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The borough opened it as a museum in 1980, and it is one of the most complete middle-class interiors of the period anywhere, visited on your own or with a guide from Wednesday to Sunday.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/18-stafford-terrace.jpg?v=d626b8e8","thumb":"/img/18-stafford-terrace-480.jpg?v=9a386d5a","width":1024,"height":845,"alt":"The terrace at Stafford Terrace","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Ricardalovesmonuments, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:14-22_Stafford_Terrace_London.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"18 Stafford Terrace, W8 7BH, London","in_area":{"slug":"notting-hill-holland-park","name":"Notting Hill & Holland Park"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Aux Merveilleux de Fred Kensington","s":"aux-merveilleux-de-fred-kensington","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":312},{"n":"Ezra Pound","s":"ezra-pound","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":347},{"n":"Ugo Foscolo","s":"ugo-foscolo","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":386}],"near_same":[{"s":"design-museum","m":237},{"s":"leighton-house-museum","m":477},{"s":"kensington-palace","m":796},{"s":"baden-powell-house-exhibition","m":1313},{"s":"rcm-museum-of-music","m":1385},{"s":"science-museum","m":1469}]},{"slug":"2-willow-road","name":"2 Willow Road","area":"Hampstead","address":"2 Willow Road, NW3 1TH","station":"Hampstead Heath","walk":4,"lat":51.557196,"lng":-0.169145,"hours":null,"hours_raw":"Mar-Oct: Th,Sa 11:00-16:30; Mar-Oct: Fr,Su-We off; Nov-Feb: Mo-Su off","website":"https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/london/2-willow-road","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"Ern\u0151 Goldfinger's own modernist terrace, kept as the family left it.","note":"He built three houses in Hampstead in 1939 and lived in the middle one until 1987 \u2014 demolishing the cottages that stood there, which Ian Fleming never forgave. The furniture is Goldfinger's own and the art includes Bridget Riley and Max Ernst. National Trust; entry by timed tour for part of the day.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/2-willow-road.jpg?v=6bcdadfb","thumb":"/img/2-willow-road-480.jpg?v=8eddee65","width":1024,"height":681,"alt":"2 Willow Road is part of a terrace of three houses in Hampstead, London designed by architect Ern\u0151 Goldfinger and completed in 1939. It has been managed by the National Trust since 1995 and is open to the public","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Ashley Coates, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2_Willow_Road.jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/2-willow-road/"},{"name":"Architecture","href":"/architecture/2-willow-road/"}],"maps_q":"2 Willow Road, NW3 1TH, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Badiani Hampstead Heath","s":"badiani-hampstead-heath","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":248},{"n":"Redemption Roasters","s":"redemption-roasters","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":255},{"n":"Elias Canetti","s":"elias-canetti","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":469}],"near_same":[{"s":"keats-house","m":199},{"s":"burgh-house-hampstead-museum","m":425},{"s":"fenton-house","m":752},{"s":"freud-museum","m":1140},{"s":"camden-arts-centre","m":1195},{"s":"kenwood-house","m":1600}]},{"slug":"575-wandsworth-road","name":"575 Wandsworth Road","area":"Clapham","address":"575 Wandsworth Road, SW8 3JD","station":"Wandsworth Road","walk":2,"lat":51.469702,"lng":-0.140655,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/575-wandsworth-road#Overview","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/8280936617","types":["historic-house","small-gem"],"verdict":"A poet from Kenya covered a damp patch with a piece of carved pine, and did not stop for twenty years.","note":"Khadambi Asalache was born in 1935 at Kaimosi in western Kenya, the eldest son of the local chief. He studied architecture in Nairobi and then fine art in Rome, Geneva and Vienna, came to London in 1960, taught Swahili, worked for the BBC African Service, published The Calabash of Life in 1967 - one of the first modern Kenyan novels written in English, which went into ten editions - took an MPhil in the philosophy of mathematics at Birkbeck, and spent his working life as a civil servant at the Treasury.\n\nHe bought this Georgian terraced house in 1981, for less than the \u00a331,000 asked, in poor condition and lately squatted. The basement had damp patches, and his answer to one of them was to cover it with fretwork cut from a discarded pine door. Over the next twenty years he covered almost every surface in the house the same way - walls, doors, cupboards, the bath - cutting the patterns by hand from thrown-out doors and packing cases, drawing on the Great Mosque of Cordoba, the Alhambra, the carved doors of Zanzibar, Damascus panelling and the yali, the wooden waterside houses of the Bosphorus. Against it he set murals of African landscapes and a collection of nineteenth-century English lustreware.\n\nHe died in 2006 and left the house to the National Trust, which accepted on condition that an endowment was raised to keep it. The building was listed Grade II in 1974, for the Georgian shell, and the list entry says nothing at all about what is inside.","deep":true,"hours_extra":"Pre-booked guided tours only, six people at a time, Thursdays and Fridays from May to October. No shop, no cafe, no lavatories.","maps_q":"575 Wandsworth Road, SW8 3JD, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Natsume S\u014dseki","s":"natsume-soseki","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":664},{"n":"Clapham Book Festival","s":"clapham-book-festival","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":677},{"n":"Megan's Old Town","s":"megans-old-town","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":707}],"near_same":[{"s":"studio-voltaire","m":945},{"s":"black-cultural-archives","m":2070},{"s":"brixton-windmill","m":2172},{"s":"royal-hospital-chelsea-museum","m":2371},{"s":"gasworks-gallery","m":2447},{"s":"national-army-museum","m":2523}]},{"slug":"7-hammersmith-terrace","name":"7 Hammersmith Terrace","area":"Hammersmith","address":"7 Hammersmith Terrace, W6 9TU","station":"Stamford Brook","walk":8,"lat":51.489831,"lng":-0.24242,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"http://www.emerywalker.org.uk/","instagram":"ewthammersmith","attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"Former home of Emery Walker, friend and mentor to William Morris, house features Arts and Crafts style interior.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"7 Hammersmith Terrace, W6 9TU, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"The Elder Press Cafe","s":"the-elder-press-cafe","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":40},{"n":"Chiswick Mall","s":"chiswick-mall","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":142},{"n":"Kelmscott House","s":"kelmscott-house","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":489}],"near_same":[{"s":"hogarths-house","m":945},{"s":"chiswick-house","m":1308},{"s":"riverside-gallery","m":2233},{"s":"fulham-palace","m":2834},{"s":"leighton-house-museum","m":2893},{"s":"design-museum","m":3131}]},{"slug":"all-hallows-by-the-tower-crypt-museum","name":"All Hallows-by-the-Tower Crypt Museum","area":"Tower","address":"Byward Street, Leadenhall Market, EC3R 5BJ","station":"Tower Hill","walk":2,"lat":51.5094,"lng":-0.0794,"hours":[[8.0,17.0],[8.0,17.0],[8.0,17.0],[8.0,17.0],[8.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Fr 08:00-17:00; Sa-Su 10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.ahbtt.org.uk/visit/","instagram":"allhallowstower","attrs":[],"osm":"way/59213570","types":["history"],"verdict":"The oldest church in the City, with a Saxon arch of Roman brick and a second-century Roman floor in the crypt beneath, free.","note":"All Hallows was founded by the abbey at Barking in 675, by its own tradition, which makes it the oldest church in the City, and it stands close enough to the Tower that the bodies of the beheaded, Archbishop Laud among them, were brought here for burial. Pepys climbed its tower in 1666 to watch the Great Fire, which stopped short of it; the Blitz did not, and when the church was rebuilt an arch of reused Roman brick was found in the ruins, built by the Saxons and the oldest piece of any church in London. The crypt museum below keeps a tessellated Roman pavement of the second century where it was laid, in the floor of a house that stood here before the church, with Saxon crosses, the parish registers that record William Penn's baptism in 1644 and John Quincy Adams's wedding in 1797, and the relics of Tubby Clayton, the vicar who founded the Toc H movement here for the soldiers of the First World War. Entry to the church and the crypt is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/all-hallows-by-the-tower-crypt-museum.jpg?v=ec9ef636","thumb":"/img/all-hallows-by-the-tower-crypt-museum-480.jpg?v=04a9da0e","width":1024,"height":912,"alt":"All Hallows by the Tower: a brick church with a green copper spire on its tower","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Katie Chan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EH1064671_Church_of_All_Hallows_by_the_Tower_07.jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Sacred London","href":"/sacred/all-hallows-by-the-tower-crypt-museum/"}],"maps_q":"All Hallows-by-the-Tower Crypt Museum, Byward Street, Leadenhall Market, EC3R 5BJ, London","in_area":{"slug":"the-city","name":"The City"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Tower Subway","s":"tower-subway","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":112},{"n":"Tower Hill Memorial","s":"tower-hill-memorial","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":125},{"n":"St Olave Hart Street","s":"st-olave-hart-street","c":"sacred","cn":"Sacred London","m":166}],"near_same":[{"s":"tower-of-london","m":257},{"s":"fusiliers-museum","m":315},{"s":"hms-belfast","m":342},{"s":"tower-bridge","m":514},{"s":"royal-pharmaceutical-society-museum","m":765},{"s":"bank-of-england-museum","m":782}]},{"slug":"anaesthesia-heritage-centre","name":"Anaesthesia Heritage Centre","area":"Fitzrovia","address":"21 Portland Place, W1B 1PY","station":"Regent's Park","walk":6,"lat":51.519431,"lng":-0.145066,"hours":[[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],null,null],"hours_raw":"Mo-Fr 10:00-16:00; PH off","website":"https://anaesthetists.org/Home/Heritage-centre","instagram":"anaesthesiamuseum","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"node/12546753235","types":["free","medical","niche"],"verdict":"History of anaesthesia and the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland.","note":null,"deep":true,"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/anaesthesia-heritage-centre/"}],"maps_q":"Anaesthesia Heritage Centre, 21 Portland Place, W1B 1PY, London","in_area":{"slug":"marylebone","name":"Marylebone"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Broadcasting House","s":"broadcasting-house","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":135},{"n":"Stefan Zweig","s":"stefan-zweig","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":147},{"n":"George Orwell statue, Broadcasting House","s":"george-orwell-statue-broadcasting-house","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":163}],"near_same":[{"s":"cartoon-museum","m":493},{"s":"wallace-collection","m":593},{"s":"the-photographers-gallery","m":652},{"s":"royal-academy-of-music-museum","m":663},{"s":"royal-college-of-physicians-museum","m":706},{"s":"handel-hendrix-house","m":723}]},{"slug":"apsley-house","name":"Apsley House","area":"Hyde Park Corner","address":"149 Piccadilly, W1J 7NT","station":"Hyde Park Corner","walk":2,"lat":51.503488,"lng":-0.151712,"hours":[null,null,[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Su 11:00-17:00","website":"https://www.wellingtoncollection.co.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/120316250","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"Number One London: the Duke of Wellington's house at Hyde Park Corner, still full of what Europe gave him, with Napoleon naked in the stairwell.","note":"Robert Adam built the house in the 1770s for Lord Apsley, and Wellington bought it from his brother in 1817, two years after Waterloo, with the country's gratitude paying for the alterations. The address, the first house inside the tollgate on the road from the west, was Number One, London. In 1947 the seventh Duke gave it to the nation with everything in it and kept a flat, which the family still occupies, so the state rooms are as the great Duke left them. The Waterloo Gallery, built for the banquet he gave his officers every 18 June, hangs the pictures he captured from Joseph Bonaparte's baggage train after Vitoria in 1813 and which the King of Spain then told him to keep: Vel\u00e1zquez's Waterseller of Seville, Correggio, Murillo and Goya's portrait of Wellington himself. Canova's statue of Napoleon as a naked Roman god, eleven feet of him, stands at the foot of the stairs, bought by the government from the man it had defeated and given to the man who beat him; the Portuguese silver centrepiece and the S\u00e8vres service Napoleon had made for Josephine are in the dining room. It opens Wednesday to Sunday.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/apsley-house.jpg?v=73d9ead9","thumb":"/img/apsley-house-480.jpg?v=8f66f6bc","width":1024,"height":738,"alt":"A photograph of Apsley House.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Anthony O'Neil, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apsley_House_-_geograph.org.uk_-_3763141.jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"maps_q":"Apsley House, 149 Piccadilly, W1J 7NT, London","in_area":{"slug":"mayfair","name":"Mayfair"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Queen Elizabeth Gate","s":"queen-elizabeth-gate","c":"royal","cn":"Royal London","m":82},{"n":"Royal Artillery Memorial","s":"royal-artillery-memorial","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":103},{"n":"Achilles statue","s":"achilles-statue","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":132}],"near_same":[{"s":"wellington-arch","m":122},{"s":"kennel-club-dog-art-gallery","m":603},{"s":"buckingham-palace","m":692},{"s":"royal-mews","m":724},{"s":"kings-gallery","m":753},{"s":"spencer-house","m":814}]},{"slug":"arsenal-football-club-museum","name":"Arsenal Football Club Museum","area":"Holloway","address":"Drayton Park, Finsbury Park, N5 1GB","station":"Arsenal","walk":2,"lat":51.556674,"lng":-0.108143,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.arsenal.com/history/the-arsenal-museum","instagram":"arsenal","attrs":[],"osm":"node/336347265","types":["sport"],"verdict":"The club's story beside the Emirates, from Herbert Chapman's marble halls to the Invincibles' golden trophy, done with the stadium tour.","note":"Arsenal's museum sits in the building at the north end of the Emirates Stadium, having moved with the club from Highbury in 2006, and it tells the history of one of the country's great clubs through its relics. Herbert Chapman, who built the first great Arsenal in the 1930s, had the Underground station renamed after it and gave the old ground its marble halls, is here in bronze, and beyond him come the shirt Charlie George wore to win the 1971 double, the boots Michael Thomas was wearing at Anfield in 1989 when the title was decided in the last minute of the last game, and the gold trophy the Premier League had made in 2004 for a side that had gone a whole season unbeaten. A hundred and twenty thousand people a year come through, most on the self-guided tour of the ground, which the ticket includes; on match days it closes half an hour before kick-off.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/arsenal-football-club-museum.jpg?v=c3f04b98","thumb":"/img/arsenal-football-club-museum-480.jpg?v=71d944d3","width":1024,"height":682,"alt":"A photograph of Arsenal Football Club Museum.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Gael13011, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Museum_Arsenal_Football_Club_Museum.JPG","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"maps_q":"Arsenal Football Club Museum, Drayton Park, Finsbury Park, N5 1GB, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"indiebeer","s":"indiebeer","c":"beer","cn":"Beer","m":500},{"n":"Highbury Vintners","s":"highbury-vintners","c":"wine","cn":"Wine","m":701},{"n":"Abra\u00e7o Finsbury Park","s":"abraco-finsbury-park","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":818}],"near_same":[{"s":"estorick-collection-of-modern-italian-art","m":1515},{"s":"museum-of-homelessness","m":1739},{"s":"queer-britain","m":2574},{"s":"lethaby-gallery","m":2621},{"s":"london-canal-museum","m":2632},{"s":"quentin-blake-centre-for-illustration","m":3122}]},{"slug":"artsdepot","name":"artsdepot","area":"Finchley","address":"Nether Street, North Finchley, N12 0EL","station":"Woodside Park","walk":10,"lat":51.613056,"lng":-0.176944,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"http://www.artsdepot.co.uk","instagram":"artsdepot_ldn","attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["art"],"verdict":"Arts centre with exhibit gallery.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"artsdepot, Nether Street, North Finchley, N12 0EL, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Campbell & Syme","s":"campbell-syme","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":2777},{"n":"Oliver Tambo","s":"oliver-tambo","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":2962},{"n":"Doppio Coffee","s":"doppio-coffee","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":3327}],"near_same":[{"s":"stephens-collection","m":2182},{"s":"royal-air-force-museum-london","m":4608},{"s":"kenwood-house","m":4663},{"s":"barnet-museum","m":4759},{"s":"museum-of-domestic-design-and-architecture","m":4807},{"s":"trent-park-house-of-secrets","m":5977}]},{"slug":"baden-powell-house-exhibition","name":"Baden-Powell House Exhibition","area":"South Kensington","address":"65-67 Queen's Gate","station":"Gloucester Road","walk":4,"lat":51.49551,"lng":-0.179669,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.mpw.ac.uk/queens-gate-house/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/392722404","types":["history","niche"],"verdict":"History of Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/baden-powell-house-exhibition.jpg?v=ee84c36e","thumb":"/img/baden-powell-house-exhibition-480.jpg?v=da1a052c","width":724,"height":526,"alt":"A photograph of Baden-Powell House Exhibition.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Wimvandorst, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bphouse01.jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"maps_q":"Baden-Powell House Exhibition, 65-67 Queen's Gate, London","in_area":{"slug":"south-kensington","name":"South Kensington"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"The Clockmakers' Museum","s":"the-clockmakers-museum","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":317},{"n":"Oddono's Gelati","s":"oddonos-gelati","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":317},{"n":"Ma\u00eetre Choux","s":"maitre-choux","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":329}],"near_same":[{"s":"natural-history-museum","m":273},{"s":"science-museum","m":317},{"s":"rcm-museum-of-music","m":503},{"s":"victoria-and-albert-museum","m":545},{"s":"polish-institute-and-sikorski-museum","m":810},{"s":"serpentine","m":1069}]},{"slug":"bank-of-england-museum","name":"Bank of England Museum","area":"City of London","address":"Threadneedle Street, Leadenhall Market, EC2R 8AH","station":"Bank","walk":2,"lat":51.514197,"lng":-0.08768,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],null,null],"hours_raw":"Mo-Fr 10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/museum","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/4513341393","types":["free","history","niche"],"verdict":"Free, and you can pick up a gold bar.","note":"Inside the Bank's own walls: the history of the currency, a Roman mosaic found on site, forged notes and the thirteen-kilo bar in a case you can reach into. The main room is a reconstruction of Soane's 1793 Bank Stock Office, put back after the Bank he designed was pulled down between the wars.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/bank-of-england-museum.jpg?v=93d919f6","thumb":"/img/bank-of-england-museum-480.jpg?v=56aaef98","width":1024,"height":835,"alt":"The Bank of England in Threadneedle Street , London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Adrian Pingstone, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:London.bankofengland.arp.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"the-bank-of-england-museums-permanent-galleries","name":"The Bank of England Museum's permanent galleries","href":"/museums/bank-of-england-museum/the-bank-of-england-museums-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"Lift a gold bar worth about a million pounds, inside the Bank itself.","runs":null,"types":["exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"bank-of-england-parlour-tours","name":"Bank of England Parlour tours","href":"/museums/bank-of-england-museum/bank-of-england-parlour-tours/","verdict":"One weekend a year inside the Governor's own offices, free, with photo ID and no cameras.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-19","to":"2026-09-20","repeats":"yearly"},"types":["free","history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Power & Politics","href":"/politics/bank-of-england-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Bank of England Museum, Threadneedle Street, Leadenhall Market, EC2R 8AH, London","in_area":{"slug":"the-city","name":"The City"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Fortnum & Mason Royal Exchange","s":"fortnum-mason-royal-exchange","c":"classic-british-shops","cn":"Classic British Shops","m":64},{"n":"Royal Exchange","s":"royal-exchange","c":"architecture","cn":"Architecture","m":68},{"n":"Rosslyn Coffee","s":"rosslyn-bank","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":73}],"near_same":[{"s":"mansion-house","m":184},{"s":"london-mithraeum","m":289},{"s":"guildhall-art-gallery","m":298},{"s":"british-red-cross-museum-and-archives","m":563},{"s":"barbican-centre","m":761},{"s":"all-hallows-by-the-tower-crypt-museum","m":782}]},{"slug":"bankside-gallery","name":"Bankside Gallery","area":"Bankside","address":"48 Hopton Street, SE1 9JH","station":"London Blackfriars","walk":4,"lat":51.508191,"lng":-0.101143,"hours":[[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 11:00-18:00 \"during exhibitions\"","website":"https://www.banksidegallery.com/","instagram":"banksidegallery","attrs":[],"osm":"way/77755310","types":["art"],"verdict":"Educational charity, home to the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/bankside-gallery.jpg?v=1bc013ec","thumb":"/img/bankside-gallery-480.jpg?v=d1a540c1","width":682,"height":1024,"alt":"The Bankside Gallery , London, home to the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers","caption":"","credit":"Photo by the wub, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bankside_Gallery_(2).jpg","thumb_width":320},"whats_on":[{"slug":"loop-2026","name":"LOOP 2026","href":"/art/bankside-gallery/loop-2026/","verdict":"Contemporary printmaking with the presses running in the gallery.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-08","to":"2026-09-13"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/bankside-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"Bankside Gallery, 48 Hopton Street, SE1 9JH, London","in_area":{"slug":"southwark","name":"Southwark & Bankside"},"bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"FCB Coffee","s":"fcb-coffee-bankside","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":120},{"n":"Millennium Bridge","s":"millennium-bridge","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":252},{"n":"Shakespeare's Globe guided tour","s":"shakespeares-globe-guided-tour","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":273}],"near_same":[{"s":"tate-modern","m":148},{"s":"kirkaldy-testing-museum","m":248},{"s":"rose-theatre-exhibition","m":407},{"s":"college-of-arms","m":527},{"s":"clink-prison-museum","m":654},{"s":"golden-hinde","m":762}]},{"slug":"banqueting-house-whitehall","name":"Banqueting House, Whitehall","area":"Whitehall","address":"Whitehall, SW1A 2ER","station":"Charing Cross","walk":4,"lat":51.504577,"lng":-0.125916,"hours":[[10.0,13.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu-Th, Sa-Su 10:00-17:00; Mo 10:00-13:00; Fr 10:00-16:00","website":"https://www.hrp.org.uk/banqueting-house/#gs.4m8l6l","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/140470549","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"Inigo Jones's hall of 1622, with a ceiling by Rubens that Charles I walked under on his way to the scaffold.","note":"This is the one piece of Whitehall Palace left standing; the rest burned down in 1698. Inigo Jones built it for James I between 1619 and 1622, and it was the first building in England done properly in the classical manner, a plain box of exact proportions at a time when everyone else was still putting up gables and turrets. Inside is a single room, twice as long as it is wide and high, where the court held its receptions and its masques: evenings of verse, music and stage machinery in which the royal family themselves took the parts.\n\nCharles I, who inherited it, was the most extravagant collector ever to sit on the English throne. He bought the Gonzaga family's collection out of Mantua for some \u00a318,000 \u2014 over a hundred paintings and hundreds of ancient sculptures, gathered across two centuries \u2014 kept Van Dyck and Rubens at his court, and ended with well over a thousand pictures. He also governed for eleven years without calling Parliament, raising money by means many of his subjects thought illegal. The two facts belong together: a king spending on that scale who would not ask the Commons for the money was picking the quarrel that became the civil war.\n\nThe ceiling is the argument in paint. Charles had Rubens show his father James I carried up into heaven, which is to say that kings are appointed by God and answer to him alone. It went up in 1636, and the masques were moved elsewhere afterwards so that the candle smoke would not spoil it. On 30 January 1649 Charles walked the length of this room, under his father's ascent, and out through an opening cut in the wall onto a scaffold in the street, where he was beheaded by his own subjects. Parliament then sold the pictures to pay its debts, which is why so many of them hang in the Prado and the Louvre.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/banqueting-house-whitehall.jpg?v=2bcd604f","thumb":"/img/banqueting-house-whitehall-480.jpg?v=4d22d25b","width":1024,"height":682,"alt":"The Banqueting House hall, Rubens's painted ceiling in gilded panels above the columns","caption":"","credit":"Photo by traveljunction, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Banqueting_House_in_London._(15987242674).jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Power & Politics","href":"/politics/banqueting-house-whitehall/"}],"maps_q":"Banqueting House, Whitehall, Whitehall, SW1A 2ER, London","in_area":{"slug":"westminster","name":"Westminster"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Trooping the Colour","s":"trooping-the-colour","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":54},{"n":"Horse Guards","s":"horse-guards","c":"royal","cn":"Royal London","m":81},{"n":"The Spy Bar","s":"the-spy-bar","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":83}],"near_same":[{"s":"household-cavalry-museum","m":103},{"s":"benjamin-franklin-house","m":349},{"s":"churchill-war-rooms","m":350},{"s":"mall-galleries","m":355},{"s":"british-optical-association-museum","m":370},{"s":"institute-of-contemporary-arts","m":390}]},{"slug":"barbican-centre","name":"Barbican Centre","area":"Barbican Estate","address":"Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS","station":"Barbican","walk":4,"lat":51.519867,"lng":-0.093841,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.barbican.org.uk/","instagram":"barbicancentre","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/34038687","types":["art"],"verdict":"The City's concrete arts centre of 1982, concert hall, theatres, cinemas, a gallery and a tropical conservatory, inside an estate worth getting lost in.","note":"The Barbican was the City of London's gift to the nation, built for \u00a3161 million on acres flattened by the bombs of 1940 and opened by the Queen on 3 March 1982, at the heart of the estate of towers and terraces that Chamberlin, Powell and Bon had spent twenty years building around it. It is the largest arts centre in Europe: a concert hall the London Symphony Orchestra calls home, two theatres, three cinemas, a library, an art gallery and the Curve, the free gallery that bends round the back of the hall, all in the same board-marked concrete, with a lake and fountains on the terrace outside. On the roof is the Conservatory, the second-largest in London, where tropical trees, ferns and fish live under glass above the theatre's fly tower, open on set days. The estate around it is the reason to come even with nothing booked: high walks, courtyards, a church of 1390 and a stretch of Roman wall that survived what the bombs and the planners did to everything else.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/own-barbican-centre-3.jpg?v=e0754fa3","thumb":"/img/own-barbican-centre-3-480.jpg?v=8d3a2e35","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"The lakeside terrace in winter: rows of white benches on brick paving, round brick planters with fountains at the water's edge, a long terrace block on stilts across the lake, and a church tower among the towers of the City behind.","caption":"The Lakeside Terrace, St Giles Cripplegate's tower at the far end."},"figures":[{"src":"/img/own-barbican-centre-2.jpg?v=caea59a7","thumb":"/img/own-barbican-centre-2-480.jpg?v=768387a9","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"The Barbican's lake seen from under a concrete walkway: a long block of flats with rows of balconies curving round the green water, a waterfall spilling from a raised platform, benches on the brick terrace and glass towers beyond.","caption":"The lake from the high walk."},{"src":"/img/own-barbican-centre-4.jpg?v=f6ca5ba0","thumb":"/img/own-barbican-centre-4-480.jpg?v=f385342f","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"Stepping stones of brick crossing the green lake to a platform where someone sits at a small table, tall reeds along the bank, a long terrace block on stilts with balconies of plants beyond, and the dark brick school building on the right."},{"src":"/img/own-barbican-centre-5.jpg?v=bebe408c","thumb":"/img/own-barbican-centre-5-480.jpg?v=172d4431","width":768,"height":1024,"thumb_width":360,"alt":"Looking down on the lake: a round brick platform at the edge of a weir in front, a brick walkway leading out to planted islands of reeds and shrubs under iron domes, and the terrace blocks with their curved balconies around the water."},{"src":"/img/own-barbican-centre-6.jpg?v=ce4bc128","thumb":"/img/own-barbican-centre-6-480.jpg?v=8a24f5fe","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"The lake from under the high walk: planted islands and reeds in green water, a brick terrace with benches, a long block of flats with rows of balconies enclosing the far side, and glass towers rising behind it."}],"whats_on":[{"slug":"concrete-and-clay-archiving-the-barbican","name":"Concrete and Clay: Archiving the Barbican","href":"/museums/barbican-centre/concrete-and-clay-archiving-the-barbican/","verdict":"The Barbican's own archive on the mezzanine, with the 1:22 model at the centre.","runs":{"to":"2027-01-01"},"types":["exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"concert-theatre","name":"Concert Theatre","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/concert-theatre/","verdict":"The strand for concerts that refuse to sit still: opera, dance and staged music across the season.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-09","to":"2027-06-24"},"types":["concert","music","classical"],"clue":["Concert","Classical"]},{"slug":"composer-in-focus-caroline-shaw","name":"Composer in Focus: Caroline Shaw","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/composer-in-focus-caroline-shaw/","verdict":"Six evenings with the composer who won a Pulitzer at thirty for a piece written for eight voices.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-01","to":"2027-06-15"},"types":["concert","music","classical"],"clue":["Concert","Classical"]},{"slug":"yuko-mohri-in-concert","name":"Yuko Mohri: In Concert","href":"/museums/barbican-centre/yuko-mohri-in-concert/","verdict":"Umbrellas, feather dusters and apples, moved by magnets and humidity, along the Curve.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-01","to":"2027-01-24"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"company-in-residence-scottish-ensemble","name":"Company in Residence: Scottish Ensemble","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/company-in-residence-scottish-ensemble/","verdict":"Britain's only professional string orchestra, in residence for the season.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-02","to":"2027-06-15"},"types":["concert","music","classical"],"clue":["Concert","Classical"]},{"slug":"black-british-book-festival","name":"Black British Book Festival","href":"/museums/barbican-centre/black-british-book-festival/","verdict":"Europe's largest celebration of Black literature: one Sunday at the Barbican with more than eighty authors.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-04","to":"2026-10-04","repeats":"yearly"},"types":["books","family","festival","music","talk"],"clue":["Festival","Books & writers"]},{"slug":"robert-ryman-the-real-thing","name":"Robert Ryman: The Real Thing","href":"/museums/barbican-centre/robert-ryman-the-real-thing/","verdict":"Sixty white paintings, and the case that you had to be in the room with them.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-08","to":"2027-02-28"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"season-opening-mahler-2-and-fujikura","name":"Season Opening: Mahler 2 and Fujikura","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/season-opening-mahler-2-and-fujikura/","verdict":"The Resurrection Symphony opens the LSO's season, with a Fujikura premiere before it.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-18","to":"2026-10-18"},"types":["concert","music","classical"],"clue":["Concert","Classical"]},{"slug":"half-six-fix","name":"Half Six Fix","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/half-six-fix/","verdict":"One hour, one symphony, half past six: the LSO's answer to a concert that ends too late.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-21","to":"2027-05-12"},"types":["concert","music","classical"],"clue":["Concert","Classical"]},{"slug":"mahler-2-and-fujikura","name":"Mahler 2 and Fujikura","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/mahler-2-and-fujikura/","verdict":"The second night of the LSO's Resurrection Symphony.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-22","to":"2026-10-22"},"types":["concert","music","classical"],"clue":["Concert","Classical"]},{"slug":"always-already-there","name":"Always, Already There","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/always-already-there/","verdict":"A weekend for the experimental composers the experimental canon left out.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-23","to":"2026-10-25"},"types":["classical","festival","music"],"clue":["Festival","Classical"]},{"slug":"darbar-festival-2026","name":"Darbar Festival 2026","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/darbar-festival-2026/","verdict":"Nine days of Indian classical music, including a violin and veena duel that starts at 00:00.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-24","to":"2026-11-01"},"types":["concert","festival","folk_world","music"],"clue":["Gig","Folk & world"]},{"slug":"edmund-finnis-and-bruckners-ninth","name":"Edmund Finnis and Bruckner's Ninth","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/edmund-finnis-and-bruckners-ninth/","verdict":"Sheku Kanneh-Mason in a new cello concerto, then Bruckner's unfinished last symphony.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-25","to":"2026-10-25"},"types":["concert","music","classical"],"clue":["Concert","Classical"]},{"slug":"steve-reich-at-90-with-colin-currie","name":"Steve Reich at 90 with Colin Currie","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/steve-reich-at-90-with-colin-currie/","verdict":"A year of Reich for his ninetieth, with the percussionist who has become his standard-bearer.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-28","to":"2027-05-09"},"types":["concert","music","classical"],"clue":["Concert","Classical"]},{"slug":"tchaikovskys-fifth-with-a-hannah-kendall-premiere","name":"Tchaikovsky's Fifth with a Hannah Kendall premiere","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/tchaikovskys-fifth-with-a-hannah-kendall-premiere/","verdict":"A new Hannah Kendall piece between Liadov's fairy tales and Tchaikovsky's Fifth.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-29","to":"2026-10-29"},"types":["concert","music","classical"],"clue":["Concert","Classical"]},{"slug":"thomas-ades-conducts-sibelius-and-norgard","name":"Thomas Ades conducts Sibelius and Norgard","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/thomas-ades-conducts-sibelius-and-norgard/","verdict":"Ades conducts his own Creation piece with Chamayou, and Sibelius's Fifth.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-05","to":"2026-11-05"},"types":["concert","music","classical"],"clue":["Concert","Classical"]},{"slug":"ades-saariaho-and-sibeliuss-seventh","name":"Ades, Saariaho and Sibelius's Seventh","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/ades-saariaho-and-sibeliuss-seventh/","verdict":"The Seventh Symphony in one unbroken movement, with Saariaho's Oltra mar before it.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-08","to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["concert","music","classical"],"clue":["Concert","Classical"]},{"slug":"coltrane-100-joe-lovano-melissa-aldana-nduduzo-makhathini-linda-may-han-oh-and-jeff-watts","name":"Coltrane 100: Joe Lovano, Melissa Aldana, Nduduzo Makhathini, Linda May Han Oh and Jeff Watts","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/coltrane-100-joe-lovano-melissa-aldana-nduduzo-makhathini-linda-may-han-oh-and-jeff-watts/","verdict":"Two tenors, a South African pianist and Coltrane's own rhythm-section logic, for the centenary.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-13","to":"2026-11-13"},"types":["concert","jazz","music"],"clue":["Gig","Jazz"]},{"slug":"asha-puthli-the-cosmic-voyager","name":"Asha Puthli: The Cosmic Voyager","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/asha-puthli-the-cosmic-voyager/","verdict":"The voice Ornette Coleman chose for Science Fiction, in a rare concert of her own.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-14","to":"2026-11-14"},"types":["concert","jazz","music"],"clue":["Gig","Jazz"]},{"slug":"jazz-on-screen-miles-davis-on-the-late-show","name":"Jazz on Screen: Miles Davis on The Late Show","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/jazz-on-screen-miles-davis-on-the-late-show/","verdict":"Miles Davis as BBC Two's arts programme filmed him, dug out of the archive.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-14","to":"2026-11-14"},"types":["film","jazz","music"],"clue":["Film","Jazz"]},{"slug":"anouar-brahem-after-the-last-sky","name":"Anouar Brahem: After the Last Sky","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/anouar-brahem-after-the-last-sky/","verdict":"The Tunisian oud player's first project in eight years, named from a line of Mahmoud Darwish.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-15","to":"2026-11-15"},"types":["concert","folk_world","jazz","music"],"clue":["Gig","Jazz"]},{"slug":"jazz-on-screen-coltrane-and-the-cinema","name":"Jazz on Screen: Coltrane and the Cinema","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/jazz-on-screen-coltrane-and-the-cinema/","verdict":"Three films that use Coltrane rather than explain him, ending on Spike Lee.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-15","to":"2026-11-15"},"types":["film","jazz","music"],"clue":["Film","Jazz"]},{"slug":"ryman-in-rhythm-sarathy-korwar","name":"Ryman in Rhythm: Sarathy Korwar","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/ryman-in-rhythm-sarathy-korwar/","verdict":"A percussionist improvising in the gallery, in front of paintings made the same way.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-18","to":"2026-11-18"},"types":["concert","jazz","music"],"clue":["Gig","Jazz"]},{"slug":"soweto-kinch-trilogy","name":"Soweto Kinch: Trilogy","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/soweto-kinch-trilogy/","verdict":"Three works written with the LSO since 2019, played in one evening.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-19","to":"2026-11-19"},"types":["concert","jazz","music"],"clue":["Gig","Jazz"]},{"slug":"church-of-sound-british-jazz-songbook","name":"Church of Sound: British Jazz Songbook","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/church-of-sound-british-jazz-songbook/","verdict":"The Clapton church-hall series turns ten and takes the main hall for the night.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-20","to":"2026-11-20"},"types":["concert","jazz","music"],"clue":["Gig","Jazz"]},{"slug":"haruki-murakamis-jazz-at-peter-cat","name":"Haruki Murakami's Jazz at Peter Cat","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/haruki-murakamis-jazz-at-peter-cat/","verdict":"The bar Murakami ran before he was a novelist, rebuilt as a night of Japanese jazz.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-21","to":"2026-11-21"},"types":["books","concert","jazz","music"],"clue":["Gig","Jazz"]},{"slug":"jazz-on-screen-blues-like-showers-of-rain-and-jazz-is-our-religion","name":"Jazz on Screen: Blues Like Showers of Rain and Jazz Is Our Religion","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/jazz-on-screen-blues-like-showers-of-rain-and-jazz-is-our-religion/","verdict":"Two documentaries on the roots of the blues and the life of the jazz musician.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-21","to":"2026-11-21"},"types":["film","jazz","music"],"clue":["Film","Jazz"]},{"slug":"take-five-showcase-david-kayode-and-marlon-the-pannist","name":"Take Five Showcase: David Kayode and Marlon the Pannist","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/take-five-showcase-david-kayode-and-marlon-the-pannist/","verdict":"A Yoruba-rooted saxophonist and a steel pan player, in the Pit.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-21","to":"2026-11-21"},"types":["concert","jazz","music"],"clue":["Gig","Jazz"]},{"slug":"jazz-on-screen-ascenseur-pour-lechafaud","name":"Jazz on Screen: Ascenseur pour l'echafaud","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/jazz-on-screen-ascenseur-pour-lechafaud/","verdict":"Louis Malle's first film, with the score Miles Davis improvised to the picture.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-22","to":"2026-11-22"},"types":["film","jazz","music"],"clue":["Film","Jazz"]},{"slug":"the-joy","name":"The Joy","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/the-joy/","verdict":"Five voices from KwaZulu-Natal and almost no instruments.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-22","to":"2026-11-22"},"types":["concert","folk_world","music"],"clue":["Gig","Folk & world"]},{"slug":"beethoven-200","name":"Beethoven 200","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/beethoven-200/","verdict":"Two of the world's great orchestras and all five piano concertos, for two hundred years since Beethoven died.","runs":{"from":"2027-02-27","to":"2027-06-24"},"types":["concert","music","classical"],"clue":["Concert","Classical"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/barbican-centre/"},{"name":"Performance venues","href":"/venues/barbican-centre/"},{"name":"Architecture","href":"/architecture/barbican-centre/"}],"maps_q":"Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS, London","in_area":{"slug":"the-city","name":"The City"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Lakeside Terrace","s":"lakeside-terrace","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":34},{"n":"Barbican Conservatory","s":"barbican-conservatory","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":120},{"n":"St Giles-without-Cripplegate","s":"st-giles-without-cripplegate","c":"sacred","cn":"Sacred London","m":130}],"near_same":[{"s":"british-red-cross-museum-and-archives","m":374},{"s":"the-charterhouse","m":447},{"s":"guildhall-art-gallery","m":507},{"s":"honourable-artillery-company-museum","m":514},{"s":"st-bartholomews-hospital-museum","m":517},{"s":"goldsmiths-centre","m":638}]},{"slug":"barnet-museum","name":"Barnet Museum","area":"Barnet","address":"Wood Street, High Barnet, EN5 4BJ","station":"High Barnet","walk":8,"lat":51.652819,"lng":-0.202459,"hours":[null,[14.5,16.5],[14.5,16.5],[14.5,16.5],null,[10.5,16.0],[14.5,16.5]],"hours_raw":"Tu-Su 14:30-16:30; Fr off; Sa 10:30-16:00","website":"https://www.barnetmuseum.co.uk","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/5656298167","types":["free","local"],"verdict":"The battle of 1471, the horse fair and the coaching town, in a Georgian house on Wood Street, free.","note":"Barnet was where the Great North Road climbed its first hill out of London, which made it a town of coaching inns, and in 1471 it was where the Wars of the Roses turned: on Easter Sunday, in fog on the heath north of the town, Edward IV beat the Lancastrians and Warwick the Kingmaker was killed as he ran for his horse. The museum, in an early Georgian house on Wood Street, was founded in 1938 by the local record society and is still run entirely by its volunteers, with rooms on the battle, the archaeology, the inns and coaches, the horse fair chartered by Elizabeth I in 1588 that gave rhyming slang its word for hair, costume and lace, and the town at war. The Physic Well, the spa that drew Pepys out from London, opens one Saturday a month. Entry is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/barnet-museum.jpg?v=c24705b4","thumb":"/img/barnet-museum-480.jpg?v=352a5c7d","width":1024,"height":683,"alt":"Barnet Museum's Victorian house on Wood Street","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Lucas Kendall, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barnet_Museum.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Barnet Museum, Wood Street, High Barnet, EN5 4BJ, London","bank":1,"near_all":[],"near_same":[{"s":"trent-park-house-of-secrets","m":4730},{"s":"artsdepot","m":4759},{"s":"stephens-collection","m":6274},{"s":"royal-air-force-museum-london","m":6601},{"s":"museum-of-domestic-design-and-architecture","m":6849},{"s":"enfield-museum","m":8424}]},{"slug":"battle-of-britain-bunker","name":"Battle of Britain Bunker","area":"Uxbridge","address":"Wren Avenue, UB10 0GG","station":"Uxbridge","walk":14,"lat":51.540803,"lng":-0.464903,"hours":[[10.0,16.5],[10.0,16.5],[10.0,16.5],[10.0,16.5],[10.0,16.5],[10.0,16.5],[10.0,16.5]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-16:30","website":"https://battleofbritainbunker.co.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/132133793","types":["history"],"verdict":"The underground operations room from which 11 Group fought the Battle of Britain, with the plotting table set to 15 September 1940.","note":"Sixty feet under the grass at RAF Uxbridge is the operations room of No. 11 Group, the fighter group that covered London and the south-east, and it was from here, not from Dowding's headquarters at Bentley Priory, that the squadrons were actually scrambled. The room was part of the first integrated air defence system in the world: radar and Observer Corps reports came in, women of the WAAF pushed blocks across the map table with rakes, and the controller on the balcony above chose which squadrons to send, their states shown on the board of lights on the wall. Churchill watched from that balcony on 16 August 1940 and said in the car afterwards the words about so much owed by so many. The table is set as it was on 15 September, the day the Luftwaffe threw everything at London and lost. The same room controlled the air cover for D-Day. The bunker opened as a museum in 1985 and Hillingdon Council built a visitor centre over it in 2018, with the descent into the room itself by timed tour.