The Wallace Collection: Free Museum, Free Lockers

The lockers here are free. At the V&A, four stops away, the same bag costs £5.

“Free visitor lockers are available on the Lower Ground Floor to store personal items.”

Both museums are free to enter. Both ban large bags from the galleries. The V&A charges £3 for a coat, £5 for a cabin bag and £7 for anything bigger. The Wallace charges nothing.

For anyone crossing London with luggage, that is the difference between a free afternoon and £7.

The size limit is 56cm × 25cm × 45cm. Above that, the bag does not come in at all.

What you cannot bring

A specific list, and two of the items are unexpected.

Large bags over 56 × 25 × 45cm.

Folding bicycles. Adult skateboards and scooters, e-bikes and e-scooters.

Musical instruments exceeding 56 × 25 × 45cm.

Helium balloons or floral arrangements.

Large umbrellas, which must be left at the Information Desk.

The museum notes the list is not exhaustive. Balloons and flowers are there because this is a house full of unglazed 18th-century furniture, not because anyone is being difficult.

Bags may be inspected entering or leaving Hertford House, and refusing a search may mean no admission.

Your face has to be visible

Stated plainly and it applies to everyone.

“For safety and security reasons, all visitors must ensure that their face is fully visible while inside Hertford House.”

That covers hoods and helmets as well as face coverings. Worth knowing if you have cycled in.

Free, daily, and closed three days a year

Open daily 10.00 to 17.00. Entry to the permanent collection is free.

Closed 24, 25 and 26 December. That is the entire annual closure.

One standing warning worth taking seriously in a house museum: “Parts of the museum may close at short notice.” Individual rooms shut for maintenance with little notice, so if you are coming for one specific thing, ring first.

The restaurant has two different booking windows

The glazed courtyard restaurant is a destination in itself, and its rules are easy to get wrong.

Open 10.00 to 17.00, last orders 16.30. Walk-ins are taken, subject to availability on arrival.

Reservations are only for the full à la carte or set lunch menu, between 12.00 and 14.30, with the last sitting at 14.00.

So you can book lunch, and you cannot book a coffee. Outside that two and a half hour window it is walk-in only, in a courtyard that fills up.

Afternoon tea is booked separately, 12.00 to 17.00, last sitting 16.00. There is currently a Winston Churchill: The Painter afternoon tea, tied to an upcoming exhibition, with themed cocktails.

To book food, call 020 7563 9505, which answers between 10.00 and 12.00 or 15.00 and 17.00 only. A five hour phone window for a seven hour restaurant.

What is actually in it

A national museum most Londoners have never been inside, in a townhouse off Oxford Street.

Oil paintings from the 14th to the late 19th centuries including Titian, Velázquez, Rubens and Van Dyck. Princely arms and armour. One of the finest collections of 18th-century French paintings and decorative arts in the world, plus Limoges enamel, maiolica, glass and bronzes.

The single most famous object is Fragonard’s The Swing, which has its own dedicated site.

The collection was built by the Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace and given to the British Nation in 1897 by Lady Wallace, so that it could be kept together, one of the greatest gifts of artworks ever transferred into public ownership.

That condition is why it is displayed as a house rather than a gallery: the rooms are arranged to evoke the lives and tastes of the people who assembled it.

Where it is

Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN. what3words ///tones.ships.ships.

Behind Oxford Street, between Bond Street, Baker Street and Marylebone Village. Two minutes from the back of Selfridges.

Buses 2, 10, 12, 13, 30, 74, 82, 94, 113, 137 and 274 stop nearby, and all of those routes are wheelchair accessible.

Telephone 020 7563 9500.

Standing rules in the galleries

Short and reasonable, but worth knowing before you are told.

Do not touch objects on display, including frames, sculptures and furniture. Much of it is unglazed and uncased, which is the point of the place and the reason for the rule.

Keep yourself and your belongings behind the barriers.

No smoking or vaping in the building or the entrance courtyard.

No running, and no food or drink in the gallery spaces.

