The Wellcome Collection is free, all of it, and the only hard part is working out which day gets you which half of the building.
On a Monday the galleries are shut and the library is open. On a Sunday the library is shut and the galleries are open. Turn up on the wrong day for the wrong reason and half the building is dark.
The four timetables
There are genuinely four, and they do not match.
Galleries and Reading Room: closed Monday. Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm.
Library: Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm. Saturday 10am to 4pm. Closed Sunday.
Café: daily, 10am to 6pm.
Shop: daily, 10am to 6pm.
So the only days you get both the exhibitions and the library are Tuesday to Saturday, and on the Saturday the library closes two hours early.
Tuesday to Friday is the complete visit. Everything else is a compromise, and worth choosing deliberately rather than discovering.
Everything is free
Worth stating plainly because it is unusual at this quality. All the permanent and temporary exhibitions are free, and so are most of the events.
There is no ticketed blockbuster upstairs subsidising a free ground floor, which is the model at most of the national museums. Here the whole programme is open.
The cloakroom is free too, for coats and bags, while you are in the exhibitions or the library.
What is actually in it
The subject is health and medicine, and the collection runs across thousands of years and many cultures rather than being a history of Western doctors.
The Reading Room is the part people do not expect: not a silent library but a room you can sit in, browse books, artworks and objects, and attend conversations and events. It keeps gallery hours rather than library hours, which is why it is listed with them.
The library proper is a research collection and is the half that closes on Sundays.
Photography is allowed for personal use in most of the exhibitions and public areas, except where signs say otherwise.
Every bag is now searched
New this week, and it changes how long you need on arrival.
“From Monday 5 October, all bags will be searched before entry to help keep Wellcome Collection safe and secure. Please allow extra time on arrival.”
That started on 5 October 2026, and it is every bag rather than a sample. If you are coming for a timed event, or squeezing a visit in before a train, add the queue to your maths.
It also makes the free cloakroom the obvious move rather than carrying a bag round the galleries.
Free tours three times a day, with no booking
The best thing in the building that nobody seems to use, and it is not advertised anywhere obvious.
“Drop-in for a 30 minute session, Tuesday to Sunday at 11:45, 14:15 and 15:15.”
Three a day, six days a week, half an hour, free, no booking. They are led by the museum’s Visitor Experience and Engagement Facilitators and cover health past, present and future, with a range of accessible tours included.
Topics are not published in advance: “please listen out for announcements and check our signs for details of what’s taking place.” So turn up at one of the three times and take what is on.
The days match the galleries rather than the library, so there are no tours on a Monday.
Where it is
183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, on 020 7611 2222 or info@wellcomecollection.org.
It is directly opposite Euston Square and a few minutes from Euston, King’s Cross and St Pancras, which makes it the single best place in London to spend a spare hour before a train. That is probably its most useful quality and nobody uses it that way.
Group visits can be booked in advance, including tours.
How to plan it
The full building: Tuesday to Friday, 10am to 6pm.
Allow extra time: all bags are searched from 5 October 2026.
Free 30 minute tour: 11:45, 14:15 or 15:15, Tuesday to Sunday, just turn up.
Monday: library, café and shop only. No galleries.
Sunday: galleries only. No library.
Saturday: both, but the library shuts at 4pm.
An hour before a train from Euston or King’s Cross: this, every time, and it costs nothing.
Wellcome Collection
- Address
- 183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE
- Nearest
- Euston Square, with Euston, King’s Cross and St Pancras all a few minutes away
- Hours
- Galleries and Reading Room closed Monday, otherwise 10am to 6pm. Library Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm, Saturday 10am to 4pm, closed Sunday. Cafe and shop daily 10am to 6pm
- Booking
- None needed. Group visits and tours can be booked in advance
- Price
- Free, including all permanent and temporary exhibitions and most events
- Standing
- A free museum of health and medicine on Euston Road, with a research library and a Reading Room
How to get in
Four different timetables run in one building: the only days with both galleries and library are Tuesday to Saturday, and the library closes at 4pm on Saturday. The cloakroom is free, and photography for personal use is allowed in most areas.
Where to go next
The free museums cover the national collections, and the British Museum is fifteen minutes south.
The King’s Cross restaurants cover dinner nearby, and Cecil Court is the other place to spend an hour among books.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 254 in the guide.
Last checked 5 October 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
