Everyone knows London’s museums are free. Almost nobody can tell you what is free inside them, which is the part that decides whether your afternoon costs nothing or costs twenty five pounds a head.
The line does not run between buildings. It runs through the middle of each one.
The top museums in London are the free ones, and that is not a coincidence
Ask which are the best museums in London and the answer is almost entirely the free ones. The National Gallery, the British Museum, the V and A, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, Tate Modern and Tate Britain. Between them they hold most of what anybody comes here to see, and not one of them charges to walk in.
That is a policy rather than an accident. The national collections are free because Parliament decided they should be, and the buildings were designed around the idea that the public would simply arrive. It is the single best thing about visiting this city and the most consistently undersold.
Is the National Gallery free?
Yes, and it always has been. The National Gallery makes the point better than any of them. Rechecked on 28 September 2026, it still had no ticketed exhibition running at all, and its own website said so under the heading Current exhibitions, adding that the paintings are free to enjoy every day. That changes on 3 October, when Renoir and Love opens as a ticketed show, but the collection around it stays free: an entire world class collection, in Trafalgar Square, with nothing to buy. Our exhibitions guide covers what is running across the city and the date each show closes.
So the useful question is not which museums are best. It is what inside them costs money, which is what the rest of this page is about, and the answer is rarely what people expect.
Permanent is free, temporary is not
Every national museum here works the same way. The permanent collection is free and always has been. The temporary exhibition is ticketed, and it is deliberately placed where you will walk into it.
That is not a trick, it is how these institutions fund themselves. But it produces a specific and very common mistake: people arrive, see a price list at a desk near the entrance, assume that is the admission fee, and either pay it or leave. The ninety other rooms behind that desk were free the whole time.
The free collection is frequently the better half. A blockbuster exhibition is a hundred works borrowed for four months. The permanent collection is the reason the museum exists.
Free does not always mean walk in
This is the genuinely useful distinction and no one publishes it in one place, because each museum only publishes its own policy. They differ, and the difference will cost you an hour.
| Museum | Booking | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Science Museum | Book aheadA free ticket, but required | Daily 10am to 6pm, last entry 5.15pm |
| Natural History Museum | AdvisedQueues at weekends and half term | Daily 10am to 5.50pm, last entry 5.30pm |
| V and A | Walk in | Daily 10am to 5.45pm, Friday to 10pm |
| Tate Modern | Walk in | Sunday to Thursday 10am to 6pm, Friday and Saturday to 9pm |
| IWM London | Walk inTheir own words: you don’t need to book | Daily 10am to 6pm |
| Wellcome Collection | Walk inClosed Mondays | Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 6pm |
The Science Museum is the one that catches people, because it sits on the same street as two museums that do not require it.
The South Kensington three
Three world class free museums within four minutes of each other, which is a concentration no other city has. Doing two of them in a day is ambitious. Doing three is a mistake. The Natural History Museum has its own page, with the two paid exhibitions and the Friday it is closed.
Victoria and Albert Museum
- Address
- Cromwell Road, South Kensington, SW7 2RL
- Nearest
- South Kensington
- Hours
- Daily 10am to 5.45pm. Friday until 10pm, though some galleries close at 5.45pm
- Price
- Free
- Standing
- The national collection of art, design and performance, across some 145 galleries
How to get in
Their own wording is that admission is free, with no ticket and no booking for the permanent collection. Galleries start clearing thirty minutes before close. The Friday late is the reason to come: the same building, a fraction of the people, and a bar in the courtyard.
Natural History Museum
- Address
- Cromwell Road, South Kensington, SW7 5BD
- Nearest
- South Kensington
- Hours
- Daily 10am to 5.50pm, last entry 5.30pm. Closed 24 to 26 December, and all day on Friday 9 October 2026 for a private event
- Price
- Free
- Standing
- Around 80 million specimens in Alfred Waterhouse's 1881 building
How to get in
In their own words, the galleries are free to explore. Booking is not required but they advise it, because weekends and school holidays produce a real queue at the door. A free ticket guarantees entry. The building itself is worth the visit even if you look at nothing in it.
Science Museum
- Address
- Exhibition Road, South Kensington, SW7 2DD
- Nearest
- South Kensington
- Hours
- Daily 10am to 6pm, last entry 5.15pm. Closed 24 to 26 December
- Price
- Free entry, with some galleries ticketed
- Standing
- Seven floors, from the Apollo 10 command module to the mathematics gallery
How to get in
The one on this page where you must pre-book a free ticket rather than walking in. Two galleries inside are paid, Wonderlab and Power Up, and both are cheaper booked ahead than on the door. Everything else is free.
Free, and open after six
A museum at night is a different building. The school groups have gone, the galleries are half empty, and in two cases there is a bar.
Tate Modern
- Address
- Bankside, SE1 9TG
- Nearest
- Southwark, about 600 metres
- Hours
- Sunday to Thursday 10am to 6pm. Friday and Saturday 10am to 9pm. Last entry thirty minutes before close
- Price
- Free collection, ticketed exhibitions
- Standing
- A former power station on the river, opened as a gallery in 2000
How to get in
Their own line is that entry to the collection is free for everyone, and the collection is most of the building. The Friday and Saturday late runs to 9pm, which makes it the only major free collection in London you can visit after dinner rather than instead of it.
The V and A’s Friday late runs to 10pm and is the better of the two if you want the evening to feel like an occasion. Tate Modern’s is the better one if you want the river afterwards. London at night covers what to do with the rest of the evening.