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/battle-of-britain-bunker.jpg?v=8be5e078","thumb":"/img/battle-of-britain-bunker-480.jpg?v=084b76dc","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"The Battle of Britain Bunker visitor centre","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Neil Owen, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Battle_of_Britain_Bunker_-_geograph.org.uk_-_7656215.jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Secrets & Espionage","href":"/secrets/battle-of-britain-bunker/"}],"maps_q":"Battle of Britain Bunker, Wren Avenue, UB10 0GG, London","bank":1,"near_all":[],"near_same":[{"s":"heath-robinson-museum","m":7908},{"s":"old-speech-room-gallery-and-museum-harrow-school","m":9647},{"s":"osterley-park-and-house","m":9682},{"s":"harrow-museum","m":9701},{"s":"pitzhanger-manor","m":11412},{"s":"boston-manor-house","m":11491}]},{"slug":"ben-uri-gallery-the-london-jewish-museum-of-art","name":"Ben Uri Gallery, The London Jewish Museum of Art","area":"St John's Wood","address":"108 Boundary Road","station":"Kilburn High Road","walk":5,"lat":51.537525,"lng":-0.185327,"hours":[null,null,[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],null,null],"hours_raw":"We-Fr 10:00-17:30","website":"https://benuri.org/","instagram":"benurionline","attrs":[],"osm":"way/792327533","types":["art"],"verdict":"The art of the \u00e9migr\u00e9s: a century of Jewish and immigrant artists in Britain, in a small free gallery off Abbey Road.","note":"Ben Uri began in Whitechapel in 1915, when the Russian \u00e9migr\u00e9 artist Lazar Berson founded an art society for the Jewish immigrant craftsmen and painters that the established societies would not admit, and named it after the craftsman who built the Ark of the Covenant. A century on it holds about a thousand works by some four hundred artists from forty countries, and its subject has widened from Jewish to \u00e9migr\u00e9 art of every kind: David Bomberg and Mark Gertler of the Whitechapel Boys, Frank Auerbach, who arrived as a child refugee in 1939, Chagall, and the artists who came later from elsewhere. Since 2002 it has shown them in rotation in a small gallery on Boundary Road in St John's Wood, and it has put its whole collection and archive online, the first record of its kind in the country. Entry is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/ben-uri-gallery-the-london-jewish-museum-of-art.jpg?v=22043950","thumb":"/img/ben-uri-gallery-the-london-jewish-museum-of-art-480.jpg?v=fc8a188b","width":1024,"height":891,"alt":"Gallery Frontage during 2015 Exhibition Refiguring the 50s","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Benuricw, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BU_Gallery_Exterior_2015_(1).jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"the-abbey-art-centre-as-postwar-refuge-1946-56","name":"The Abbey Art Centre as Postwar Refuge: 1946-56","href":"/art/ben-uri-gallery-the-london-jewish-museum-of-art/the-abbey-art-centre-as-postwar-refuge-1946-56/","verdict":"The New Barnet house where refugee artists lived and worked after the war.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-07","to":"2026-12-18"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/ben-uri-gallery-the-london-jewish-museum-of-art/"}],"maps_q":"Ben Uri Gallery, The London Jewish Museum of Art, 108 Boundary Road, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Alexandra Road Estate","s":"alexandra-road-estate","c":"architecture","cn":"Architecture","m":260},{"n":"Melanie Klein","s":"melanie-klein","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":261},{"n":"Oskar Kokoschka","s":"oskar-kokoschka","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":715}],"near_same":[{"s":"freud-museum","m":1318},{"s":"marylebone-cricket-club-museum","m":1329},{"s":"camden-arts-centre","m":1524},{"s":"the-showroom","m":1789},{"s":"keats-house","m":2323},{"s":"burgh-house-hampstead-museum","m":2405}]},{"slug":"benjamin-franklin-house","name":"Benjamin Franklin House","area":"Covent Garden","address":"36 Craven Street, WC2N 5NF","station":"Charing Cross","walk":1,"lat":51.507651,"lng":-0.124892,"hours":[null,null,null,null,[12.0,17.0],[12.0,17.0],[12.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Fr-Su 12:00-17:00","website":"https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/","instagram":"benjaminfranklinhouse","attrs":[],"osm":"way/104081033","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"The only house of Benjamin Franklin left standing anywhere, on Craven Street, where he lodged for sixteen years and where the basement was full of bones.","note":"Benjamin Franklin came to London in 1757 as the agent of Pennsylvania and lodged at 36 Craven Street, a terraced house of about 1730 behind the Strand, with his landlady Margaret Stevenson, and apart from one trip home he stayed sixteen years, until the colonies' quarrel with the Crown drove him back to Philadelphia in 1775 and into the Revolution. He wrote, experimented, invented the glass armonica and campaigned here; it is the only house he lived in that survives on either side of the Atlantic. When it was restored in 1998, before it opened as a museum on his three-hundredth birthday in 2006, the diggers found the bones of ten people under the basement floor, the remains of the anatomy school that William Hewson, Mrs Stevenson's son-in-law, ran in the house while Franklin lived upstairs. The house is shown almost bare, as a piece of theatre: an actress playing Polly Stevenson leads the Historical Experience through the rooms with sound and projection, and an architectural tour on other days tells the building's own story.","deep":false,"regular":[{"what":"Chess Club","when":"Two Wednesdays a month, 16:00 to 18:00","price":"Ticketed, limited places","url":"https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/events/","note":"Franklin played chess here and wrote an essay called The Morals of Chess; the dates go up on Eventbrite."}],"figure":{"src":"/img/benjamin-franklin-house.jpg?v=c486cdaa","thumb":"/img/benjamin-franklin-house-480.jpg?v=acfd733e","width":768,"height":1024,"alt":"Benjamin Franklin House, 36 Craven Street, London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Ridiculopathy, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Benjamin_Franklin_House,_36_Craven_Street,_London.jpg","thumb_width":360},"whats_on":[{"slug":"historians-in-conversation-tom-cutterham-and-leanne-oboyle","name":"Historians in Conversation: Tom Cutterham and Leanne O'Boyle","href":"/science/benjamin-franklin-house/historians-in-conversation-tom-cutterham-and-leanne-oboyle/","verdict":"Britain's part in the American Revolution, argued in the house Franklin lived in.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-17","to":"2026-09-17"},"types":["history","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk","History"]},{"slug":"paint-powder-and-politics-hair-in-the-georgian-age","name":"Paint, Powder and Politics: Hair in the Georgian Age","href":"/science/benjamin-franklin-house/paint-powder-and-politics-hair-in-the-georgian-age/","verdict":"How a hairstyle told a room your politics.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-18","to":"2026-09-18"},"types":["fashion","history","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk","Fashion"]},{"slug":"world-news-day-book-drive","name":"World News Day Book Drive","href":"/science/benjamin-franklin-house/world-news-day-book-drive/","verdict":"Bring a book, get into Franklin's house free.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-28","to":"2026-09-28"},"types":["books","free"],"clue":["Books & writers"]},{"slug":"to-begin-the-world-over-again-the-life-of-thomas-paine","name":"To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine","href":"/science/benjamin-franklin-house/to-begin-the-world-over-again-the-life-of-thomas-paine/","verdict":"A one-man play about the corset-maker who wrote Common Sense.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-15","to":"2026-10-15"},"types":["history","talk","theatre"],"clue":["Theatre","History"]},{"slug":"spooky-childrens-day","name":"Spooky Children's Day","href":"/science/benjamin-franklin-house/spooky-childrens-day/","verdict":"Butter churning, dressing up and a scavenger hunt through a Georgian house.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-27","to":"2026-10-27"},"types":["family","history","workshop"],"clue":["Make something","History"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/benjamin-franklin-house/"},{"name":"The World in London","href":"/world/benjamin-franklin-house/"}],"maps_q":"Benjamin Franklin House, 36 Craven Street, WC2N 5NF, London","in_area":{"slug":"covent-garden","name":"Covent Garden"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Heinrich Heine","s":"heinrich-heine","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":34},{"n":"Eleanor Cross","s":"eleanor-cross","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":92},{"n":"Gordon's Wine Bar","s":"gordons-wine-bar","c":"wine","cn":"Wine","m":96}],"near_same":[{"s":"british-optical-association-museum","m":43},{"s":"national-portrait-gallery","m":294},{"s":"national-gallery","m":300},{"s":"canada-house-gallery","m":313},{"s":"household-cavalry-museum","m":335},{"s":"banqueting-house-whitehall","m":349}]},{"slug":"bentley-priory-museum","name":"Bentley Priory Museum","area":"Stanmore","address":"Mansion House Drive, Stanmore, HA7 3JA","station":"Stanmore","walk":29,"lat":51.626481,"lng":-0.333365,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://bentleypriorymuseum.org.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/2455741108","types":["history"],"verdict":"The country house from which Dowding ran the Battle of Britain, with his office restored, on the hill above Stanmore.","note":"Bentley Priory is a house of 1766 that John Soane enlarged for the Marquess of Abercorn and where Queen Adelaide, William IV's widow, died in 1849. The Air Ministry bought it in 1926, and on 14 July 1936 it became the headquarters of the new Fighter Command under Hugh Dowding. From here, in the summer of 1940, the Battle of Britain was directed: the reports from the radar chain and the Observer Corps came into the filter room to be sifted into a single picture, the operations room passed it to the sector stations that scrambled the squadrons, and Dowding, in the office upstairs that has been put back as it was, kept the reserves that won it. Fighter Command stayed until the RAF left in 2008, and the museum opened in the house in 2013, with the office, the rooms of the Few and a garden of memorials, the rest of the estate having become housing.","deep":false,"maps_q":"Bentley Priory Museum, Mansion House Drive, Stanmore, HA7 3JA, London","bank":1,"near_all":[],"near_same":[{"s":"harrow-museum","m":3832},{"s":"heath-robinson-museum","m":5258},{"s":"old-speech-room-gallery-and-museum-harrow-school","m":6003},{"s":"museum-of-domestic-design-and-architecture","m":7223},{"s":"royal-air-force-museum-london","m":7239},{"s":"barnet-museum","m":9496}]},{"slug":"bethlem-museum-of-the-mind","name":"Bethlem Museum of the Mind","area":"Beckenham","address":"Orchard Way, Eden Park, BR3 3BY","station":"West Wickham","walk":13,"lat":51.380933,"lng":-0.029447,"hours":[null,null,[9.5,17.0],[9.5,17.0],[9.5,17.0],[9.5,17.0],null],"hours_raw":"We-Sa 09:30-17:00","website":"https://museumofthemind.org.uk","instagram":"bethlem_museum","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/52088451","types":["free","medical","small-gem"],"verdict":"Mental illness told through the archives and art of Bethlem hospital.","note":"Four centuries of the institution that gave English the word bedlam, including Cibber's statues of Raving and Melancholy Madness that once stood over its gates. Strong on art by patients \u2014 Richard Dadd, Louis Wain. Free, and a long way out.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/bethlem-museum-of-the-mind.jpg?v=d0948032","thumb":"/img/bethlem-museum-of-the-mind-480.jpg?v=bf584951","width":640,"height":447,"alt":"A photograph of Bethlem Museum of the Mind.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Philip Talmage, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bethlem_Royal_Hospital_-_geograph.org.uk_-_34691.jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"whats_on":[{"slug":"manasa-chitra-the-art-of-mental-health-from-bengaluru-to-bethlem","name":"Manasa Chitra: the Art of Mental Health from Bengaluru to Bethlem","href":"/science/bethlem-museum-of-the-mind/manasa-chitra-the-art-of-mental-health-from-bengaluru-to-bethlem/","verdict":"Paintings from a Bangalore asylum in 1957, and from people living with mental illness in Bengaluru now.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-26","to":"2026-11-14"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"curators-tour-of-manasa-chitra","name":"Curator's tour of Manasa Chitra","href":"/science/bethlem-museum-of-the-mind/curators-tour-of-manasa-chitra/","verdict":"Half an hour on the pictures with the curator who put them together.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-26","to":"2026-09-26"},"types":["art","free","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/bethlem-museum-of-the-mind/"}],"maps_q":"Bethlem Museum of the Mind, Orchard Way, Eden Park, BR3 3BY, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Carnival Coffee Roasters","s":"carnival-coffee-roasters","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":3942},{"n":"Beckenham Place Park","s":"beckenham-place-park","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":4355},{"n":"Peter Kropotkin","s":"peter-kropotkin","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":4638}],"near_same":[{"s":"shirley-windmill","m":2214},{"s":"museum-of-croydon","m":4944},{"s":"chislehurst-caves","m":6729},{"s":"horniman-museum-and-gardens","m":7169},{"s":"down-house","m":7962},{"s":"crofton-roman-villa","m":8192}]},{"slug":"black-cultural-archives","name":"Black Cultural Archives","area":"Brixton","address":"Saltoun Road, Brixton, SW2 1JS","station":"Brixton","walk":3,"lat":51.460511,"lng":-0.114665,"hours":[null,null,[12.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],null,null],"hours_raw":"We 12:00-17:00; Th 11:00-17:00; Fr 11:00-17:00","website":"http://www.bcaheritage.org.uk","instagram":"bcaheritage","attrs":[],"osm":"way/895323525","types":["history"],"verdict":"The national archive of Black British history, in a Georgian house on Windrush Square, open by appointment for its reading room and exhibitions.","note":"Len Garrison, a teacher and historian, began collecting with friends in 1981 because the record of Black people in Britain was being lost while it was still being made, and the boxes moved from Coldharbour Lane to Kennington before a \u00a35 million grant brought them home to Brixton. Raleigh Hall, a Georgian house of the 1820s on what was renamed Windrush Square, opened as the Black Cultural Archives on 24 July 2014, the first national centre for Black British heritage, and was named building of the year by New London Architecture. The substance is the archive: papers, photographs, oral histories and the records of organisations from the Windrush generation to the British Black Panthers, read in the reading room by appointment. The exhibition space is small and opens on set days with a ticket; the talks and events are the way most people meet it.","deep":false,"hours_extra":"Visits are by appointment: the reading room on Wednesday to Friday, exhibitions on set days.","figure":{"src":"/img/black-cultural-archives.jpg?v=c09837d6","thumb":"/img/black-cultural-archives.jpg?v=c09837d6","width":1024,"height":681,"alt":"Black Cultural Archives, July 2014","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Mark Longair, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black_Cultural_Archives,_July_2014.png"},"maps_q":"Black Cultural Archives, Saltoun Road, Brixton, SW2 1JS, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Electric Brixton","s":"electric-brixton","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":154},{"n":"Bottle + Rye","s":"bottle-rye","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":174},{"n":"Three Eight Four","s":"three-eight-four","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":190}],"near_same":[{"s":"brixton-windmill","m":1028},{"s":"studio-voltaire","m":1392},{"s":"salvation-army-international-heritage-centre","m":1977},{"s":"575-wandsworth-road","m":2070},{"s":"house-of-dreams-museum","m":2450},{"s":"dulwich-picture-gallery","m":2543}]},{"slug":"boston-manor-house","name":"Boston Manor House","area":"Boston Manor","address":"Boston Manor Road, TW8 9JX","station":"Boston Manor","walk":8,"lat":51.491975,"lng":-0.31854,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/info/20174/heritage_and_arts/1855/historic_houses","instagram":"bostonmanorhouse","attrs":[],"osm":"way/23458099","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"17th-century Jacobean manor house.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/boston-manor-house.jpg?v=5613e3f5","thumb":"/img/boston-manor-house-480.jpg?v=7061c4e1","width":1024,"height":590,"alt":"Boston Manor House is a Grade I listed Jacobean manor house in Boston Manor Road, Brentford, TW8 9JX. United Kingdom. Tel: +44 020 8583 4463. Building currently owned by the London Borough of Hounslow","caption":"","credit":"Photo by P.g.champion, CC BY-SA 2.0 uk, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boston_manor_front_2943.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Boston Manor House, Boston Manor Road, TW8 9JX, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"The Dodo Micropub","s":"the-dodo-micropub","c":"beer","cn":"Beer","m":2099},{"n":"Depot open days: design classics","s":"depot-open-days-design-classics","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":2809},{"n":"The Original Maids of Honour","s":"the-original-maids-of-honour","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":2912}],"near_same":[{"s":"syon-house","m":1733},{"s":"musical-museum","m":1817},{"s":"kew-palace","m":1861},{"s":"london-museum-of-water-steam","m":1976},{"s":"pitzhanger-manor","m":2246},{"s":"osterley-park-and-house","m":2332}]},{"slug":"bow-street-museum-of-crime-and-justice","name":"Bow Street Museum of Crime and Justice","area":"Covent Garden","address":"28 Bow Street, WC2E 7AW","station":"Covent Garden","walk":2,"lat":51.51349,"lng":-0.121726,"hours":[null,null,null,null,[11.0,16.5],[11.0,16.5],[11.0,16.5]],"hours_raw":"Fr-Su 11:00-16:30","website":"https://bowstreetmuseum.org.uk/visit/accessibility","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/12064506169","types":["history","small-gem"],"verdict":"Where policing began: the Bow Street Runners' station, with its cells kept, opened as a museum in 2021 under the hotel that took over the old court.","note":"In 1749 the magistrate Henry Fielding, better known for Tom Jones, recruited a handful of constables at his court on Bow Street to run down criminals across London, and the Bow Street Runners were the first professional police the city had, eighty years before Peel's. The court and the police station beside it saw everyone who mattered in London crime for two centuries: Oscar Wilde was charged here in 1895, Dr Crippen, Roger Casement, the suffragettes and the Kray twins passed through, and the cells were in use until the station closed in 1992 and the court in 2006. The building became a hotel, and in 2021 the museum opened on the ground floor of the old station with the cells as they were, telling the story of the Runners, the courts and the policing of Covent Garden, with a cutlass, a rattle and other relics lent by the Metropolitan Police's own collection. It took its present name in 2025.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/bow-street-museum-of-crime-and-justice.jpg?v=af15ad0f","thumb":"/img/bow-street-museum-of-crime-and-justice-480.jpg?v=dff27f55","width":1024,"height":834,"alt":"The entrance to the Bow Street Police Museum","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Hsq7278, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Entrance,_Bow_Street_Police_Museum.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Bow Street Museum of Crime and Justice, 28 Bow Street, WC2E 7AW, London","in_area":{"slug":"covent-garden","name":"Covent Garden"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Side Hustle","s":"side-hustle","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":25},{"n":"Royal Opera House","s":"royal-opera-house","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":86},{"n":"Drury Lane","s":"drury-lane","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":86}],"near_same":[{"s":"london-transport-museum","m":170},{"s":"library-and-museum-of-freemasonry","m":171},{"s":"courtauld-gallery","m":347},{"s":"somerset-house","m":409},{"s":"hunterian-museum","m":451},{"s":"sir-john-soanes-museum","m":495}]},{"slug":"brent-museum","name":"Brent Museum","area":"Willesden","address":"95 High Road, Dollis Hill, NW10 2SF","station":"Willesden Green","walk":7,"lat":51.546745,"lng":-0.228994,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.brent.gov.uk/libraries-arts-and-heritage/brent-museum-and-archives","instagram":"brentcouncil","attrs":[],"osm":"node/5836502584","types":["free","local"],"verdict":"The borough's story inside Willesden Green Library, free: Wembley's exhibition, its stadium, and the people who came to live here.","note":"Brent's museum has shared the Library at Willesden Green since 2006, with the borough archives beside it, and it tells two stories well. One is Wembley: the British Empire Exhibition of 1924, which drew twenty-seven million people to a new suburb, and the stadium built for it that became the home of English football. The other is the people, the Irish, Caribbean, South Asian and other communities who made north-west London what it is in the twentieth century, told through their own objects and recordings. Entry is free, in a library rebuilt in 2015 with a gallery and a performance space of its own.","deep":false,"maps_q":"Brent Museum, 95 High Road, Dollis Hill, NW10 2SF, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Cable co.","s":"cable-co-brondesbury-park","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":1480},{"n":"Paddock, Dollis Hill","s":"paddock-dollis-hill","c":"secrets","cn":"Secrets & Espionage","m":1860},{"n":"Una Marson","s":"una-marson","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":1999}],"near_same":[{"s":"camden-arts-centre","m":3185},{"s":"ben-uri-gallery-the-london-jewish-museum-of-art","m":3189},{"s":"freud-museum","m":3572},{"s":"museum-of-brands","m":3612},{"s":"fenton-house","m":3666},{"s":"burgh-house-hampstead-museum","m":3939}]},{"slug":"british-library","name":"British Library","area":"St Pancras","address":"96 Euston Road, NW1 2DB","station":"St Pancras International","walk":3,"lat":51.530002,"lng":-0.127709,"hours":[[9.5,20.0],[9.5,20.0],[9.5,20.0],[9.5,20.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,17.0],[11.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Th 09:30-20:00; Sa 09:30-17:00; Su 11:00-17:00; Fr 09:30-18:00","website":"https://www.bl.uk/","instagram":"britishlibrary","attrs":[],"osm":"way/4680891","types":["history","niche"],"verdict":"The national library, 200 million items behind Colin St John Wilson's red-brick ship at St Pancras, and one free room of its treasures, Magna Carta among them.","note":"The British Library holds a copy of everything published in Britain and Ireland and a great deal more, some 200 million items on shelves that grow by miles a year, and most of it lives in basements deep under the St Pancras building that Colin St John Wilson spent thirty-six years designing and building, the largest public building put up in Britain in the twentieth century. In the middle of the great entrance hall rises a six-storey glass tower holding George III's library, given by his son. The room to visit is the Treasures gallery, free and dim to protect what is in it: two of the four surviving copies of Magna Carta of 1215, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the only manuscript of Beowulf, Leonardo's notebook, Shakespeare's First Folio, Handel's Messiah in his own hand, Jane Austen's writing desk, and the Beatles' lyrics scribbled on the backs of envelopes and birthday cards. The reading rooms need a pass and the exhibitions charge; the piazza, the caf\u00e9 and the treasures do not.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/british-library.jpg?v=53b298cf","thumb":"/img/british-library-480.jpg?v=3ccc78a5","width":1024,"height":426,"alt":"A photograph of British Library.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Patche99z, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_Library_%2B_St_Pancras_7527-31hug.jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"whats_on":[{"slug":"british-library-treasures-tour","name":"British Library Treasures Tour","href":"/museums/british-library/british-library-treasures-tour/","verdict":"Magna Carta, George III's library and the world's second-largest atlas, with a member of staff.","runs":null,"types":["history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]},{"slug":"philatelic-gallery","name":"Philatelic Gallery","href":"/museums/british-library/philatelic-gallery/","verdict":"One of the world's great stamp collections, eighty thousand items of it on show and free.","runs":null,"types":["exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"sound-gallery","name":"Sound Gallery","href":"/museums/british-library/sound-gallery/","verdict":"Seven million recordings in the archive, and a curated handful you can stand and listen to.","runs":null,"types":["exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition"]},{"slug":"treasures-of-the-british-library","name":"Treasures of the British Library","href":"/museums/british-library/treasures-of-the-british-library/","verdict":"Two thousand years of writing in one room, and it costs nothing.","runs":null,"types":["books","exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"american-revolution-250-years-from-the-declaration-of-independence","name":"American Revolution: 250 Years from the Declaration of Independence","href":"/museums/british-library/american-revolution-250-years-from-the-declaration-of-independence/","verdict":"The Library's 1776 material, free in the Treasures Gallery.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-29","to":"2027-01-17"},"types":["exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"agatha-christie-a-world-of-mystery","name":"Agatha Christie: A World of Mystery","href":"/museums/british-library/agatha-christie-a-world-of-mystery/","verdict":"Her 1937 Remington, her pharmacy exam notes and an Orient Express carriage to walk through.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-30","to":"2027-06-20"},"types":["exhibition","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"conquest-the-making-of-norman-england","name":"Conquest: The Making of Norman England","href":"/museums/british-library/conquest-the-making-of-norman-england/","verdict":"The Norman Conquest read from the documents, a thousand years after William was born.","runs":{"from":"2027-10-01","to":"2028-02-27"},"types":["exhibition","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Power & Politics","href":"/politics/british-library/"},{"name":"Literary London","href":"/literary/british-library/"}],"maps_q":"British Library, 96 Euston Road, NW1 2DB, London","in_area":{"slug":"kings-cross-st-pancras","name":"King's Cross & St Pancras"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Newton after Blake","s":"newton-after-blake","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":107},{"n":"Origin Coffee","s":"origin-euston-road","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":119},{"n":"Aux Merveilleux de Fred St Pancras","s":"aux-merveilleux-de-fred-st-pancras","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":153}],"near_same":[{"s":"institute-of-archaeology-collections","m":619},{"s":"wellcome-collection","m":625},{"s":"lethaby-gallery","m":645},{"s":"magic-circle-museum","m":675},{"s":"foundling-museum","m":676},{"s":"queer-britain","m":685}]},{"slug":"british-museum","name":"British Museum","area":"Bloomsbury","address":"Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG","station":"Tottenham Court Road","walk":6,"lat":51.519312,"lng":-0.126877,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,20.5],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Sa-Th 10:00-17:00; Fr 10:00-20:30","website":"https://www.britishmuseum.org","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"relation/177044","types":["art","free","history","popular"],"verdict":"Eight million objects and the first national museum in the world, free since 1759: the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon sculptures and Sutton Hoo under one roof.","note":"The British Museum was the first museum of its kind anywhere: national, belonging to neither church nor king, free to everyone and meant to collect everything. It began with the will of Sir Hans Sloane, a physician who had gathered 71,000 objects, books, dried plants and antiquities and offered them to the nation for \u00a320,000, a fraction of what they were worth. Parliament accepted in 1753, raised the money by lottery, and the museum opened in Montagu House in Bloomsbury in 1759. Robert Smirke's quadrangle replaced the house from the 1820s, and the round Reading Room in its courtyard, where Marx and Lenin worked, held the national library until the books left for St Pancras in 1997. Norman Foster then roofed the courtyard in glass, and the Great Court of 2000 is the largest covered square in Europe.\n\nThe collection, eight million objects, is the largest in the world and grew with the empire, which is why some of the best-known things in it are formally claimed by the countries they came from. Sixty-odd galleries hold it: Egyptian sculpture and the Rosetta Stone on the ground floor, the Parthenon sculptures and the Assyrian palace reliefs off the same route, and upstairs the mummies, Sutton Hoo, Japan, China and South Asia, the Islamic world, clocks, money and Mexico, with the Enlightenment Gallery and the Waddesdon Bequest just inside the Great Court. Six and a half million people came in 2025. Entry is free, and only the loan exhibitions charge.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/british-museum.jpg?v=a6a69dc1","thumb":"/img/british-museum-480.jpg?v=6d20fa16","width":1024,"height":637,"alt":"Fa\u00e7ade of the British Museum","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Ham, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_Museum_from_NE_2_(cropped).JPG","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"british-museum-guided-tours","name":"British Museum guided tours","href":"/museums/british-museum/british-museum-guided-tours/","verdict":"Free volunteer-led tours most days, and a ticketed lap of the highlights at weekends.","runs":null,"types":["free","history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]},{"slug":"early-netherlandish-drawings","name":"Early Netherlandish drawings","href":"/museums/british-museum/early-netherlandish-drawings/","verdict":"The moment a drawing stopped being a preparatory sketch and became the finished thing.","runs":{"to":"2026-09-20"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"the-british-museums-permanent-galleries","name":"The British Museum's permanent galleries","href":"/museums/british-museum/the-british-museums-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"The Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon sculptures, Sutton Hoo and the mummies, all free.","runs":null,"types":["art","exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"john-constable-views-of-nature","name":"John Constable: views of nature","href":"/museums/british-museum/john-constable-views-of-nature/","verdict":"Constable's cloud studies and sketches, free, in the Museum's drawings rooms.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-02","to":"2026-10-04"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"declaring-independence-usa-250","name":"Declaring Independence: USA 250","href":"/museums/british-museum/declaring-independence-usa-250/","verdict":"The Museum's own take on 1776, for the 250th anniversary.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-30","to":"2026-11-29"},"types":["exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"the-bayeux-tapestry","name":"The Bayeux Tapestry","href":"/museums/british-museum/the-bayeux-tapestry/","verdict":"Seventy metres of 11th-century embroidery, in England for the first time since it was made.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-10","to":"2027-07-11"},"types":["exhibition","family","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"korea","name":"Korea","href":"/museums/british-museum/korea/","verdict":"Two thousand years of Korean art, most of it never seen in Britain before.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-01","to":"2027-01-31"},"types":["art","exhibition","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"bayeux-late-medieval-making","name":"Bayeux Late: medieval making","href":"/museums/british-museum/bayeux-late-medieval-making/","verdict":"The first Bayeux Late: workshops and making, free, on a Friday night.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-09","to":"2026-10-09"},"types":["free","history","workshop"],"clue":["Make something","History"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/british-museum/"}],"maps_q":"British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG, London","in_area":{"slug":"bloomsbury","name":"Bloomsbury"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Darlish Bloomsbury","s":"darlish-bloomsbury","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":170},{"n":"Raja Ram Mohan Roy","s":"ram-mohan-roy","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":182},{"n":"Maggs Bros.","s":"maggs-bros","c":"classic-british-shops","cn":"Classic British Shops","m":189}],"near_same":[{"s":"museum-of-comedy","m":242},{"s":"wiener-library","m":266},{"s":"pushkin-house","m":285},{"s":"soas-gallery","m":290},{"s":"the-building-centre","m":326},{"s":"library-and-museum-of-freemasonry","m":616}]},{"slug":"british-optical-association-museum","name":"British Optical Association Museum","area":"Charing Cross","address":"Hungerford Lane, Covent Garden, WC2N 5NG","station":"Charing Cross","walk":1,"lat":51.507892,"lng":-0.125392,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.college-optometrists.org/the-british-optical-association-museum","instagram":"collegeofoptometrists","attrs":[],"osm":"node/5323721988","types":["medical","niche"],"verdict":"History of eye care (by appointment only).","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"British Optical Association Museum, Hungerford Lane, Covent Garden, WC2N 5NG, London","in_area":{"slug":"covent-garden","name":"Covent Garden"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Eleanor Cross","s":"eleanor-cross","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":61},{"n":"Hidden London: Charing Cross tour & afternoon tea","s":"hidden-london-charing-cross-tour-afternoon-tea","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":69},{"n":"Hidden London: Charing Cross \u2014 behind the Silver Screen","s":"hidden-london-charing-cross-behind-the-silver-screen","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":69}],"near_same":[{"s":"benjamin-franklin-house","m":43},{"s":"national-portrait-gallery","m":250},{"s":"national-gallery","m":257},{"s":"canada-house-gallery","m":277},{"s":"household-cavalry-museum","m":345},{"s":"mall-galleries","m":352}]},{"slug":"british-red-cross-museum-and-archives","name":"British Red Cross Museum and Archives","area":"Moorgate","address":"44 Moorfields, EC2Y 9AL","station":"Moorgate","walk":1,"lat":51.519238,"lng":-0.088524,"hours":[[9.0,18.0],[9.0,18.0],[9.0,18.0],[9.0,18.0],[9.0,18.0],null,null],"hours_raw":"Mo-Fr 09:00-18:00","website":"https://www.redcross.org.uk/about-us/our-history/museum-and-archives/visiting-our-museum-and-archives","instagram":"britishredcross","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"node/12551995914","types":["free","medical"],"verdict":"History and memorabilia of the British Red Cross.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"British Red Cross Museum and Archives, 44 Moorfields, EC2Y 9AL, London","in_area":{"slug":"the-city","name":"The City"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Hidden London: Moorgate \u2014 Metropolitan maze","s":"hidden-london-moorgate-metropolitan-maze","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":115},{"n":"Milton Court Concert Hall","s":"milton-court-concert-hall","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":161},{"n":"Rosslyn Coffee","s":"rosslyn","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":175}],"near_same":[{"s":"barbican-centre","m":374},{"s":"honourable-artillery-company-museum","m":420},{"s":"guildhall-art-gallery","m":455},{"s":"wesleys-chapel-museum-of-methodism-and-john-wesleys-house","m":518},{"s":"bank-of-england-museum","m":563},{"s":"mansion-house","m":699}]},{"slug":"brixton-windmill","name":"Brixton Windmill","area":"Brixton","address":"Windmill Gardens, Blenheim Gardens, SW2 5DA","station":"Brixton","walk":15,"lat":51.45322,"lng":-0.123804,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.brixtonwindmill.org/visit/","instagram":"brixtonwindmill","attrs":[],"osm":"way/825382682","types":["local"],"verdict":"A tower mill of 1816 in a small park off Brixton Hill, the last working windmill in inner London, opened for tours one weekend a month in summer.","note":"John Ashby, a miller, built it in 1816 on open fields, and the Ashby family milled here until 1862, when the houses that had grown up around it took the wind; they carried on by steam and later by gas until 1934, and the machinery from those years is still inside. After forty years of neglect Lambeth restored it in 2011, and the Friends of Windmill Gardens now open it, grind flour in it and sell the bags. Protected at the higher historic grade, it is a black tarred tower with a white cap and four sails, small against the flats, and the tour climbs it floor by floor.","deep":true,"hours_short":"Tours on the second weekend of the month, March to October, booked online","hours_url":"https://www.brixtonwindmill.org/visit/","hours_checked":"2026-09-08","hours_source":"web","maps_q":"Brixton Windmill, Windmill Gardens, Blenheim Gardens, SW2 5DA, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"The Windmill Brixton","s":"the-windmill-brixton","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":126},{"n":"Dudleys","s":"dudleys-clapham-park","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":761},{"n":"Hootananny Brixton","s":"hootananny-brixton","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":771}],"near_same":[{"s":"black-cultural-archives","m":1028},{"s":"studio-voltaire","m":1237},{"s":"575-wandsworth-road","m":2172},{"s":"dulwich-picture-gallery","m":2718},{"s":"salvation-army-international-heritage-centre","m":2923},{"s":"london-sewing-machine-museum","m":3047}]},{"slug":"bruce-castle-museum","name":"Bruce Castle Museum","area":"Tottenham","address":"Lordship Lane, Tottenham, N17 8NU","station":"White Hart Lane","walk":8,"lat":51.599098,"lng":-0.075367,"hours":[null,null,[13.0,17.0],[13.0,17.0],[13.0,17.0],[13.0,17.0],[13.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Su 13:00-17:00","website":"https://brucecastle.org/","instagram":"brucecastlemuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"node/9921545330","types":["historic-house","local","history","free"],"verdict":"One of the oldest brick houses in England, with a Tudor tower in its garden and Haringey's museum inside, free: Rowland Hill ran his school here before he invented the penny post.","note":"The Lordship House was built in the early sixteenth century for Sir William Compton, Henry VIII's friend, and the King met his sister Margaret, Queen of Scots, here in 1516; the round brick tower beside it, twenty-one feet high with walls a yard thick, is older than the house and nobody knows what it was for. The Hares, Barons Coleraine, gave it its present front in the 1680s and 1700s and, the story goes, the ghost of a Lady Coleraine who fell from the balcony. From 1827 the Hill family ran a school here that let the boys govern themselves, and one of the brothers, Rowland, went on to invent the Penny Post in 1840, which is why the museum has a room of postal history beside the story of Tottenham and Haringey. The park around it has been public since 1892, the borough's oldest.","deep":false,"hours_url":"https://brucecastle.org/visit-us/opening-hours","hours_extra":"Free. Closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, Good Friday and the summer bank holiday.","hours_source":"web","hours_checked":"2026-09-08","maps_q":"Bruce Castle Museum, Lordship Lane, Tottenham, N17 8NU, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"The Dare Skywalk","s":"the-dare-skywalk","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":929},{"n":"Blighty India Cafe","s":"blighty-india-cafe","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":1508},{"n":"Pressure Drop Taproom","s":"pressure-drop-taproom","c":"beer","cn":"Beer","m":1549}],"near_same":[{"s":"markfield-beam-engine-and-museum","m":2147},{"s":"museum-of-homelessness","m":3494},{"s":"walthamstow-pumphouse-museum","m":3754},{"s":"william-morris-gallery","m":3901},{"s":"vestry-house-museum","m":4628},{"s":"gods-own-junkyard","m":4932}]},{"slug":"soas-gallery","name":"SOAS Gallery","area":"Bloomsbury","address":"10 Thornhaugh Street, WC1H 0XG","station":"Russell Square","walk":4,"lat":51.521683,"lng":-0.128623,"hours":[null,[10.5,17.0],[10.5,17.0],[10.5,20.0],[10.5,17.0],[10.5,17.0],null],"hours_raw":"Tu-We 10:30-17:00; Th 10:30-20:00; Fr-Sa 10:30-17:00","website":"https://www.soas.ac.uk/soas-library/soas-gallery","instagram":"bruneigallery","attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["art"],"verdict":"The university's own gallery: three or four free exhibitions a year from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, with a Japanese garden on the roof.","note":"The gallery fills the lower floors of the Brunei Gallery building on Thornhaugh Street, which Nicholas Hare Architects finished in 1995 and which is where its former name came from. The programme follows what the School of Oriental and African Studies teaches - the art, objects, textiles and photography of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, historic and contemporary - changes three or four times a year, and is always free.\n\nThe Japanese Roof Garden on top is reached through the galleries and keeps the same hours. Peter Swift designed it and it opened in November 2001, paid for by Haruhisa Handa; it is dedicated to forgiveness, which is the kanji cut into the granite water basin.","deep":true,"hours_extra":"Closed on bank holidays, at Christmas and New Year, and between exhibitions.","hours_source":"web","hours_checked":"2026-09-03","hours_url":"https://www.soas.ac.uk/soas-library/soas-gallery","whats_on":[{"slug":"embroidery-traditions-of-afghanistan","name":"Embroidery Traditions of Afghanistan","href":"/art/soas-gallery/embroidery-traditions-of-afghanistan/","verdict":"Afghan embroidery from the Karun Thakar collection, in the SOAS gallery almost nobody finds.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-08","to":"2026-09-19"},"types":["art","exhibition","fashion","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Fashion"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/soas-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"SOAS Gallery, 10 Thornhaugh Street, WC1H 0XG, London","in_area":{"slug":"bloomsbury","name":"Bloomsbury"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Senate House","s":"senate-house","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":76},{"n":"Faber & Faber, 24 Russell Square","s":"faber-faber-24-russell-square","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":179},{"n":"Store Street Espresso","s":"store-street-espresso","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":184}],"near_same":[{"s":"wiener-library","m":44},{"s":"british-museum","m":290},{"s":"the-building-centre","m":316},{"s":"petrie-museum-of-egyptian-archaeology","m":368},{"s":"institute-of-archaeology-collections","m":424},{"s":"grant-museum-of-zoology-and-comparative-anatomy","m":452}]},{"slug":"brunel-museum","name":"Brunel Museum","area":"Rotherhithe","address":"Railway Avenue, SE16 4LF","station":"Rotherhithe","walk":1,"lat":51.501642,"lng":-0.052863,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://thebrunelmuseum.com","instagram":"brunel_museum","attrs":[],"osm":"way/998729298","types":["quirky","science"],"verdict":"The engine house of the Thames Tunnel, the first under a river anywhere, and the great shaft the Brunels sank to dig it, in Rotherhithe.","note":"Marc Brunel began the Thames Tunnel in 1825 by building a brick tower fifty feet across on the Rotherhithe bank and letting it sink under its own weight into the ground, the first caisson in the world, and from the bottom of it his miners dug towards Wapping inside the iron shield he had patented after watching a shipworm bore through timber. His son Isambard, resident engineer at twenty, was nearly killed when the river broke in in 1828 and six men drowned; the money ran out for seven years, and the tunnel finally opened in 1843 as a foot passage with an underground fair in it, a wonder of the age that never carried the carriages it was built for. Since 1869 trains have run through it, and they still do, the Overground between Rotherhithe and Wapping. The museum is in the engine house of 1842 that pumped the tunnel dry, with the story told in models and pictures, and the shaft itself, the Grand Entrance Hall, blackened and vast, can be descended by a staircase to the floor where the fair was held; concerts are sometimes held in it, and there is a garden on its roof. Tours run at the weekend.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/brunel-museum.jpg?v=3189ce05","thumb":"/img/brunel-museum-480.jpg?v=a6d243f7","width":1024,"height":769,"alt":"The Brunel Museum's brick engine house and chimney at Rotherhithe","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Doyle of London, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Engine_House_and_Chimney,_Rotherhithe_(Northeast_View_-_01).jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/brunel-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Brunel Museum, Railway Avenue, SE16 4LF, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Sunbeam Weekly and the Pilgrim's Pocket","s":"sunbeam-weekly-and-the-pilgrims-pocket","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":107},{"n":"Renforth Pump House","s":"renforth-pump-house","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":307},{"n":"King Edward III's manor house","s":"king-edward-iiis-manor-house","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":479}],"near_same":[{"s":"southwark-park-galleries","m":837},{"s":"tower-bridge","m":1616},{"s":"tower-of-london","m":1913},{"s":"fusiliers-museum","m":1917},{"s":"fashion-and-textile-museum","m":1994},{"s":"hms-belfast","m":2043}]},{"slug":"buckingham-palace","name":"Buckingham Palace","area":"Victoria","address":"SW1A 1AA","station":"Victoria","walk":6,"lat":51.500834,"lng":-0.142658,"hours":[[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-17:30","website":"https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/visit/the-state-rooms-buckingham-palace","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"relation/5208404","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"Nash's palace for George IV, refaced for George V, and the State Rooms Victoria complained were too small.","note":"Nineteen State Rooms make up the public route: Nash's Throne Room with its proscenium arch, the 47-metre Picture Gallery hung with Rembrandt, Rubens, Vermeer and Canaletto from George IV's collection, the Ballroom Pennethorne added for Victoria, and rooms furnished with the porcelain pagodas and Chinese pieces brought from Brighton Pavilion when it was sold to pay for the east wing. The way out crosses the lawn of the 39-acre garden, the largest private garden in London. The King's Gallery, built out of the chapel bombed in 1940, shows exhibitions from the Royal Collection, and the Royal Mews beside it keeps the Gold State Coach.","deep":true,"hours_extra":"The State Rooms open for about eleven weeks each summer, from July to September; the King's Gallery and the Royal Mews keep their own, longer seasons.","reading":"Buckingham Palace looks as though it must have been the centre of the British monarchy for centuries. In fact, it is a surprisingly recent palace. It did not become the sovereign's principal London residence until Queen Victoria moved in in 1837, and the famous fa\u00e7ade seen from the Mall is younger still: it was completed only in 1914. Queen Victoria never saw the front of Buckingham Palace that is now so strongly associated with her and the monarchy she helped define.