How to plan it

Carrying a bag: the lockers are free. Unlike almost every other free museum in London.

Bag limit 56 × 25 × 45cm. Over that and it does not come in.

Booking lunch: midday to 2.30pm only, last sitting 2pm. Everything else is walk-in.

Phoning about food: 10 to 12 or 3 to 5.

Coming for one room: ring first. Parts of the museum close at short notice.

Leave the folding bike, the scooter and the flowers at home.

Face visible inside the house, hoods and helmets included.

The Wallace Collection

Address

Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN

Nearest

Bond Street and Baker Street. Buses 2, 10, 12, 13, 30, 74, 82, 94, 113, 137 and 274, all on wheelchair accessible routes

Hours

Daily 10.00 to 17.00. Closed 24, 25 and 26 December. Restaurant 10.00 to 17.00 with last orders 16.30

Booking

No booking for the museum. Restaurant reservations only for a la carte or set lunch between 12.00 and 14.30, last sitting 14.00, with walk-ins otherwise. Afternoon tea booked 12.00 to 17.00, last sitting 16.00. Food bookings on 020 7563 9505, answered 10.00 to 12.00 and 15.00 to 17.00

Price

Free to enter the permanent collection. Restaurant and afternoon tea charged

Standing

A national museum in a Marylebone townhouse holding Titian, Velazquez, Rubens and Van Dyck, princely arms and armour, and one of the finest collections of 18th century French art in the world, including Fragonard’s The Swing

How to get in

Visitor lockers are free, on the Lower Ground Floor, where the V&A charges 3 to 7 pounds for the same service. Bags over 56 by 25 by 45cm are not admitted, and nor are folding bicycles, adult scooters, e-bikes, large musical instruments, helium balloons or floral arrangements. All visitors must keep their face fully visible inside Hertford House. The collection was given to the nation by Lady Wallace in 1897 on condition it be kept together, which is why it is hung as a house rather than a gallery. Parts of the museum may close at short notice.

Where to go next

London’s free museums covers the rest, and the V&A is the one that charges for the cloakroom.

Marylebone covers the high street five minutes away, and afternoon tea compares the courtyard against the hotels.

Questions we get asked

Is the Wallace Collection free?

Yes, entry to the permanent collection is free, and it is open daily 10.00 to 17.00, closing only on 24, 25 and 26 December. The visitor lockers are free too, which is unusual: the V&A charges £3 to £7 to store the same items.

What bags can you take into the Wallace Collection?

Nothing over 56cm × 25cm × 45cm. Free lockers on the Lower Ground Floor take anything within that size. Also banned are folding bicycles, adult skateboards and scooters, e-bikes and e-scooters, musical instruments over the same dimensions, helium balloons, floral arrangements, and large umbrellas, which must be left at the Information Desk.

Can you book the Wallace Collection restaurant?

Only for lunch. Reservations are taken for the full à la carte or set lunch menu between 12.00 and 14.30, with the last sitting at 14.00. Outside that the courtyard restaurant is walk-in only, open 10.00 to 17.00 with last orders at 16.30. Afternoon tea is booked separately between 12.00 and 17.00, last sitting 16.00.

What is the most famous painting in the Wallace Collection?

Fragonard's The Swing, which has its own dedicated site from the museum. The collection also holds oil paintings by Titian, Velázquez, Rubens and Van Dyck, princely arms and armour, and one of the world's finest collections of 18th-century French painting and decorative arts.

Why is the Wallace Collection displayed as a house?

Because of the terms of the gift. The collection was given to the British Nation in 1897 by Lady Wallace so that it could be kept together, and it is displayed at Hertford House, the former home of Sir Richard and Lady Wallace, arranged to evoke the lives and tastes of its founders.

Where is the Wallace Collection?

Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN, behind Oxford Street between Bond Street and Baker Street, a couple of minutes from the back of Selfridges. Buses 2, 10, 12, 13, 30, 74, 82, 94, 113, 137 and 274 stop nearby and all those routes are wheelchair accessible.