The two nobody goes to
Both free, both central, both consistently empty compared with what they hold.
Wellcome Collection
- Address
- 183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE
- Nearest
- Euston or Euston Square
- Hours
- Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 6pm. Closed Monday
- Price
- Free
- Standing
- A collection about medicine, life and what people have done to their own bodies
How to get in
Their own statement is that all permanent and temporary exhibitions, and most events, are free, which makes it one of the very few museums in London with no paid exhibition at all. It is directly opposite Euston station and most people who pass it every week have never been in.
IWM London
- Address
- Lambeth Road, SE1 6HZ
- Nearest
- Lambeth North or Elephant and Castle
- Hours
- Daily 10am to 6pm. Closed 24 to 26 December
- Price
- Free
- Standing
- The Imperial War Museum's main site, in the former Bethlem Royal Hospital building
How to get in
Their own words: entry to the museum is free, you don't need to book. The Holocaust Galleries and the First World War Galleries are the reason to go and both are free. This is not a day out for everyone and the museum does not pretend otherwise.
Worth leaving zone one for
Greenwich holds the National Maritime Museum and the Queen’s House, both free, at the bottom of a park with the best view back over the city from the top of it. The Royal Observatory on the hill above them is the one that charges.
London Museum Docklands at West India Quay, the old Museum of London Docklands under its new name, is free and sits in a Georgian warehouse, and its gallery on London’s role in the slave trade is the most serious treatment of the subject in the city.
The Horniman in Forest Hill is free for the main galleries and has an overstuffed walrus that was taxidermied by someone who had never seen one.
How to use a free museum properly
Ninety minutes, then leave. Museum fatigue is a real physical thing and it arrives at roughly the same point for everyone. Two short visits to two museums beat one long march through the V and A, and because they are free you can walk out after forty minutes without having wasted anything.
Go to one wing, not to the highlights. The highlights route is where the crowd is by definition. Pick a single department and see it properly. Nothing here is a ticket you have to justify.
Check the closed day before you cross London. Wellcome is shut on Mondays. People do not check opening hours for things they are not paying for, and this is the commonest way a free afternoon ends at a locked door.
Donate at the desk rather than at the door. The suggested donation boxes are real and these institutions are genuinely underfunded. Five pounds is a fair price for something that spent decades not charging you one.
Everything here was taken from each museum’s own published information and rechecked on 28 September 2026. Opening hours, late nights and booking policies change. Confirm before you travel, particularly the closed days.
The free galleries, in detail
Each of these now has its own page, and the free and paid lines differ on every one.
Tate Modern is free and open until 21.00 on Fridays and Saturdays, but its cloakroom has closed and bags now cost £4 to £8.
Tate Britain is free with a free cloakroom, four daily tours and the world’s largest free Turner display, entered from Atterbury Street until 2027.
The National Gallery is free and open to 9pm on Fridays, though building work has moved paintings, so check the floorplan.
The National Portrait Gallery is free and open to 9pm on Friday and Saturday, making it one of only two free collections available on a Saturday evening.
The Southbank Centre runs free exhibitions in the Hayward Gallery and Queen Elizabeth Hall, which normally sell tickets.
Saatchi Gallery is free when its shows are free, which they are at the time of writing, but it closes the whole building between exhibitions.
Where to go next
The art galleries cover the commercial rooms, which are also free and which almost nobody walks into.
Moco Museum at Marble Arch is the paid one, about fifteen pounds, and the only place in London showing Banksy and Kusama together.
The British Museum has its own page, with the Friday late opening to 8.30pm and the three free exhibitions running now.
Free things to do in London covers the rest of it, including the twenty seven pound cathedral ticket you do not have to buy.
The exhibitions covers the ticketed half, and things to do in central London covers how to build a day around any of this.
Questions we get asked
Which museums in London are free?
All the national ones. The British Museum, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, the V and A, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the Imperial War Museum, the National Maritime Museum and London Museum Docklands all have free permanent collections. So do the Wellcome Collection, the Wallace Collection and Sir John Soane's Museum. Temporary exhibitions inside them are ticketed separately.
Do you need to book a free museum in London?
It depends on the museum, which is why people get caught. The Science Museum requires a pre-booked free ticket. The Natural History Museum advises booking because weekends and school holidays produce a queue, but does not require it. The V and A, Tate Modern, IWM London and the Wellcome Collection are all walk in. IWM's own wording is that entry is free and you don't need to book.
Why are London museums free?
Because of decisions taken about them rather than as a discount. The British Museum was founded in 1753 on the principle of free public access and has never charged for its permanent collection. The rest of the national museums have operated free admission since 2001. It is public policy, which is also why the temporary exhibitions are ticketed: that is where the money comes from.
Which free museum in London is the best?
For one visit with no particular interest, the V and A, because it covers the widest range and the building is the exhibit. For a collection you can finish, the Wallace Collection. For something you will not see anywhere else, the Wellcome Collection. The British Museum is the most important and also the most crowded, which is a real consideration.
Are any London museums open late?
Two of the major free ones. The V and A opens until 10pm on Fridays, although some galleries close at 5.45pm as usual. Tate Modern opens until 9pm on Friday and Saturday. Both are substantially quieter in the evening than during the day, and both have somewhere to drink in the building.
Is the Science Museum free?
Yes, general entry is free, but unlike its neighbours it requires a free ticket booked in advance rather than walking in. Two galleries inside are separately ticketed, Wonderlab and Power Up, and both cost less booked ahead than bought on the door. Everything else in the building is included.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 62 in the guide.
Last checked 28 September 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