\n\nThe story begins not with a king, but with an aristocrat. A substantial house had occupied the site by the seventeenth century, but around 1703 John Sheffield, later Duke of Buckingham, replaced it with Buckingham House, one of the grandest private houses in London. It was a large but recognisably domestic building, with a central block and projecting wings, standing at what was then the edge of developed Westminster. The palace has grown enormously around it, but parts of this original house survive within the building today.\n\nThere is an even older royal relic outside. James I had attempted to establish a silk industry here in the early seventeenth century by planting thousands of mulberry trees. According to the Royal Collection, the project failed because black mulberries were planted rather than the white variety preferred by silkworms. One surviving mulberry tree from the plantation still grows in the palace garden. It is an improbable remnant of the site two centuries before Buckingham Palace existed.\n\nBuckingham House became royal in 1762 when George III acquired it as a private family residence for Queen Charlotte and their children. Significantly, it was not yet the official centre of the monarchy: that remained St James's Palace. Known as the Queen's House, Buckingham was intended to provide something closer to a home. George III commissioned Sir William Chambers to modernise it, while Robert Adam contributed sophisticated interiors for the Queen.\n\nThe transformation into a palace came with George IV. Few British monarchs spent money on architecture, furniture and decoration with quite his enthusiasm. In 1825 he commissioned John Nash to turn the relatively restrained Buckingham House into a royal palace capable of matching his ambitions. Nash expanded the central building and rebuilt the wings around a huge ceremonial forecourt. In its centre stood a newly designed triumphal gateway: the monument we now know as Marble Arch.\n\nThe result was theatrical even by royal standards. Nash had begun his career designing scenery, and something of the stage designer remained in his architecture. Inside, rooms progress dramatically into one another through columns, mirrors, gilding and richly coloured decoration. His Throne Room culminates in what is essentially a proscenium arch framing the throne, while the 47-metre Picture Gallery was created as a magnificent setting for George IV's collection of paintings.\n\nGeorge IV's taste, however, was considerably more impressive than his financial restraint. By 1828 Nash had spent \u00a3496,169 on the project and costs were far beyond what had been expected. George died in 1830 without ever living in his new palace, and Nash was subsequently dismissed. Edward Blore was brought in to finish the building more economically. George's successor William IV disliked Buckingham Palace sufficiently that he continued living at Clarence House. After the Houses of Parliament burned down in 1834, he even offered the unfinished palace to Parliament as a replacement. The offer was declined.\n\nIt was therefore an eighteen-year-old Queen Victoria who finally turned Buckingham Palace into the home of the sovereign. She moved in shortly after becoming Queen in 1837, against advice that she should wait at Kensington Palace while the building was made ready. For the first time, Buckingham Palace became not merely a royal house but the working centre of the monarchy.\n\nIt soon became apparent that the enormous-looking palace was not enormous enough. Victoria married Prince Albert in 1840 and their rapidly growing family had to coexist with courtiers, servants, offices and the elaborate entertaining expected of the court. In 1845 Victoria complained to Prime Minister Robert Peel about the \"total want of accommodation\" and the absence of a room large enough for major balls and concerts. The solution fundamentally changed the appearance of the palace.\n\nEdward Blore built an entirely new eastern wing across the open side of Nash's forecourt, turning the palace into the quadrangle it remains today. In doing so he displaced Marble Arch, which was removed in 1851 and reconstructed beside Hyde Park. Much of the money for the new wing came from selling George IV's extravagant Royal Pavilion at Brighton, and some of the Pavilion's contents came back to London. Behind Buckingham Palace's restrained classical exterior are therefore unexpectedly exotic rooms filled with Chinese and Chinese-inspired furniture, porcelain pagodas and fantastical objects created for George IV's oriental palace by the sea.\n\nPrince Albert also suggested something that would become perhaps the palace's most important architectural feature: a balcony at the centre of the new fa\u00e7ade. Royal appearances there began in Victoria's reign; she watched soldiers leave for the Crimean War and later welcomed them back. The balcony was a remarkably effective piece of royal theatre. The monarch could remain physically separated and elevated above the crowd while simultaneously appearing accessible to it. That tension between distance and visibility remains central to the function of Buckingham Palace today.\n\nThe palace continued to expand. James Pennethorne added the great Ballroom and associated rooms in the 1850s, giving Victoria the enormous ceremonial space she had asked for. The interiors were considered remarkably fashionable: the architectural journal *The Builder* went so far as to call Buckingham Palace the \"Headquarters of Taste\". Yet the flourishing court came abruptly to an end after Albert died in 1861. Victoria withdrew from much of London social life and spent long periods at Windsor, Osborne and Balmoral. By the end of her reign Buckingham Palace had begun to look neglected.\n\nHer son Edward VII reversed this. Buckingham Palace once again became the centre of an intensely social court, and many rooms acquired the white-and-gold decoration still visible today. Outside, an even greater transformation was taking place. The Victoria Memorial, the Mall and the monumental gates around the palace were conceived as a vast memorial to the previous reign. Sir Aston Webb helped turn the area into the piece of imperial urban theatre familiar today: a great ceremonial route running from Admiralty Arch towards the palace, terminating in the gilded figure of Victory above the Victoria Memorial.\n\nAnd this created a problem. Blore's nineteenth-century palace front was faced in Caen stone which had darkened and deteriorated in London's polluted atmosphere. Beside the brilliant white new memorial it looked particularly shabby. George V therefore commissioned Aston Webb to reface the entire east front in hard Portland stone. The work was carried out in 1913-14. Webb kept the basic arrangement, including Albert's balcony, but transformed its architectural character. The symmetrical, pale, rather stern elevation seen in almost every photograph of Buckingham Palace is consequently an Edwardian and early-Georgian remodelling of a Victorian wing attached to a Regency palace built around a Georgian house.\n\nThat complicated history is easier to understand from the garden. The western side of the palace still displays much more clearly the architecture of Nash's original scheme, with projecting pavilions, great Corinthian columns and a curved central bow. The familiar Mall fa\u00e7ade can therefore be slightly deceptive: what appears to be one immense, carefully planned classical palace is actually the result of successive monarchs and architects repeatedly extending and remodelling what they inherited.\n\nThe same is true inside. George IV's collections from Carlton House survive alongside furnishings brought from Brighton Pavilion; Victoria and Albert enlarged and altered the ceremonial rooms; Edward VII imposed his white-and-gold Edwardian taste; and Queen Mary later tried to recover some of the Regency character that had disappeared. Buckingham Palace is less a perfectly preserved historic interior than an accumulation of changing ideas about how monarchy should look.\n\nThe building has also repeatedly been forced to adapt to events far outside its gates. During the Second World War Buckingham Palace was bombed nine times. On 13 September 1940 a German aircraft approached along the Mall and dropped six bombs around the palace while George VI and Queen Elizabeth were inside. Bombs struck the forecourt, quadrangle, garden and the private chapel. The King recorded seeing two bombs fall only around thirty yards away before the explosions drove him and the Queen into the corridor.\n\nThe bombed chapel was never restored to its former use. In 1962 Prince Philip proposed turning its ruins into the Queen's Gallery, creating a public exhibition space for works from the Royal Collection. It was rebuilt again and enlarged in the early twenty-first century and is now the King's Gallery. A room destroyed during the Blitz therefore became one of the ways in which a famously inaccessible palace began gradually opening itself to the public.\n\nThat process accelerated dramatically in 1993. Following the catastrophic fire at Windsor Castle the previous year, Buckingham Palace's State Rooms began opening to paying visitors during the summer. The income became an important part of financing Windsor's restoration: ultimately around seventy per cent of the necessary revenue was raised through admissions to Buckingham Palace. What began partly as a response to a financial and political problem has since become a permanent part of London's cultural calendar.\n\nBehind all this ceremony is something that is remarkably easy to forget when standing among the crowds outside: the palace occupies the edge of a 39-acre walled garden, the largest private garden in London. Its lawns, lake and more than a thousand trees form an almost invisible landscape behind the building. From the Mall, Buckingham Palace presents itself as the formal termination of one of London's grandest avenues; from behind, it still has something of the character George III originally wanted from Buckingham House - a private retreat hidden from the city.\n\nThis is perhaps the most interesting way to understand Buckingham Palace. It was never designed in a single moment to become Britain's definitive royal palace. George III bought a family house. George IV tried to turn it into a spectacular work of art and nearly lost control of the cost. Victoria discovered it was impractical and built another wing. Edward VII revived it, George V replaced its public face, bombs destroyed parts of it, and later generations opened portions of it to millions of visitors.\n\nWhat now appears to be an immutable symbol of monarchy is actually one of London's great architectural improvisations.","figure":{"src":"/img/buckingham-palace.jpg?v=9b74dbe8","thumb":"/img/buckingham-palace-480.jpg?v=723d676a","width":1024,"height":670,"alt":"Buckingham Palace in London, England. taken by myself with a Canon 5D and 24-105mm f/4L IS lens","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buckingham_Palace,_London_-_April_2009.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"changing-the-guard","name":"Changing the Guard","href":"/museums/buckingham-palace/changing-the-guard/","verdict":"The New Guard marches up from Wellington Barracks, band and all.","runs":null,"types":["family","free","history"],"clue":["History"]},{"slug":"buckingham-palace-summer-opening","name":"Buckingham Palace Summer Opening","href":"/museums/buckingham-palace/buckingham-palace-summer-opening/","verdict":"Nineteen State Rooms, open to the public for eleven weeks a year.","runs":{"from":"2026-07-09","to":"2026-09-27","repeats":"yearly"},"types":["history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Royal London","href":"/royal/buckingham-palace/"},{"name":"Power & Politics","href":"/politics/buckingham-palace/"}],"maps_q":"Buckingham Palace, SW1A 1AA, London","in_area":{"slug":"westminster","name":"Westminster"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Changing the Guard","s":"changing-the-guard","c":"royal","cn":"Royal London","m":24},{"n":"Victoria Memorial","s":"victoria-memorial","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":181},{"n":"Coffee Geek and Friends","s":"coffee-geek-and-friends","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":357}],"near_same":[{"s":"kings-gallery","m":112},{"s":"royal-mews","m":239},{"s":"clarence-house","m":456},{"s":"guards-museum","m":460},{"s":"spencer-house","m":508},{"s":"wellington-arch","m":595}]},{"slug":"burgh-house-hampstead-museum","name":"Burgh House & Hampstead Museum","area":"Hampstead","address":"New End Square, NW3 1LT","station":"Hampstead","walk":4,"lat":51.558203,"lng":-0.175082,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.burghhouse.org.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/77250946","types":["local"],"verdict":"A Queen Anne house with Hampstead's museum inside and a garden caf\u00e9 below, free.","note":"Burgh House was built in 1704, when Hampstead was a spa village and Londoners came up the hill for the iron-rich water, and the spa's physician, William Gibbons, moved in and put his initials on the wrought-iron gate that still stands. It has been a militia headquarters, an art expert's home with a garden by Gertrude Jekyll, of which the terrace survives, and the house where Rudyard Kipling's daughter lived and where Kipling made his last outing in 1936. Since 1979 it has belonged to a trust and holds the Hampstead Museum: the village and the Heath, the spa, and the painters and writers who filled the place, Constable, Keats and the modernists of the 1930s, told in a few rooms upstairs. The music room hosts concerts, and the Buttery in the basement opens onto the terrace. Entry is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/burgh-house-hampstead-museum.jpg?v=6d3f60cd","thumb":"/img/burgh-house-hampstead-museum-480.jpg?v=532081a7","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Burgh House, a brick house of 1704 in Hampstead, above its walled garden","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Matt Brown from London, England, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burgh_House_(39743491132).jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Burgh House & Hampstead Museum, New End Square, NW3 1LT, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Katherine Mansfield","s":"katherine-mansfield","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":283},{"n":"Ginger & White","s":"ginger-white","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":351},{"n":"Hampstead Observatory","s":"hampstead-observatory","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":431}],"near_same":[{"s":"fenton-house","m":326},{"s":"2-willow-road","m":425},{"s":"keats-house","m":562},{"s":"camden-arts-centre","m":972},{"s":"freud-museum","m":1111},{"s":"kenwood-house","m":1576}]},{"slug":"camden-arts-centre","name":"Camden Arts Centre","area":"Hampstead","address":"52 Arkwright Road, NW3 6DG","station":"Finchley Road & Frognal","walk":1,"lat":51.551185,"lng":-0.183484,"hours":[null,[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,21.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo off; Tu-We,Fr-Su 11:00-18:00; Th 11:00-21:00","website":"https://www.camdenartcentre.org/","instagram":"camdenartcentre","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/306386812","types":["art","free"],"verdict":"Changing exhibits of contemporary art.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/camden-arts-centre.jpg?v=1ac6e42e","thumb":"/img/camden-arts-centre-480.jpg?v=2e167ac0","width":680,"height":1024,"alt":"Camden Arts Centre, London. Copyright Camden Arts Centre","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Camden Arts Centre, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Camden_Arts_Centre,_London,_UK.jpg","thumb_width":319},"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/camden-arts-centre/"}],"maps_q":"Camden Arts Centre, 52 Arkwright Road, NW3 6DG, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"John Harrison's tomb, Hampstead","s":"john-harrisons-tomb-hampstead","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":480},{"n":"Ginger & White","s":"ginger-white","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":622},{"n":"Tamara Karsavina","s":"tamara-karsavina","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":684}],"near_same":[{"s":"freud-museum","m":528},{"s":"fenton-house","m":895},{"s":"burgh-house-hampstead-museum","m":972},{"s":"keats-house","m":1160},{"s":"2-willow-road","m":1195},{"s":"ben-uri-gallery-the-london-jewish-museum-of-art","m":1524}]},{"slug":"canada-house-gallery","name":"Canada House Gallery","area":"Trafalgar Square","address":"5 Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, SW1Y 5BJ","station":"Charing Cross","walk":3,"lat":51.5079,"lng":-0.1294,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":null,"instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["art"],"verdict":"Canadian historical and contemporary art and artefacts.","note":null,"deep":true,"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/canada-house-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"Canada House Gallery, 5 Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, SW1Y 5BJ, London","in_area":{"slug":"soho","name":"Soho"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Diwali on the Square","s":"diwali-on-the-square","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":90},{"n":"Trafalgar Square & Nelson's Column","s":"nelsons-column","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":102},{"n":"Charles I at Charing Cross","s":"charles-i-at-charing-cross","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":136}],"near_same":[{"s":"national-gallery","m":118},{"s":"mall-galleries","m":157},{"s":"national-portrait-gallery","m":176},{"s":"institute-of-contemporary-arts","m":221},{"s":"british-optical-association-museum","m":277},{"s":"benjamin-franklin-house","m":313}]},{"slug":"carlyles-house","name":"Carlyle's House","area":"Chelsea","address":"24 Cheyne Row, SW3 5HL","station":"South Kensington","walk":14,"lat":51.484114,"lng":-0.169792,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/carlyles-house","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/905365405","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"The Chelsea house where the Carlyles lived, quarrelled and wrote for half a century, kept almost as they left it.","note":"Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish historian whom Victorian England treated as its sage, and his wife Jane, whose letters are the better read, took this Queen Anne house on Cheyne Row in June 1834 and stayed for the rest of their lives; he died here in 1881, and Dickens, Tennyson, Darwin, Ruskin and Chopin all climbed the stairs. It is famous for the marriage as much as the books: Jane's wit about her husband's moods runs through the rooms, and the attic study he had built in 1853, double-walled to shut out the neighbours' cockerels and pianos, which did not work, is the most eloquent room in the house. Bought by subscription in 1895 and passed to the National Trust in 1936, it is the least altered writer's house in London, with the furniture, the books, the pictures and the walled garden where Jane's dog is buried. It opens on set days from spring to autumn.","deep":false,"hours_short":"Wednesdays, by pre-booked timed entry","hours_url":"https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/london/the-carlyles-house","hours_checked":"2026-09-05","also_in":[{"name":"Literary London","href":"/literary/carlyles-house/"}],"maps_q":"Carlyle's House, 24 Cheyne Row, SW3 5HL, London","in_area":{"slug":"chelsea","name":"Chelsea"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Bob Marley","s":"bob-marley","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":138},{"n":"Cheyne Walk","s":"cheyne-walk","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":217},{"n":"King's Road","s":"kings-road","c":"shopping","cn":"Shopping","m":327}],"near_same":[{"s":"chelsea-physic-garden","m":531},{"s":"national-army-museum","m":699},{"s":"royal-hospital-chelsea-museum","m":952},{"s":"saatchi-gallery","m":1054},{"s":"victoria-and-albert-museum","m":1432},{"s":"natural-history-museum","m":1438}]},{"slug":"cartoon-museum","name":"Cartoon Museum","area":"Fitzrovia","address":"63 Wells Street, W1A 3AE","station":"Oxford Circus","walk":4,"lat":51.517577,"lng":-0.138581,"hours":[null,[10.5,17.5],[10.5,17.5],[10.5,20.0],[10.5,17.5],[10.5,17.5],[12.0,16.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu, We, Fr, Sa 10:30-17:30; Th 10:30-20:00; Su 12:00-16:00","website":"https://www.cartoonmuseum.org","instagram":"thecartoonmuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"node/7261799916","types":["art","quirky"],"verdict":"British cartooning from Hogarth and Gillray to the Beano and last week's papers, on Wells Street.","note":"The political cartoon came of age in Georgian London, and the museum that collects it opened in 2006 after the cartoonist Mel Calman and a group of collectors had spent nearly twenty years raising the money; the Duke of Edinburgh, who had heard H.M. Bateman call for a national cartoon museum in 1949, cut the ribbon. Since 2019 it has been on Wells Street, north of Oxford Street, with about 250 originals on show at a time from a collection of more than four thousand: Hogarth and Gillray, the Victorian Punch men, Heath Robinson's contraptions, Giles, Steadman and Scarfe, and the comics, with Beano and Dandy pages beside the political ones. It is an independent charity with no public money, and keeps a library of five thousand books and four thousand comics upstairs for anyone who asks.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/cartoon-museum.jpg?v=6430200e","thumb":"/img/cartoon-museum.jpg?v=6430200e","width":572,"height":1024,"alt":"Photo taken by lonpicman","caption":"","credit":"Photo by No machine-readable author provided. Lonpicman~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CartoonMuseumLondon.jpg"},"whats_on":[{"slug":"does-my-head-look-big-in-this-the-art-of-portrait-caricature","name":"Does My Head Look Big in This? The Art of Portrait Caricature","href":"/museums/cartoon-museum/does-my-head-look-big-in-this-the-art-of-portrait-caricature/","verdict":"Caricature from Renaissance Italy to the front pages, rude by design.","runs":{"from":"2026-05-23","to":"2026-11-01"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/cartoon-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Cartoon Museum, 63 Wells Street, W1A 3AE, London","in_area":{"slug":"fitzrovia","name":"Fitzrovia"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Oma Coffee Roaster","s":"oma-coffee-roaster","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":114},{"n":"Kaffeine","s":"kaffeine-east-marylebone","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":125},{"n":"Kiss The Hippo","s":"kiss-the-hippo-east-marylebone","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":136}],"near_same":[{"s":"the-photographers-gallery","m":296},{"s":"anaesthesia-heritage-centre","m":493},{"s":"the-building-centre","m":530},{"s":"handel-hendrix-house","m":721},{"s":"grant-museum-of-zoology-and-comparative-anatomy","m":746},{"s":"petrie-museum-of-egyptian-archaeology","m":771}]},{"slug":"charles-dickens-museum","name":"Charles Dickens Museum","area":"Holborn","address":"48-49 Doughty Street, WC1N 2LX","station":"Russell Square","walk":7,"lat":51.523594,"lng":-0.116323,"hours":[null,null,[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Su 10:00-16:00","website":"https://dickensmuseum.com/","instagram":"dickensmuseum","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"node/334631276","types":["historic-house","small-gem"],"verdict":"The only one of Dickens's London homes still standing, laid out as he kept it.","note":"He wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby in the two and a half years he lived at 48 Doughty Street. The rooms are furnished with his own belongings, including the desk he wrote at. The Dickens Fellowship bought the house in 1923 to stop it being demolished and opened it two years later.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/charles-dickens-museum.jpg?v=a500cfce","thumb":"/img/charles-dickens-museum-480.jpg?v=2bd721e6","width":682,"height":1024,"alt":"A photograph of Charles Dickens Museum.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Peter Trimming, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Dickens_Museum_-_geograph.org.uk_-_7006672.jpg","thumb_width":320,"alt_generic":true},"whats_on":[{"slug":"halloween-at-the-charles-dickens-museum","name":"Halloween at the Charles Dickens Museum","href":"/museums/charles-dickens-museum/halloween-at-the-charles-dickens-museum/","verdict":"Ghost stories told in Dickens's own house, from a family afternoon to Nancy's murder after dark.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-28","to":"2026-11-01"},"types":["family","history"],"clue":["History"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Literary London","href":"/literary/charles-dickens-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Charles Dickens Museum, 48-49 Doughty Street, WC1N 2LX, London","in_area":{"slug":"bloomsbury","name":"Bloomsbury"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Redemption Roasters","s":"redemption-lambs-conduit","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":193},{"n":"Sir Syed Ahmad Khan","s":"syed-ahmad-khan","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":209},{"n":"Fred Bakery","s":"fred-bakery-holborn","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":215}],"near_same":[{"s":"postal-museum","m":204},{"s":"foundling-museum","m":411},{"s":"novelty-automation","m":436},{"s":"sir-john-soanes-museum","m":729},{"s":"pushkin-house","m":757},{"s":"quentin-blake-centre-for-illustration","m":818}]},{"slug":"chelsea-physic-garden","name":"Chelsea Physic Garden","area":"Chelsea","address":"66 Royal Hospital Road","station":"Sloane Square","walk":12,"lat":51.484648,"lng":-0.162161,"hours":[[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],null,[11.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Su-Fr 11:00-17:00","website":"https://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/","instagram":"chelsea_physic_garden","attrs":[],"osm":"way/10806964","types":["medical"],"verdict":"London's oldest botanic garden, walled beside the river since 1673 and still laid out by what the plants are for, with the largest olive tree in Britain.","note":"The Society of Apothecaries took four acres of riverside Chelsea in 1673 to grow the plants their trade was made from and to teach apprentices to tell them apart, and Hans Sloane, who had trained here, bought the freehold in 1722 and leased it back to them for \u00a35 a year for ever, a rent still paid; his statue stands in the middle. From here the seeds that founded the cotton crop of Georgia were sent in 1732, and the rock garden of 1773, built of basalt that Joseph Banks brought back from Iceland as ballast, is the oldest in Europe. The high brick walls and the river make it warmer than anywhere else in London, which is why the largest fruiting olive tree in Britain and the northernmost outdoor grapefruit in the world grow here. Its 4,500 plants are still arranged by use, medicine, food, dye and poison, with glasshouses, a pond and a caf\u00e9 under the trees. The apothecaries kept it to themselves for three centuries; it became a charity in 1983 and opened its gate.","deep":false,"hours_url":"https://www.chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/visit/opening-times-and-tickets/","hours_checked":"2026-09-08","figure":{"src":"/img/chelsea-physic-garden.jpg?v=a4636bb2","thumb":"/img/chelsea-physic-garden-480.jpg?v=066939d7","width":1024,"height":819,"alt":"The garden's order beds in summer: low box-edged plots of herbs and flowering plants with white labels, a clipped mound of a shrub in front, trees behind and the red-brick gables of Chelsea houses beyond the wall.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by flickr user flickr-rickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chelsea_physic_garden.jpg","thumb_width":480},"figures":[{"src":"/img/chelsea-physic-garden-2.jpg?v=ae55096d","thumb":"/img/chelsea-physic-garden-2-480.jpg?v=eba2999c","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Tall green teasel heads on bristly stems in front of a dark hedge, with purple verbena, yellow flowers and a white-flowering shrub around them.","caption":"Teasel, in the beds by Royal Hospital Road.","credit":"Photo by Christine Matthews, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teasel,_Chelsea_Physic_Garden,_Royal_Hospital_Road,_London_-_geograph.org.uk_-_5036229.jpg","thumb_width":480},{"src":"/img/chelsea-physic-garden-3.jpg?v=14abf165","thumb":"/img/chelsea-physic-garden-3-480.jpg?v=05df950d","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"A white marble statue of a man in a long wig and robes on a plinth among flower beds, two people on a wooden bench in front of it and others walking through the planting.","caption":"Sir Hans Sloane, who gave the garden its lease in 1722.","credit":"Photo by Christine Matthews, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_of_Sir_Hans_Sloane,_Chelsea_Physic_Garden,_Royal_Hospital_Road,_London_-_geograph.org.uk_-_5036225.jpg","thumb_width":480},{"src":"/img/chelsea-physic-garden-4.jpg?v=d8b77cd4","thumb":"/img/chelsea-physic-garden-4-480.jpg?v=66e097da","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"A small red-painted wooden caravan on two spoked wheels, standing on a gravel path under trees, with a framed portrait of Carl Linnaeus on its door and his name on the side.","caption":"The Linnaeus caravan.","credit":"Photo by Christine Matthews, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ornamental_Caravan,_Chelsea_Physic_Garden,_Royal_Hospital_Road,_London_-_geograph.org.uk_-_5036233.jpg","thumb_width":480}],"whats_on":[{"slug":"chelsea-physic-garden-christmas-fair","name":"Chelsea Physic Garden Christmas Fair","href":"/museums/chelsea-physic-garden/chelsea-physic-garden-christmas-fair/","verdict":"A hundred small makers among the medicinal beds, four days at the end of November.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-26","to":"2026-11-29","repeats":"yearly"},"types":["festival","food_available","nature"],"clue":["Festival"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Outdoors & Nature","href":"/outdoors/chelsea-physic-garden/"},{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/chelsea-physic-garden/"}],"maps_q":"Chelsea Physic Garden, 66 Royal Hospital Road, London","in_area":{"slug":"chelsea","name":"Chelsea"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"John Singer Sargent","s":"john-singer-sargent","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":163},{"n":"Mark Twain","s":"mark-twain","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":271},{"n":"Cheyne Walk","s":"cheyne-walk","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":358}],"near_same":[{"s":"national-army-museum","m":219},{"s":"royal-hospital-chelsea-museum","m":466},{"s":"carlyles-house","m":531},{"s":"saatchi-gallery","m":707},{"s":"victoria-and-albert-museum","m":1527},{"s":"natural-history-museum","m":1626}]},{"slug":"chisenhale-gallery","name":"Chisenhale Gallery","area":"Victoria Park Village","address":"64-84 Chisenhale Road","station":"Mile End","walk":12,"lat":51.533058,"lng":-0.03971,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://chisenhale.co.uk/","instagram":"chisenhaleartplace","attrs":[],"osm":"way/303003722","types":["art"],"verdict":"Non-profit contemporary art gallery.","note":null,"deep":true,"whats_on":[{"slug":"wakaliga-uganda","name":"Wakaliga Uganda","href":"/art/chisenhale-gallery/wakaliga-uganda/","verdict":"The Kampala studio that makes action films for a few hundred pounds each, in a Bow gallery.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-02","to":"2026-12-06"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/chisenhale-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"Chisenhale Gallery, 64-84 Chisenhale Road, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Bottle Apostle, Victoria Park","s":"bottle-apostle-victoria-park","c":"wine","cn":"Wine","m":595},{"n":"Pophams Victoria Park","s":"pophams-victoria-park","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":702},{"n":"Victoria Park","s":"victoria-park","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":729}],"near_same":[{"s":"young-v-a","m":1139},{"s":"vagina-museum","m":1235},{"s":"the-viktor-wynd-museum-of-curiosities-fine-art-natural-history","m":1253},{"s":"ragged-school-museum","m":1609},{"s":"hackney-museum","m":1694},{"s":"sutton-house","m":1868}]},{"slug":"chiswick-house","name":"Chiswick House","area":"Chiswick","address":"Grand Allee, W4 3EP","station":"Chiswick","walk":9,"lat":51.483747,"lng":-0.258592,"hours":[null,null,null,[10.5,15.5],[10.5,15.5],[10.5,15.5],[10.5,15.5]],"hours_raw":"Th-Su 10:30-15:30","website":"https://chiswickhouseandgardens.org.uk/","instagram":"chiswick_house","attrs":[],"osm":"node/679119297","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"Lord Burlington's Palladian villa of 1729, built to show his art and his ideas rather than to live in, with Kent's gardens free around it.","note":"Richard Boyle, third Earl of Burlington, came back from Italy convinced that English building had gone wrong since Inigo Jones, and in 1729 he finished this villa at Chiswick as the argument: a domed cube on the pattern of Palladio's Villa Rotonda, with hardly a bedroom, meant for his pictures, his books and the people he wanted to persuade. William Kent did the rooms, gilded and velvet-hung under the dome, and then the grounds, where he and Burlington broke the formal garden into lawns, groves, a winding river and temples, one of the first landscape gardens in England and the model for what followed. The Devonshires inherited it and Georgiana, the fifth Duke's duchess, made it the Whigs' country retreat; Charles James Fox died here in 1806 and George Canning, the Prime Minister, in 1827. After four decades as a private asylum it was bought for the public in 1929. The gardens are free and open from seven in the morning; the house is on a ticket for part of the year, and the conservatory's camellias, planted in the 1820s, flower in February and March.","deep":false,"hours_source":"web","hours_checked":"2026-09-03","hours_url":"https://chiswickhouseandgardens.org.uk/plan-your-visit/opening-times-and-prices/","figure":{"src":"/img/chiswick-house.jpg?v=379cfbb7","thumb":"/img/chiswick-house-480.jpg?v=6b5986c1","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"A photograph of Chiswick House.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Michael Coppins, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chiswick_House_from_SE.jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"maps_q":"Chiswick House, Grand Allee, W4 3EP, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Fuller's Griffin Brewery Tour","s":"fullers-griffin-brewery-tour","c":"beer","cn":"Beer","m":803},{"n":"Sipsmith Distillery Tour","s":"sipsmith-distillery-tour","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":891},{"n":"Chiswick Mall","s":"chiswick-mall","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":1165}],"near_same":[{"s":"hogarths-house","m":421},{"s":"7-hammersmith-terrace","m":1308},{"s":"riverside-gallery","m":1442},{"s":"london-museum-of-water-steam","m":2278},{"s":"musical-museum","m":2435},{"s":"kew-palace","m":2524}]},{"slug":"churchill-war-rooms","name":"Churchill War Rooms","area":"Whitehall","address":"King Charles Street, SW1A 2AQ","station":"Westminster","walk":4,"lat":51.502209,"lng":-0.129251,"hours":[[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 09:30-18:00","website":"https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/churchill-war-rooms","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/197206542","types":["history","military","popular"],"verdict":"The bunker under Whitehall where the War Cabinet met, locked up in 1945 and left exactly as it was.","note":"These are the rooms under the Treasury from which Britain ran the Second World War. Converted from a basement in 1938, when the Air Ministry expected bombing to cause 200,000 casualties a week in London, they came into use on 27 August 1939, a week before war was declared, and the War Cabinet met here 115 times, the last on 28 March 1945. Churchill, taking over in May 1940, looked at the Cabinet Room and said: \u201cThis is the room from which I will direct the war.\u201d A slab of concrete up to five feet thick was poured over the complex during the Blitz and it grew to three times its size; staff slept in dormitories under it, the ceilings were low, the lavatories were chemical and the mice were everywhere.\n\nWhen Japan surrendered in August 1945 the doors were locked and the rooms left as they stood, so what you walk through is not a reconstruction. The Map Room, staffed round the clock by officers of all three services to brief the King and the Prime Minister each morning, still has its pins in the charts. The Transatlantic Telephone Room, behind a door with a lavatory lock so that staff took it for the Prime Minister's private toilet, connected Churchill to Roosevelt through a scrambler so large it filled a basement under Selfridges. His bedroom is here, though he rarely slept in it. The rooms opened to the public in 1984, and a museum of Churchill's ninety years was added beside them in 2005.","deep":false,"hours_source":"web","hours_checked":"2026-09-03","hours_url":"https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/churchill-war-rooms","figure":{"src":"/img/churchill-war-rooms.jpg?v=464a8152","thumb":"/img/churchill-war-rooms-480.jpg?v=c73a1678","width":1024,"height":682,"alt":"The Cabinet War Rooms' entrance","caption":"","credit":"Photo by en:User:Jdhowens90, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cabinet_war_rooms.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"the-secrets-of-churchills-war-rooms-tour","name":"The Secrets of Churchill's War Rooms tour","href":"/museums/churchill-war-rooms/the-secrets-of-churchills-war-rooms-tour/","verdict":"An hour in the bunker before the public are let in, with a guide and the run of it after.","runs":null,"types":["history","subterranean","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Power & Politics","href":"/politics/churchill-war-rooms/"},{"name":"Secrets & Espionage","href":"/secrets/churchill-war-rooms/"}],"maps_q":"Churchill War Rooms, King Charles Street, SW1A 2AQ, London","in_area":{"slug":"westminster","name":"Westminster"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Robert Clive Statue","s":"robert-clive-statue","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":10},{"n":"Foreign Office & the former India Office","s":"foreign-office-the-former-india-office","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":114},{"n":"Supreme Court of the United Kingdom","s":"supreme-court-of-the-united-kingdom","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":215}],"near_same":[{"s":"household-cavalry-museum","m":340},{"s":"banqueting-house-whitehall","m":350},{"s":"houses-of-parliament","m":450},{"s":"institute-of-contemporary-arts","m":454},{"s":"jewel-tower","m":458},{"s":"mall-galleries","m":482}]},{"slug":"cinema-museum","name":"Cinema Museum","area":"Lambeth","address":"2 Dugard Way, SE11 4TH","station":"Elephant & Castle","walk":5,"lat":51.49238,"lng":-0.105042,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://cinemamuseum.org.uk/","instagram":"the_cinema_museum","attrs":[],"osm":"way/306698053","types":["media","quirky"],"verdict":"Everything about going to the pictures that nobody thought to keep, in the workhouse Chaplin was sent to as a boy.","note":"Ronald Grant and Martin Humphries started this in 1986 out of their own collections, and what they have is the part of cinema history that usually goes in a skip: projectors in every gauge ever manufactured, art deco seats, ushers' uniforms from the 1940s and fifties, tickets, ashtrays, popcorn cartons, a million photographs, some seventeen million feet of film, and the Mitchell and Kenyon films shot between 1899 and 1906.\n\nSince 1998 it has occupied the administration block of the old Lambeth Workhouse, which is where Charlie Chaplin was sent as a child when his mother could no longer keep the family. The building belongs to the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, which said in 2017 that it would sell on the open market; a campaign backed by Ken Loach gathered more than fifty-two thousand signatures, and the charity was given time to try to buy the place instead.","deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/cinema-museum.jpg?v=6bbaba8d","thumb":"/img/cinema-museum-480.jpg?v=af1df7c2","width":1024,"height":546,"alt":"The old Master House at Lambeth Workhouse, now Cinema Museum","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Anonymous Unknown author, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Exterior_of_Cinema_Museum_lecture,_Kennington,_Lambeth.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Cinema Museum, 2 Dugard Way, SE11 4TH, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Southwark Playhouse Elephant","s":"southwark-playhouse-elephant","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":157},{"n":"greengrassi","s":"greengrassi","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":268},{"n":"Corsica Studios","s":"corsica-studios","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":451}],"near_same":[{"s":"imperial-war-museum-london","m":452},{"s":"morley-gallery","m":702},{"s":"london-fire-brigade-museum","m":1020},{"s":"garden-museum","m":1070},{"s":"lambeth-palace","m":1075},{"s":"gasworks-gallery","m":1080}]},{"slug":"clarence-house","name":"Clarence House","area":"Pall Mall","address":"Stable Yard Road, Victoria, SW1A 1BB","station":"Green Park","walk":5,"lat":51.503983,"lng":-0.138436,"hours":null,"hours_raw":"Aug","website":"https://www.rct.uk/visit/clarence-house","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/54478457","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"London residence of His Majesty King Charles III and Queen Camilla (normally open only during August).","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/clarence-house.jpg?v=5fa07d8b","thumb":"/img/clarence-house-480.jpg?v=7886d9f2","width":768,"height":1024,"alt":"Clarence House's cream stucco front, near Green Park","caption":"","credit":"Photo by ChiralJon, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clarence_House_(52359180521).jpg","thumb_width":360},"also_in":[{"name":"Royal London","href":"/royal/clarence-house/"}],"maps_q":"Clarence House, Stable Yard Road, Victoria, SW1A 1BB, London","in_area":{"slug":"st-jamess","name":"St James's"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Lancaster House","s":"lancaster-house","c":"royal","cn":"Royal London","m":50},{"n":"Giuseppe Garibaldi","s":"giuseppe-garibaldi","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":50},{"n":"St James's Palace & the Chapel Royal","s":"st-jamess-palace-the-chapel-royal","c":"royal","cn":"Royal London","m":70}],"near_same":[{"s":"spencer-house","m":180},{"s":"buckingham-palace","m":456},{"s":"guards-museum","m":465},{"s":"kennel-club-dog-art-gallery","m":540},{"s":"kings-gallery","m":542},{"s":"institute-of-contemporary-arts","m":571}]},{"slug":"clink-prison-museum","name":"Clink Prison Museum","area":"Southwark","address":"1 Clink Street, SE1 9DG","station":"London Bridge","walk":4,"lat":51.506972,"lng":-0.091898,"hours":[[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"10:00-18:00, Dec 25 off","website":"https://www.clink.co.uk/","instagram":"theclinkprison","attrs":[],"osm":"way/82770797","types":["history","quirky"],"verdict":"A dungeon museum on the site of the Bishop of Winchester's prison, which gave English its word for jail.","note":"Bankside lay outside the City's rule, in the Liberty of the Clink, where the Bishop of Winchester was lord: he licensed the brothels along the river, took the rents, and locked up anyone who did not pay him in the prison beside his palace. It held debtors, Catholic priests under Elizabeth, Protestant preachers under Mary and the actors and pimps of the Bankside theatres, from the twelfth century until it burned in the Gordon Riots of 1780, and its name became the word for any jail. The museum stands on the site, in a cellar off the lane that still carries the name, and it does not pretend to be subtle: waxwork prisoners, manacles and the boot, a rack, and the stories of those who were kept here, with the ruin of the bishop's great hall and its rose window standing outside in Clink Street.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/clink-prison-museum.jpg?v=d93b2d4e","thumb":"/img/clink-prison-museum-480.jpg?v=6f896ca5","width":1024,"height":707,"alt":"clink prison museum, London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Sir James, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:London_clink_prison_museum_20050521.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Clink Prison Museum, 1 Clink Street, SE1 9DG, London","in_area":{"slug":"borough-bermondsey","name":"Borough & Bermondsey"},"bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Longboys","s":"longboys","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":32},{"n":"Winchester Palace","s":"winchester-palace","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":66},{"n":"Borough Yards","s":"borough-yards","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":93}],"near_same":[{"s":"golden-hinde","m":109},{"s":"rose-theatre-exhibition","m":248},{"s":"old-operating-theatre-museum-and-herb-garret","m":317},{"s":"gordon-museum-of-pathology","m":411},{"s":"tate-modern","m":520},{"s":"bankside-gallery","m":654}]},{"slug":"courtauld-gallery","name":"Courtauld Gallery","area":"Strand","address":"Strand, WC2R 1LA","station":"Temple","walk":3,"lat":51.511624,"lng":-0.1177,"hours":[[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-18:00","website":"https://courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/","instagram":"courtauld","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"node/2647639741","types":["art"],"verdict":"One floor of Impressionists in Somerset House: Manet's Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re, Van Gogh's bandaged self-portrait and a wall of C\u00e9zanne.","note":"Samuel Courtauld made his money in rayon and spent it, in the 1920s, on the French painters the National Gallery would not yet buy; in 1932 he gave the pictures and the money for an institute to teach the history of art, and the two have lived together ever since, in the north block of Somerset House since 1989. The collection is small, some 530 paintings and 26,000 drawings and prints, and almost all of it is first-rate: Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re, Van Gogh's Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, C\u00e9zanne's Card Players and his Montagne Sainte-Victoire, Gauguin's Nevermore, Seurat, Renoir's La Loge, Rubens's oil sketches, Cranach's Adam and Eve, Botticelli, and the medieval ivories and enamels given by other collectors since. A three-year rebuilding reopened it in November 2021 with the great rooms restored and the paintings on one floor. The commission in the entrance hall is free; the rest needs a ticket.","deep":false,"note_links":[{"phrase":"Somerset House","name":"Somerset House","href":"/museums/somerset-house/"},{"phrase":"National Gallery","name":"National Gallery","href":"/art/national-gallery/"}],"figure":{"src":"/img/courtauld-gallery.jpg?v=3df4a3a5","thumb":"/img/courtauld-gallery-480.jpg?v=6f391cf0","width":1024,"height":809,"alt":"A photograph of Courtauld Gallery.