London's Best Museums & Galleries

London is home to some of the finest museums and galleries in the world, and the best part is that many of them are completely free to enter. The city's national museums — including the British Museum, Natural History Museum, and National Gallery — offer permanent collections you could spend days exploring without paying a penny.

For art lovers, the choice is extraordinary. The Tate Modern houses one of the world's great collections of contemporary art in a converted power station on the South Bank, while the Courtauld Gallery holds an intimate but exceptional collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces. If portraiture is your thing, the National Portrait Gallery reopened in 2023 after a major renovation and is well worth a visit.

Several museums do charge admission, but often offer discounts for booking online in advance. The London Transport Museum in Covent Garden and the Imperial War Museum are among the paid options that consistently rank as visitor favourites. We list current prices and any available discount codes on each attraction's page.

Most London museums are easily reached by Tube, and many are clustered together — the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, and V&A are all within a five-minute walk of each other in South Kensington, making it easy to visit two or three in a single day.