD OPERATING THEATRE
9A St Thomas Street, SE1
020 7955 4791
www.thegarret.org.uk
Daily 10.30-17.00, Thurs 11.00-21.00
Price:£4.95, child £2.95
Fascinating relic from the original St Thomas’ Hospital, Britain’s oldest surviving operating theatre features grisly relics from the medical past.
ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM
Grahame Park Way, Hendon, NW9
020 8358 4849
www.rafmuseum.org.
Daily 10.00-18.00
Price:Free.
The national museum of all things aeronautical with over 70 historic aircraft and the Milestones of Flight exhibition celebrating over 100 years of aviation.
SCIENCE MUSEUM
Exhibition Road, SW7
08708 704868
www.sciencemuseum.org.uk
Daily 10.00-18.00.
Price:Free.
The Science Museum holds the world’s largest and most significant collection illustrating the history and contemporary practice of science, technology, medicine and industry.Also includes The Wellcome Wing, IMAX Cinema and The Dana Centre. Wow! Engineering, technology, industry, children's gallery, working models, rail transport, astronomy, and much, much, more. This is fun! Hands-on exhibits teach the fundamentals of science without appearing to teach.
SHERLOCK HOLMES MUSEUM
221B Baker Street, NW1
020 7935 8866
www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk
Daily 9.30-18.00
Price £6, child £4.
Mythical address that was home to Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous novels now a museum dedicated to the life and times of the fictional sleuth.
SIR JOHN SOANE’S MUSEUM
13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2
020 7405 2107
www.soane.org.
Tues-Sat 10.00-17.00
Price:Free.
Architect Sir John Soane’s house and library in Lincoln’s Inn Fields has been a public museum since the early 19th century and is a fascinating labyrinthine journey through the wealth of antiquities and art in his collection.
VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM
Cromwell Road, SW7
020 7942 2000
www.vam.ac.uk.
Thurs-Tues 10.00-17.45; Wed 10.00-22.00
Price:Free.
Friday Late View on the last Fri of each month 18.30-22.00.The V&A has around four million exhibits including sculpture, jewellery, enamels, silver, miniatures, water-colours, pottery, glass, furniture, weapons, musical instruments and costume. Museum of the decorative arts, including furniture, jewellery, carpets, sculpture, reliquaries, prints, Dress Collection, and more. One of the world's great museums.
Che Guevara:Revolutionary and Icon.Until 28 August.Focus on the iconography of the famous revolutionary, bringing together photography, posters, film, fine art and clothing.
WIMBLEDON LAWN TENNIS MUSEUM
Centre Court, The All England Club, Church Road, SW19
020 8946 6131
Daily 10.30-17.00.
www.wimbledon.org/museum
Price: £7.50, child £4.75
Newly reopened state of the art museum housing Championship trophies, tennis memorabilia, cinema and a 3D ‘ghost’ of John McEnroe you can meet.
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