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Stephen Richards, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Somerset_House,_Strand.jpg","thumb_width":500,"alt_generic":true},"figures":[{"src":"/img/own-courtauld-gallery-2.jpg?v=ba5d5617","thumb":"/img/own-courtauld-gallery-2-480.jpg?v=b5d00bf6","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"A pair of white columns framing a curved landing under an oval skylight, a blue iron balustrade in front, and a wide, loosely painted canvas of figures in blues, yellows and pinks on the far wall.","caption":"The top floor of the Courtauld Gallery. Unmoored from her Reflection (2021) by contemporary artist Cecily Brown."},{"src":"/img/own-courtauld-gallery-3.jpg?v=b744e569","thumb":"/img/own-courtauld-gallery-3-480.jpg?v=8d15b9db","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"A high white gallery with a moulded ceiling and a pale wood floor: two Gauguins in carved gold frames on a free-standing wall, more paintings on the walls around, one plain bench and nobody in the room.","caption":"A rich collection of Impressionists in a much calmer environment than the National Gallery."}],"whats_on":[{"slug":"the-courtaulds-permanent-galleries","name":"The Courtauld's permanent galleries","href":"/art/courtauld-gallery/the-courtaulds-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"Manet's barmaid and Van Gogh's bandaged ear, up a spiral staircase in Somerset House.","runs":null,"types":["art","exhibition","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"salman-toor-someone-like-you","name":"Salman Toor: Someone Like You","href":"/museums/courtauld-gallery/salman-toor-someone-like-you/","verdict":"Nineteen paintings of queer and immigrant lives, one of them answering Manet's Bar downstairs.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-02","to":"2027-01-10"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"winifred-gill-a-bloomsbury-pioneer","name":"Winifred Gill: A Bloomsbury Pioneer","href":"/museums/courtauld-gallery/winifred-gill-a-bloomsbury-pioneer/","verdict":"The woman who ran the Omega Workshops, remembered through her toys and sketchbooks.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-14","to":"2027-01-20"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/courtauld-gallery/"},{"name":"Literary London","href":"/literary/courtauld-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"Courtauld Gallery, Strand, WC2R 1LA, London","in_area":{"slug":"holborn","name":"Holborn"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Roman Bath, Strand Lane","s":"roman-bath-strand-lane","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":133},{"n":"Hidden London: Aldwych family tour","s":"hidden-london-aldwych-family-tour","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":158},{"n":"Hidden London: Aldwych \u2014 the end of the line","s":"hidden-london-aldwych-the-end-of-the-line","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":158}],"near_same":[{"s":"somerset-house","m":78},{"s":"london-transport-museum","m":246},{"s":"bow-street-museum-of-crime-and-justice","m":347},{"s":"two-temple-place","m":374},{"s":"hunterian-museum","m":426},{"s":"library-and-museum-of-freemasonry","m":450}]},{"slug":"crofton-roman-villa","name":"Crofton Roman Villa","area":"Orpington","address":"Crofton Road, BR6 8QE","station":"Orpington","walk":1,"lat":51.372957,"lng":0.087897,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://karu.org.uk/crofton_roman_villa.html","instagram":"karuorg","attrs":[],"osm":"way/250709622","types":["history"],"verdict":"The ten surviving rooms of a Roman farmhouse, with its underfloor heating laid open, under a cover building beside Orpington station.","note":"A Roman farmer built this house around AD 140 and his successors lived in it, altering it as they went, until about 400: the centre of an estate of some five hundred acres of fields, meadow and wood on the edge of what is now Orpington. At its largest it had at least twenty rooms. Workmen laying a driveway for the council found the first pieces in 1926, and the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit excavated the site fully in 1988 and put a building over it. Ten rooms can be seen: two still have their floors of opus signinum, the Roman concrete, three show where tiled floors were, and the hypocaust, the underfloor heating that ran hot air through channels and under little pillars of tile, is open to view, with the small finds from the dig in cases beside it. The unit runs it with Bromley Council, on a handful of days a week between spring and autumn.","deep":false,"hours_extra":"Open on limited days over the summer; check before travelling.","figure":{"src":"/img/crofton-roman-villa.jpg?v=2d94054a","thumb":"/img/crofton-roman-villa-480.jpg?v=42df9f98","width":1024,"height":682,"alt":"The excavated rooms of Crofton Roman Villa under their modern cover building","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Ethan Doyle White, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crofton_Roman_Villa.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Crofton Roman Villa, Crofton Road, BR6 8QE, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Dudleys","s":"dudleys","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":2203},{"n":"Scadbury Moated Manor","s":"scadbury-moated-manor","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":4257}],"near_same":[{"s":"chislehurst-caves","m":4352},{"s":"down-house","m":5200},{"s":"bethlem-museum-of-the-mind","m":8192},{"s":"eltham-palace","m":8690},{"s":"danson-house","m":9517},{"s":"red-house","m":9629}]},{"slug":"crossness-pumping-station","name":"Crossness Pumping Station","area":"Crossness","address":"Bazalgette Way, SE2 9AQ","station":"Belvedere","walk":27,"lat":51.509088,"lng":0.138387,"hours":null,"hours_raw":"\"by appointment\"","website":"https://crossness.org.uk/","instagram":"crossnesset","attrs":[],"osm":"way/403976017","types":["quirky","science","small-gem"],"verdict":"Bazalgette's sewage pumping station on the Erith marshes, the most ornate ironwork in London, with its great beam engine back in steam.","note":"When cholera and the Great Stink of 1858 forced London to build sewers, Joseph Bazalgette's system carried the south of the city's waste to the marshes at Crossness, and this is where the engines lifted it into a reservoir to be let out on the ebb tide. The Prince of Wales opened it on 4 April 1865, turning the wheel that set the beams moving while two archbishops and the Lord Mayor watched. Nobody expected a sewage works to look like this: Charles Henry Driver's engine house is Romanesque brick outside and, inside, an octagon of cast iron painted in reds, greens and golds, which Pevsner called a Victorian cathedral of ironwork. The four engines, Victoria, Prince Consort, Albert Edward and Alexandra, are among the largest beam engines ever built, and after the station was shut in 1956 and left to rot, volunteers spent years bringing Prince Consort back to steam. The trust that runs it, about a hundred volunteers, opens the works on set days and fires the engine on steaming days.","deep":false,"hours_extra":"Open days only; check before travelling.","figure":{"src":"/img/crossness-pumping-station.jpg?v=3c2169af","thumb":"/img/crossness-pumping-station-480.jpg?v=90a0a371","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"A photograph of Crossness Pumping Station.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Ethan Doyle White, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Exterior_of_Crossness_Pumping_Station.JPG","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"whats_on":[{"slug":"the-living-thames-orchestra-for-the-earth","name":"The Living Thames: Orchestra for the Earth","href":"/science/crossness-pumping-station/the-living-thames-orchestra-for-the-earth/","verdict":"A string quartet playing river music inside a Victorian sewage works.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-18","to":"2026-09-18"},"types":["classical","concert","music"],"clue":["Concert","Classical"]},{"slug":"steampunk-spooktacular","name":"Steampunk Spooktacular","href":"/science/crossness-pumping-station/steampunk-spooktacular/","verdict":"Tea duelling, familiar slinging, and a beam engine the size of a house running under steam.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-17","to":"2026-10-18"},"types":["family","games","history"],"clue":["Games","History"]},{"slug":"christmas-steaming-day","name":"Christmas Steaming Day","href":"/science/crossness-pumping-station/christmas-steaming-day/","verdict":"A Christmas tree in the middle of the ironwork, and the engine running.","runs":{"from":"2026-12-06","to":"2026-12-06"},"types":["family","history"],"clue":["History"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/crossness-pumping-station/"}],"maps_q":"Crossness Pumping Station, Bazalgette Way, SE2 9AQ, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Lesnes Abbey","s":"lesnes-abbey","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":2333}],"near_same":[{"s":"red-house","m":5994},{"s":"danson-house","m":6018},{"s":"hall-place","m":6938},{"s":"eltham-palace","m":9303},{"s":"royal-observatory-greenwich","m":10286},{"s":"queens-house","m":10317}]},{"slug":"cutty-sark-museum","name":"Cutty Sark Museum","area":"Greenwich","address":"43 King William Walk, SE10 9HT","station":"Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich","walk":2,"lat":51.482858,"lng":-0.009569,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.rmg.co.uk/cuttysark","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/25608663","types":["family","maritime"],"verdict":"The last tea clipper, lifted three metres so you can walk underneath her.","note":"The 1869 hull is held above a glazed undercroft, which lets you see the lines that made her fast and puts the ship's collection of figureheads in the shade below. Fire damage in 2007 means much is replacement, but the effect works.","deep":false,"hours_source":"web","hours_url":"https://www.rmg.co.uk/cutty-sark/plan-your-visit","hours_checked":"2026-09-06","hours_extra":"Last entry 16:15; closed 24, 25 and 26 December.","figure":{"src":"/img/own-cutty-sark-museum.jpg?v=038f21df","thumb":"/img/own-cutty-sark-museum-480.jpg?v=ce09ec12","width":1024,"height":531,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"The Cutty Sark's black hull and three masts standing above the glass roof of her dry berth","caption":"The clipper, held above her glazed dock."},"figures":[{"src":"/img/own-cutty-sark-museum-2.jpg?v=0af3a89e","thumb":"/img/own-cutty-sark-museum-2-480.jpg?v=39b32717","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"The ship's hull seen from the hall beneath it, the glass canopy meeting the dock on both sides","caption":"Underneath the hull, in the space below the waterline."},{"src":"/img/own-cutty-sark-museum-3.jpg?v=e7815c00","thumb":"/img/own-cutty-sark-museum-3-480.jpg?v=85d8737b","width":768,"height":1024,"thumb_width":360,"alt":"Looking up at the bow from directly below, draught marks in Roman numerals along the stem","caption":"The bow from below, draught marks up the stem."},{"src":"/img/own-cutty-sark-museum-4.jpg?v=91ae55be","thumb":"/img/own-cutty-sark-museum-4-480.jpg?v=f6f4fa17","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"Rows of painted ship's figureheads on stands under the glass roof of the undercroft","caption":"The Long John Silver collection of figureheads."}],"whats_on":[{"slug":"aboard-the-cutty-sark","name":"Aboard the Cutty Sark","href":"/museums/cutty-sark-museum/aboard-the-cutty-sark/","verdict":"The last tea clipper there is, lifted three metres so you can walk under her hull.","runs":null,"types":["exhibition","family","history","water"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"niki-gorick-dock-life","name":"Niki Gorick: Dock Life","href":"/museums/cutty-sark-museum/niki-gorick-dock-life/","verdict":"Photographs of the docklands as they are now, under the last tea clipper.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-09","to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["exhibition","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]},{"slug":"shipkeeping-wednesdays","name":"Shipkeeping Wednesdays","href":"/museums/cutty-sark-museum/shipkeeping-wednesdays/","verdict":"Watch the ship being maintained, and ask the people doing it.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-09","to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["family","history"],"clue":["History"]},{"slug":"rnli-day-at-the-cutty-sark","name":"RNLI Day at the Cutty Sark","href":"/museums/cutty-sark-museum/rnli-day-at-the-cutty-sark/","verdict":"Lifeboat crews and rescue demonstrations under the ship.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-26","to":"2026-09-26"},"types":["family","history"],"clue":["History"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/cutty-sark-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Cutty Sark Museum, 43 King William Walk, SE10 9HT, London","in_area":{"slug":"greenwich","name":"Greenwich"},"bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Greenwich Market","s":"greenwich-market","c":"food-markets","cn":"Food Markets","m":146},{"n":"Dark Sugars Cocoa House","s":"dark-sugars-cocoa-house","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":213},{"n":"Up the Creek","s":"up-the-creek","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":226}],"near_same":[{"s":"old-royal-naval-college","m":223},{"s":"national-maritime-museum","m":369},{"s":"fan-museum","m":430},{"s":"queens-house","m":443},{"s":"royal-observatory-greenwich","m":844},{"s":"rangers-house-wernher-collection","m":1184}]},{"slug":"danson-house","name":"Danson House","area":"Danson Park","address":"Danson Park, Welling, DA16 1RU","station":"Bexleyheath","walk":16,"lat":51.456415,"lng":0.118369,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.bexley.gov.uk/discover-bexley/visitor-attractions/danson-house-and-park/house","instagram":"LBofBexley","attrs":[],"osm":"way/128182614","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"A Palladian villa of the 1760s built on sugar and slavery, near-derelict for decades, and restored room by room in a park by the A2.","note":"John Boyd made his fortune as a sugar merchant, which in 1762 meant plantations worked by enslaved people on St Kitts, and spent it on a villa at Danson by Sir Robert Taylor, the architect of the Bank of England's first rooms: a compact Palladian cube with a portico, a spiral stair under a dome, and a dining room painted with panels of the loves of the gods by Charles Pavillon, in a park with a lake laid out in the manner of Capability Brown. Two centuries later the house was empty, dry-rotted and on the point of collapse, one of the most endangered buildings in the country; English Heritage took it on in 1995 and spent ten years and some \u00a34 million putting it back, down to the wallpaper, and handed it to Bexley in 2005. The council opens it on set days, with the story of the Boyds and their money told straight, and the park, the lake and the old stables, now a pub, are open every day.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/danson-house.jpg?v=815240e1","thumb":"/img/danson-house-480.jpg?v=ee79f6a9","width":1024,"height":769,"alt":"The north front of Danson House, a Palladian villa in Danson Park","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Doyle of London, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:North_Face_of_Danson_House_(01).jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Danson House, Danson Park, Welling, DA16 1RU, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Oxleas Wood","s":"oxleas-wood","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":3006},{"n":"Lesnes Abbey","s":"lesnes-abbey","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":3689},{"n":"Scadbury Moated Manor","s":"scadbury-moated-manor","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":5283}],"near_same":[{"s":"red-house","m":839},{"s":"hall-place","m":3041},{"s":"eltham-palace","m":4973},{"s":"crossness-pumping-station","m":6018},{"s":"chislehurst-caves","m":6885},{"s":"rangers-house-wernher-collection","m":8523}]},{"slug":"dennis-severs-house","name":"Dennis Severs' House","area":"Spitalfields","address":"18 Folgate Street, E1 6BX","station":"Shoreditch High Street","walk":4,"lat":51.520943,"lng":-0.07779,"hours":[null,null,null,null,[12.0,15.25],[12.0,15.25],[12.0,15.25]],"hours_raw":"Fr-Su 12:00-15:15","website":"https://www.dennissevershouse.co.uk/","instagram":"dennissevershouse","attrs":[],"osm":"node/2244751330","types":["historic-house","history","quirky","small-gem"],"verdict":"Ten candlelit rooms left as if a family of Huguenot silk weavers had just walked out of them, which they never did, because Dennis Severs invented them.","note":"Dennis Severs, an American who bought the derelict house in 1979 and lived in it by candlelight, spent twenty years turning it into what he called a still-life drama: the home of the Jervises, an imagined family of Huguenot silk weavers, followed from 1724 to 1914 room by room, with the bread half cut, the fire lit and the family always just out of sight. You go round in silence, by day or by candlelight, and are asked to look rather than read; there are no labels. Severs left the house to the Spitalfields Trust when he died in 1999, and it is kept as he set it.","deep":false,"hours_source":"web","hours_url":"https://www.dennissevershouse.co.uk/calendar","hours_checked":"2026-09-06","hours_extra":"Timed, booked visits of 45 minutes: day visits Friday to Sunday from 12:00, last entry 15:15, \u00a316; candlelit Silent Night visits, \u00a325, and the actor-led Dennis Severs' Tour, \u00a375, on the evenings the calendar shows. No photography inside.","figure":{"src":"/img/dennis-severs-house.jpg?v=ac991f97","thumb":"/img/dennis-severs-house-480.jpg?v=6ff10bd4","width":1024,"height":681,"alt":"Dennis Severs House","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Matt Brown from London, England, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dennis_Severs_House_(15290690150).jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"What\u2019s On","href":"/whats-on/dennis-severs-house/"}],"maps_q":"Dennis Severs' House, 18 Folgate Street, E1 6BX, London","in_area":{"slug":"spitalfields-brick-lane","name":"Spitalfields & Brick Lane"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Attendant","s":"attendant","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":86},{"n":"% Arabica","s":"arabica-spitalfields","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":172},{"n":"Brother Marcus Spitalfields","s":"brother-marcus-spitalfields","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":223}],"near_same":[{"s":"museum-of-immigration-and-diversity","m":386},{"s":"rivington-place","m":622},{"s":"wesleys-chapel-museum-of-methodism-and-john-wesleys-house","m":683},{"s":"whitechapel-gallery","m":739},{"s":"british-red-cross-museum-and-archives","m":766},{"s":"honourable-artillery-company-museum","m":769}]},{"slug":"design-museum","name":"Design Museum","area":"Kensington","address":"224-238 Kensington High Street, W8 6AG","station":"High Street Kensington","walk":7,"lat":51.499887,"lng":-0.200174,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Th 10:00-17:00; Fr-Su 10:00-18:00; Sep 16-Dec 31 Sa 10:00-20:45; Dec 24-27 off","website":"https://designmuseum.org/","instagram":"designmuseum","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/640554759","types":["design","free","popular"],"verdict":"The Commonwealth Institute's swooping 1960s roof, rebuilt around a museum of design, with a free permanent gallery beneath it.","note":"Terence Conran founded the Design Museum in 1989 in a converted banana warehouse at Shad Thames, after he and Stephen Bayley had run the Boilerhouse gallery at the V&A, and in 2011 he gave \u00a317.5 million to move it somewhere bigger. The somewhere was the Commonwealth Institute on Kensington High Street, a building of 1962 whose copper roof, a hyperbolic paraboloid that sweeps up at the corners like a tent, is one of the most striking of its decade and had stood empty for more than ten years. John Pawson gutted it and rebuilt the inside as a museum around the roof, with an atrium that shows the underside of it from every floor, and it opened on 24 November 2016 with three times the old space. In 2018 it was named European Museum of the Year.\n\nThe paid exhibitions on the ground floor are what draw the crowds, on architecture, fashion, furniture, products and graphics. Under the roof, free, is Designer Maker User, around a thousand objects from the collection arranged by who designed them, who made them and who uses them: an Anglepoise lamp, a Tube map, a road sign, chairs, telephones and a car. With a library and a learning centre on the floor between, it is the reason the roof was saved.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/design-museum.jpg?v=078e96a9","thumb":"/img/design-museum-480.jpg?v=9e5bb992","width":1024,"height":682,"alt":"Design Museum (2)","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Anthony O'Neil, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Design_Museum_(2)_(geograph_5246509).jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"designer-maker-user","name":"Designer Maker User","href":"/museums/design-museum/designer-maker-user/","verdict":"A thousand designed objects, sorted by who made them and who ended up using them.","runs":null,"types":["art","exhibition","family","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"platform-simone-brewster","name":"PLATFORM: Simone Brewster","href":"/museums/design-museum/platform-simone-brewster/","verdict":"Jewellery, stools, paintings and a bench called Negrita, in the museum's free annual display.","runs":{"from":"2026-02-13","to":"2027-01-31"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"nigo-from-japan-with-love","name":"NIGO: From Japan with Love","href":"/museums/design-museum/nigo-from-japan-with-love/","verdict":"Seven hundred objects from the man who founded A Bathing Ape and now runs KENZO.","runs":{"from":"2026-05-01","to":"2026-10-04"},"types":["art","exhibition","fashion"],"clue":["Exhibition","Fashion"]},{"slug":"es-devlin-other-worlds","name":"Es Devlin: Other Worlds","href":"/museums/design-museum/es-devlin-other-worlds/","verdict":"Thirty years of Es Devlin's stages, from the Olympic closing ceremony to the Super Bowl.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-02","to":"2027-04-04"},"types":["art","exhibition","immersive"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"the-nue-black-aesthetic","name":"The Nue Black Aesthetic","href":"/museums/design-museum/the-nue-black-aesthetic/","verdict":"Sixteen contemporary Black designers across fashion, furniture and architecture.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-06","to":"2027-08-08"},"types":["art","exhibition","fashion"],"clue":["Exhibition","Fashion"]}],"maps_q":"Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High Street, W8 6AG, London","in_area":{"slug":"notting-hill-holland-park","name":"Notting Hill & Holland Park"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Cetshwayo kaMpande","s":"cetshwayo","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":157},{"n":"Ugo Foscolo","s":"ugo-foscolo","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":287},{"n":"Opera Holland Park","s":"opera-holland-park","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":301}],"near_same":[{"s":"18-stafford-terrace","m":237},{"s":"leighton-house-museum","m":245},{"s":"kensington-palace","m":1018},{"s":"baden-powell-house-exhibition","m":1500},{"s":"rcm-museum-of-music","m":1611},{"s":"science-museum","m":1680}]},{"slug":"dorich-house","name":"Dorich House","area":"Kingston Vale","address":"67 Kingston Vale, SW15 3RN","station":"Norbiton","walk":34,"lat":51.433346,"lng":-0.263029,"hours":[null,null,null,[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],null],"hours_raw":"Th-Sa 11:00-17:00","website":"https://www.dorichhousemuseum.org.uk/","instagram":"dorichhousemuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"way/1315748829","types":["art","free"],"verdict":"A sculptor's modernist studio-house of 1936 on the edge of Richmond Park, designed by her, filled with her bronzes and her husband's Russian art, free.","note":"Dora Gordine was born in the Baltic, raised in Tallinn and trained in Paris, and by the 1930s she was being called the finest woman sculptor of her time; in 1936 she and her third husband, the Hon. Richard Hare, a scholar of Russian art, built this house on Kingston Vale to her own design, a brick block with a studio lit from the north, a gallery to show her work and a flat on top with a roof terrace looking into Richmond Park. That a woman designed a house around her own work and career was rare enough then to be the point of it. She worked here for fifty-five years, until her death in 1991, and the house holds the largest collection of her bronzes, the heads and figures of dancers, diplomats and friends, with Hare's icons, porcelain and paintings from imperial Russia in the rooms below. Kingston University restored it and opened it as a museum in 1996, and it is free.","deep":false,"regular":[{"what":"Guided tour of the house","when":"Selected Thursdays and Saturdays, 11:00","price":"Booked through Eventbrite","url":"https://dorichhousemuseum.eventbrite.com","note":"An hour in the studio, the gallery and the flat with the roof terrace, which are otherwise not all open. Dates are posted a month at a time."}],"figure":{"src":"/img/dorich-house.jpg?v=1542b43c","thumb":"/img/dorich-house-480.jpg?v=48caecb8","width":768,"height":1024,"alt":"Dorich House Museum. University of Kingston","caption":"","credit":"Photo by AndyScott, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kingston_Hill,_Dorich_House_Museum.jpg","thumb_width":360},"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/dorich-house/"}],"maps_q":"Dorich House, 67 Kingston Vale, SW15 3RN, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Isabella Plantation","s":"isabella-plantation","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":996},{"n":"Richmond Park","s":"richmond-park","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":1333},{"n":"Nellie Melba","s":"nellie-melba","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":1987}],"near_same":[{"s":"white-lodge-museum-and-ballet-resource-centre","m":1323},{"s":"wimbledon-windmill-museum","m":2229},{"s":"southside-house","m":2861},{"s":"museum-of-wimbledon","m":3402},{"s":"wimbledon-lawn-tennis-museum","m":3441},{"s":"kingston-museum","m":3694}]},{"slug":"down-house","name":"Down House","area":"Downe","address":"Luxted Road, BR6 7JT","station":"Chelsfield","walk":59,"lat":51.331436,"lng":0.053423,"hours":[null,null,[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Su 11:00-17:00","website":"https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/home-of-charles-darwin-down-house/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/120876216","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"Darwin's house and garden in the Kent countryside inside Greater London, where On the Origin of Species was written and the thinking path is still walked.","note":"Charles Darwin bought Down House in 1842 to get away from London, and stayed forty years: the theory of evolution by natural selection he had worked out in his notebooks was written up in the study here, published in 1859 as On the Origin of Species, and defended from this desk while the world argued. The house is a plain Georgian one enlarged for ten children and the science that spread into every room, and English Heritage has put the study back with his chair on castors, the books, the specimens and the spittoon; upstairs are exhibitions on the voyage of the Beagle and the man. The garden was his laboratory. The greenhouse where he tested orchids and insect-eating plants stands, the flower beds where he counted seedlings, the worm stone that measured how earthworms turn the soil, and the Sandwalk, the gravel loop through the copse that he walked every day at 12:00, kicking a stone aside at each lap to count them, which is where the thinking got done. Sir David Attenborough narrates the handset that guides you round.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/down-house.jpg?v=3bb5582c","thumb":"/img/down-house-480.jpg?v=fa6e9f28","width":768,"height":1024,"alt":"My own photograph of Down House","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Anthonyeatworld at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Down_House.jpg","thumb_width":360},"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/down-house/"}],"maps_q":"Down House, Luxted Road, BR6 7JT, London","bank":0,"near_all":[],"near_same":[{"s":"crofton-roman-villa","m":5200},{"s":"bethlem-museum-of-the-mind","m":7962},{"s":"chislehurst-caves","m":8443},{"s":"shirley-windmill","m":8595},{"s":"museum-of-croydon","m":11524},{"s":"eltham-palace","m":12864}]},{"slug":"dr-johnsons-house","name":"Dr Johnson's House","area":"City of London","address":"17 Gough Square, EC4A 3DE","station":"City Thameslink","walk":4,"lat":51.514909,"lng":-0.108166,"hours":[null,[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[12.0,16.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu-Sa 10:00-17:00; Su 12:00-16:00","website":"http://www.drjohnsonshouse.org/","instagram":"drjohnsonshouse","attrs":[],"osm":"way/43706245","types":["historic-house","small-gem"],"verdict":"The garret where the Dictionary was compiled, up a City court.","note":"Johnson and six clerks worked on the first great English dictionary in the attic of 17 Gough Square. The house is one of the few of its date left in the City. Hodge the cat is on a plinth outside.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/dr-johnsons-house.jpg?v=024653f2","thumb":"/img/dr-johnsons-house-480.jpg?v=4803f944","width":720,"height":1024,"alt":"Dr. Johnson's House in the City of London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Jim Linwood, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dr._Johnson%27s_House.jpg","thumb_width":337},"also_in":[{"name":"Literary London","href":"/literary/dr-johnsons-house/"}],"maps_q":"Dr Johnson's House, 17 Gough Square, EC4A 3DE, London","in_area":{"slug":"the-city","name":"The City"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Gough Square","s":"gough-square","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":45},{"n":"Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese","s":"ye-olde-cheshire-cheese","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":92},{"n":"Old Spike","s":"old-spike","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":126}],"near_same":[{"s":"two-temple-place","m":461},{"s":"hunterian-museum","m":534},{"s":"st-bartholomews-hospital-museum","m":617},{"s":"sir-john-soanes-museum","m":687},{"s":"college-of-arms","m":719},{"s":"courtauld-gallery","m":754}]},{"slug":"dulwich-picture-gallery","name":"Dulwich Picture Gallery","area":"Dulwich","address":"Gallery Road, SE21 7AD","station":"West Dulwich","walk":9,"lat":51.445965,"lng":-0.086337,"hours":[null,[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu-Su 10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/4961350","types":["art"],"verdict":"England's first purpose-built public art gallery, Soane's masterpiece of 1817, with a collection assembled for a king of Poland who lost his throne before he could take it.","note":"No\u00ebl Desenfans and Francis Bourgeois were commissioned in 1790 to buy a national collection for the King of Poland; by the time they had it, Poland had been partitioned and the king had abdicated, and the pictures were theirs. Bourgeois left them to Dulwich College in 1811 with money for a gallery and one condition, that he, Desenfans and Desenfans's wife be buried in it, and John Soane built both: a run of rooms lit entirely from lanterns in the roof, so that no window competes with a painting, and a mausoleum in the middle where the three lie in sarcophagi under amber light. It opened in 1817, the first public gallery in England built for the purpose, and every top-lit museum since owes it something. The pictures are Old Masters of the first rank, Rembrandt's Girl at a Window and his tiny Jacob de Gheyn, stolen four times and always found, Poussin, Rubens, Murillo, Watteau, Canaletto and Gainsborough, in a village setting with a garden and a caf\u00e9; the exhibitions in the Rick Mather wing are the other reason to come.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/dulwich-picture-gallery.jpg?v=51c509e5","thumb":"/img/dulwich-picture-gallery-480.jpg?v=495b443d","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Soane's Dulwich Picture Gallery seen from Gallery Road","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Robert Lamb, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:View_of_Dulwich_Picture_Gallery_from_Gallery_Road_-_geograph.org.uk_-_3311738.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"portrait-of-a-city-a-century-of-american-photography","name":"Portrait of a City: A Century of American Photography","href":"/museums/dulwich-picture-gallery/portrait-of-a-city-a-century-of-american-photography/","verdict":"Stieglitz to Arbus to Bruce Davidson: a hundred years of American city life in 34 photographers.","runs":{"from":"2026-07-28","to":"2026-10-04"},"types":["exhibition","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]},{"slug":"hokusai-thirty-six-views-of-mount-fuji-from-the-iuchi-collection","name":"Hokusai: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji from the Iuchi Collection","href":"/museums/dulwich-picture-gallery/hokusai-thirty-six-views-of-mount-fuji-from-the-iuchi-collection/","verdict":"The complete series, Great Wave and Red Fuji included, in the UK for the first time.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-20","to":"2027-01-17"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"charlie-mackesy-the-boy-the-mole-the-fox-the-horse-and-you","name":"Charlie Mackesy: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, the Horse...and You","href":"/museums/dulwich-picture-gallery/charlie-mackesy-the-boy-the-mole-the-fox-the-horse-and-you/","verdict":"The messy first sketches behind the book, and a table to draw your own.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-03","to":"2027-02-07"},"types":["art","books","exhibition","family"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"jacqueline-marval","name":"Jacqueline Marval","href":"/museums/dulwich-picture-gallery/jacqueline-marval/","verdict":"The French painter behind the earliest known female nude self-portrait.","runs":{"from":"2027-02-02","to":"2027-05-09"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"david-shrigley","name":"David Shrigley","href":"/museums/dulwich-picture-gallery/david-shrigley/","verdict":"Shrigley takes on the Dutch and Flemish seventeenth century, in Dulwich's summer 2027 show.","runs":{"from":"2027-05-25","to":"2027-09-05"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/dulwich-picture-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gallery Road, SE21 7AD, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Dulwich Village","s":"dulwich-village","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":642},{"n":"Volcano Coffee Works Caf\u00e9","s":"volcano-coffee-works-cafe","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":1534},{"n":"West Norwood Cemetery","s":"west-norwood-cemetery","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":1679}],"near_same":[{"s":"house-of-dreams-museum","m":1626},{"s":"horniman-museum-and-gardens","m":1759},{"s":"salvation-army-international-heritage-centre","m":2414},{"s":"black-cultural-archives","m":2543},{"s":"brixton-windmill","m":2718},{"s":"south-london-gallery","m":3187}]},{"slug":"eastbury-manor-house","name":"Eastbury Manor House","area":"Barking","address":"Eastbury Square, Barking, IG11 9SN","station":"Upney","walk":6,"lat":51.534307,"lng":0.099432,"hours":[null,null,null,null,[10.0,16.0],null,[11.0,16.0]],"hours_raw":"Fr 10:00-16:00; Su 11:00-16:00","website":"https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/london/eastbury-manor-house","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/870892055","types":["historic-house","local"],"verdict":"An Elizabethan merchant's house of the 1570s marooned among Barking's semis: red brick, tall chimneys, a spiral stair in its tower and painted walls, open Fridays and Sundays.","note":"Clement Sisley, a merchant, built it on land that had belonged to Barking Abbey, the roof timbers felled in 1566 and the last touches dated 1572 and 1573, and it was probably the first brick house in the district, with glass in its windows and chimneys tall enough to tell the neighbours how rich he was. The legend that the Gunpowder Plotters met here, or that Lord Monteagle read the letter that betrayed them in this house, was dismissed as baseless two centuries ago and is still told. Only the west wing was habitable by 1900; the National Trust bought it in 1918, the borough has run it since 1931, and restorations with the Heritage Lottery Fund have given it back its painted chamber of the 1600s, with ships and landscapes on the plaster, and the oak spiral staircase that climbs the surviving tower. There is a caf\u00e9 and a walled garden.","deep":false,"hours_url":"https://www.eastburymanorhouse.org.uk/visit-us","hours_source":"web","hours_checked":"2026-09-08","figure":{"src":"/img/eastbury-manor-house.jpg?v=91a2f3bf","thumb":"/img/eastbury-manor-house-480.jpg?v=1bb68600","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Eastbury Manor House, Barking, UK","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Gordon Joly, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eastbury_Manor_House.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Eastbury Manor House, Eastbury Square, Barking, IG11 9SN, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Barking Abbey and the Curfew Tower","s":"barking-abbey-and-the-curfew-tower","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":1614},{"n":"Perky Blenders","s":"perky-blenders-little-ilford","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":3478}],"near_same":[{"s":"valence-house-museum","m":3591},{"s":"valentines-mansion","m":4785},{"s":"rainham-hall","m":6577},{"s":"havering-museum","m":7345},{"s":"v-a-east-museum","m":7860},{"s":"v-a-east-storehouse","m":8449}]},{"slug":"eltham-palace","name":"Eltham Palace","area":"Eltham","address":"Court Yard, SE9 5QE","station":"Mottingham","walk":10,"lat":51.447086,"lng":0.048177,"hours":null,"hours_raw":"Apr-Oct Mo-Su 10:00-17:00; Nov-Feb Sa-Su 10:00-16:00; Mar We-Su 10:00-16:00; SH \"Various\"","website":"https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/eltham-palace-and-gardens","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/17110975","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"Edward IV's great hall of the 1470s bolted to the Courtaulds' Art Deco house of the 1930s, with a lemur's heated bedroom between them.","note":"Eltham was a royal palace from 1305, when the Bishop of Durham gave it to Edward II, and for two centuries the kings kept Christmas here; Henry IV entertained the only Byzantine emperor ever to visit England in the winter of 1400, Edward IV built the great hall in the 1470s under the third-largest hammerbeam roof in the country, and Henry VIII grew up in it. Then the court moved to Greenwich and Eltham fell down, the hall serving as a barn. In 1933 Stephen Courtauld, of the textile family, and his wife Virginia leased the ruin and built a new house against the hall: a circular entrance hall lined in Swedish veneers under a glass dome, a dining room in bird's-eye maple with black and silver doors, Virginia's bathroom in gold mosaic with an onyx bath, underfloor heating, a built-in vacuum system and loudspeakers for the gramophone in every room, all of it the last word in 1936. Their ring-tailed lemur, Mah-Jongg, had a heated bedroom of his own with a ladder down to the ground floor. The Courtaulds left in 1944, the army took over, and English Heritage restored the whole thing, which opens daily with the moat, the bridge and the gardens around it.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/eltham-palace.jpg?v=fbd790d1","thumb":"/img/eltham-palace-480.jpg?v=06d2c142","width":1024,"height":558,"alt":"A photograph of Eltham Palace.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Tom Parnell from Dunfermline, Scotland, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eltham_Palace_(25098625346).jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"also_in":[{"name":"Architecture","href":"/architecture/eltham-palace/"}],"maps_q":"Eltham Palace, Court Yard, SE9 5QE, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"The Rusty Bucket","s":"the-rusty-bucket","c":"beer","cn":"Beer","m":457},{"n":"Severndroog Castle","s":"severndroog-castle","c":"architecture","cn":"Architecture","m":2323},{"n":"Oxleas Wood","s":"oxleas-wood","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":2809}],"near_same":[{"s":"chislehurst-caves","m":4472},{"s":"rangers-house-wernher-collection","m":4525},{"s":"royal-observatory-greenwich","m":4797},{"s":"danson-house","m":4973},{"s":"queens-house","m":5226},{"s":"national-maritime-museum","m":5274}]},{"slug":"enfield-museum","name":"Enfield Museum","area":"Enfield","address":"London Road, EN2 6EL","station":"Enfield Town","walk":2,"lat":51.650433,"lng":-0.080407,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.dugdaleartscentre.co.uk/museum","instagram":"dugdaleartscentre","attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["free","local"],"verdict":"Enfield's story, free, in the arts centre in the town: the rifle that took its name, the New River, and the first cash machine in the world.","note":"The Royal Small Arms Factory opened at Enfield Lock in 1816 to make muskets for an army that had just fought Napoleon, and for the next 170 years the town's name went round the world on the rifles made there: the Lee-Enfield was the British infantry weapon of both world wars. That industrial story is the strongest thing in the borough's museum, which sits inside the Dugdale Arts Centre in Enfield Town alongside the New River, the artificial channel that has carried London's drinking water past the town since 1613, the market town it grew from, and the borough's odder claims, among them the first cash machine in the world, opened at the Barclays on The Town in 1967. Entry is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/enfield-museum.jpg?v=696867ac","thumb":"/img/enfield-museum-480.jpg?v=b8d28856","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Inside Enfield Museum","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Philafrenzy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Enfield_Museum_05.JPG","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Enfield Museum, London Road, EN2 6EL, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Esters","s":"esters-carterhatch","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":1322},{"n":"Myddelton House Gardens","s":"myddelton-house-gardens","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":3040},{"n":"Southgate station","s":"southgate-station","c":"architecture","cn":"Architecture","m":3840}],"near_same":[{"s":"forty-hall-museum","m":2294},{"s":"trent-park-house-of-secrets","m":3906},{"s":"bruce-castle-museum","m":5718},{"s":"queen-elizabeths-hunting-lodge","m":6989},{"s":"markfield-beam-engine-and-museum","m":7740},{"s":"william-morris-gallery","m":7775}]},{"slug":"estorick-collection-of-modern-italian-art","name":"Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art","area":"Canonbury","address":"39a Canonbury Square, N1 2AN","station":"Highbury & Islington","walk":4,"lat":51.543915,"lng":-0.100449,"hours":[null,null,[11.0,18.0],[11.0,20.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[12.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Sa 11:00-18:00; Th 11:00-20:00; Su 12:00-17:00","website":"https://www.estorickcollection.com/","instagram":"estorickcollection","attrs":[],"osm":"way/230253685","types":["art"],"verdict":"The only collection of modern Italian art in Britain, Futurists to Morandi, in a Georgian house on Canonbury Square.","note":"Eric Estorick was an American sociologist who found Boccioni's Futurist Painting and Sculpture in a bookshop on his honeymoon in 1947, went straight to Milan and bought most of what was in Mario Sironi's studio, and then, between 1953 and 1958, when the Futurists were unfashionable and cheap, bought the rest: Boccioni, Balla, Severini and Carr\u00e0, the painters who had wanted to put speed and machines on canvas before the First World War, with Modigliani, de Chirico and a quiet room of Morandi's bottles. He turned down offers from the Italian state and from museums in America and Israel, put everything into a foundation months before he died in 1993, and the collection opened in 1998 in a Georgian house on Canonbury Square, six galleries with a library, a bookshop and an Italian caf\u00e9 opening onto the garden. It is the only gallery in the country devoted to modern Italian art.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/estorick-collection-of-modern-italian-art.jpg?v=488c84d6","thumb":"/img/estorick-collection-of-modern-italian-art-480.jpg?v=40c6cf63","width":1024,"height":473,"alt":"Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, Canonbury Square, Islington, London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Luke McKernan, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Estorick_Collection.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"wanda-and-marion-wulz-avant-garde-photography-in-20th-century-italy","name":"Wanda and Marion Wulz: Avant-garde Photography in 20th-Century Italy","href":"/museums/estorick-collection-of-modern-italian-art/wanda-and-marion-wulz-avant-garde-photography-in-20th-century-italy/","verdict":"The Trieste sisters whose studio portraits turned Futurist.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-16","to":"2026-12-20"},"types":["art","exhibition","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]},{"slug":"carla-accardi","name":"Carla Accardi","href":"/museums/estorick-collection-of-modern-italian-art/carla-accardi/","verdict":"The first UK institutional show for the post-war Italian abstractionist.","runs":{"from":"2027-01-20","to":"2027-06-13"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/estorick-collection-of-modern-italian-art/"}],"maps_q":"Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, 39a Canonbury Square, N1 2AN, London","in_area":{"slug":"angel-islington","name":"Angel & Islington"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Canonbury Square","s":"canonbury-square","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":49},{"n":"Union Chapel","s":"union-chapel","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":166},{"n":"The Sampler","s":"the-sampler","c":"wine","cn":"Wine","m":207}],"near_same":[{"s":"arsenal-football-club-museum","m":1515},{"s":"london-canal-museum","m":1740},{"s":"quentin-blake-centre-for-illustration","m":1774},{"s":"queer-britain","m":1861},{"s":"lethaby-gallery","m":1935},{"s":"islington-museum","m":1957}]},{"slug":"fan-museum","name":"Fan Museum","area":"Greenwich","address":"12 Crooms Hill, SE10 8ER","station":"Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich","walk":4,"lat":51.479098,"lng":-0.008069,"hours":[null,[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],null],"hours_raw":"Tu-Sa 11:00-17:00; Jan off","website":"https://www.thefanmuseum.org.uk/","instagram":"thefanmuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"node/910356813","types":["design","niche","quirky"],"verdict":"Two Georgian houses on Croom's Hill given over entirely to fans, six thousand of them, with an orangery for tea behind.","note":"H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Alexander opened the Fan Museum in 1991, the first in the world devoted to the hand fan, in a pair of houses of 1721 on Croom's Hill beside Greenwich Park. The collection has grown past six thousand fans and their makings; the oldest is from the eleventh century, and the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when a fan was the one thing a woman was expected to carry, are the strongest. Because paper and silk fade, most of them are shown in rotation through changing exhibitions, with a permanent room on how a fan is made and the shapes it has taken, including one with an ear trumpet built in and one that hides a repair kit. Behind the houses is an orangery painted with murals, where tea is served, and a small Japanese garden laid out in the shape of a fan. It takes no public money; fan-making classes and a reference library are part of it.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/fan-museum.jpg?v=c45509f0","thumb":"/img/fan-museum-480.jpg?v=ab43fbd4","width":1024,"height":680,"alt":"The \"Fanning the Senses\" exhibition at the Fan Museum","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Visit Greenwich from Greenwich, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Fan_Museum_(3400819225).jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Fan Museum, 12 Crooms Hill, SE10 8ER, London","in_area":{"slug":"greenwich","name":"Greenwich"},"bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"St Alfege Church","s":"st-alfege-church","c":"sacred","cn":"Sacred London","m":192},{"n":"Dark Sugars Ice Creams","s":"dark-sugars-ice-creams","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":205},{"n":"Dark Sugars Cocoa House","s":"dark-sugars-cocoa-house","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":218}],"near_same":[{"s":"national-maritime-museum","m":262},{"s":"queens-house","m":378},{"s":"cutty-sark-museum","m":430},{"s":"old-royal-naval-college","m":444},{"s":"royal-observatory-greenwich","m":515},{"s":"rangers-house-wernher-collection","m":773}]},{"slug":"faraday-museum","name":"Faraday Museum","area":"Mayfair","address":"21 Albemarle Street, Mayfair, W1S 4BS","station":"Green Park","walk":4,"lat":51.509702,"lng":-0.142279,"hours":[[9.0,17.0],[9.0,17.0],[9.0,17.0],[9.0,17.0],[9.0,17.0],null,null],"hours_raw":"Mo-Fr 09:00-17:00","website":"https://www.rigb.org/visit-us/faraday-museum","instagram":"ri_science","attrs":[],"osm":"node/12556923049","types":["free","science"],"verdict":"Faraday's basement laboratory, where electricity was tamed, under the Royal Institution's lecture theatre, free.","note":"The Royal Institution was founded in 1799 to bring science to the public, and it has been doing it from 21 Albemarle Street ever since: Humphry Davy lectured here to crowds whose carriages made it the first one-way street in London, and his assistant Michael Faraday, a bookbinder's apprentice who had sat in the audience, went on in the basement to discover electromagnetic induction in 1831, the principle behind every generator and transformer. That laboratory has been restored where it stood, with his bench, his coils and his notebooks, and the museum around it holds the institution's apparatus from two centuries of discovery, ten chemical elements among them first isolated in this building. Upstairs is the steeply raked lecture theatre where the Christmas Lectures for children have been given since 1825 and are still broadcast every year. Entry is free.","deep":false,"whats_on":[{"slug":"talks-at-the-royal-institution","name":"Talks at the Royal Institution","href":"/museums/faraday-museum/talks-at-the-royal-institution/","verdict":"Scientists talking in the lecture theatre where Faraday demonstrated electricity and the Christmas Lectures are filmed.","runs":null,"types":["science","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"an-evening-of-unnecessary-detail-at-the-royal-institution","name":"An Evening of Unnecessary Detail at the Royal Institution","href":"/museums/faraday-museum/an-evening-of-unnecessary-detail-at-the-royal-institution/","verdict":"Science comedy in the lecture theatre where Faraday gave the Christmas Lectures.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-24","to":"2026-10-24"},"types":["comedy","science"],"clue":["Comedy","Science & nature"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/faraday-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Faraday Museum, 21 Albemarle Street, Mayfair, W1S 4BS, London","in_area":{"slug":"mayfair","name":"Mayfair"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Bond Street","s":"bond-street","c":"shopping","cn":"Shopping","m":48},{"n":"David Zwirner","s":"david-zwirner","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":53},{"n":"Horse and Rider","s":"horse-and-rider","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":54}],"near_same":[{"s":"royal-academy-of-arts","m":185},{"s":"kennel-club-dog-art-gallery","m":366},{"s":"handel-hendrix-house","m":438},{"s":"spencer-house","m":524},{"s":"the-photographers-gallery","m":623},{"s":"clarence-house","m":689}]},{"slug":"fashion-and-textile-museum","name":"Fashion and Textile Museum","area":"Bermondsey","address":"83 Bermondsey Street, SE1 3XF","station":"London Bridge","walk":6,"lat":51.501187,"lng":-0.081666,"hours":[null,[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],null],"hours_raw":"Tu-Sa 11:00-18:00; Su-Mo off","website":"https://fashiontextilemuseum.org/","instagram":"fashiontextilemuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"way/101154182","types":["design"],"verdict":"Zandra Rhodes's pink and orange museum on Bermondsey Street, given entirely to three or four fashion and textile shows a year.","note":"Zandra Rhodes, the designer with the pink hair, founded the museum in 2003 and had the Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta turn a Bermondsey warehouse into it, his only building in Europe, in hot pink, burnt orange, yellow and blue; she lives on the top floor. There is no permanent collection. Instead the museum, run since 2006 by Newham College, mounts three or four exhibitions a year on dress, textiles and the people who design them: Biba, the fashion renegades of 1980s London, Warhol's textiles, sixty years of costume-making for film and, into September 2026, the painted prints of Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell. A textile studio and a print workshop run alongside.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/fashion-and-textile-museum.jpg?v=cf9206c7","thumb":"/img/fashion-and-textile-museum-480.jpg?v=f87c2aca","width":1024,"height":683,"alt":"A very colourful museum indeed. Address: 83 Bermondsey Street. Owner: ( website ). Links: Randomness Guide to London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Ewan Munro from London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fashion_and_Textile_Museum,_Bermondsey,_SE1_(3612012652).jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"paint-pattern-print-the-textiles-of-susan-collier-and-sarah-campbell","name":"Paint! Pattern! Print! The Textiles of Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell","href":"/museums/fashion-and-textile-museum/paint-pattern-print-the-textiles-of-susan-collier-and-sarah-campbell/","verdict":"The sisters whose painted patterns went onto Liberty silk and everybody's sofa.","runs":{"from":"2026-03-27","to":"2026-09-13"},"types":["art","exhibition","fashion"],"clue":["Exhibition","Fashion"]},{"slug":"ossie-clark-celia-birtwell","name":"Ossie Clark + Celia Birtwell","href":"/museums/fashion-and-textile-museum/ossie-clark-celia-birtwell/","verdict":"The cutter and the print-maker who dressed 1960s London, from a private collection.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-02","to":"2027-04-11"},"types":["exhibition","fashion"],"clue":["Exhibition","Fashion"]}],"maps_q":"Fashion and Textile Museum, 83 Bermondsey Street, SE1 3XF, London","in_area":{"slug":"borough-bermondsey","name":"Borough & Bermondsey"},"bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Comptoir Gourmand","s":"comptoir-gourmand","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":45},{"n":"World Press Photo Exhibition 2026","s":"world-press-photo-exhibition-2026","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":123},{"n":"Vinegar Yard","s":"vinegar-yard","c":"food-markets","cn":"Food Markets","m":195}],"near_same":[{"s":"hms-belfast","m":598},{"s":"gordon-museum-of-pathology","m":607},{"s":"old-operating-theatre-museum-and-herb-garret","m":639},{"s":"tower-bridge","m":649},{"s":"golden-hinde","m":872},{"s":"tower-of-london","m":941}]},{"slug":"fenton-house","name":"Fenton House","area":"Hampstead","address":"Hampstead Grove, NW3 6SP","station":"Hampstead","walk":3,"lat":51.558882,"lng":-0.179682,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/london/fenton-house-and-garden","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/110388485","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"A merchant's house of 1686 at the top of Hampstead, with early harpsichords kept in playing order and an orchard of thirty kinds of apple behind its walls.","note":"Fenton House was built in 1686, when Hampstead was a village on a hill, for a merchant whose name is lost, and it kept its brick front, its panelled rooms and its walled garden through three centuries of owners until Lady Binning left it to the National Trust in 1952. Its music is what makes it: Major George Benton Fletcher's collection of early keyboard instruments, harpsichords, virginals, spinets and clavichords from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, is kept in playing condition rather than behind glass, and music students come to practise on them, so that a visit is as likely to be heard as seen. Around the instruments are Lady Binning's porcelain, Meissen and Chinese, seventeenth-century needlework, Georgian furniture and the paintings of the actor Peter Barkworth. The garden is a rare survival for London, a formal walled garden dropping to a sunken lawn, a kitchen garden and an orchard of some thirty varieties of apple, with a view from the balcony over the roofs to the City. It opens from spring to autumn.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/fenton-house.jpg?v=c645c75c","thumb":"/img/fenton-house-480.jpg?v=78c9e939","width":576,"height":1024,"alt":"Fenton House Hampstead front February 2006","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Justinc, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fenton_House_Hampstead_front_February_2006.jpg","thumb_width":270},"maps_q":"Fenton House, Hampstead Grove, NW3 6SP, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Hampstead Observatory","s":"hampstead-observatory","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":189},{"n":"Tamara Karsavina","s":"tamara-karsavina","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":233},{"n":"Paul Robeson","s":"paul-robeson","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":319}],"near_same":[{"s":"burgh-house-hampstead-museum","m":326},{"s":"2-willow-road","m":752},{"s":"keats-house","m":878},{"s":"camden-arts-centre","m":895},{"s":"freud-museum","m":1186},{"s":"kenwood-house","m":1645}]},{"slug":"fleming-museum","name":"Fleming Museum","area":"Paddington","address":"Praed Street, Paddington, W2 1NY","station":"Paddington","walk":3,"lat":51.517222,"lng":-0.173056,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":null,"instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["medical"],"verdict":"The cluttered laboratory at St Mary's where Fleming noticed the mould in 1928, put back as it was that morning.","note":"Alexander Fleming came back from holiday on 3 September 1928 to his small laboratory in the tower of St Mary's Hospital, sorted through the culture plates he had left stacked in the sink, and noticed one on which a mould had killed the staphylococcus around it. He named the substance penicillin, published, and could not make enough of it to matter; it took Howard Florey and Ernst Chain at Oxford, a decade later, to turn it into a drug, and the three shared the Nobel Prize in 1945. The room has been restored to the state it was in that morning, benches, glassware, the window onto Praed Street, and the museum around it, opened in 1993, tells the story with an honesty about luck the legend usually lacks: the mould was a rare strain that had drifted up from a mycologist's laboratory downstairs, the plate had been left uncovered, and the weather had been right.","deep":false,"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/fleming-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Fleming Museum, Praed Street, Paddington, W2 1NY, London","in_area":{"slug":"bayswater-paddington","name":"Bayswater & Paddington"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Lindo Wing, St Mary's Hospital","s":"lindo-wing-st-marys-hospital","c":"royal","cn":"Royal London","m":93},{"n":"GoBoat Paddington","s":"goboat-paddington","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":200},{"n":"Market Halls Paddington","s":"market-halls-paddington","c":"food-markets","cn":"Food Markets","m":243}],"near_same":[{"s":"the-showroom","m":694},{"s":"marylebone-cricket-club-museum","m":1229},{"s":"sherlock-holmes-museum","m":1243},{"s":"wallace-collection","m":1383},{"s":"serpentine","m":1399},{"s":"madame-tussauds-london","m":1407}]},{"slug":"florence-nightingale-museum","name":"Florence Nightingale Museum","area":"Lambeth","address":"2 Lambeth Palace Road, SE1 7EP","station":"Lambeth North","walk":5,"lat":51.500007,"lng":-0.11767,"hours":[null,[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu-Su 10:00-17:00; \"Last Th of month close at 20:00\"","website":"https://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/","instagram":"florencemuseum","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"node/5741257603","types":["medical"],"verdict":"Nightingale's own lamp, her stuffed owl and her statistics, at the hospital where she founded modern nursing.","note":"Florence Nightingale came home from the Crimean War in 1856 the most famous woman in England after the Queen, and used the fame: with the money the public raised in her name she founded the first training school for nurses at St Thomas' Hospital in 1860, and the museum stands at the hospital, facing Parliament across the river. It follows her through three rooms: the gilded cage of a rich Victorian girlhood she fought her way out of; the calling, the military hospitals at Scutari where she and thirty-eight nurses took on filth and the army, and where the legend of the lady with the lamp was made; and the reform, the forty years afterwards spent from her bed writing reports and drawing the charts that showed a government where its soldiers were really dying, which made her the first woman elected to the Royal Statistical Society. The lamp is here, a folding Turkish lantern rather than the oil lamp of the statues, with her medicine chest, her letters and Athena, the owl she rescued in Athens and carried in her pocket.","deep":false,"regular":[{"what":"Meet Miss Nightingale","when":"Second Saturday of the month, 11:30, 13:30 and 15:30","price":"Included with admission","url":"https://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/september-meet-miss-nightingale/","note":"Half an hour of Nightingale telling her own story, played by a performer, then the museum to yourself. No booking."},{"what":"Museum Late","when":"Last Thursday of the month, museum open until 20:00","price":"Adult \u00a312, concessions \u00a310, student \u00a37, child \u00a36, family \u00a330","url":"https://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/monthly-museum-late-the-mr-bismarck-letters/","note":"A themed talk at 18:30 \u2014 a newly acquired letter about one of her sixty cats, a history of surgery \u2014 with a bar from 17:00. The ticket is a general admission ticket and stays valid for a year."}],"figure":{"src":"/img/florence-nightingale-museum.jpg?v=6a201a6e","thumb":"/img/florence-nightingale-museum-480.jpg?v=c891c153","width":1024,"height":705,"alt":"Florence Nightingale Museum in London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Joyofmuseums, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Florence_Nightingale_Museum_-_Joy_of_Museums.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"healing-spaces","name":"Healing Spaces","href":"/science/florence-nightingale-museum/healing-spaces/","verdict":"Why hospital wards are shaped the way they are, and who decided.","runs":{"from":"2025-11-18","to":"2026-12-31"},"types":["exhibition","history","science"],"clue":["Exhibition","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"in-focus-nurse-catherine-pine","name":"In Focus: Nurse Catherine Pine","href":"/science/florence-nightingale-museum/in-focus-nurse-catherine-pine/","verdict":"The nurse who took hunger-striking suffragettes into her own nursing home.","runs":{"from":"2026-03-06","to":"2026-10-04"},"types":["exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"heritage-open-day-free-entry","name":"Heritage Open Day: free entry","href":"/science/florence-nightingale-museum/heritage-open-day-free-entry/","verdict":"The whole museum free for a day, with three suffragette medals to handle.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-14","to":"2026-09-14"},"types":["family","free","history"],"clue":["History"]},{"slug":"the-nightingale-training-school-a-talk-by-the-curator","name":"The Nightingale Training School: A Talk by the Curator","href":"/science/florence-nightingale-museum/the-nightingale-training-school-a-talk-by-the-curator/","verdict":"Starched caps, timetables and what it took to earn the Nightingale Badge.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-17","to":"2026-09-17"},"types":["history","late","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk","History"]},{"slug":"daughter-of-bala-the-betsi-cadwaladr-story","name":"Daughter of Bala: The Betsi Cadwaladr Story","href":"/science/florence-nightingale-museum/daughter-of-bala-the-betsi-cadwaladr-story/","verdict":"The Welsh nurse who went to Scutari in her sixties and fell out with Nightingale.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-30","to":"2026-09-30"},"types":["history","theatre"],"clue":["Theatre","History"]},{"slug":"florence-nightingales-london-walking-tour","name":"Florence Nightingale's London: Walking Tour","href":"/science/florence-nightingale-museum/florence-nightingales-london-walking-tour/","verdict":"Two hours through Mayfair and St James's, where she actually lived.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-03","to":"2026-10-03"},"types":["history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]},{"slug":"national-hygiene-week-5-entry","name":"National Hygiene Week: \u00a35 entry","href":"/science/florence-nightingale-museum/national-hygiene-week-5-entry/","verdict":"Bring soap, get in for five 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11:00-17:00","website":"https://www.fortyhallestate.co.uk/","instagram":"fortyhall","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/4993790","types":["historic-house","local","free"],"verdict":"A City merchant's house of 1629 on a hill above the Lea, free, with the site of a Tudor palace in its park and a vineyard on the slope.","note":"Sir Nicholas Rainton, a haberdasher who was Lord Mayor of London in 1632 and went to the Tower in 1640 for refusing to help Charles I raise a loan, built it between 1629 and 1632: a square brick house that looks Georgian outside, its windows changed, and Jacobean inside, with its plaster ceilings and carved screen. His great-nephew bought Elsyng Palace next door, the Tudor house where Henry VIII's children were brought up and where Edward VI heard that he was king, and pulled it down for the estate; its foundations lie under the lawn. Enfield's museum is in the house, with its ceramics and local history, and the park is 273 acres of lake, medieval fishponds, walled garden and the loop of the old New River, with a community vineyard, London's first working one for centuries, on the hill below.","deep":false,"hours_url":"https://www.fortyhallestate.co.uk/plan-your-visit","hours_extra":"Those are the house hours; the gardens and park open daily, 08:30 to 18:30 in summer. 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The tokens left by mothers to identify their children are the hardest and best thing here.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/foundling-museum.jpg?v=0a5e754e","thumb":"/img/foundling-museum-480.jpg?v=8857de81","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Foundling Museum in Brunswick Square, London, England","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Alan Stanton, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Foundling_Museum_-Brunswick_Square_-London_-15July2009.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"the-foundling-museums-permanent-galleries","name":"The Foundling Museum's permanent galleries","href":"/art/foundling-museum/the-foundling-museums-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"The tokens mothers left with their babies, kept in case they could ever come back.","runs":null,"types":["art","books","exhibition","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"voices-in-the-room","name":"Voices in the Room","href":"/museums/foundling-museum/voices-in-the-room/","verdict":"Three new acquisitions - Kneebone, van Essen and Grayson Perry - on children, memory and belonging.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-16","to":"2026-11-01"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"300-years-of-the-rival-queens-handels-1726-opera-season","name":"300 Years of the 'Rival Queens': Handel's 1726 Opera Season","href":"/museums/foundling-museum/300-years-of-the-rival-queens-handels-1726-opera-season/","verdict":"Two sopranos, one castrato and the season London decided was a feud.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-30","to":"2026-10-25"},"types":["exhibition","history","music"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"harlots-strumpets-tarts-walking-tour","name":"Harlots, Strumpets & Tarts walking tour","href":"/museums/foundling-museum/harlots-strumpets-tarts-walking-tour/","verdict":"Georgian London's sex trade, walked and performed.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-25","to":"2026-09-25"},"types":["history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]},{"slug":"where-we-grow-nature-nurture-childhood","name":"Where We Grow: nature, nurture & childhood","href":"/art/foundling-museum/where-we-grow-nature-nurture-childhood/","verdict":"What growing up outdoors has meant, from the Foundling Hospital's country nurses to now.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-17","to":"2027-04-18"},"types":["art","exhibition","history","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/foundling-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Foundling Museum, 40 Brunswick Square, WC1N 1AZ, London","in_area":{"slug":"bloomsbury","name":"Bloomsbury"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Mille Patisserie Russell Square","s":"mille-patisserie-russell-square","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":197},{"n":"Store Street Espresso","s":"store-street-espresso-st-pancras","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":236},{"n":"P\u00e2tisserie Deux Amis","s":"patisserie-deux-amis","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":240}],"near_same":[{"s":"charles-dickens-museum","m":411},{"s":"postal-museum","m":533},{"s":"wiener-library","m":593},{"s":"soas-gallery","m":620},{"s":"british-library","m":676},{"s":"institute-of-archaeology-collections","m":691}]},{"slug":"freud-museum","name":"Freud Museum","area":"Hampstead","address":"20 Maresfield Gardens, NW3 5SX","station":"Finchley Road","walk":3,"lat":51.548311,"lng":-0.177393,"hours":[null,null,[10.5,17.0],[10.5,17.0],[10.5,17.0],[10.5,17.0],[10.5,17.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Su 10:30-17:00","website":"https://freud.org.uk","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/103107384","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"Freud's last home, with the analytic couch still in the study.","note":"He fled Vienna in 1938 and died here the following year; his daughter Anna kept the house as it was. The study holds his library and his collection of antiquities, arranged as he left them. 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What stands is a Tudor courtyard of red brick from the 1490s, with a fountain in the middle and the bishops' great hall off it, and a Georgian house of the 1760s wrapped round the older rooms, where the museum tells the story of the bishops and their palace. The garden is the older glory: Henry Compton, bishop from 1675, used his clergy in the American colonies to send him seeds and saplings, and grew the first magnolia in England here, with maples, tulip trees and black walnuts; the trees in the botanic garden and the walled kitchen garden with its vinery keep his tradition. The Fulham Palace Trust runs it and the whole place is free, the museum and the rooms on a booked slot, with Bishops Park beside it along the Thames and a caf\u00e9 in the old drawing room.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/fulham-palace.jpg?v=ab804218","thumb":"/img/fulham-palace-480.jpg?v=9cbf30ba","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"A photograph of Fulham Palace.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Michael Coppins, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fulham_Palace.jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"maps_q":"Fulham Palace, Bishop's Avenue, Fulham, SW6 6DX, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"The Boat Race","s":"the-boat-race","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":470},{"n":"Chat Noir","s":"chat-noir","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":2097},{"n":"Gandhi the student","s":"gandhi-the-student","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":2206}],"near_same":[{"s":"7-hammersmith-terrace","m":2834},{"s":"riverside-gallery","m":2840},{"s":"leighton-house-museum","m":3240},{"s":"hogarths-house","m":3290},{"s":"chiswick-house","m":3316},{"s":"design-museum","m":3434}]},{"slug":"fusiliers-museum","name":"Fusiliers Museum","area":"Tower Hill","address":"Tower Hill, Whitechapel, EC3N 4AB","station":"Tower Hill","walk":3,"lat":51.508224,"lng":-0.075258,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.fusiliermuseumlondon.org/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/13958592487","types":["military"],"verdict":"The regiment raised at the Tower in 1685, told inside the Tower itself.","note":"The Royal Fusiliers were raised at the Tower of London in 1685 to guard the guns of the Ordnance, and were armed with the fusil, a flintlock musket that could be carried near barrels of gunpowder without a lit match, which gave the regiment its name. The Tower has been its home ever since. The museum is in the old officers' mess building on the north side of the inner ward and runs from that founding through the American war, the Western Front and the Second World War to the regiment's successor today: uniforms and the coloured plates they were painted from, medals, photographs, letters home and war diaries, and the silver from the mess. Entry is included in a Tower of London ticket.","deep":false,"maps_q":"Fusiliers Museum, Tower Hill, Whitechapel, EC3N 4AB, London","in_area":{"slug":"the-city","name":"The City"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"London Wall at Tower Hill","s":"london-wall-at-tower-hill","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":194},{"n":"Tower Hill Memorial","s":"tower-hill-memorial","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":237},{"n":"Girl with a Dolphin","s":"girl-with-a-dolphin","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":244}],"near_same":[{"s":"tower-of-london","m":71},{"s":"tower-bridge","m":301},{"s":"all-hallows-by-the-tower-crypt-museum","m":315},{"s":"hms-belfast","m":457},{"s":"royal-pharmaceutical-society-museum","m":485},{"s":"jack-the-ripper-museum","m":582}]},{"slug":"galton-collection","name":"Galton Collection","area":"Bloomsbury","address":"Gower Street, Bloomsbury, WC1E 6BT","station":"Euston Square","walk":2,"lat":51.524722,"lng":-0.133611,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":null,"instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["medical"],"verdict":"UCL's collection from the founder of eugenics, shown critically.","note":"Francis Galton's instruments and papers, kept and displayed as evidence of a discipline the university has publicly reckoned with \u2014 it renamed buildings that had honoured him. Access is limited.","deep":true,"maps_q":"Galton Collection, Gower Street, Bloomsbury, WC1E 6BT, London","in_area":{"slug":"bloomsbury","name":"Bloomsbury"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"The Ch\u014dsh\u016b Five","s":"choshu-five","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":6},{"n":"Getting Triggy With It: Matt Parker does the maths","s":"getting-triggy-with-it-matt-parker-does-the-maths","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":65},{"n":"Jeremy Bentham's Auto-Icon","s":"jeremy-benthams-auto-icon","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":85}],"near_same":[{"s":"grant-museum-of-zoology-and-comparative-anatomy","m":119},{"s":"petrie-museum-of-egyptian-archaeology","m":134},{"s":"institute-of-archaeology-collections","m":137},{"s":"wellcome-collection","m":142},{"s":"magic-circle-museum","m":229},{"s":"soas-gallery","m":482}]},{"slug":"garden-museum","name":"Garden Museum","area":"Lambeth","address":"Lambeth Road, SE1 7LB","station":"Lambeth North","walk":9,"lat":51.494895,"lng":-0.119975,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-17:00; Dec 25-26 off","website":"https://www.gardenmuseum.org.uk/","instagram":"gardenmuseum","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/117047225","types":["nature"],"verdict":"Britain's only museum of gardens, in a church beside Lambeth Palace saved for the plant hunters buried in its yard, with a tower to climb.","note":"The Tradescants, father and son, were the royal gardeners of the early seventeenth century who went to Russia, the Levant and Virginia for plants and came back with things every English garden now takes for granted, and their tomb stands in the churchyard of St Mary-at-Lambeth, next to Captain Bligh's. When the church was deconsecrated in 1972 and marked for demolition, John and Rosemary Nicholson traced the tomb, and in 1977 they opened the first museum of garden history in the world around it. A rebuilding finished in 2017 put a copper-clad gallery into the nave for the collection, the tools, paintings, plans and curiosities of four hundred years of gardening, and glazed a courtyard garden planted by Dan Pearson at the back. The tower has 131 steps and a view straight down onto Lambeth Palace and across the river to Parliament. The archive holds the working papers of the great postwar designers, the exhibitions run to three a year, and the caf\u00e9 is better than a museum caf\u00e9 needs to be.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/garden-museum.jpg?v=91d5d918","thumb":"/img/garden-museum-480.jpg?v=b8cc0eb8","width":682,"height":1024,"alt":"Lambeth Palace","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Robert Scarth from London, England, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Garden_Museum_(4632736506).jpg","thumb_width":320},"whats_on":[{"slug":"benton-end-a-paradise-of-pollen-and-paint","name":"Benton End: A Paradise of Pollen and Paint","href":"/museums/garden-museum/benton-end-a-paradise-of-pollen-and-paint/","verdict":"The Suffolk art school where Lucian Freud studied and Beth Chatto learned to garden.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-02","to":"2026-09-20"},"types":["art","exhibition","nature"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"garden-art-garden","name":"Garden/Art/Garden","href":"/museums/garden-museum/garden-art-garden/","verdict":"A run of talks arguing that a garden is a work of art and should be looked at like one.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-15","to":"2026-12-01"},"types":["nature","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk"]},{"slug":"sabine-moritz-lie-down-in-green-pastures","name":"Sabine Moritz: Lie Down in Green Pastures","href":"/museums/garden-museum/sabine-moritz-lie-down-in-green-pastures/","verdict":"Flower paintings and East German memories, in the artist's first UK museum show.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-08","to":"2026-12-20"},"types":["art","exhibition","nature"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"garden-museum-harvest-festival","name":"Garden Museum Harvest Festival","href":"/museums/garden-museum/garden-museum-harvest-festival/","verdict":"Urban growers, rooftop beekeepers and fermenters take over Lambeth's church for a Sunday.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-18","to":"2026-10-18","repeats":"yearly"},"types":["family","festival","food_available","nature"],"clue":["Festival"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Outdoors & Nature","href":"/outdoors/garden-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Garden Museum, Lambeth Road, SE1 7LB, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"SOE Memorial, Albert Embankment","s":"soe-memorial-albert-embankment","c":"secrets","cn":"Secrets & Espionage","m":115},{"n":"Lambeth Bridge","s":"lambeth-bridge","c":"harry-potter","cn":"Harry Potter","m":213},{"n":"Lambeth Palace Library","s":"lambeth-palace-library","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":334}],"near_same":[{"s":"lambeth-palace","m":72},{"s":"london-fire-brigade-museum","m":257},{"s":"florence-nightingale-museum","m":590},{"s":"tate-britain","m":701},{"s":"jewel-tower","m":706},{"s":"houses-of-parliament","m":754}]},{"slug":"garricks-temple-to-shakespeare","name":"Garrick's Temple to Shakespeare","area":"Hampton","address":"Hampton Court Road, TW12 2EN","station":"Hampton","walk":12,"lat":51.412379,"lng":-0.359399,"hours":[null,null,null,null,null,null,[14.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Su 14:00-17:00","website":"https://www.garrickstemple.org.uk/","instagram":"garrickstempletoshakespeare","attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["history"],"verdict":"18th-century folly built by actor David Garrick to celebrate the genius of William Shakespeare, includes display on Garrick's life and acting career.","note":null,"deep":true,"hours_extra":"Sunday afternoons from late March to late October; the garden is open every day of the year.","hours_url":"https://garrickstemple.org.uk/","hours_checked":"2026-09-05","hours_source":"web","also_in":[{"name":"Literary London","href":"/literary/garricks-temple-to-shakespeare/"}],"maps_q":"Garrick's Temple to Shakespeare, Hampton Court Road, TW12 2EN, London","bank":null,"near_all":[{"n":"Church Street, Hampton","s":"church-street-hampton","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":197},{"n":"Bushy Park","s":"bushy-park","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":1476},{"n":"National Physical Laboratory","s":"national-physical-laboratory","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":1785}],"near_same":[{"s":"hampton-court-palace","m":1788},{"s":"landmark-arts-centre","m":2988},{"s":"strawberry-hill","m":3338},{"s":"kingston-museum","m":4113},{"s":"twickenham-museum","m":4488},{"s":"ham-house","m":4735}]},{"slug":"gasworks-gallery","name":"Gasworks Gallery","area":"Kennington","address":"155 Vauxhall Street, SE11 5RH","station":"Oval","walk":5,"lat":51.485163,"lng":-0.115492,"hours":[null,null,[12.0,18.0],[12.0,18.0],[12.0,18.0],[12.0,18.0],[12.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Su 12:00-18:00","website":"https://www.gasworks.org.uk","instagram":"gasworkslondon","attrs":[],"osm":"way/1119554312","types":["art"],"verdict":"Contemporary art organisation with exhibition space and studios.","note":null,"deep":true,"whats_on":[{"slug":"paloma-contreras-lomas-disco-inferno","name":"Paloma Contreras Lomas: Disco Inferno","href":"/art/gasworks-gallery/paloma-contreras-lomas-disco-inferno/","verdict":"A Mexican artist's first UK solo show, in a Vauxhall gallery that is always free.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-01","to":"2026-12-13"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"thuy-tien-nguyen-press-release","name":"Thuy Tien Nguyen: Press, Release","href":"/art/gasworks-gallery/thuy-tien-nguyen-press-release/","verdict":"A first British solo show, free, in Kennington.","runs":{"from":"2027-01-14","to":"2027-03-21"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/gasworks-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"Gasworks Gallery, 155 Vauxhall Street, SE11 5RH, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Bonnington Square","s":"bonnington-square","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":320},{"n":"Vauxhall City Farm","s":"vauxhall-city-farm","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":380},{"n":"Cabinet","s":"cabinet","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":392}],"near_same":[{"s":"london-fire-brigade-museum","m":877},{"s":"cinema-museum","m":1080},{"s":"garden-museum","m":1125},{"s":"lambeth-palace","m":1189},{"s":"tate-britain","m":1253},{"s":"imperial-war-museum-london","m":1275}]},{"slug":"gods-own-junkyard","name":"God's Own Junkyard","area":"Walthamstow","address":"Shernhall Street, E17 9HQ","station":"Wood Street","walk":7,"lat":51.583987,"lng":-0.008233,"hours":[null,null,null,null,[11.0,21.0],[11.0,21.0],[11.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Fr-Sa 11:00-21:00; Su 11:00-18:00","website":"https://godsownjunkyard.co.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/2252043061","types":["art","free","quirky"],"verdict":"A Walthamstow warehouse hung floor to ceiling with neon, from Soho's strip clubs to Batman's Gotham, free to walk into.","note":"Dick Bracey came out of the Welsh mines, learned neon in London after the war and set up Electro Signs in 1952; the sign he made for the Raymond Revuebar in 1958 lit Soho for half a century and the firm still maintains it. His son Chris took the business into film, bending the neon for Blade Runner, Eyes Wide Shut and four Batman pictures, and kept everything: the old signs, the props, the salvaged shopfronts. God's Own Junkyard is the family's gallery of all of it, a warehouse in Walthamstow with every sign lit at once, a caf\u00e9 and bar in the middle and a shop at the end. Chris Bracey died in 2014 and his wife and sons run it. Entry is free.","deep":false,"maps_q":"God's Own Junkyard, Shernhall Street, E17 9HQ, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"The Good Egg Walthamstow","s":"the-good-egg-walthamstow","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":367},{"n":"Sol Plaatje","s":"sol-plaatje","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":657},{"n":"Suba Bakery","s":"suba-bakery","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":866}],"near_same":[{"s":"vestry-house-museum","m":321},{"s":"william-morris-gallery","m":1163},{"s":"walthamstow-pumphouse-museum","m":1992},{"s":"markfield-beam-engine-and-museum","m":3687},{"s":"v-a-east-storehouse","m":4270},{"s":"v-a-east-museum","m":4697}]},{"slug":"golden-hinde","name":"Golden Hinde","area":"Bankside","address":"Winchester Square, The Borough, SE1 9BB","station":"London Bridge","walk":2,"lat":51.506888,"lng":-0.090325,"hours":[[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-18:00","website":"https://www.goldenhinde.co.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/31248849","types":["family","maritime"],"verdict":"A full-size, seaworthy copy of Drake's ship, which has sailed round the world itself, in a dock beside Southwark Cathedral.","note":"Francis Drake sailed out of Plymouth in December 1577 in a ship of about a hundred tons, renamed her the Golden Hind off South America, and came home in September 1580 the first Englishman to have sailed round the world, with a hold of Spanish treasure that repaid the Queen's investors many times over. This is the Golden Hinde of 1973, built to the same size at Appledore in Devon by traditional shipwrights: three masts, twenty-two guns, iroko planks on oak frames, and 121 feet from stem to stern, which looks small from the quay and smaller below decks, where the headroom explains a great deal about Tudor sailors. She has sailed more than 140,000 miles, round the world like the original, and has been moored at St Mary Overie Dock since 1996. Tours and children's events run through the year.","deep":false,"hours_url":"https://www.goldenhinde.co.uk/","hours_checked":"2026-09-03","hours_source":"web","hours_extra":"Closes at 17:00 from November to March, and occasionally for private events and maintenance.","figure":{"src":"/img/golden-hinde.jpg?v=bed674b4","thumb":"/img/golden-hinde-480.jpg?v=5088de8b","width":713,"height":1024,"alt":"Golden Hinde, London, England","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Golden_Hinde,_Londres,_Inglaterra,_2014-08-11,_DD_107.JPG","thumb_width":334},"maps_q":"Golden Hinde, Winchester Square, The Borough, SE1 9BB, London","in_area":{"slug":"borough-bermondsey","name":"Borough & Bermondsey"},"bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Winchester Palace","s":"winchester-palace","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":43},{"n":"Escape from the Golden Hinde","s":"escape-from-the-golden-hinde","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":64},{"n":"Southwark Cathedral","s":"southwark-cathedral","c":"sacred","cn":"Sacred London","m":98}],"near_same":[{"s":"clink-prison-museum","m":109},{"s":"old-operating-theatre-museum-and-herb-garret","m":239},{"s":"rose-theatre-exhibition","m":357},{"s":"gordon-museum-of-pathology","m":373},{"s":"hms-belfast","m":624},{"s":"tate-modern","m":629}]},{"slug":"goldsmiths-centre","name":"Goldsmiths' Centre","area":"Clerkenwell","address":"42 Britton Street, EC1M 5AD","station":"Farringdon","walk":2,"lat":51.520986,"lng":-0.102893,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.goldsmiths-centre.org/","instagram":"gsmithscentre","attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["art"],"verdict":"Changing exhibits of contemporary jewellery and silversmithing, operated by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"Goldsmiths' Centre, 42 Britton Street, EC1M 5AD, London","in_area":{"slug":"farringdon-clerkenwell","name":"Farringdon & Clerkenwell"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"fabric","s":"fabric","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":155},{"n":"London Museum opens at Smithfield","s":"london-museum-opens-at-smithfield","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":232},{"n":"Clerkenwell Green","s":"clerkenwell-green","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":262}],"near_same":[{"s":"museum-of-the-order-of-st-john","m":115},{"s":"the-charterhouse","m":221},{"s":"st-bartholomews-hospital-museum","m":399},{"s":"islington-museum","m":622},{"s":"barbican-centre","m":638},{"s":"dr-johnsons-house","m":767}]},{"slug":"gordon-museum-of-pathology","name":"Gordon Museum of Pathology","area":"Southwark","address":"Talbot Yard, The Borough, SE1 1YP","station":"London Bridge","walk":3,"lat":51.503563,"lng":-0.089571,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.kcl.ac.uk/lsm/centre-for-education/museums/gordon-museum","instagram":"kingslsm","attrs":[],"osm":"node/10270502651","types":["free","medical"],"verdict":"The largest medical Museum in the United Kingdom, part of King's College London.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/gordon-museum-of-pathology.jpg?v=da4c0b9d","thumb":"/img/gordon-museum-of-pathology.jpg?v=da4c0b9d","width":487,"height":386,"alt":"Guy's Campus","caption":"","credit":"Photo by User:Flaming Ferrari in English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guys_campus_kcl_2.jpg"},"maps_q":"Gordon Museum of Pathology, Talbot Yard, The Borough, SE1 1YP, London","in_area":{"slug":"borough-bermondsey","name":"Borough & Bermondsey"},"bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Site of the Tabard Inn","s":"site-of-the-tabard-inn","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":73},{"n":"The George Inn","s":"the-george-inn","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":74},{"n":"John Keats statue","s":"john-keats-statue","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":115}],"near_same":[{"s":"old-operating-theatre-museum-and-herb-garret","m":182},{"s":"golden-hinde","m":373},{"s":"clink-prison-museum","m":411},{"s":"rose-theatre-exhibition","m":575},{"s":"fashion-and-textile-museum","m":607},{"s":"hms-belfast","m":661}]},{"slug":"grant-museum-of-zoology-and-comparative-anatomy","name":"Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy","area":"Bloomsbury","address":"21 University Street, WC1E 6DE","station":"Euston Square","walk":3,"lat":51.523732,"lng":-0.134266,"hours":[null,[13.0,17.0],[13.0,17.0],[13.0,17.0],[13.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],null],"hours_raw":"Tu-Fr 13:00-17:00; Sa 11:00-17:00; Su,Mo,PH off","website":"https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-collections/ucl-grant-museum-zoology","instagram":"grantmuseumucl","attrs":[],"osm":"node/1216160782","types":["free","nature","quirky"],"verdict":"One crowded Victorian room of skeletons and specimens, free.","note":"UCL's teaching collection, about 68,000 specimens in a single gallery, including a jar of moles that has become the museum's unlikely mascot and the bones of a quagga and a thylacine. Robert Grant founded it in 1828 as a teaching collection, and it is the last university zoology museum left in London.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/grant-museum-of-zoology-and-comparative-anatomy.jpg?v=06c1c415","thumb":"/img/grant-museum-of-zoology-and-comparative-anatomy-480.jpg?v=4c19625e","width":1024,"height":683,"alt":"Grant Museum of Zoology, Gower Street","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Roger Templeman, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grant_Museum_of_Zoology,_Gower_Street_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2731842.jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/grant-museum-of-zoology-and-comparative-anatomy/"}],"maps_q":"Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, 21 University Street, WC1E 6DE, London","in_area":{"slug":"bloomsbury","name":"Bloomsbury"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"The Ch\u014dsh\u016b Five","s":"choshu-five","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":121},{"n":"Jeremy Bentham's Auto-Icon","s":"jeremy-benthams-auto-icon","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":171},{"n":"Getting Triggy With It: Matt Parker does the maths","s":"getting-triggy-with-it-matt-parker-does-the-maths","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":177}],"near_same":[{"s":"petrie-museum-of-egyptian-archaeology","m":90},{"s":"galton-collection","m":119},{"s":"ucl-geology-collections","m":119},{"s":"institute-of-archaeology-collections","m":228},{"s":"wellcome-collection","m":249},{"s":"magic-circle-museum","m":308}]},{"slug":"guards-museum","name":"Guards Museum","area":"Victoria","address":"Petty France, Victoria, SW1H 9HF","station":"St. James's Park","walk":2,"lat":51.500048,"lng":-0.136125,"hours":[[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-16:00","website":"https://theguardsmuseum.com/","instagram":"guardsmuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"node/4749096025","types":["military"],"verdict":"Three centuries of the five regiments of Foot Guards, in the barracks beside Buckingham Palace where they still live.","note":"The Foot Guards are the five regiments that guard the sovereign and fight as infantry, the Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh, and Wellington Barracks on Birdcage Walk is where the guard for Buckingham Palace forms up before it marches across. Their museum, opened in 1988 under the parade ground, follows them from the 1650s through Waterloo, the Crimea and both world wars to Afghanistan, and explains the things a visitor who has just watched the guard change has seen without understanding: which regiment wears its buttons in which groups, why the bearskin, what the colours are. Uniforms, paintings, weapons, models and the mess silver fill the cases, and there is a toy soldier shop by the door.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/guards-museum.jpg?v=1724ffa1","thumb":"/img/guards-museum-480.jpg?v=7a070871","width":640,"height":480,"alt":"Armoured car at entrance to the Guards Museum, Birdcage Walk, Westminster, London. 14 January 2006. Photographer: Fin Fahey","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Tarquin Binary, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guards_museum_armoured_car_1.jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Royal London","href":"/royal/guards-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Guards Museum, Petty France, Victoria, SW1H 9HF, London","in_area":{"slug":"westminster","name":"Westminster"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"54 Broadway","s":"54-broadway","c":"secrets","cn":"Secrets & Espionage","m":155},{"n":"55 Broadway","s":"55-broadway","c":"architecture","cn":"Architecture","m":184},{"n":"Formative Coffee","s":"formative-coffee","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":245}],"near_same":[{"s":"kings-gallery","m":445},{"s":"buckingham-palace","m":460},{"s":"clarence-house","m":465},{"s":"churchill-war-rooms","m":533},{"s":"royal-mews","m":576},{"s":"spencer-house","m":635}]},{"slug":"guildhall-art-gallery","name":"Guildhall Art Gallery","area":"Bassishaw","address":"Guildhall Yard, EC2V 5AE","station":"Bank","walk":4,"lat":51.515558,"lng":-0.091404,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.thecityofldn.com/directory/guildhall-art-gallery/","instagram":"onecityldn","attrs":[],"osm":"way/156172966","types":["art","free"],"verdict":"The City's own paintings, free, over the walls of London's Roman amphitheatre, which the builders found underneath.","note":"The Corporation of London has collected pictures since 1670, and this is where it shows them: a gallery beside the Guildhall, completed in 1999 by Richard Gilbert Scott to replace the one that burned in 1941 with 164 works inside it. The collection is Victorian London at its most confident, Millais, Tissot, Rossetti and the story-pictures the City's businessmen gave it, with Copley's vast Siege of Gibraltar, painted for the Corporation in the 1780s and so large that the building was designed around it. What nobody planned was underneath. When the site was dug in 1988 the builders found the walls of London's Roman amphitheatre, lost since the fourth century, and the gallery was redrawn to keep it: in the basement the surviving stone of the eastern entrance stands in the dark with the rest of the arena traced in green light, and the outline of the whole ring is marked in a black curve across Guildhall Yard outside. Entry is free.","deep":false,"note_links":[{"phrase":"Guildhall","name":"Guildhall","href":"/politics/guildhall/"}],"figure":{"src":"/img/guildhall-art-gallery.jpg?v=de4f2b2b","thumb":"/img/guildhall-art-gallery-480.jpg?v=128a8e7f","width":1024,"height":682,"alt":"Guildhall Art Gallery 2.0","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Elias Gayles from USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guildhall_Art_Gallery_(14186022081).jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"guildhall-art-gallery-and-londons-roman-amphitheatre","name":"Guildhall Art Gallery and London's Roman amphitheatre","href":"/art/guildhall-art-gallery/guildhall-art-gallery-and-londons-roman-amphitheatre/","verdict":"The City's own art collection, and the amphitheatre found underneath it in 1988.","runs":null,"types":["art","exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/guildhall-art-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"Guildhall Art Gallery, Guildhall Yard, EC2V 5AE, London","in_area":{"slug":"the-city","name":"The City"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Guildhall Roman Amphitheatre","s":"guildhall-roman-amphitheatre","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":47},{"n":"Guildhall","s":"guildhall","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":56},{"n":"Guildhall Library","s":"guildhall-library","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":107}],"near_same":[{"s":"bank-of-england-museum","m":298},{"s":"mansion-house","m":316},{"s":"london-mithraeum","m":357},{"s":"british-red-cross-museum-and-archives","m":455},{"s":"barbican-centre","m":507},{"s":"college-of-arms","m":632}]},{"slug":"gunnersbury-park-museum","name":"Gunnersbury Park Museum","area":"Acton","address":"Pope's Lane, W5 4AZ","station":"Acton Town","walk":7,"lat":51.499542,"lng":-0.286433,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.visitgunnersbury.org/museum/","instagram":"gunnersburyparkmuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"way/25911545","types":["free","local"],"verdict":"The Rothschilds' Regency mansion in its park, free, with the story of Ealing and Hounslow inside and the Victorian kitchens below.","note":"Nathan Mayer Rothschild, founder of the London bank, bought the Gunnersbury estate in 1835, and for ninety years the family made it one of the great gardens of west London, with a Japanese garden, an orangery, an Italian garden and woodland planted with the new trees from Asia. Ealing and Acton bought it from them in 1925 and Neville Chamberlain, then Minister of Health, opened the park to the public on 21 May 1926. The large mansion, a Regency house the Rothschilds enlarged, was falling down by the 2000s; a restoration finished in 2018 put nine galleries into it for the two boroughs' collections, about 450 objects out of 50,000, from Palaeolithic flints to a Lucozade neon sign, with the Rothschilds' own story, costume from the 1600s onwards, toys and a printing press of 1804. The Victorian kitchens in the basement are laid out as they were worked. Entry is free, and the park with its boating lake, temple and mock ruins is open every day.","deep":false,"maps_q":"Gunnersbury Park Museum, Pope's Lane, W5 4AZ, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Depot open days: design classics","s":"depot-open-days-design-classics","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":475},{"n":"Strand-on-the-Green","s":"strand-on-the-green","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":1670},{"n":"The Original Maids of Honour","s":"the-original-maids-of-honour","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":2094}],"near_same":[{"s":"london-transport-museum-depot","m":668},{"s":"london-museum-of-water-steam","m":1205},{"s":"musical-museum","m":1378},{"s":"kew-palace","m":1846},{"s":"pitzhanger-manor","m":1907},{"s":"the-national-archives","m":2268}]},{"slug":"hackney-museum","name":"Hackney Museum","area":"Hackney","address":"285 Mare Street, Hackney, E8 1GR","station":"Hackney Central","walk":4,"lat":51.544491,"lng":-0.055911,"hours":[null,[9.5,17.5],[9.5,17.5],[9.5,20.0],[9.5,17.5],[10.0,17.0],null],"hours_raw":"Tu,We,Fr 09:30-17:30; Th 09:30-20:00; Sa 10:00-17:00; Su-Mo off; PH off","website":"https://hackney-museum.hackney.gov.uk/","instagram":"hackneymuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"node/1558137005","types":["free","local"],"verdict":"Hackney told through a thousand years of arrivals, free, in one room built around a Saxon boat pulled out of the River Lea.","note":"Hackney's museum is one free gallery inside the library building on Mare Street, and it is built around the idea that the borough has always been somewhere people arrived. Its centrepiece is the logboat, a dugout made from a single tree trunk in the Anglo-Saxon centuries and found in the mud of the Lea at Clapton in 1987, and around it the cases follow the Huguenots, the Jewish East End, the Windrush generation, the Vietnamese, Turkish and Kurdish communities and everyone since, in their own objects and voices. The borough's radicals and the Hackney Empire have corners of their own, and the temporary exhibitions are drawn from the same neighbours.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/hackney-museum.jpg?v=6e967fb2","thumb":"/img/hackney-museum-480.jpg?v=ac623e4e","width":640,"height":537,"alt":"Hackney Technology and Learning Centre (includes Hackney Museum and Central Library), Hackney, London. 20 October 2005. Photographer: Fin Fahey","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Tarquin Binary, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hackney_museum.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Hackney Museum, 285 Mare Street, Hackney, E8 1GR, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"St Augustine's Tower","s":"st-augustines-tower","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":81},{"n":"Hackney Empire","s":"hackney-empire","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":127},{"n":"Pophams Bakery","s":"pophams-bakery","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":158}],"near_same":[{"s":"sutton-house","m":581},{"s":"the-viktor-wynd-museum-of-curiosities-fine-art-natural-history","m":1095},{"s":"vagina-museum","m":1572},{"s":"chisenhale-gallery","m":1694},{"s":"young-v-a","m":1717},{"s":"museum-of-the-home","m":2025}]},{"slug":"hall-place","name":"Hall Place","area":"Crayford","address":"Bourne Road, Bexley, DA5 1PQ","station":"Bexley","walk":15,"lat":51.448185,"lng":0.160226,"hours":[[9.0,17.25],[9.0,17.25],[9.0,17.25],[9.0,17.25],[9.0,17.25],[9.0,17.25],[9.0,17.25]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 09:00-17:15","website":"https://www.hallplace.org.uk/","instagram":"hallplacebexley","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"node/293221901","types":["historic-house","local","free"],"verdict":"A Lord Mayor's house of 1537 in chequered flint and stone robbed from Lesnes Abbey, a red-brick wing of 1649 stuck on beside it, and gardens of topiary beasts along the Cray, free.","note":"Sir John Champneys, Lord Mayor of London, began it in 1537 with stone carted from the dissolved abbey at Lesnes, a great hall between a service wing and his family's rooms, the walls in a chequerboard of flint and rubble; Sir Robert Austen doubled it in 1649 with a red-brick wing in the newest style and made no attempt to match the two. The Dashwoods of West Wycombe owned it for a century, a school rented it, and in the Second World War American signals units listened to German radio traffic from the house. Bexley has had it since the 1930s. The gardens are the reason most people come: the Queen's Beasts clipped in yew for the coronation of 1953, a rose garden, a herb garden, glasshouses and sixty-five hectares running down to the river; the house itself, with the borough's collections inside, is opened on guided tours.","deep":false,"hours_url":"https://www.hallplace.org.uk/opening-times/","hours_extra":"The gardens, free, stay open until 21:30 from April to September; the house is seen only on pre-booked guided tours on set dates.","hours_source":"web","hours_checked":"2026-09-08","figure":{"src":"/img/hall-place.jpg?v=fddbe38f","thumb":"/img/hall-place-480.jpg?v=86a120f2","width":1024,"height":683,"alt":"A photograph of Hall Place.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Wellingwebsite at English Wikipedia Later versions were uploaded by P Ingerson at en.wikipedia ., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HallPlace.jpg","thumb_width":500,"alt_generic":true},"maps_q":"Hall Place, Bourne Road, Bexley, DA5 1PQ, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Lesnes Abbey","s":"lesnes-abbey","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":5019}],"near_same":[{"s":"red-house","m":2219},{"s":"danson-house","m":3041},{"s":"crossness-pumping-station","m":6938},{"s":"eltham-palace","m":7765},{"s":"chislehurst-caves","m":8427},{"s":"crofton-roman-villa","m":9753}]},{"slug":"ham-house","name":"Ham House","area":"Ham","address":"Ham Avenues, Petersham, TW10 7HA","station":"Richmond","walk":29,"lat":51.444229,"lng":-0.314051,"hours":[[12.0,16.0],[12.0,16.0],[12.0,16.0],[12.0,16.0],[12.0,16.0],[12.0,16.0],[12.0,16.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 12:00-16:00; PH off","website":"https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/london/ham-house-and-garden","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/28410119","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"A Stuart house barely altered since the 1670s, by the river below Richmond, with the Duchess of Lauderdale's furniture still where her inventory put it.","note":"Ham was built in 1610 for Sir Thomas Vavasour, a courtier of James I, and it survived the century that followed because of one woman. Elizabeth Murray inherited it from her father, kept it through the Commonwealth by charming Cromwell while spying for the exiled king, and in 1672 married the Duke of Lauderdale, Charles II's minister for Scotland and one of the five men of the Cabal; together they doubled the house and filled it with the most expensive things the Restoration could buy. Then the money ran out, the family sank into obscurity, and nobody redecorated. The inventories of 1677 and 1683 list the furniture, the silks, the lacquer cabinets and the pictures, and most of them are still in the rooms they name, which is true of almost no other house in the country. The National Trust took it in 1948 and has put the gardens back to the seventeenth-century plan, with the Cherry Garden's lavender parterre and the wilderness of hornbeam walks. The Duchess, by repute, has never left.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/ham-house.jpg?v=d9d8f956","thumb":"/img/ham-house-480.jpg?v=8aa2d438","width":1024,"height":682,"alt":"A photograph of Ham House.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Stevekeiretsu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ham_House,_London.jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"whats_on":[{"slug":"cabinets-unlocked","name":"Cabinets Unlocked","href":"/museums/ham-house/cabinets-unlocked/","verdict":"Ham House opens its seventeenth-century cabinets for a fortnight, with a consort playing the music of the time.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-17","to":"2026-11-01"},"types":["family","history"],"clue":["History"]},{"slug":"the-robins-tale-christmas-at-ham-house","name":"The Robin's Tale: Christmas at Ham House","href":"/museums/ham-house/the-robins-tale-christmas-at-ham-house/","verdict":"The Stuart rooms dressed for Christmas, with a robin to follow and a lacquer screen back from conservation.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-28","to":"2027-01-03","repeats":"yearly"},"types":["family","history"],"clue":["History"]}],"maps_q":"Ham House, Ham Avenues, Petersham, TW10 7HA, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Ham Street","s":"ham-street","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":267},{"n":"Petersham Road","s":"petersham-road","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":769},{"n":"Virginia Woolf statue, Richmond riverside","s":"virginia-woolf-statue-richmond-riverside","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":1628}],"near_same":[{"s":"museum-of-richmond","m":1713},{"s":"landmark-arts-centre","m":1938},{"s":"turners-house","m":2305},{"s":"marble-hill-house","m":2534},{"s":"strawberry-hill","m":2819},{"s":"orleans-house-gallery","m":2961}]},{"slug":"hampton-court-palace","name":"Hampton Court Palace","area":"Hampton","address":"Clock Court, Hampton Wick, KT8 9AU","station":"Hampton Court","walk":7,"lat":51.403663,"lng":-0.337735,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-palace/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"relation/21104","types":["family","historic-house","history","popular"],"verdict":"Cardinal Wolsey's palace, taken by Henry VIII and half rebuilt by Wren: Tudor kitchens on one side, a baroque court on the other.","note":"Hampton Court began in 1514 as the country house of Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII's chief minister, who spent 200,000 crowns making it the finest palace in England. In 1529, with his fall coming, he gave it to the king to save himself, and failed. Henry quadrupled the kitchens the same year so that the whole court could eat at his expense, added the Great Hall with its carved hammerbeam roof between 1532 and 1535, and built the tennis court that is still played on. It was in the chapel here that he was told of Catherine Howard's adultery; the story that she broke free of her guards and ran down the gallery to beg for her life has given the Haunted Gallery its name.\n\nA century and a half later William III and Mary II hired Christopher Wren to pull the Tudor palace down and build a Versailles. Mary died in 1694, William in 1702, and the work stopped in 1703, leaving two palaces joined at the middle: Tudor courts on the west, Wren's baroque apartments on the east, in the same pink brick. George II was the last king to live here, and Queen Victoria opened it to the public in 1838. The rooms hold works from the Royal Collection, above all Mantegna's nine canvases of the Triumphs of Caesar in the Lower Orangery. Outside are the Maze, the Great Vine planted in the 1760s and still the largest in the world, and the formal gardens running down to the river.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/hampton-court-palace.jpg?v=f39803dd","thumb":"/img/hampton-court-palace-480.jpg?v=49ea0dde","width":1024,"height":399,"alt":"A photograph of Hampton Court Palace.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Ricardalovesmonuments, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hampton_Court_Palace_(3).jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"whats_on":[{"slug":"concours-of-elegance","name":"Concours of Elegance","href":"/museums/hampton-court-palace/concours-of-elegance/","verdict":"Sixty of the rarest cars in the world parked in the Fountain Garden.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-04","to":"2026-09-06","repeats":"yearly"},"types":["exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition"]},{"slug":"tudor-kitchen-weekends","name":"Tudor Kitchen Weekends","href":"/museums/hampton-court-palace/tudor-kitchen-weekends/","verdict":"Henry VIII's kitchens fired up, with historians cooking from the original recipes.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-05","to":"2026-10-18"},"types":["family","food_available","food_drink","history"],"clue":["Food & drink"]},{"slug":"garden-history-tours","name":"Garden history tours","href":"/museums/hampton-court-palace/garden-history-tours/","verdict":"A free ninety-minute walk round sixty acres of formal garden.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-09","to":"2026-09-27"},"types":["history","nature","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]},{"slug":"shire-horse-rides","name":"Shire horse rides","href":"/museums/hampton-court-palace/shire-horse-rides/","verdict":"A carriage pulled by shire horses through the gardens.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-12","to":"2026-09-27"},"types":["family","nature"],"clue":[]},{"slug":"relaxed-mornings-in-the-magic-garden","name":"Relaxed Mornings in the Magic Garden","href":"/museums/hampton-court-palace/relaxed-mornings-in-the-magic-garden/","verdict":"The playground before it fills, for neurodivergent and learning-disabled children.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-13","to":"2026-10-04"},"types":["family","wellness"],"clue":[]},{"slug":"halloween-at-hampton-court-palace","name":"Halloween at Hampton Court Palace","href":"/museums/hampton-court-palace/halloween-at-hampton-court-palace/","verdict":"Half-term hauntings at the palace that already claims a ghost or two.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-24","to":"2026-11-01"},"types":["family","history"],"clue":["History"]},{"slug":"hampton-court-palace-ice-rink","name":"Hampton Court Palace ice rink","href":"/museums/hampton-court-palace/hampton-court-palace-ice-rink/","verdict":"Skating in front of Henry VIII's palace, first session at ten, last at eight.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-20","to":"2027-01-03","repeats":"yearly"},"types":["family","food_available"],"clue":[]},{"slug":"hampton-court-palace-festive-fayre","name":"Hampton Court Palace Festive Fayre","href":"/museums/hampton-court-palace/hampton-court-palace-festive-fayre/","verdict":"A hundred artisan producers in the palace courtyards over two December weekends.","runs":{"from":"2026-12-04","to":"2026-12-13","repeats":"yearly"},"types":["family","festival","food_available"],"clue":["Festival"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Royal London","href":"/royal/hampton-court-palace/"}],"maps_q":"Hampton Court Palace, Clock Court, Hampton Wick, KT8 9AU, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Bushy Park","s":"bushy-park","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":1301},{"n":"GoBoat Thames Ditton","s":"goboat-thames-ditton","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":1624},{"n":"National Physical Laboratory","s":"national-physical-laboratory","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":2450}],"near_same":[{"s":"garricks-temple-to-shakespeare","m":1788},{"s":"kingston-museum","m":2792},{"s":"landmark-arts-centre","m":2873},{"s":"strawberry-hill","m":3845},{"s":"ham-house","m":4800},{"s":"twickenham-museum","m":4871}]},{"slug":"handel-hendrix-house","name":"Handel Hendrix House","area":"Mayfair","address":"25 Brook Street","station":"Bond Street","walk":1,"lat":51.512942,"lng":-0.145884,"hours":[null,null,[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Su 10:00-17:00","website":"https://handelhendrix.org/","instagram":"handelandhendrix","attrs":[],"osm":"node/1493424622","types":["historic-house","small-gem"],"verdict":"Handel's house and Jimi Hendrix's flat, next door to each other on Brook Street, with a wall and two hundred years between them.","note":"George Frideric Handel was the first tenant of 25 Brook Street when it was built in 1723, and he lived and worked in it for thirty-six years, until his death upstairs in 1759: Messiah was written here in twenty-four days in 1741, with most of the operas and oratorios, rehearsed on the harpsichords and the little chamber organ in the front room while singers came and went from the street. In 1968 Jimi Hendrix took the top-floor flat of number 23 with his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham, learned who his neighbour had been, bought the records and called it the first home of his own. The museum restored Handel's rooms in 2001 and Hendrix's in 2016, down to the bedspread he was photographed on, and in 2023 opened Handel's ground floor and kitchen for the first time, so the whole of both houses is now shown together. Live music in Handel's rooms, on his kind of instruments, runs through the week.","deep":false,"hours_source":"web","hours_checked":"2026-09-03","hours_url":"https://handelhendrix.org/","figure":{"src":"/img/handel-hendrix-house.jpg?v=115e7e89","thumb":"/img/handel-hendrix-house-480.jpg?v=0a0f1673","width":728,"height":1024,"alt":"Handel Hendrix House May 2023. 23 and 25 Brook Street, Mayfair, London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by HandelandHendrix, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Handel_Hendrix_House_May_2023_(cropped).jpg","thumb_width":341},"whats_on":[{"slug":"the-hallelujah-house-inside-handels-hq","name":"The Hallelujah House: Inside Handel's HQ","href":"/museums/handel-hendrix-house/the-hallelujah-house-inside-handels-hq/","verdict":"The house where Messiah was written, treated as the composer's head office.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-17","to":"2027-03-14"},"types":["exhibition","history","music"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"The World in London","href":"/world/handel-hendrix-house/"}],"maps_q":"Handel Hendrix House, 25 Brook Street, London","in_area":{"slug":"mayfair","name":"Mayfair"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Jimi Hendrix","s":"jimi-hendrix","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":14},{"n":"Ben Brown Fine Arts","s":"ben-brown-fine-arts","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":52},{"n":"Bonhams","s":"bonhams","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":93}],"near_same":[{"s":"faraday-museum","m":438},{"s":"the-photographers-gallery","m":523},{"s":"royal-academy-of-arts","m":592},{"s":"kennel-club-dog-art-gallery","m":687},{"s":"wallace-collection","m":710},{"s":"cartoon-museum","m":721}]},{"slug":"harrow-museum","name":"Harrow Museum","area":"Headstone","address":"HA2 6PX","station":"Headstone Lane","walk":11,"lat":51.594583,"lng":-0.354377,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://headstonemanor.org/","instagram":"headstone_manor_museum","attrs":[],"osm":"way/559262652","types":["local"],"verdict":"Local history, industry, archaeology, also known as Headstone Manor Museum.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/harrow-museum.jpg?v=87722565","thumb":"/img/harrow-museum-480.jpg?v=85f10309","width":1024,"height":633,"alt":"Barn South West of Headstone Manor","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Bernard Burns, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harrow_Museum_Tithe_Barn.JPG","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Harrow Museum, HA2 6PX, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Harrow School","s":"harrow-school","c":"harry-potter","cn":"Harry Potter","m":2697},{"n":"Sudbury Town station","s":"sudbury-town-station","c":"architecture","cn":"Architecture","m":5553}],"near_same":[{"s":"heath-robinson-museum","m":2241},{"s":"old-speech-room-gallery-and-museum-harrow-school","m":2796},{"s":"bentley-priory-museum","m":3832},{"s":"museum-of-domestic-design-and-architecture","m":7837},{"s":"royal-air-force-museum-london","m":7971},{"s":"battle-of-britain-bunker","m":9701}]},{"slug":"havering-museum","name":"Havering Museum","area":"Romford","address":"19-21 High Street","station":"Romford","walk":5,"lat":51.577842,"lng":0.179347,"hours":[[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"10:00-18:00","website":"https://www.haveringmuseum.org.uk/","instagram":"haveringmuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"node/9723470215","types":["local"],"verdict":"The five towns of Havering, in what is left of Romford's brewery, run by its own volunteers.","note":"Havering is the borough at London's eastern edge that was still Essex until 1965, and its museum gives a display each to its five towns: Romford, the market town whose cattle market was chartered in 1247; Hornchurch, with the RAF station whose Spitfires flew in the Battle of Britain; Rainham, Upminster, and Havering-atte-Bower, the village with the royal palace that gave the borough its name. It opened in May 2010, after a decade of work by local historians, in the surviving buildings of the Ind Coope brewery that made Romford's beer until 1993, and it is run by a team of about thirty volunteers.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/havering-museum.jpg?v=20dd7406","thumb":"/img/havering-museum-480.jpg?v=47a5931b","width":1024,"height":959,"alt":"Havering Museum , Romford, London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Mx. Granger, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Havering_Museum_2.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Havering Museum, 19-21 High Street, London","bank":1,"near_all":[],"near_same":[{"s":"valence-house-museum","m":3802},{"s":"upminster-windmill","m":5057},{"s":"upminster-tithe-barn-museum-of-nostalgia","m":5502},{"s":"rainham-hall","m":6708},{"s":"eastbury-manor-house","m":7345},{"s":"valentines-mansion","m":7830}]},{"slug":"hayward-gallery","name":"Hayward Gallery","area":"Southbank","address":"Belvedere Road, SE1 8XZ","station":"Waterloo","walk":5,"lat":51.50617,"lng":-0.11549,"hours":[null,[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,20.0],[10.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo off; Tu-Fr,Su 10:00-18:00; Sa 10:00-20:00","website":"https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/venues/hayward-gallery","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/25913653","types":["art"],"verdict":"The Southbank Centre's concrete gallery of 1968, big contemporary shows under sixty-six pyramid rooflights, with no collection to distract it.","note":"The Hayward opened on 9 July 1968 as the exhibition hall of the South Bank arts complex, designed in the Greater London Council's own architects' department by a team that included Ron Herron and Warren Chalk of Archigram, and named after Isaac Hayward, the council leader who had pushed the whole site through. It is the purest piece of brutalism on the river, board-marked concrete inside and out, with walkways in the air and sixty-six glass pyramids on the roof to light the upper galleries, which leaked and were boarded over for decades until a rebuilding in 2018 gave the rooms their daylight back. It has no collection of its own and mounts three or four large shows a year of living or recent artists, from Bridget Riley and Antony Gormley to the group surveys that made its name, and it charges for them; the sculpture terraces outside are free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/hayward-gallery.jpg?v=e87323f4","thumb":"/img/hayward-gallery-480.jpg?v=12db8ba8","width":682,"height":1024,"alt":"The Hayward Gallery's concrete terraces and pyramid roof lights on the South Bank","caption":"","credit":"Photo by LuciaHrda, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Southbank_Centre.jpg","thumb_width":320},"whats_on":[{"slug":"anish-kapoor","name":"Anish Kapoor","href":"/museums/hayward-gallery/anish-kapoor/","verdict":"Vantablack voids, warping steel mirrors and two new red installations, filling the whole Hayward.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-16","to":"2026-10-18"},"types":["art","exhibition","immersive"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"musquiqui-chihying-a-life-of-navigation","name":"Musquiqui Chihying: A Life of Navigation","href":"/museums/hayward-gallery/musquiqui-chihying-a-life-of-navigation/","verdict":"Four wry video works on jogging, Toyotas, AI and gaming, free in the HENI Project Space.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-04","to":"2026-10-18"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"andrius-arutiunian-they-tried-to-count-us","name":"Andrius Arutiunian: They Tried to Count Us","href":"/museums/hayward-gallery/andrius-arutiunian-they-tried-to-count-us/","verdict":"A fragment of an Armenian radio telescope's anechoic chamber, rebuilt as a shrine to the cosmos.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-24","to":"2027-03-07"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","music"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"nan-goldin-you-never-did-anything-wrong","name":"Nan Goldin: You Never Did Anything Wrong","href":"/museums/hayward-gallery/nan-goldin-you-never-did-anything-wrong/","verdict":"Four Goldin films, one premiering, in her first UK institutional show since 2002.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-24","to":"2027-03-14"},"types":["art","exhibition","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/hayward-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"Hayward Gallery, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XZ, London","in_area":{"slug":"south-bank","name":"South Bank"},"bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"National Poetry Library","s":"national-poetry-library","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":76},{"n":"Queen Elizabeth Hall","s":"queen-elizabeth-hall","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":80},{"n":"Southbank Centre Food Market","s":"southbank-centre-food-market","c":"food-markets","cn":"Food Markets","m":89}],"near_same":[{"s":"somerset-house","m":550},{"s":"courtauld-gallery","m":629},{"s":"benjamin-franklin-house","m":679},{"s":"florence-nightingale-museum","m":701},{"s":"british-optical-association-museum","m":722},{"s":"two-temple-place","m":763}]},{"slug":"heath-robinson-museum","name":"Heath Robinson Museum","area":"Pinner","address":"West End Lane, HA5 1AE","station":"Pinner","walk":5,"lat":51.592715,"lng":-0.386685,"hours":[null,null,null,[11.0,16.0],[11.0,16.0],[11.0,16.0],[11.0,16.0]],"hours_raw":"Th-Su 11:00-16:00","website":"https://www.heathrobinsonmuseum.org/","instagram":"heathrobinsonmuseum","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/438245354","types":["history"],"verdict":"The only museum of W. Heath Robinson, the man whose name means a ridiculous machine, in the park of the village where he drew them.","note":"William Heath Robinson gave the language a phrase: a Heath Robinson contraption is any device of string, pulleys and improbable levers that does a small job with enormous effort, and he drew hundreds of them, from machines for testing artificial teeth to the home-made motor car. He lived in Pinner from 1908 to 1918, at the height of it, and the trust that holds his work built the museum here in the memorial park, the first purpose-built museum in London for forty years, opened by Michael Rosen on 15 October 2016. One gallery follows his career, and it is the illustration that surprises: the editions of Kipling, Shakespeare and the Arabian Nights he drew before the war, in a line as delicate as the cartoons are absurd, alongside the wartime drawings that made him famous and the advertisements that paid the bills. The second gallery changes every few months.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/heath-robinson-museum.jpg?v=a467f7ed","thumb":"/img/heath-robinson-museum-480.jpg?v=34258647","width":1024,"height":682,"alt":"Exterior of the building","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Sharonpink2, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Heath_Robinson_Museum_exterior_2_by_Tom_Fish.jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Literary London","href":"/literary/heath-robinson-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Heath Robinson Museum, West End Lane, HA5 1AE, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Ruislip Lido","s":"ruislip-lido","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":2989}],"near_same":[{"s":"harrow-museum","m":2241},{"s":"old-speech-room-gallery-and-museum-harrow-school","m":4219},{"s":"bentley-priory-museum","m":5258},{"s":"battle-of-britain-bunker","m":7908},{"s":"museum-of-domestic-design-and-architecture","m":10074},{"s":"royal-air-force-museum-london","m":10211}]},{"slug":"hms-belfast","name":"HMS Belfast","area":"Southwark","address":"The Queen's Walk, SE1 2JH","station":"London Bridge","walk":4,"lat":51.506563,"lng":-0.081311,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-17:00; Dec 24-26 off","website":"https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/hms-belfast","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/5006061","types":["family","maritime"],"verdict":"A Second World War cruiser kept as she was, nine decks to climb through, moored between the bridges.","note":"Belfast was launched in 1938, one of ten Town-class cruisers built for the Royal Navy: 187 metres of steel, twelve six-inch guns, a crew of about eight hundred, and the Navy's largest cruiser of her day. A German magnetic mine broke her back three months into the war and she spent three years under repair. She came back to escort the Arctic convoys to Russia, and in December 1943 she was one of the ships that caught the German battleship Scharnhorst in the dark off the North Cape and sank her. On D-Day she lay off the Normandy beaches firing at targets inland, and she was firing again in Korea in the early 1950s.\n\nShe was saved from the scrapyard in 1971 and moored here as part of the Imperial War Museum, and nothing was cleared out to make room for the visitors. You go down ladders into the boiler and engine rooms, through the mess decks where the crew slept and ate, into the shell rooms and magazines that fed the turrets, and up to the operations room and the bridge, with the engineering explained deck by deck. It is a steep, narrow, hot way to understand how eight hundred men lived inside a machine \u2014 and the best view of Tower Bridge is from her deck.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/own-hms-belfast.jpg?v=275c7cea","thumb":"/img/own-hms-belfast-480.jpg?v=439bec86","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"HMS Belfast's deck at sunset, the flag at the bow and the City upriver behind","caption":"From the deck at sunset, looking upriver."},"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/hms-belfast/"}],"maps_q":"HMS Belfast, The Queen's Walk, SE1 2JH, London","in_area":{"slug":"borough-bermondsey","name":"Borough & Bermondsey"},"bank":null,"near_all":[{"n":"The Navigators","s":"the-navigators","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":164},{"n":"Tower Subway","s":"tower-subway","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":266},{"n":"Peaky Blinders Underworld","s":"peaky-blinders-underworld","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":283}],"near_same":[{"s":"all-hallows-by-the-tower-crypt-museum","m":342},{"s":"tower-of-london","m":389},{"s":"tower-bridge","m":427},{"s":"fusiliers-museum","m":457},{"s":"old-operating-theatre-museum-and-herb-garret","m":524},{"s":"fashion-and-textile-museum","m":598}]},{"slug":"hogarths-house","name":"Hogarth's House","area":"Chiswick","address":"Hogarth Lane, W4 2QN","station":"Turnham Green","walk":11,"lat":51.486911,"lng":-0.255238,"hours":[null,[12.0,17.0],[12.0,17.0],[12.0,17.0],[12.0,17.0],[12.0,17.0],[12.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu-Su 12:00-17:00; PH 12:00-17:00; Dec 24-26 off; Jan 01 off; easter off","website":"https://hogarthshouse.org/","instagram":"hogarthshousechiswick","attrs":[],"osm":"way/29333621","types":["free","historic-house"],"verdict":"Hogarth's country retreat, free, beside the road that roars where his fields were, with the fullest public set of his prints inside.","note":"William Hogarth, the painter who invented the moral comic strip in A Rake's Progress and Marriage A-la-Mode, bought this house in 1749 as a summer place in what was then the village of Chiswick, and came out here from Leicester Square until he died in 1764; he is buried in the churchyard by the river. The house is small and brick, of the 1710s, and the Great West Road now passes a few yards from its gate, which is a joke Hogarth would have enjoyed. Inside, hung on the walls as he sold them, is the fullest public set of his engravings, Gin Lane and Beer Street, the Rake, the Harlot, the Election and the rest, with the story of the house and of the artist who took on the print pirates and got the first copyright act for engravers passed in 1735. The mulberry tree in the garden, propped and pruned, was there in his time. Entry is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/hogarths-house.jpg?v=c945a3e8","thumb":"/img/hogarths-house-480.jpg?v=2e953815","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Hogarths house 5832","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Patche99z, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hogarths_house_5832.JPG","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"the-story-of-printmaking-with-holly-ej-black","name":"The Story of Printmaking with Holly EJ Black","href":"/art/hogarths-house/the-story-of-printmaking-with-holly-ej-black/","verdict":"The history of the print, told in the house of the printmaker who made it popular.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-14","to":"2026-09-14"},"types":["art","books","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk","Art & design"]},{"slug":"how-we-lost-america","name":"How We Lost America","href":"/art/hogarths-house/how-we-lost-america/","verdict":"The American Revolution told from the losing side, in the house of its best satirist.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-22","to":"2026-11-01"},"types":["exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"the-quiet-language-of-plants","name":"The Quiet Language of Plants","href":"/art/hogarths-house/the-quiet-language-of-plants/","verdict":"A day of drawing plants slowly, sitting on the grass.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-04","to":"2026-10-04"},"types":["art","nature","workshop"],"clue":["Make something","Art & design"]},{"slug":"another-breath-of-fresh-air","name":"Another Breath of Fresh Air","href":"/art/hogarths-house/another-breath-of-fresh-air/","verdict":"Telemann, Bach and Tartini played in the rooms they were written for the size of.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-08","to":"2026-10-08"},"types":["classical","concert","music","talk"],"clue":["Concert","Classical"]},{"slug":"the-mulberry-garden-storytelling-through-nature-and-collage","name":"The Mulberry Garden: Storytelling through Nature and Collage","href":"/art/hogarths-house/the-mulberry-garden-storytelling-through-nature-and-collage/","verdict":"Collage made from a 350-year-old mulberry tree and whatever it reminds you of.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-14","to":"2026-10-14"},"types":["art","family","workshop"],"clue":["Make something","Art & design"]},{"slug":"make-your-mark","name":"Make Your Mark","href":"/art/hogarths-house/make-your-mark/","verdict":"Forage for something to draw with, then draw with it.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-24","to":"2026-10-24"},"types":["art","family","workshop"],"clue":["Make something","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/hogarths-house/"}],"maps_q":"Hogarth's House, Hogarth Lane, W4 2QN, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Fuller's Griffin Brewery Tour","s":"fullers-griffin-brewery-tour","c":"beer","cn":"Beer","m":452},{"n":"Sipsmith Distillery Tour","s":"sipsmith-distillery-tour","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":470},{"n":"Chiswick Mall","s":"chiswick-mall","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":806}],"near_same":[{"s":"chiswick-house","m":421},{"s":"7-hammersmith-terrace","m":945},{"s":"riverside-gallery","m":1753},{"s":"london-museum-of-water-steam","m":2445},{"s":"gunnersbury-park-museum","m":2576},{"s":"musical-museum","m":2626}]},{"slug":"honeywood-museum","name":"Honeywood Museum","area":"Carshalton","address":"SM5 3NX","station":"Carshalton","walk":5,"lat":51.36523,"lng":-0.165079,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.friendsofhoneywood.co.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/12560275016","types":["free","local"],"verdict":"17th-century house with details from different eras of ownership, local history exhibits.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/honeywood-museum.jpg?v=9b614218","thumb":"/img/honeywood-museum-480.jpg?v=849b418a","width":1024,"height":692,"alt":"2014-09-20 05 Honeywood, Carshalton","caption":"","credit":"Photo by woodenscroll, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2014-09-20_05_Honeywood,_Carshalton.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Honeywood Museum, SM5 3NX, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Morden Hall Park","s":"morden-hall-park","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":4532}],"near_same":[{"s":"little-holland-house","m":1169},{"s":"whitehall","m":3671},{"s":"museum-of-croydon","m":4632},{"s":"museum-of-wimbledon","m":7386},{"s":"southside-house","m":7532},{"s":"shirley-windmill","m":7663}]},{"slug":"honourable-artillery-company-museum","name":"Honourable Artillery Company Museum","area":"Finsbury","address":"City Road, Finsbury, EC1Y 1AA","station":"Old Street","walk":4,"lat":51.523015,"lng":-0.088397,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://hac.org.uk/where-we-come-from/estate-treasures/treasures","instagram":"hac_thecompany","attrs":[],"osm":"node/13092342387","types":["military","niche"],"verdict":"Regimental artefacts and memorabilia (by appointment only).","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/honourable-artillery-company-museum.jpg?v=18fcaca9","thumb":"/img/honourable-artillery-company-museum-480.jpg?v=223ec1d5","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Finsbury Barracks, City Road, London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Ykraps, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Armoury_House.JPG","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Honourable Artillery Company Museum, City Road, Finsbury, EC1Y 1AA, London","in_area":{"slug":"shoreditch-old-street","name":"Shoreditch & Old Street"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Bunhill Fields","s":"bunhill-fields","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":58},{"n":"Lantana Shoreditch","s":"lantana-shoreditch","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":167},{"n":"Ozone Coffee Roasters","s":"ozone-leonard","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":220}],"near_same":[{"s":"wesleys-chapel-museum-of-methodism-and-john-wesleys-house","m":149},{"s":"british-red-cross-museum-and-archives","m":420},{"s":"barbican-centre","m":514},{"s":"rivington-place","m":730},{"s":"dennis-severs-house","m":769},{"s":"the-charterhouse","m":806}]},{"slug":"horniman-museum-and-gardens","name":"Horniman Museum and Gardens","area":"Forest Hill","address":"Animal Walk, Forest Hill, SE23 3BX","station":"Forest Hill","walk":9,"lat":51.442194,"lng":-0.061687,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.horniman.ac.uk/","instagram":"hornimanmuseumgardens","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/5095245","types":["family","free","history","music","nature","popular"],"verdict":"A tea merchant's cabinet of the world, a famous overstuffed walrus, and gardens with the whole city laid out below them.","note":"Frederick Horniman sold tea. By 1891 his father's firm was the biggest tea business in the world, and the money went on collecting: masks, instruments, stuffed animals and whatever else came back from his travels, some 30,000 objects by the time he first opened his house on Christmas Eve 1890 to anyone who wanted to look. The museum he then built for them, by Charles Harrison Townsend in pale Doulting stone with a clock tower and a mosaic of Humanity in the House of Circumstance across the front, opened in 1901 and was given to the people of London.\n\nThe collection now runs to 350,000 objects in three strands. The anthropology was redisplayed in 2018 as the World Gallery; the musical instruments, one of the great collections of their kind, have had a gallery of their own since 2002; and the natural history gallery keeps its Victorian cases, with the walrus in the middle of them. Sent from Hudson Bay in 1886 to a taxidermist who had never seen a live one, it was stuffed until every fold was gone, and the museum has kept it that way. There is an aquarium in the basement. In 2022 the Horniman was named Museum of the Year, and the same year it returned seventy-two objects looted from Benin to Nigeria.\n\nThe sixteen acres of gardens opened in 1895, with a conservatory brought from the family's house in Croydon, a bandstand of 1912, a butterfly house and a garden of outdoor instruments to play. From the top of the slope the view runs north across the whole of London.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/horniman-museum-and-gardens.jpg?v=3bf768dd","thumb":"/img/horniman-museum-and-gardens-480.jpg?v=ff704fc9","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"A photograph of Horniman Museum and Gardens.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by No Swan So Fine, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Horniman_Museum_tower,_2015.jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"whats_on":[{"slug":"the-hornimans-permanent-galleries","name":"The Horniman's permanent galleries","href":"/museums/horniman-museum-and-gardens/the-hornimans-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"A World Gallery, a room of instruments you can hear, and an aquarium, above a hill with a view.","runs":null,"types":["exhibition","family","free","history","nature"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"voyage-to-the-deep-underwater-adventures","name":"Voyage to the Deep: Underwater Adventures","href":"/museums/horniman-museum-and-gardens/voyage-to-the-deep-underwater-adventures/","verdict":"Take the Nautilus through a kelp forest and meet the giant squid.","runs":{"to":"2026-11-01"},"types":["exhibition","family","immersive","science"],"clue":["Exhibition","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"british-wildlife-photography-awards","name":"British Wildlife Photography Awards","href":"/museums/horniman-museum-and-gardens/british-wildlife-photography-awards/","verdict":"A toad underwater won it; the rest of Britain's wildlife follows, free.","runs":{"from":"2026-07-17","to":"2027-02-21"},"types":["exhibition","free","photography","science"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]},{"slug":"octonauts-adventure-at-the-horniman","name":"Octonauts: Adventure at the Horniman","href":"/museums/horniman-museum-and-gardens/octonauts-adventure-at-the-horniman/","verdict":"A free trail round the museum for anyone under about seven.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-09","to":"2026-11-01"},"types":["family","free"],"clue":[]},{"slug":"voyage-to-the-deep","name":"Voyage to the Deep","href":"/museums/horniman-museum-and-gardens/voyage-to-the-deep/","verdict":"A Jules Verne submarine you can climb into, in a Forest Hill museum.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-09","to":"2026-11-01"},"types":["exhibition","family","science"],"clue":["Exhibition","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"crossing-borders","name":"Crossing Borders","href":"/museums/horniman-museum-and-gardens/crossing-borders/","verdict":"A free day of kite-making, bandura and Honduran dance, led by refugees and people seeking sanctuary.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-19","to":"2026-09-19"},"types":["family","folk_world","free","music"],"clue":["Folk & world"]},{"slug":"threads-of-colour-natural-dyeing-with-mariana-leyva","name":"Threads of Colour: natural dyeing with Mariana Leyva","href":"/museums/horniman-museum-and-gardens/threads-of-colour-natural-dyeing-with-mariana-leyva/","verdict":"An afternoon dyeing cloth with plants grown in the museum's own dye garden.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-26","to":"2026-09-26"},"types":["family","workshop"],"clue":["Make something"]},{"slug":"octonauts-storytelling-and-craft","name":"Octonauts storytelling and craft","href":"/museums/horniman-museum-and-gardens/octonauts-storytelling-and-craft/","verdict":"Half-term stories and making, four sessions a day.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-27","to":"2026-10-28"},"types":["family","workshop"],"clue":["Make something"]},{"slug":"day-of-the-dead-family-festival","name":"Day of the Dead Family Festival","href":"/museums/horniman-museum-and-gardens/day-of-the-dead-family-festival/","verdict":"Marigold paths, giant calaveras and mariachi through the Horniman for D\u00eda de Muertos.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-31","to":"2026-10-31"},"types":["family","festival","folk_world","food_available","music"],"clue":["Festival","Folk & world"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Architecture","href":"/architecture/horniman-museum-and-gardens/"}],"maps_q":"Horniman Museum and Gardens, Animal Walk, Forest Hill, SE23 3BX, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Two Spoons","s":"two-spoons","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":1454},{"n":"Eric's","s":"erics-bakery","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":1738},{"n":"The Ivy House","s":"the-ivy-house","c":"beer","cn":"Beer","m":1899}],"near_same":[{"s":"dulwich-picture-gallery","m":1759},{"s":"house-of-dreams-museum","m":2318},{"s":"salvation-army-international-heritage-centre","m":3384},{"s":"peckham-platform","m":3560},{"s":"south-london-gallery","m":3790},{"s":"black-cultural-archives","m":4198}]},{"slug":"house-of-dreams-museum","name":"House of Dreams Museum","area":"East Dulwich","address":"45 Melbourne Grove","station":"East Dulwich","walk":2,"lat":51.459918,"lng":-0.079306,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://stephenwrightartist.com/index.php","instagram":"house_of_dreams_museum","attrs":[],"osm":"way/62222849","types":["art","quirky"],"verdict":"A terraced house in East Dulwich covered inside and out in mosaic, dolls' heads and painted words by the man who lives in it, open one Saturday a month by booking.","note":"Stephen Wright, a textile designer, began decorating his house on Melbourne Grove in 1998 as something to do with his partner, Donald Jones; when Jones died a few years later, and then both of Wright's parents, the decorating became the answer to grief and never stopped. Every surface of the house and garden is now covered: mosaic floors of broken china, walls of dolls' heads, false teeth, bottle tops and toys from car-boot sales, shrines to the dead, and painted text everywhere recording what he was thinking on the day he wrote it. It is outsider art in the proper sense, made by one person for himself with no thought of a gallery, and there is nothing else like it in London. He opens it about ten times a year, usually on the last Saturday of the month and never in the depth of winter, and every visit is booked in advance.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/house-of-dreams-museum.jpg?v=974d3850","thumb":"/img/house-of-dreams-museum-480.jpg?v=ce9ddc22","width":768,"height":1024,"alt":"House of Dreams, 42 Melbourne Grove, East Dulwich, 2018","caption":"","credit":"Photo by No Swan So Fine, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:House_of_Dreams,_42_Melbourne_Grove,_East_Dulwich,_2018_(1).jpg","thumb_width":360},"maps_q":"House of Dreams Museum, 45 Melbourne Grove, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Hop Burns & Black","s":"hop-burns-black","c":"beer","cn":"Beer","m":704},{"n":"Dudleys","s":"dudleys-east-dulwich","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":711},{"n":"Eric's","s":"erics-bakery","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":768}],"near_same":[{"s":"salvation-army-international-heritage-centre","m":1069},{"s":"south-london-gallery","m":1604},{"s":"dulwich-picture-gallery","m":1626},{"s":"peckham-platform","m":1694},{"s":"horniman-museum-and-gardens","m":2318},{"s":"black-cultural-archives","m":2450}]},{"slug":"household-cavalry-museum","name":"Household Cavalry Museum","area":"Horse Guards Parade","address":"Whitehall, Covent Garden, SW1A 2AX","station":"Charing Cross","walk":4,"lat":51.50501,"lng":-0.127247,"hours":[[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-18:00","website":"https://householdcavalrymuseum.co.uk/","instagram":"householdcavalrymuseum","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"node/5071252726","types":["military"],"verdict":"A working stable seen through a glass wall at Horse Guards, and the story of the King's mounted bodyguard, with the guard changing outside.","note":"Horse Guards was built in the 1750s to William Kent's design as the barracks and stables of the sovereign's mounted guard, on the tiltyard of Whitehall Palace, and it was the army's headquarters until 1858; the Duke of Wellington's office is upstairs. The two regiments of the Household Cavalry, the Life Guards in red and the Blues and Royals in blue, have kept the guard here since Charles II came back in 1660, and their museum, opened in 2007 in the original stable block, is separated from the working stables by a wall of glass, so that the horses being groomed and tacked up are part of the display. Around them are the cuirasses and helmets, the saddles, the trumpets and the stories of the regiments from Waterloo to Afghanistan, where they fight in armoured vehicles when they are not on parade. The guard changes in the yard at eleven on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and the four o'clock inspection every afternoon is said to be the punishment Queen Victoria imposed in 1894 after she found the whole guard drunk.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/household-cavalry-museum.jpg?v=d402d06d","thumb":"/img/household-cavalry-museum-480.jpg?v=6bd1462b","width":1024,"height":682,"alt":"Household Cavalry Museum - Joy of Museums, for information see: www.joyofmuseums.com","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Joyofmuseums, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Household_Cavalry_Museum_-_Joy_of_Museums.jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Royal London","href":"/royal/household-cavalry-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Household Cavalry Museum, Whitehall, Covent Garden, SW1A 2AX, London","in_area":{"slug":"westminster","name":"Westminster"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Horse Guards","s":"horse-guards","c":"royal","cn":"Royal London","m":29},{"n":"The Spy Bar","s":"the-spy-bar","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":83},{"n":"Trooping the Colour","s":"trooping-the-colour","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":120}],"near_same":[{"s":"banqueting-house-whitehall","m":103},{"s":"mall-galleries","m":253},{"s":"institute-of-contemporary-arts","m":286},{"s":"benjamin-franklin-house","m":335},{"s":"churchill-war-rooms","m":340},{"s":"british-optical-association-museum","m":345}]},{"slug":"houses-of-parliament","name":"Houses of Parliament & Big Ben","area":"Westminster","address":"Parliament Square, Westminster, SW1A 0AA","station":"Westminster","walk":3,"lat":51.49939,"lng":-0.12457,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"hours_source":null,"hours_url":"https://www.parliament.uk/visiting/visiting-and-tours/","hours_checked":"2026-09-05","hours_short":"Tours, booked ahead","hours_extra":"Guided and audio tours run on the days Parliament publishes; the booking site carries the calendar and the ticket office is at Portcullis House on Victoria Embankment. Big Ben tickets are released three months ahead, on the second Wednesday of each month at 10:00.","website":"https://www.parliament.uk/visiting/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"relation/1567699","types":["history"],"verdict":"Barry and Pugin's Gothic palace, the Great Clock and the cracked bell everyone calls Big Ben, with Westminster Hall of 1097 at its heart.","note":"The Palace of Westminster is the Victorian rebuilding after the fire of 1834: Charles Barry's composition along the river and Augustus Pugin's Gothic detail down to the doorknobs, with the Lords, the Commons and the monarch's route through the Royal Gallery laid out along one axis. Westminster Hall, begun by William Rufus in 1097, survived the fire and the Blitz, and its hammer-beam roof of 1393 is the largest medieval timber roof in northern Europe. The Elizabeth Tower holds the Great Clock of 1859 and the 13.5-tonne bell that is the real Big Ben, cracked since its first summer. The tours go through both chambers and the Hall; the tower tour climbs 334 steps to the belfry and stands behind the dials.","deep":false,"reading":"The Houses of Parliament may be London's most convincing piece of historical illusion. Seen from across the Thames, the pinnacles, towers, Gothic windows and acres of carved stone suggest a building that has accumulated over the Middle Ages. In reality, almost the entire riverfront is Victorian. The present Palace of Westminster was constructed after 1840, and its most famous tower was not completed until the 1850s. The genuinely medieval part is largely hidden around the corner: Westminster Hall, begun more than seven centuries earlier.\n\nEven the name of London's best-known landmark is misleading. Big Ben is not technically the clock tower. It is the 13.5-tonne bell inside it. The tower was simply the Clock Tower for most of its existence and was renamed Elizabeth Tower only in 2012, to mark Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee. Londoners have nevertheless been calling the whole structure Big Ben for so long that the distinction is now largely a matter for pedants and pub quizzes.\n\nThe history of Parliament on this site begins long before either existed. Westminster was once Thorney Island, a marshy patch of higher ground surrounded by branches of the River Tyburn beside a much wider Thames. Edward the Confessor built a royal palace here in the eleventh century while constructing Westminster Abbey alongside it. The proximity was deliberate: church, king and eventually government grew up almost on top of one another.\n\nThe oldest surviving fragment came a generation later. William II, known as William Rufus, began Westminster Hall in 1097. Completed two years later, it was probably the largest hall in Europe, a space intended as a demonstration of royal power rather than merely somewhere to hold meetings or eat dinner. Its dimensions are still extraordinary: roughly 73 metres long and 20 metres wide.\n\nWhat you see overhead, however, is not Norman. Richard II remodelled the Hall three centuries later and commissioned its immense hammer-beam roof in 1393. The carpentry of Hugh Herland allowed an uninterrupted span of about 20 metres without rows of columns beneath it. Around 660 tonnes of oak were framed near Farnham in Surrey and transported to Westminster by wagon and barge. It remains the largest medieval timber roof in Northern Europe.\n\nThe Hall became a stage for some of the most consequential episodes in British history. Royal courts sat here for centuries. Charles I was tried for treason here in 1649 before being executed along Whitehall. Later it became the setting for state trials, coronation banquets and, eventually, lyings-in-state. The building now encountered by visitors as an entrance to Parliament was therefore already around 700 years old before the Victorian Palace surrounding it was conceived.\n\nParliament itself settled into the old royal palace almost by accident. Henry VIII largely abandoned Westminster after a fire in 1512 and moved his court to the nearby Palace of Whitehall. Parliamentary institutions increasingly occupied the buildings left behind. In 1547 the House of Commons was given the former St Stephen's Chapel, whose long, narrow interior had opposing rows of choir stalls. That arrangement helped create the face-to-face layout still used in the Commons Chamber today. One of the most distinctive features of British parliamentary politics is therefore partly an architectural inheritance from a medieval chapel.\n\nBy the nineteenth century the old Palace of Westminster was an extraordinary jumble. Medieval halls and chapels had acquired Classical alterations, offices, passages and additions by architects including Christopher Wren, James Wyatt and John Soane. It was historically fascinating but increasingly unsuitable for a modern legislature.\n\nThen, on 16 October 1834, almost all of it disappeared.\n\nThe cause was remarkably mundane. The Exchequer had accumulated old wooden tally sticks, an obsolete system once used to record financial transactions. Rather than simply remove them, workmen were instructed to burn two cartloads in furnaces beneath the House of Lords. The fires were allowed to become too hot, igniting nearby timber. By early evening flames were erupting through the Palace. Crowds gathered along the Thames to watch one of nineteenth-century London's greatest spectacles; J.M.W. Turner was among the artists who subsequently depicted it.\n\nThe Lords and Commons Chambers were lost. Westminster Hall very nearly followed them. Firefighters and volunteers concentrated their efforts on its ancient roof, aided by scaffolding already erected inside for repairs, a change in the wind and eventually enough water pumped from the Thames. Almost the entire parliamentary complex was destroyed, but the hall survived.\n\nThe catastrophe gave Britain an unusual opportunity: to invent what a national parliament should look like.\n\nA Royal Commission decided that the replacement could not be Classical. Designs had to be either Gothic or Elizabethan, partly so that the new building would harmonise with Westminster Abbey and the surviving medieval structures. There was politics in the choice too. Classical architecture had become associated in some minds with republicanism and revolution; Gothic could instead be presented as a native architectural tradition tied to monarchy, continuity and the institutions of medieval England.\n\nThe competition was won by Charles Barry. This is slightly ironic because Barry was not primarily a Gothic architect. His underlying instincts were often Classical: symmetry, processional planning and carefully controlled proportions. To supply the intense medieval detail the project required, he increasingly relied on the brilliant young Augustus Welby Pugin, one of the great evangelists of the Gothic Revival.\n\nTheir division of labour explains much of the Palace's character. Barry was responsible for the huge architectural composition and its organisation; Pugin supplied an extraordinary amount of its Gothic language. He designed carvings, furniture, stained glass, metalwork, decorative schemes and countless fittings. Parliament's own architectural history notes that his involvement extended all the way down to such objects as doorknobs and spill trays.\n\nThe result is more carefully organised than its picturesque exterior suggests. From the river, Barry created an exceptionally long horizontal fa\u00e7ade punctuated by an irregular skyline of turrets and towers. Inside, the principal ceremonial rooms form a constitutional diagram in stone. The Sovereign enters beneath Victoria Tower, progresses through the royal apartments and Royal Gallery towards the House of Lords; beyond lies Central Lobby and then the House of Commons. Monarch, Lords and Commons - the three components of Parliament - are effectively arranged along the same architectural spine.\n\nThe towers themselves have different jobs. Victoria Tower, at the southern end, was designed both as the grand royal entrance and as an enormous fireproof repository for Parliament's records. At 98.5 metres, it is actually taller than the Elizabeth Tower opposite. For years it was claimed as the largest and tallest square stone tower in the world.\n\nThe elegant tower in the middle is stranger. The Central Tower rises 91 metres above Central Lobby and looks like a purely decorative Gothic spire. It was actually conceived as part of the Palace's ventilation system: a giant chimney through which stale air and smoke could escape. One of the building's most conspicuous architectural ornaments was therefore originally a piece of environmental engineering.\n\nAnd then there is the tower everyone notices first.\n\nBarry struggled with how to make the proposed clock sufficiently prominent, and Pugin produced the detailed designs for the tower and its four clock faces. Parliament records these as among Pugin's final drawings for Barry before his death in 1852, aged only forty. The completed tower rises 96.3 metres, but the apparent delicacy of its Gothic decoration hides a distinctly industrial structure assembled from brick, stone and iron. Much of it was even built without conventional external scaffolding: materials were hauled up through the interior while a movable gantry rose with the masonry.\n\nThe clock inside was intended to be as technologically impressive as the architecture outside. The Astronomer Royal, George Airy, demanded a turret clock capable of striking the hour accurately to within a second - a formidable specification for a mechanism exposed to weather and driving enormous hands on four external faces. Edmund Beckett Denison devised the mechanism and clockmaker Edward John Dent was commissioned to build it, with Dent's stepson Frederick completing the work after his death.\n\nDenison's crucial innovation was the double three-legged gravity escapement. It largely isolated the pendulum from forces such as wind pressure on the giant hands, allowing the mechanism to maintain extraordinary accuracy. The Great Clock began keeping time on 31 May 1859.\n\nThere is still something delightfully mechanical about how that accuracy is adjusted. The 4.4-metre pendulum can be fine-tuned using old pre-decimal pennies placed on it. Adding a single penny makes the clock gain roughly two-fifths of a second over 24 hours. Each dial is seven metres across; the minute hands are 4.2 metres long and weigh about 100 kilograms including their counterweights. From Parliament Square the clock looks like a piece of ornament. Inside the tower it is a five-tonne machine.\n\nThe bell proved much more troublesome. The first great bell was cast in 1856 but developed a 1.2-metre crack while being tested in New Palace Yard and had to be broken up. Its replacement was cast by George Mears at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in April 1858. It weighed 13.5 tonnes and was so large that it had to be turned sideways before being hauled up inside the tower, a process taking around thirty hours.\n\nThis is the bell properly called Big Ben. The origin of the nickname is not completely certain, although Parliament considers it probably a joking reference to Sir Benjamin Hall, the physically imposing First Commissioner of Works overseeing the project. Another tradition connects it with the heavyweight boxer Benjamin Caunt. The uncertainty is worth retaining: one of Britain's most famous names appears to have begun as a nickname whose inventor nobody recorded.\n\nBig Ben first sounded in July 1859. Within weeks, it too cracked. Replacing another enormous bell would have been exceptionally difficult, so an ingenious repair was adopted instead. The bell was rotated so that the hammer struck an undamaged section, the original hammer was replaced with a lighter one, and a small square was cut at the end of the crack to prevent it spreading. Big Ben still carries the crack today. The slight imperfection in its famous E-natural note is therefore not deterioration awaiting repair; it is part of the sound London has known for more than 160 years.\n\nThere are other details almost invisible from the pavement. Beneath each clock face is the Latin inscription Domine salvam fac Reginam nostram Victoriam Primam - \"O Lord, keep safe our Queen Victoria the First\". Higher up is the Ayrton Light, installed in the nineteenth century and illuminated when either House is sitting after dark. The tower is simultaneously public clock, bell tower and distant indicator that Parliament is at work.\n\nThe rest of the Palace was also technologically modern beneath its medieval costume. Iron joists, brick arches and large amounts of metal construction were employed partly in an attempt to make the replacement safer from fire. Even so, the materials produced their own problems. Much of the exterior was faced with limestone from Anston in Yorkshire. Deterioration was visible by 1849, only a few years after construction began, as poor stone selection and London's polluted coal-burning atmosphere attacked its elaborate carving. Repair campaigns have continued ever since.\n\nThe Palace would face fire again under very different circumstances. During the Second World War it was struck by air raids on fourteen occasions. On the night of 10 May 1941 incendiaries set both Westminster Hall and the House of Commons ablaze. Firefighters concluded that they could not save both. The decision was made to protect the irreplaceable medieval hall; Barry's Commons Chamber was destroyed.\n\nThis created another opportunity to redesign Parliament. Winston Churchill famously argued against taking it. He wanted the Commons rebuilt in essentially its old shape, believing its intimate size and opposing benches were important to British parliamentary life. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott designed the replacement, which opened in 1950. So even the Commons Chamber seen today is not Victorian: it is a post-war reconstruction consciously preserving a spatial tradition inherited ultimately from St Stephen's Chapel.\n\nBig Ben survived the war, although its illuminated faces and the Ayrton Light were blacked out from 1939 so they could not help enemy aircraft navigate over London. The clock became so associated with national continuity that its chimes acquired a significance far beyond telling the time, particularly through radio broadcasts.\n\nThe tower's appearance today also contains a small historical correction. During the major conservation undertaken between 2017 and 2022, researchers analysed surviving layers of Victorian paint and original drawings. They discovered that parts of the clock faces now familiar in black had originally been painted Prussian blue and gold. The restored blue detailing visible today is therefore not a modern embellishment but an attempt to recover Barry and Pugin's original scheme.\n\nThe Palace of Westminster is consequently much more complicated than the apparently ancient building on postcards. It contains an eleventh-century hall beneath a fourteenth-century roof; a parliamentary layout partly inherited from a medieval chapel; a nineteenth-century palace dressed deliberately to look older than it is; an industrial clock disguised inside a Gothic tower; and a twentieth-century Commons Chamber reconstructed after wartime destruction.\n\nEven the skyline is deceptive. The tallest tower is not Big Ben but Victoria Tower. The elegant central spire began life as a ventilation chimney. The famous bell is cracked. The tower named for Elizabeth II acquired that name only in 2012. And the oldest, most historically remarkable structure is not the one everyone photographs from Westminster Bridge.\n\nThe Victorians were not simply rebuilding Parliament after a fire. They were designing a visual history of Britain - selecting medieval architecture to give a modern constitutional state the appearance of deep continuity. It worked almost too well.","figure":{"src":"/img/houses-of-parliament.jpg?v=d60b87cf","thumb":"/img/houses-of-parliament-480.jpg?v=88dbd74f","width":1024,"height":576,"alt":"The Palace of Westminster along the Thames, the Victoria Tower at one end and the Elizabeth Tower at the other, with Westminster Bridge beyond","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palace_of_Westminster_seen_from_the_north_bank_of_the_Thames,_London.jpg","thumb_width":480},"figures":[{"src":"/img/own-houses-of-parliament-2.jpg?v=05177be8","thumb":"/img/own-houses-of-parliament-2-480.jpg?v=42d5a73f","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"Victoria Tower Gardens under autumn plane trees, the Victoria Tower at the end","caption":"From Victoria Tower Gardens in autumn."},{"src":"/img/own-houses-of-parliament.jpg?v=3a5d8489","thumb":"/img/own-houses-of-parliament-480.jpg?v=2a7df5c6","width":768,"height":1024,"thumb_width":360,"alt":"The Victoria Tower floodlit at night, the Elizabeth Tower lit further along","caption":"The Victoria Tower at night."},{"src":"/img/own-big-ben.jpg?v=ad8a957e","thumb":"/img/own-big-ben-480.jpg?v=c7687d4a","width":768,"height":1024,"thumb_width":360,"alt":"The Elizabeth Tower seen from directly below: the clock face with its blue dial and gilded numerals, the gilt and green ironwork of the belfry above, and the pinnacled roofline of the Palace of Westminster alongside."},{"src":"/img/own-big-ben-2.jpg?v=724914cd","thumb":"/img/own-big-ben-2-480.jpg?v=d547139c","width":768,"height":1024,"thumb_width":360,"alt":"The Houses of Parliament and the Elizabeth Tower across the Thames on a clear winter day, seen over a stainless steel fountain playing in a round pool, with Westminster Bridge to the right.","caption":"A view of Big Ben from the south of the river."},{"src":"/img/own-big-ben-3.jpg?v=4d8221d2","thumb":"/img/own-big-ben-3-480.jpg?v=b408acee","width":768,"height":1024,"thumb_width":360,"alt":"The top of the Elizabeth Tower against a deep blue evening sky, two of its clock faces lit gold, with the gilded ironwork and spire above them."}],"whats_on":[{"slug":"big-ben-tour","name":"Big Ben Tour","href":"/museums/houses-of-parliament/big-ben-tour/","verdict":"334 steps up the Elizabeth Tower to stand behind the dials.","runs":null,"types":["heights","history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]},{"slug":"guided-tour-of-the-palace-of-westminster","name":"Guided tour of the Palace of Westminster","href":"/museums/houses-of-parliament/guided-tour-of-the-palace-of-westminster/","verdict":"Ninety minutes through both chambers and Westminster Hall with a Parliament guide.","runs":null,"types":["history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]},{"slug":"speakers-house-tour","name":"Speaker's House Tour","href":"/museums/houses-of-parliament/speakers-house-tour/","verdict":"The Speaker of the Commons lives in the Palace, and this is the way into the state rooms.","runs":null,"types":["art","history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","Art & design"]},{"slug":"westminster-hall-and-the-public-galleries","name":"Westminster Hall and the public galleries","href":"/museums/houses-of-parliament/westminster-hall-and-the-public-galleries/","verdict":"Free into the oldest building in Parliament, and into the Commons and the Lords when they sit.","runs":null,"types":["free","history","permanent"],"clue":["History"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Royal London","href":"/royal/houses-of-parliament/"},{"name":"Power & Politics","href":"/politics/houses-of-parliament/"},{"name":"Monuments & Ruins","href":"/monuments/houses-of-parliament/"}],"maps_q":"Houses of Parliament & Big Ben, Parliament Square, Westminster, SW1A 0AA, London","in_area":{"slug":"westminster","name":"Westminster"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Westminster Hall","s":"westminster-hall","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":77},{"n":"Pankhurst Memorial","s":"pankhurst-memorial","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":186},{"n":"Knife Edge Two Piece","s":"knife-edge-two-piece","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":187}],"near_same":[{"s":"jewel-tower","m":163},{"s":"churchill-war-rooms","m":450},{"s":"florence-nightingale-museum","m":551},{"s":"banqueting-house-whitehall","m":584},{"s":"household-cavalry-museum","m":651},{"s":"garden-museum","m":754}]},{"slug":"hunterian-museum","name":"Hunterian Museum","area":"Lincoln's Inn Fields","address":"35-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields, WC2A 3PE","station":"Holborn","walk":4,"lat":51.515283,"lng":-0.11587,"hours":[null,[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],null],"hours_raw":"Tu-Sa 10:00-17:00","website":"https://hunterianmuseum.org/","instagram":"hunterianmuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"node/3349882188","types":["free","medical","quirky","small-gem"],"verdict":"Surgical anatomy in glass jars, unflinching and free.","note":"John Hunter's eighteenth-century collection of specimens, reopened in 2023 at the Royal College of Surgeons. The redisplay removed the skeleton of Charles Byrne, who had asked not to be put on show. Not for everyone, and there is no attempt to soften it.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/hunterian-museum.jpg?v=2469d73d","thumb":"/img/hunterian-museum-480.jpg?v=578a618e","width":1024,"height":766,"alt":"This photo was taken by me, Paul Dean ( StoneColdCrazy ), in September 2007, and shows a part of the Hunterian Collections on display at The Royal College of Surgeons of England","caption":"","credit":"Photo by StoneColdCrazy at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hunterian_Collection.jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/hunterian-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Hunterian Museum, 35-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields, WC2A 3PE, London","in_area":{"slug":"holborn","name":"Holborn"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"The Old Curiosity Shop","s":"the-old-curiosity-shop","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":105},{"n":"Peacock Theatre","s":"peacock-theatre","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":156},{"n":"Royal Courts of Justice","s":"royal-courts-of-justice","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":228}],"near_same":[{"s":"sir-john-soanes-museum","m":227},{"s":"library-and-museum-of-freemasonry","m":374},{"s":"courtauld-gallery","m":426},{"s":"bow-street-museum-of-crime-and-justice","m":451},{"s":"two-temple-place","m":474},{"s":"novelty-automation","m":494}]},{"slug":"imperial-war-museum-london","name":"Imperial War Museum London","area":"Southwark","address":"Lambeth Road, SE1 6HZ","station":"Lambeth North","walk":5,"lat":51.495801,"lng":-0.108591,"hours":[[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"10:00-18:00; Dec 24-26 off","website":"https://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-london","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/8614496","types":["free","military","popular"],"verdict":"The nation's museum of modern war, free, in the old Bedlam asylum: two world wars on the lower floors and the Holocaust above them.","note":"The Imperial War Museum was proposed in February 1917, while the First World War was still being fought, to record what the country and its empire were going through, and its founders insisted from the start on collecting the personal alongside the official: letters and keepsakes as well as guns. It opened in the Crystal Palace in 1920 and moved in 1936 into the centre block of the old Bethlem Royal Hospital, the asylum Londoners called Bedlam, whose two long wings had been pulled down to leave the domed middle standing in its park.\n\nThe building was remade by Foster and Partners for the 1914 centenary, and the atrium now hangs the big objects in the air: a Spitfire that flew in the Battle of Britain, a Harrier, a V-2 rocket, and on the floor the thirteen-pounder gun that fired the British Army's first shot of the First World War. The First World War Galleries below tell that war through 1,300 objects. The Second World War Galleries and, on the floors above them, the Holocaust Galleries opened in 2021; the latter are among the most complete in any museum and are not meant for younger children. Entry is free, and the newest rooms hold the museum's art, film and photography, collected since 1917 as seriously as the hardware.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/imperial-war-museum-london.jpg?v=7a26c99c","thumb":"/img/imperial-war-museum-london-480.jpg?v=620944c7","width":1024,"height":747,"alt":"Imperial War Museum. London, UK","caption":"","credit":"Photo by \u0412\u0432\u043b\u0430\u0441\u0435\u043d\u043a\u043e, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Imperial_War_Museum._London,_UK.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"9-11-photography-installation","name":"9/11 Photography Installation","href":"/museums/imperial-war-museum-london/9-11-photography-installation/","verdict":"Photographs taken as the towers fell, around a piece of the World Trade Center.","runs":null,"types":["exhibition","free","history","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]},{"slug":"the-imperial-war-museums-permanent-galleries","name":"The Imperial War Museum's permanent galleries","href":"/museums/imperial-war-museum-london/the-imperial-war-museums-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"A Spitfire and a V-2 in the atrium, and six floors of what war did to ordinary people.","runs":null,"types":["exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"beauty-and-destruction-wartime-london-in-art","name":"Beauty and Destruction: Wartime London in Art","href":"/museums/imperial-war-museum-london/beauty-and-destruction-wartime-london-in-art/","verdict":"Forty-five paintings of London under the bombs, most from the official war artists.","runs":{"from":"2026-03-20","to":"2026-11-01"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"childhood-in-war","name":"Childhood in War","href":"/museums/imperial-war-museum-london/childhood-in-war/","verdict":"Sit in an evacuee's train carriage and ring a Cold War rotary phone.","runs":{"from":"2026-07-31","to":"2027-02-28"},"types":["exhibition","family","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]}],"maps_q":"Imperial War Museum London, Lambeth Road, SE1 6HZ, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"The Obelisk at St George's Circus","s":"the-obelisk-at-st-georges-circus","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":418},{"n":"greengrassi","s":"greengrassi","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":522},{"n":"Southwark Playhouse Elephant","s":"southwark-playhouse-elephant","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":550}],"near_same":[{"s":"morley-gallery","m":258},{"s":"cinema-museum","m":452},{"s":"lambeth-palace","m":771},{"s":"florence-nightingale-museum","m":783},{"s":"garden-museum","m":794},{"s":"london-fire-brigade-museum","m":852}]},{"slug":"institute-of-archaeology-collections","name":"Institute of Archaeology Collections","area":"Bloomsbury","address":"Taviton Street, St Pancras, WC1H 0BX","station":"Euston Square","walk":4,"lat":51.525,"lng":-0.131667,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":null,"instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["history"],"verdict":"Part of the University College London, open by appointment only, prehistoric ceramics and stone artefacts, Classical Greek and Roman ceramics.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"Institute of Archaeology Collections, Taviton Street, St Pancras, WC1H 0BX, London","in_area":{"slug":"bloomsbury","name":"Bloomsbury"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Jeremy Bentham's Auto-Icon","s":"jeremy-benthams-auto-icon","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":57},{"n":"Getting Triggy With It: Matt Parker does the maths","s":"getting-triggy-with-it-matt-parker-does-the-maths","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":79},{"n":"Gordon Square","s":"gordon-square","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":98}],"near_same":[{"s":"galton-collection","m":137},{"s":"ucl-geology-collections","m":137},{"s":"petrie-museum-of-egyptian-archaeology","m":182},{"s":"wellcome-collection","m":195},{"s":"grant-museum-of-zoology-and-comparative-anatomy","m":228},{"s":"magic-circle-museum","m":310}]},{"slug":"institute-of-contemporary-arts","name":"Institute of Contemporary Arts","area":"The Mall","address":"The Mall","station":"Charing Cross","walk":5,"lat":51.506158,"lng":-0.130952,"hours":[null,[12.0,23.0],[12.0,23.0],[12.0,23.0],[12.0,23.0],[12.0,23.0],[12.0,23.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu-Su 12:00-23:00","website":"https://ica.art/","instagram":"icalondon","attrs":[],"osm":"node/5015865539","types":["art"],"verdict":"The avant-garde's clubhouse since 1946: galleries, two cinemas and a bar behind Nash's grandest terrace on the Mall, deliberately uncomfortable.","note":"Roland Penrose, Herbert Read and a handful of friends founded the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1946 as a place where artists, writers and scientists could argue outside the Royal Academy's walls, and its first shows, of modern art and of 40,000 years of it, set the tone. The Independent Group met here in the early 1950s and invented British pop art over its coffee; Picasso, Pollock and Bacon were shown early, and later the punks, the video artists and the performance art nobody else would house. Since 1968 it has occupied Nash House, the eastern end of Carlton House Terrace, John Nash's last great stucco range above the Mall, which is the joke of the place: the most difficult programme in London behind the most establishment fa\u00e7ade. Two galleries, two cinemas showing what the multiplexes will not, a theatre, a bookshop and a bar, with a membership that makes most of it cheap.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/institute-of-contemporary-arts.jpg?v=483f68fb","thumb":"/img/institute-of-contemporary-arts.jpg?v=483f68fb","width":320,"height":427,"alt":"Institute of Contemporary Arts in London 2004 Author: Denis Barthel GNU Freie Dokumentationslizenz","caption":"","credit":"Photo by The original uploader was Denis Barthel at German Wikipedia ., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Institute_of_Contemporary_Arts_in_London_2004.jpg"},"whats_on":[{"slug":"jesse-glazzard-the-sound-of-dirt-and-beauty","name":"Jesse Glazzard: The Sound of Dirt and Beauty","href":"/art/institute-of-contemporary-arts/jesse-glazzard-the-sound-of-dirt-and-beauty/","verdict":"A photographer reimagining family, shown for six days during the ICA's book fair.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-15","to":"2026-09-20"},"types":["exhibition","free","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]},{"slug":"autumn-knight-i-cant-complain","name":"Autumn Knight: I Can't Complain","href":"/art/institute-of-contemporary-arts/autumn-knight-i-cant-complain/","verdict":"The New York artist's first big UK show, on complaint as a form.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-29","to":"2026-11-29"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"party-of-one-performance-by-autumn-knight","name":"party of one: performance by Autumn Knight","href":"/art/institute-of-contemporary-arts/party-of-one-performance-by-autumn-knight/","verdict":"A performance lecture on the pleasures of complaining, by the artist.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-01","to":"2026-10-01"},"types":["art","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/institute-of-contemporary-arts/"}],"maps_q":"Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, London","in_area":{"slug":"st-jamess","name":"St James's"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Royal Society","s":"royal-society","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":41},{"n":"Duke of York Column","s":"duke-of-york-column","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":56},{"n":"Admiralty Citadel","s":"admiralty-citadel","c":"secrets","cn":"Secrets & Espionage","m":113}],"near_same":[{"s":"mall-galleries","m":78},{"s":"canada-house-gallery","m":221},{"s":"household-cavalry-museum","m":286},{"s":"national-gallery","m":339},{"s":"banqueting-house-whitehall","m":390},{"s":"national-portrait-gallery","m":397}]},{"slug":"islington-museum","name":"Islington Museum","area":"Finsbury","address":"245 St. John Street, Clerkenwell, EC1V 4PB","station":"Angel","walk":8,"lat":51.52649,"lng":-0.1045,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.islington.gov.uk/libraries-arts-and-heritage/heritage/islington-museum","instagram":"islingtoncouncil","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"node/1588957563","types":["free","local"],"verdict":"The borough's history in a gallery under Finsbury Library, free, from Lenin's bust to the library books Joe Orton went to prison for.","note":"Islington's museum opened in 2008 in the basement of Finsbury Library on St John Street, and its one gallery takes the borough by theme rather than by date: childhood, food, fashion, leisure, healthcare, home, wartime, caring and the radicals. The radicals are the point. A bust of Lenin, who edited Iskra a few streets away on Clerkenwell Green, stands here, and so do the library book covers that Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell doctored with cut-out collages in the early 1960s, for which Islington prosecuted them and a court sent them to prison for six months. Entry is free, and the local history centre in the same building holds the borough's archives.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/islington-museum.jpg?v=36a64c1b","thumb":"/img/islington-museum-480.jpg?v=e9dbe39a","width":640,"height":480,"alt":"ISLINGTON etched across the glass front of Finsbury Library, with the museum below","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Stephen McKay, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Islington_Museum_and_Finsbury_Library_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1311637.jpg","thumb_width":500},"maps_q":"Islington Museum, 245 St. John Street, Clerkenwell, EC1V 4PB, London","in_area":{"slug":"farringdon-clerkenwell","name":"Farringdon & Clerkenwell"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"magCulture","s":"magculture","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":55},{"n":"Bourne & Hollingsworth Buildings","s":"bourne-hollingsworth-buildings","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":223},{"n":"Caf\u00e9 Kick","s":"cafe-kick","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":320}],"near_same":[{"s":"quentin-blake-centre-for-illustration","m":319},{"s":"museum-of-the-order-of-st-john","m":516},{"s":"goldsmiths-centre","m":622},{"s":"the-charterhouse","m":647},{"s":"postal-museum","m":685},{"s":"charles-dickens-museum","m":879}]},{"slug":"jack-the-ripper-museum","name":"Jack the Ripper Museum","area":"East Smithfield","address":"12 Cable Street, E1 8JG","station":"Tower Gateway","walk":5,"lat":51.510784,"lng":-0.06791,"hours":[[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 09:30-18:00","website":"https://www.jacktherippermuseum.com/","instagram":"jacktherippermuseum","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/257192112","types":["history","quirky"],"verdict":"A commercial attraction about the murders, and widely criticised.","note":"It opened in 2015 after planning permission was granted for a museum of women's history, which is not what was built; that history has followed it. Included here for completeness rather than recommendation.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/jack-the-ripper-museum.jpg?v=a86c1f5b","thumb":"/img/jack-the-ripper-museum-480.jpg?v=2d279b64","width":682,"height":1024,"alt":"Front of the Jack the Ripper Museum","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Mike Prior, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jack_the_Ripper_Museum.jpg","thumb_width":320},"maps_q":"Jack the Ripper Museum, 12 Cable Street, E1 8JG, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Wilton's Music Hall","s":"wiltons-music-hall","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":72},{"n":"E1","s":"e1","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":508},{"n":"London Wall at Tower Hill","s":"london-wall-at-tower-hill","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":568}],"near_same":[{"s":"royal-pharmaceutical-society-museum","m":198},{"s":"fusiliers-museum","m":582},{"s":"whitechapel-gallery","m":621},{"s":"tower-of-london","m":650},{"s":"tower-bridge","m":780},{"s":"all-hallows-by-the-tower-crypt-museum","m":809}]},{"slug":"jewel-tower","name":"Jewel Tower","area":"Westminster","address":"Abingdon Street, SW1P 3JX","station":"Westminster","walk":4,"lat":51.498482,"lng":-0.12642,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-17:00","hours_url":"https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/jewel-tower/","hours_source":"web","hours_checked":"2026-09-04","website":"https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/jewel-tower/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/136105050","types":["history"],"verdict":"Edward III's strongroom, one of two pieces of the medieval Palace of Westminster left standing.","note":"Built in 1365 at the far corner of the palace grounds to hold the king's personal treasure, with a moat around it and vaulted ceilings whose carved bosses survive. Everything else of the medieval palace except Westminster Hall burnt in 1834; this survived because it was outside the wall, and by then it was the House of Lords' records office and later the office that kept the national standards of weight and measure. Three floors of exhibits tell those three lives, and among them are carved stone capitals from the palace Edward the Confessor built on this spot three hundred years before the tower itself.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/jewel-tower.jpg?v=99ae80cc","thumb":"/img/jewel-tower-480.jpg?v=136b988f","width":806,"height":1024,"alt":"Photo taken by lonpicman Jewel Tower Old Palace Yard London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by No machine-readable author provided. Lonpicman~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jewel_Tower.jpg","thumb_width":378},"also_in":[{"name":"Power & Politics","href":"/politics/jewel-tower/"},{"name":"Monuments & Ruins","href":"/monuments/jewel-tower/"}],"maps_q":"Jewel Tower, Abingdon Street, SW1P 3JX, London","in_area":{"slug":"westminster","name":"Westminster"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Knife Edge Two Piece","s":"knife-edge-two-piece","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":63},{"n":"Pankhurst Memorial","s":"pankhurst-memorial","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":109},{"n":"Westminster Abbey","s":"westminster-abbey","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":122}],"near_same":[{"s":"houses-of-parliament","m":163},{"s":"churchill-war-rooms","m":458},{"s":"banqueting-house-whitehall","m":678},{"s":"guards-museum","m":693},{"s":"garden-museum","m":706},{"s":"florence-nightingale-museum","m":714}]},{"slug":"jewish-museum-london","name":"Jewish Museum London","area":"Camden Town","address":"129-131 Albert Street, NW1 7NB","station":"Camden Town","walk":3,"lat":51.537304,"lng":-0.144584,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/232592410","types":["history"],"verdict":"Anglo-Jewish history \u2014 currently without a building of its own.","note":"The Camden site closed in 2023 and the collection is in store while the museum works on its next home, running exhibitions and programmes elsewhere. Check where it is before setting out.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/jewish-museum-london.jpg?v=da53459b","thumb":"/img/jewish-museum-london-480.jpg?v=dbffbc4e","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Front of the Jewish Museum London, in George Street , Camden , London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Graham Hale, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jewish_Museum_London.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Jewish Museum London, 129-131 Albert Street, NW1 7NB, London","in_area":{"slug":"camden","name":"Camden"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Green Note","s":"green-note","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":94},{"n":"Jazz Cafe","s":"jazz-cafe","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":179},{"n":"Camden High Street","s":"camden-high-street","c":"shopping","cn":"Shopping","m":286}],"near_same":[{"s":"royal-college-of-physicians-museum","m":1281},{"s":"magic-circle-museum","m":1364},{"s":"lethaby-gallery","m":1368},{"s":"british-library","m":1421},{"s":"queer-britain","m":1441},{"s":"wellcome-collection","m":1456}]},{"slug":"keats-house","name":"Keats House","area":"Hampstead","address":"10 Keats Grove, Belsize Park, NW3 2RR","station":"Hampstead Heath","walk":2,"lat":51.5555,"lng":-0.1682,"hours":[null,null,[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],null,[11.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Fr 11:00-13:00,14:00-17:00; Su 11:00-13:00,14:00-17:00","website":"https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/attractions-museums-entertainment/keats-house","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"The Hampstead house where Keats wrote the odes and fell in love with the girl next door, before Rome and the end.","note":"Wentworth Place was two new houses joined together, and in December 1818 John Keats, twenty-three and just out of his surgeon's training, took rooms in one half with his friend Charles Brown. The eighteen months that followed were nearly all of his work: Ode to a Nightingale, written in a morning under the plum tree in the garden in May 1819 by Brown's account, the other great odes, The Eve of St Agnes and Lamia. The Brawne family moved into the other half, and Keats fell in love with the daughter, Fanny, eighteen, and became secretly engaged to her; her garnet engagement ring is in the house. In February 1820 he coughed blood and knew what it meant, having nursed his brother through the same disease, and in September he sailed for Italy, where he died in Rome the following February, aged twenty-five. The City of London keeps the house with his books, letters and manuscripts, restored in 2009, and a plum tree stands where the first one did.","deep":false,"hours_source":"web","hours_url":"https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/attractions-museums-entertainment/keats-house/visit-keats-house","hours_checked":"2026-09-05","figure":{"src":"/img/keats-house.jpg?v=7bb67049","thumb":"/img/keats-house-480.jpg?v=c2d8eaac","width":1024,"height":576,"alt":"Keats House from the garden","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Eden, Janine and Jim, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Keats%27_Garden_-_2025-03-09.jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Literary London","href":"/literary/keats-house/"}],"maps_q":"Keats House, 10 Keats Grove, Belsize Park, NW3 2RR, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Badiani Hampstead Heath","s":"badiani-hampstead-heath","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":98},{"n":"Redemption Roasters","s":"redemption-roasters","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":101},{"n":"Elias Canetti","s":"elias-canetti","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":393}],"near_same":[{"s":"2-willow-road","m":199},{"s":"burgh-house-hampstead-museum","m":562},{"s":"fenton-house","m":878},{"s":"freud-museum","m":1021},{"s":"camden-arts-centre","m":1160},{"s":"kenwood-house","m":1785}]},{"slug":"kennel-club-dog-art-gallery","name":"Kennel Club Dog Art Gallery","area":"Mayfair","address":"10 Clarges Street, Mayfair, W1J 7EW","station":"Green Park","walk":2,"lat":51.5068,"lng":-0.1448,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":null,"instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["art"],"verdict":"Exhibits and collection of dog paintings, open by appointment.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"Kennel Club Dog Art Gallery, 10 Clarges Street, Mayfair, W1J 7EW, London","in_area":{"slug":"mayfair","name":"Mayfair"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Timothy Taylor","s":"timothy-taylor","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":61},{"n":"Le Caf\u00e9 Robuchon","s":"le-cafe-robuchon","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":80},{"n":"Guillam Mayfair","s":"guillam-mayfair","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":96}],"near_same":[{"s":"spencer-house","m":364},{"s":"faraday-museum","m":366},{"s":"royal-academy-of-arts","m":446},{"s":"clarence-house","m":540},{"s":"apsley-house","m":603},{"s":"wellington-arch","m":631}]},{"slug":"kensington-palace","name":"Kensington Palace","area":"Kensington Gardens","address":"Kensington Garen, W8 4PX","station":"Queensway","walk":8,"lat":51.505088,"lng":-0.188054,"hours":[[9.0,16.0],[9.0,16.0],[9.0,16.0],[9.0,16.0],[9.0,16.0],[9.0,16.0],[9.0,16.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 09:00-16:00","website":"http://www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace/","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"relation/904705","types":["historic-house","history"],"verdict":"The palace where Victoria was born and woke up Queen, half a working royal home and half open to the public, on the edge of Kensington Gardens.","note":"Kensington Palace began as a Jacobean house that William III bought in 1689 because his asthma could not bear the river fogs at Whitehall, and Christopher Wren turned it into a palace within a year. Queen Anne died here in 1714, and George I had William Kent paint the King's Staircase with a crowd of courtiers and the Cupola Room in Roman gold. It was in a bedroom here that Princess Victoria was born in 1819, and here, on 20 June 1837, that she was woken at five in the morning to be told she was Queen; she left for Buckingham Palace within weeks and never lived here again. Diana, Princess of Wales, lived here from 1981 until her death, and the Prince and Princess of Wales live here now, which is why only part of it opens. Historic Royal Palaces shows the King's and Queen's State Apartments, Victoria's childhood rooms and changing exhibitions of royal dress. The Sunken Garden outside, with the statue of Diana unveiled in 2021, is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/kensington-palace.jpg?v=3d48fe5e","thumb":"/img/kensington-palace-480.jpg?v=f85d7397","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"A photograph of Kensington Palace.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Steve Cadman from London, U.K., CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kensington_Palace.jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"whats_on":[{"slug":"the-last-princesses-of-punjab","name":"The Last Princesses of Punjab","href":"/museums/kensington-palace/the-last-princesses-of-punjab/","verdict":"Sophia Duleep Singh, suffragette and Punjabi princess, and the five women who shaped her.","runs":{"to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["exhibition","fashion","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Fashion"]},{"slug":"power-perfume-and-scandal","name":"Power, Perfume and Scandal","href":"/museums/kensington-palace/power-perfume-and-scandal/","verdict":"Costumed intrigue in Queen Caroline's court, weekends through the autumn.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-05","to":"2026-11-22"},"types":["family","history","immersive"],"clue":["Immersive","History"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Royal London","href":"/royal/kensington-palace/"}],"maps_q":"Kensington Palace, Kensington Garen, W8 4PX, London","in_area":{"slug":"hyde-park-kensington-gardens","name":"Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Diana statue, the Sunken Garden","s":"diana-statue-the-sunken-garden","c":"royal","cn":"Royal London","m":127},{"n":"Queen Victoria statue, Kensington Palace","s":"queen-victoria-statue-kensington-palace","c":"royal","cn":"Royal London","m":145},{"n":"Knoops Kensington","s":"knoops-kensington","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":422}],"near_same":[{"s":"18-stafford-terrace","m":796},{"s":"serpentine","m":897},{"s":"rcm-museum-of-music","m":977},{"s":"design-museum","m":1018},{"s":"polish-institute-and-sikorski-museum","m":1127},{"s":"science-museum","m":1183}]},{"slug":"kenwood-house","name":"Kenwood House","area":"Hampstead","address":"Lime Avenue, Highgate, NW3 7JR","station":"Highgate","walk":20,"lat":51.571545,"lng":-0.16736,"hours":[[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-16:00","website":"https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/kenwood/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/24653374","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"A Robert Adam villa on the edge of the Heath with a Rembrandt and a Vermeer inside, and all of it free.","note":"Kenwood was remodelled between 1764 and 1779 by Robert Adam for William Murray, Lord Mansfield, the judge whose ruling of 1772 that a slave could not be forced out of England to be sold began the end of slavery here; his great-niece Dido Belle, the daughter of an enslaved woman and a naval officer, grew up in the house as one of the family, and the museum tells her story. Adam's library, a long room of pale blue and gold under a curved ceiling of painted panels, is one of the finest rooms in England. In 1925 Edward Guinness, Earl of Iveagh, bought the house to stop the builders and left it to the nation two years later with his pictures: Rembrandt's late Self-Portrait with Two Circles, Vermeer's Guitar Player, Gainsborough's Countess Howe, Reynolds, Turner and Constable, hung as they would be in a private house. The 112 acres of park, laid out by Humphry Repton, run down through woods to the ponds on Hampstead Heath, and house, pictures and park are all free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/kenwood-house.jpg?v=f9b8107f","thumb":"/img/kenwood-house-480.jpg?v=ad8b759f","width":1024,"height":525,"alt":"Hampstead Heath : Kenwood House","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Jim Osley, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hampstead_Heath_,_Kenwood_House_-_geograph.org.uk_-_7691885.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"kenwood-highlight-tours","name":"Kenwood highlight tours","href":"/museums/kenwood-house/kenwood-highlight-tours/","verdict":"Vermeer's Guitar Player and Rembrandt's late self-portrait, in an hour with a volunteer.","runs":null,"types":["art","history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/kenwood-house/"}],"maps_q":"Kenwood House, Lime Avenue, Highgate, NW3 7JR, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Hampstead Heath Swimming Ponds","s":"hampstead-heath-swimming-ponds","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":822},{"n":"Hampstead Heath","s":"hampstead-heath","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":859},{"n":"Rabindranath Tagore","s":"rabindranath-tagore","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":1176}],"near_same":[{"s":"burgh-house-hampstead-museum","m":1576},{"s":"2-willow-road","m":1600},{"s":"fenton-house","m":1645},{"s":"keats-house","m":1785},{"s":"camden-arts-centre","m":2523},{"s":"freud-museum","m":2674}]},{"slug":"kew-palace","name":"Kew Palace","area":"Kew","address":"Ferry Lane, Kew, TW8 0DX","station":"Kew Bridge","walk":10,"lat":51.483832,"lng":-0.295055,"hours":null,"hours_raw":"Apr 03-Sep 24 11:00-18:00","website":"https://www.hrp.org.uk/kew-palace/","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/19830757","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"The smallest of the royal palaces, a merchant's red-brick house of 1631 inside Kew Gardens, where George III was kept during his madness.","note":"Kew Palace is the Dutch House, built in 1631 for Samuel Fortrey, a London merchant of Flemish family, with the curved gables of Amsterdam and brickwork of a kind England had hardly seen; it stands on the cellars of a Tudor house where Elizabeth I was entertained. The royal family took it around 1728 as an overflow for the children, and it became the retreat of George III and Queen Charlotte, who preferred it to any grander house. It was here that the King was confined during his illness in 1801 and 1804, treated by doctors whose methods were closer to restraint than cure, and here that the Queen died in 1818, in a chair that is still in the room. The family left and the house stood shut for most of two centuries; Historic Royal Palaces restored it in 2006 and left the upper floors as they were found, plain and unpainted, which is what makes it moving. The royal kitchens beside it, untouched since 1818, and Queen Charlotte's thatched cottage in the gardens come with it. It opens from spring to autumn, and a Kew Gardens ticket is needed to reach it.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/kew-palace.jpg?v=66141822","thumb":"/img/kew-palace-480.jpg?v=cf939d53","width":1024,"height":880,"alt":"A photograph of Kew Palace.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by xlibber, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kew_Palace_(5942717068).jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"also_in":[{"name":"Royal London","href":"/royal/kew-palace/"}],"maps_q":"Kew Palace, Ferry Lane, Kew, TW8 0DX, London","bank":null,"near_all":[{"n":"The Original Maids of Honour","s":"the-original-maids-of-honour","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":578},{"n":"Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew","s":"royal-botanic-gardens-kew","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":692},{"n":"Strand-on-the-Green","s":"strand-on-the-green","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":1064}],"near_same":[{"s":"musical-museum","m":467},{"s":"london-museum-of-water-steam","m":657},{"s":"the-national-archives","m":1138},{"s":"queen-charlottes-cottage","m":1350},{"s":"syon-house","m":1454},{"s":"gunnersbury-park-museum","m":1846}]},{"slug":"kings-gallery","name":"King's Gallery","area":"Victoria","address":"Buckingham Gate, Victoria, SW1E 6JP","station":"Victoria","walk":5,"lat":51.499828,"lng":-0.142551,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.rct.uk/visit/the-kings-gallery-buckingham-palace","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"node/1289223308","types":["art"],"verdict":"The Royal Collection's shop window at Buckingham Palace: 450 works at a time from a million, changing with each exhibition.","note":"The Royal Collection, a million objects gathered by the kings and queens since Henry VIII, belongs to the sovereign in trust and mostly lives in the palaces; the gallery on the south side of Buckingham Palace is where the public sees it. Elizabeth II opened it in 1962 on the site of the palace chapel that a bomb had destroyed in 1940, and John Simpson's rebuilding of 2002, with a Doric porch on Buckingham Gate, tripled its size. It has no permanent hang. Each exhibition draws about 450 works from the whole collection, so what is on the walls is whatever the current show is about: two hundred of Leonardo's drawings in 2019, Canaletto, Vermeer and the Dutch pictures, Faberg\u00e9, the Tudors, royal photography. It was the Queen's Gallery until 2024, when it took the King's name, and it opens on a ticket for most of the year.","deep":false,"note_links":[{"phrase":"Buckingham Palace","name":"Buckingham Palace","href":"/museums/buckingham-palace/"}],"figure":{"src":"/img/kings-gallery.jpg?v=c042b3f8","thumb":"/img/kings-gallery-480.jpg?v=09491763","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"The King's Gallery","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Matt Brown, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_King%27s_Gallery_2024-06-27.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"queen-elizabeth-ii-her-life-in-style","name":"Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style","href":"/museums/kings-gallery/queen-elizabeth-ii-her-life-in-style/","verdict":"Three hundred pieces of the late Queen's wardrobe, and the largest show of it ever mounted.","runs":{"from":"2026-04-10","to":"2027-04-18"},"types":["exhibition","fashion","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Fashion"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/kings-gallery/"},{"name":"Royal London","href":"/royal/kings-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"King's Gallery, Buckingham Gate, Victoria, SW1E 6JP, London","in_area":{"slug":"westminster","name":"Westminster"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Changing the Guard","s":"changing-the-guard","c":"royal","cn":"Royal London","m":116},{"n":"Coffee Geek and Friends","s":"coffee-geek-and-friends","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":247},{"n":"Victoria Memorial","s":"victoria-memorial","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":261}],"near_same":[{"s":"buckingham-palace","m":112},{"s":"royal-mews","m":155},{"s":"guards-museum","m":445},{"s":"clarence-house","m":542},{"s":"spencer-house","m":613},{"s":"wellington-arch","m":646}]},{"slug":"kingston-museum","name":"Kingston Museum","area":"Kingston upon Thames","address":"Wheatfield Way, Norbiton, KT1 2PS","station":"Kingston","walk":5,"lat":51.409575,"lng":-0.300254,"hours":[null,null,null,[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],null],"hours_raw":"Mo-We,Su off; Th-Sa 10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.kingstonheritage.org.uk/visit","instagram":"rbkheritage","attrs":[],"osm":"node/632558518","types":["free","local"],"verdict":"Kingston's Saxon coronations and its own Eadweard Muybridge, the man who made photographs move, free, in a Carnegie building of 1904.","note":"Kingston was where the Saxon kings were crowned, seven of them in the tenth century by the record, Athelstan first in 925, and the stone that tradition says they sat on stands outside the Guildhall; the museum's first gallery tells that story from the borough's prehistory onwards. Its second follows the market town from the Middle Ages to the 1940s. The third is Eadweard Muybridge, born Edward Muggeridge in the town in 1830, who went to California and in 1878 photographed a galloping horse with a bank of cameras to settle whether all four feet left the ground, then built the zoopraxiscope to project the pictures in sequence and became the first man to make a photograph move. He left his collection to Kingston, and the projector is here. The building was paid for by Andrew Carnegie in 1904 and shares its door with the library; a stairwell gallery shows the Martinware pottery and a rolling collection of local views. Entry is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/kingston-museum.jpg?v=9b2db359","thumb":"/img/kingston-museum-480.jpg?v=0c0ce11d","width":1372,"height":1365,"alt":"Exterior of Kingston Museum","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Zoopraxiscope, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Exterior_of_Kingston_Museum.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Kingston Museum, Wheatfield Way, Norbiton, KT1 2PS, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Kingston Ancient Market","s":"kingston-ancient-market","c":"food-markets","cn":"Food Markets","m":412},{"n":"The Coronation Stone","s":"the-coronation-stone","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":466},{"n":"GoBoat Kingston","s":"goboat-kingston","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":550}],"near_same":[{"s":"hampton-court-palace","m":2792},{"s":"landmark-arts-centre","m":2795},{"s":"dorich-house","m":3694},{"s":"ham-house","m":3970},{"s":"strawberry-hill","m":4015},{"s":"garricks-temple-to-shakespeare","m":4113}]},{"slug":"kirkaldy-testing-museum","name":"Kirkaldy Testing Museum","area":"Southwark","address":"99 Southwark Street, SE1 0JF","station":"Southwark","walk":4,"lat":51.505966,"lng":-0.101544,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.testingworks.org.uk/","instagram":"factsnotopinions","attrs":[],"osm":"way/82459230","types":["niche","quirky","science"],"verdict":"One enormous Victorian testing machine, in the building David Kirkaldy put up around it, under the words FACTS NOT OPINIONS.","note":"David Kirkaldy was a Dundee-born engineer who spent eighteen years as chief draughtsman at a Glasgow shipyard, at a time when nobody could say with any confidence how strong a piece of iron or steel actually was. Builders bought material on the word of the man selling it. Kirkaldy set out to replace that with measurement: he ran his own experiments, published them in 1862, and left to build a machine that could pull anything apart and record exactly what it took.\n\nA Leeds firm delivered it in 1865. It is 47 feet long, weighs 116 tons, and can pull with a force of a million pounds \u2014 some 450 tons \u2014 using water pressure to do the pulling and a weight sliding along a beam to weigh it. In 1874 he opened a works at 99 Southwark Street built around the machine, and cut FACTS NOT OPINIONS over the door, which was his whole argument in three words: he would test for anyone, take nobody's side, and publish what the metal did.\n\nThe firm worked for a hundred years. It examined the wreckage of the Tay Bridge, which fell into the river in 1879 with a train crossing it; the ironwork of Hammersmith Bridge; the Skylon that hung over the Festival of Britain; and the metal of the Comet airliners that broke up in mid-air in 1954. It closed in 1974, and the machine, still bolted where it was set down and still able to work, is now the museum.","deep":false,"hours_extra":"Open on limited days; check before travelling.","regular":[{"what":"Premium tour, with a live test","when":"Advertised dates, booked ahead","price":"See the booking page","url":"https://www.testingworks.org.uk/visit/","note":"Kirkaldy's 116-ton Universal Testing Machine pulls a metal bar apart in front of you, as it has since 1874. A shorter, cheaper tour without that demonstration runs once a month."}],"figure":{"src":"/img/own-kirkaldy-testing-museum.jpg?v=e07d0fac","thumb":"/img/own-kirkaldy-testing-museum-480.jpg?v=8b2bda62","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"The front of Kirkaldy's Testing Works on Southwark Street, seen from the pavement: four storeys of yellow London brick with arched windows, the words Kirkaldy's Testing & Experimenting Works cut into a stone band across the second floor, white loading doors and an iron hoist on the right, under a blue sky with white clouds.","caption":"The lettering across the front, on Southwark Street."},"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/kirkaldy-testing-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Kirkaldy Testing Museum, 99 Southwark Street, SE1 0JF, London","in_area":{"slug":"southwark","name":"Southwark & Bankside"},"bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"The Table Cafe","s":"the-table-cafe","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":144},{"n":"Seabird","s":"seabird","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":223},{"n":"Origin Coffee","s":"origin-scoresby","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":239}],"near_same":[{"s":"tate-modern","m":220},{"s":"bankside-gallery","m":248},{"s":"rose-theatre-exhibition","m":442},{"s":"clink-prison-museum","m":676},{"s":"college-of-arms","m":742},{"s":"golden-hinde","m":783}]},{"slug":"lambeth-palace","name":"Lambeth Palace","area":"Lambeth","address":"Lambeth Palace Road, SE1 7JT","station":"Lambeth North","walk":8,"lat":51.495533,"lng":-0.119732,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/lambeth-palace","instagram":"archbishopofcanterbury","attrs":[],"osm":"relation/1403938","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"Tours of the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury on selected days only.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/lambeth-palace.jpg?v=01026530","thumb":"/img/lambeth-palace-480.jpg?v=b055e3ba","width":1083,"height":488,"alt":"Lambeth Palace London 240404","caption":"","credit":"Photo by JaT~commonswiki, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lambeth_Palace_London_240404.jpg","thumb_width":500},"maps_q":"Lambeth Palace Road, SE1 7JT, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"SOE Memorial, Albert Embankment","s":"soe-memorial-albert-embankment","c":"secrets","cn":"Secrets & Espionage","m":78},{"n":"Lambeth Bridge","s":"lambeth-bridge","c":"harry-potter","cn":"Harry Potter","m":251},{"n":"Lambeth Palace Library","s":"lambeth-palace-library","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":262}],"near_same":[{"s":"garden-museum","m":72},{"s":"london-fire-brigade-museum","m":327},{"s":"florence-nightingale-museum","m":517},{"s":"tate-britain","m":741},{"s":"jewel-tower","m":746},{"s":"morley-gallery","m":761}]},{"slug":"landmark-arts-centre","name":"Landmark Arts Centre","area":"Teddington","address":"Ferry Road, TW11 9NN","station":"Teddington","walk":9,"lat":51.428157,"lng":-0.324512,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://landmarkartscentre.org/","instagram":"landmarkartscentre","attrs":[],"osm":"way/277914188","types":["art"],"verdict":"Arts centre with visual art gallery, located in the former St Alban's Church.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/landmark-arts-centre.jpg?v=17ee2875","thumb":"/img/landmark-arts-centre-480.jpg?v=0fd7edf2","width":1024,"height":682,"alt":"A photograph of Landmark Arts Centre.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Stevekeiretsu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Landmark_arts_centre.jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"maps_q":"Landmark Arts Centre, Ferry Road, TW11 9NN, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"National Physical Laboratory","s":"national-physical-laboratory","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":1399},{"n":"Pope's Grotto","s":"popes-grotto","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":1613},{"n":"Ham Street","s":"ham-street","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":1671}],"near_same":[{"s":"strawberry-hill","m":1324},{"s":"ham-house","m":1938},{"s":"twickenham-museum","m":2076},{"s":"orleans-house-gallery","m":2156},{"s":"marble-hill-house","m":2494},{"s":"kingston-museum","m":2795}]},{"slug":"leighton-house-museum","name":"Leighton House Museum","area":"Holland Park","address":"12 Holland Park Road, W14 8LZ","station":"Kensington (Olympia)","walk":6,"lat":51.498613,"lng":-0.203077,"hours":[[10.0,17.5],null,[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5]],"hours_raw":"We-Mo 10:00-17:30","website":"https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/museums","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/115594423","types":["art","small-gem"],"verdict":"The Victorian painter's house built around an Arab Hall of Damascus tiles, gold mosaic and a fountain, in Holland Park.","note":"Frederic Leighton, the painter of Flaming June and the only artist ever made a peer, had George Aitchison build him a house and studio on the edge of Holland Park in 1866 and spent the next thirty years adding to it, and the addition everyone comes for is the Arab Hall of 1877 to 1881: a domed room built to show the tiles he had brought back from Damascus, Cairo and Rhodes, with a gold mosaic frieze by Walter Crane, latticed windows from Cairo and a fountain in the floor, a piece of the Islamic world set down in Kensington. Upstairs is the great studio where he painted, hung with his pictures and his collection, and the one narrow bedroom of a man who lived for work and never married. It has been open since 1929, and a restoration finished in 2022 put back what had gone, added a wing and a winter studio, and reopened the whole house with a caf\u00e9 in the garden. It is run with Sambourne House nearby, and closes on Tuesdays.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/leighton-house-museum.jpg?v=d11b4c8e","thumb":"/img/leighton-house-museum-480.jpg?v=19a86a66","width":1024,"height":576,"alt":"The Arab Hall at Leighton House: Damascus tiles, a fountain in the floor and a gilded dome","caption":"The Arab Hall, lined with tiles Leighton brought from Damascus.","credit":"Photo by Mark Percy, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leighton_House,_The_Arab_Hall_-_geograph.org.uk_-_8094244.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"magic-and-mess-the-artists-studio-revealed","name":"Magic and Mess: The Artist's Studio Revealed","href":"/museums/leighton-house-museum/magic-and-mess-the-artists-studio-revealed/","verdict":"Fifty-six pictures of painters' studios, C\u00e9zanne and Matisse among them, shown inside the grandest studio in London.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-31","to":"2027-03-21"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/leighton-house-museum/"},{"name":"Architecture","href":"/architecture/leighton-house-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Leighton House Museum, 12 Holland Park Road, W14 8LZ, London","in_area":{"slug":"notting-hill-holland-park","name":"Notting Hill & Holland Park"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Cetshwayo kaMpande","s":"cetshwayo","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":93},{"n":"Ugo Foscolo","s":"ugo-foscolo","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":295},{"n":"Kyoto Garden, Holland Park","s":"kyoto-garden-holland-park","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":390}],"near_same":[{"s":"design-museum","m":245},{"s":"18-stafford-terrace","m":477},{"s":"kensington-palace","m":1264},{"s":"baden-powell-house-exhibition","m":1656},{"s":"rcm-museum-of-music","m":1816},{"s":"science-museum","m":1863}]},{"slug":"lethaby-gallery","name":"Lethaby Gallery","area":"Kings Cross","address":"Granary Square, King's Cross, N1C 4AA","station":"London St. Pancras International","walk":4,"lat":51.535556,"lng":-0.125,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/central-saint-martins/whats-on-at-csm/lethaby-gallery","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["art"],"verdict":"Located at Granary Square, art gallery of Central Saint Martins, features contemporary and historic works from its collections of art and design.","note":null,"deep":true,"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/lethaby-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"Lethaby Gallery, Granary Square, King's Cross, N1C 4AA, London","in_area":{"slug":"kings-cross-st-pancras","name":"King's Cross & St Pancras"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Caravan King's Cross","s":"caravan-kings-cross","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":28},{"n":"Dishoom","s":"dishoom","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":71},{"n":"Coal Drops Yard","s":"coal-drops-yard","c":"shopping","cn":"Shopping","m":91}],"near_same":[{"s":"queer-britain","m":77},{"s":"london-canal-museum","m":363},{"s":"british-library","m":645},{"s":"foundling-museum","m":1172},{"s":"wellcome-collection","m":1234},{"s":"magic-circle-museum","m":1253}]},{"slug":"library-and-museum-of-freemasonry","name":"Library and Museum of Freemasonry","area":"Holborn","address":"60 Great Queen Street, Holborn, WC2B 5AZ","station":"Holborn","walk":3,"lat":51.515009,"lng":-0.121267,"hours":[null,[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],null],"hours_raw":"Tu-Sa 10:00-17:00","website":"https://museumfreemasonry.org.uk/","instagram":"museumfreemasonry","attrs":[],"osm":"node/12541989407","types":["free","history","niche"],"verdict":"Library, artefacts and regalia of Freemasonry.","note":null,"deep":true,"hours_source":"web","hours_url":"https://museumfreemasonry.org.uk/visit-us/","hours_checked":"2026-09-07","hours_extra":"Free. Closed on Mondays and public holidays; the Library and South Gallery shut 1-14:00 daily and all day Saturday.","figure":{"src":"/img/library-and-museum-of-freemasonry.jpg?v=182815a2","thumb":"/img/library-and-museum-of-freemasonry-480.jpg?v=080f34eb","width":1024,"height":682,"alt":"Museum of Freemasonry, South Gallery, 2018","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Barry W Hughes/Museum of Freemasonry, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Library_and_Museum_of_Freemasonry_-_Museum_South_Gallery_2018.jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Secrets & Espionage","href":"/secrets/library-and-museum-of-freemasonry/"}],"maps_q":"Library and Museum of Freemasonry, 60 Great Queen Street, Holborn, WC2B 5AZ, London","in_area":{"slug":"covent-garden","name":"Covent Garden"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Freemasons' Hall","s":"freemasons-hall","c":"architecture","cn":"Architecture","m":31},{"n":"Stephen Jones Millinery","s":"stephen-jones-millinery","c":"classic-british-shops","cn":"Classic British Shops","m":46},{"n":"Drury Lane","s":"drury-lane","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":110}],"near_same":[{"s":"bow-street-museum-of-crime-and-justice","m":171},{"s":"london-transport-museum","m":336},{"s":"sir-john-soanes-museum","m":349},{"s":"museum-of-comedy","m":374},{"s":"hunterian-museum","m":374},{"s":"pushkin-house","m":382}]},{"slug":"little-holland-house","name":"Little Holland House","area":"Carshalton","address":"Beeches Avenue, Carshalton Beeches, SM5 3LJ","station":"Carshalton Beeches","walk":3,"lat":51.355303,"lng":-0.170649,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://friendsofhoneywood.co.uk/little-holland-house.html","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/269236138","types":["free","historic-house"],"verdict":"Arts and Crafts home of the artist Frank Dickinson (1874\u20131961) with interior influenced by John Ruskin and William Morris.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/little-holland-house.jpg?v=55cb4a9a","thumb":"/img/little-holland-house-480.jpg?v=b5021500","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"A photograph of Little Holland House.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Jhsteel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:40_Beeches_Avenue,_Little_Holland_House.jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"maps_q":"Little Holland House, Beeches Avenue, Carshalton Beeches, SM5 3LJ, London","bank":0,"near_all":[],"near_same":[{"s":"honeywood-museum","m":1169},{"s":"whitehall","m":3260},{"s":"museum-of-croydon","m":5295},{"s":"shirley-windmill","m":8180},{"s":"museum-of-wimbledon","m":8211},{"s":"southside-house","m":8274}]},{"slug":"london-canal-museum","name":"London Canal Museum","area":"Kings Cross","address":"12-13 New Wharf Road, N1 9RT","station":"London King's Cross","walk":4,"lat":51.534219,"lng":-0.120207,"hours":[null,[10.0,16.5],[10.0,16.5],[10.0,16.5],[10.0,16.5],[10.0,16.5],[10.0,16.5]],"hours_raw":"Tu-Su 10:00-16:30; PH Mo 10:00-16:30; Dec 23-Jan 01 Off","website":"https://canalmuseum.org.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/190831613","types":["transport"],"verdict":"Canal life in a Victorian ice warehouse, above two enormous ice wells.","note":"Carlo Gatti stored Norwegian lake ice here for London's ice cream trade; you look down into the wells through a grating. Narrowboats, horses and the trade that built the basin outside.\n\nThe museum also runs canal boat trips in season, separately from admission \u2014 check what is running and book before you come rather than turning up hoping.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/london-canal-museum.jpg?v=1eb72d6a","thumb":"/img/london-canal-museum-480.jpg?v=95fc698a","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"A canal lighter on display inside the London Canal Museum's old ice warehouse","caption":"","credit":"Photo by ell brown, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:London_Canal_Museum_-_Canal_Lighter_Westford.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"London Canal Museum, 12-13 New Wharf Road, N1 9RT, London","in_area":{"slug":"kings-cross-st-pancras","name":"King's Cross & St Pancras"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Kings Place","s":"kings-place","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":131},{"n":"Jewish Book Week","s":"jewish-book-week","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":136},{"n":"Word on the Water","s":"word-on-the-water","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":261}],"near_same":[{"s":"queer-britain","m":304},{"s":"lethaby-gallery","m":363},{"s":"british-library","m":699},{"s":"foundling-museum","m":1006},{"s":"quentin-blake-centre-for-illustration","m":1070},{"s":"postal-museum","m":1139}]},{"slug":"london-fire-brigade-museum","name":"London Fire Brigade Museum","area":"Southwark","address":"26 Lambeth High Street, SE1 7AG","station":"Vauxhall","walk":10,"lat":51.492587,"lng":-0.119774,"hours":null,"hours_raw":"closed","website":"https://london-fire.gov.uk/museum/","instagram":"londonfirebrigade","attrs":[],"osm":"way/170386148","types":["history","niche"],"verdict":"Open by appointment only, history of the London Fire Brigade, equipment, apparatus.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/london-fire-brigade-museum.jpg?v=d9cb3683","thumb":"/img/london-fire-brigade-museum-480.jpg?v=5de3f52d","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Part of London Fire Brigade Museum, establishes location of English Heritage Blue Plaque commemorating Sir Eyre Massey Shaw","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Spudgun67, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Winchester_House_(94_Southwark_Bridge_Road_SE1).JPG","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"London Fire Brigade Museum, 26 Lambeth High Street, SE1 7AG, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Lambeth Bridge","s":"lambeth-bridge","c":"harry-potter","cn":"Harry Potter","m":313},{"n":"SOE Memorial, Albert Embankment","s":"soe-memorial-albert-embankment","c":"secrets","cn":"Secrets & Espionage","m":363},{"n":"MI5, Thames House","s":"mi5-thames-house","c":"secrets","cn":"Secrets & Espionage","m":509}],"near_same":[{"s":"garden-museum","m":257},{"s":"lambeth-palace","m":327},{"s":"tate-britain","m":802},{"s":"jewel-tower","m":807},{"s":"florence-nightingale-museum","m":837},{"s":"imperial-war-museum-london","m":852}]},{"slug":"london-mithraeum","name":"London Mithraeum","area":"City of London","address":"12 Walbrook, EC4N 8AA","station":"Cannon Street","walk":1,"lat":51.512379,"lng":-0.090676,"hours":[null,[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,20.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[12.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu-Sa 10:00-18:00; Su 12:00-17:00; Mo off; Th[1] 10:00-20:00; Dec 25-26 off; Jan 01 off","website":"https://www.londonmithraeum.com/","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/512846335","types":["free","history","small-gem"],"verdict":"The Roman temple of Mithras, found in 1954 and put back where it stood seven metres under Bloomberg's building, staged in sound and haze, free.","note":"In September 1954, on a bomb site beside the buried Walbrook stream, the archaeologist W.F. Grimes uncovered a small Roman temple with a marble head of Mithras in it, the soldiers' god who killed the bull, and the queues to see it stretched down Queen Victoria Street; the developers were made to keep it, and did so by dismantling it and rebuilding the stones on a podium up the road, in the wrong place and with the wrong mortar. Bloomberg, buying the site for its European headquarters, undid that. In 2017 the temple went back to the spot where it was found, seven metres below the present street, and it is shown as a piece of theatre: the walls and altar in the dark, mist, a low chant, and light picking out the shape of the sanctuary as it might have been in AD 240. The find itself, the marble Mithras and his companions, is in the London Museum, but the room above the temple shows six hundred objects from the dig, among them the earliest dated handwritten document from Britain, a wooden tablet of 8 January AD 57. Entry is free on a timed ticket.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/london-mithraeum.jpg?v=5840643d","thumb":"/img/london-mithraeum-480.jpg?v=6648991e","width":1024,"height":678,"alt":"London Mithraeum, Bloomberg\u2019s European headquarters, London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Carole Raddato from Frankfurt, Germany, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:London_Mithraeum,_Bloomberg%E2%80%99s_European_headquarters,_London_(25502116578).jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Sacred London","href":"/sacred/london-mithraeum/"},{"name":"Monuments & Ruins","href":"/monuments/london-mithraeum/"}],"maps_q":"London Mithraeum, 12 Walbrook, EC4N 8AA, London","in_area":{"slug":"the-city","name":"The City"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"St Stephen Walbrook","s":"st-stephen-walbrook","c":"sacred","cn":"Sacred London","m":64},{"n":"London Stone","s":"london-stone","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":124},{"n":"Crosstown Cannon Street","s":"crosstown-cannon-street","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":144}],"near_same":[{"s":"mansion-house","m":106},{"s":"bank-of-england-museum","m":289},{"s":"guildhall-art-gallery","m":357},{"s":"college-of-arms","m":558},{"s":"rose-theatre-exhibition","m":663},{"s":"clink-prison-museum","m":713}]},{"slug":"london-museum-docklands","name":"London Museum Docklands","area":"Isle of Dogs","address":"Hertsmere Road, E14 4AL","station":"West India Quay","walk":3,"lat":51.507594,"lng":-0.023872,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/docklands/","instagram":"wearelondonmuseum","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/140144139","types":["family","free","history","maritime"],"verdict":"The port's story in a Georgian sugar warehouse at West India Quay, free, with the gallery on London and the slave trade that the docks were built on.","note":"The West India Docks opened in 1802 as the first enclosed docks in London, cut across the Isle of Dogs to unload the sugar, rum and coffee of the Caribbean behind a wall that thieves could not cross, and No. 1 Warehouse on the north quay, built the same year to hold the sugar, is one of the last of the docks' buildings left standing. The museum took it in 2003 with the collections of the Port of London Authority and tells two thousand years of the river on five floors: Roman quays, the medieval port, the whaling and the tea clippers, the docks at their height, the Blitz that burned them, and their closure in the 1980s before the towers of Canary Wharf rose over the water. Sailortown recreates a Wapping alley of the 1840s in the dark, with its pub and its lodging houses, and Mudlarks is a gallery for small children to play in. The gallery that matters most is London, Sugar and Slavery, which lays out plainly that the docks, the warehouse and much of the city's wealth were built on the labour of enslaved Africans, in the building where the sugar came in. Entry is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/london-museum-docklands.jpg?v=348ceb5a","thumb":"/img/london-museum-docklands-480.jpg?v=a47b65ec","width":1024,"height":590,"alt":"The Museum of London Docklands in east London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Joyofmuseums, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Museum_of_London_Docklands_-_Joy_of_Museums.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"london-museum-docklands-permanent-galleries","name":"London Museum Docklands' permanent galleries","href":"/museums/london-museum-docklands/london-museum-docklands-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"Four hundred years of the port, in a sugar warehouse that survived the Blitz.","runs":null,"types":["exhibition","free","history","water"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"little-dockers","name":"Little dockers","href":"/museums/london-museum-docklands/little-dockers/","verdict":"Free sensory sessions for babies and toddlers.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-09","to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["family","free","workshop"],"clue":["Make something"]},{"slug":"wonders-of-the-warehouse","name":"Wonders of the warehouse","href":"/museums/london-museum-docklands/wonders-of-the-warehouse/","verdict":"A tour of the building itself, which is the oldest thing in it.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-09","to":"2026-09-28"},"types":["history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]},{"slug":"quieter-times","name":"Quieter times","href":"/museums/london-museum-docklands/quieter-times/","verdict":"The museum in a calmer state, with sensory activities. Free.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-20","to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["family","free","wellness"],"clue":[]},{"slug":"mudlarking-weekend","name":"Mudlarking Weekend","href":"/museums/london-museum-docklands/mudlarking-weekend/","verdict":"Two days of foreshore finds, expert talks and digs, for Totally Thames.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-26","to":"2026-09-27"},"types":["family","free","history"],"clue":["History"]},{"slug":"the-big-dig","name":"The big dig","href":"/museums/london-museum-docklands/the-big-dig/","verdict":"Be an archaeologist for the day, in a Georgian sugar warehouse.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-26","to":"2026-09-27"},"types":["family","history"],"clue":["History"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Power & Politics","href":"/politics/london-museum-docklands/"}],"maps_q":"London Museum Docklands, Hertsmere Road, E14 4AL, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Skuna Boats","s":"skuna-boats","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":89},{"n":"Draped Seated Woman","s":"draped-seated-woman","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":274},{"n":"Old Spike","s":"old-spike-canary-wharf","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":296}],"near_same":[{"s":"ragged-school-museum","m":1491},{"s":"royal-london-hospital-archives-and-museum","m":2752},{"s":"cutty-sark-museum","m":2933},{"s":"old-royal-naval-college","m":3027},{"s":"chisenhale-gallery","m":3036},{"s":"jack-the-ripper-museum","m":3068}]},{"slug":"london-museum-of-water-steam","name":"London Museum of Water & Steam","area":"Brentford","address":"Green Dragon Lane, TW8 0EN","station":"Kew Bridge","walk":3,"lat":51.488986,"lng":-0.290406,"hours":[null,null,null,[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0]],"hours_raw":"Th-Su 10:00-16:00; Jul 22-Aug 28 We 10:00-16:00; SH 10:00-16:00","website":"http://www.waterandsteam.org.uk","instagram":"londonmuseumofwaterandsteam","attrs":[],"osm":"way/838163904","types":["family","science"],"verdict":"The waterworks that pumped west London's water, with the largest collection of Cornish beam engines anywhere, steamed on set weekends.","note":"The Grand Junction Waterworks Company opened its pumping station at Kew Bridge in 1838, taking water from the Thames for Paddington and Kensington, and for a century its beam engines lifted it into the mains; the Italianate tower beside the road, which looks like a campanile, is the standpipe that took the surge. When the pumps went electric the engines were left where they stood, and volunteers opened the museum in 1975. It holds the largest collection of Cornish engines in the world, the tall single-cylinder pumping engines that Cornish tin mines perfected, among them the 90-inch of 1846, for years the biggest working beam engine anywhere, and the 100-inch of 1869, the largest single-cylinder beam engine left on earth. The galleries tell how London got clean water and why cholera stopped; the engines run in steam on set weekends, which is the day to come, with a narrow-gauge waterworks railway in the yard for children.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/london-museum-of-water-steam.jpg?v=40acccea","thumb":"/img/london-museum-of-water-steam-480.jpg?v=67fe1d54","width":1024,"height":682,"alt":"The entrance and car park of the London Museum of Water & Steam","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Smurfy, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:London_Museum_of_Water_%26_Steam_entrance.jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/london-museum-of-water-steam/"}],"maps_q":"London Museum of Water & Steam, Green Dragon Lane, TW8 0EN, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Strand-on-the-Green","s":"strand-on-the-green","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":851},{"n":"The Original Maids of Honour","s":"the-original-maids-of-honour","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":994},{"n":"Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew","s":"royal-botanic-gardens-kew","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":1285}],"near_same":[{"s":"musical-museum","m":226},{"s":"kew-palace","m":657},{"s":"the-national-archives","m":1169},{"s":"gunnersbury-park-museum","m":1205},{"s":"london-transport-museum-depot","m":1852},{"s":"boston-manor-house","m":1976}]},{"slug":"london-sewing-machine-museum","name":"London Sewing Machine Museum","area":"Balham","address":"308 Balham High Road, SW17 7AA","station":"Tooting Bec","walk":2,"lat":51.436556,"lng":-0.15871,"hours":[null,null,null,null,null,[14.0,17.0],null],"hours_raw":"Sa[1] 14:00-17:00; Dec-Jan off","website":"https://www.craftysewer.com/acatalog/London_Sewing_Machine_Museum.html","instagram":"sewingandcraftsuperstore","attrs":[],"osm":"node/8779699675","types":["free","niche","quirky","science"],"verdict":"A private collection of some 700 sewing machines, open one Saturday a month.","note":"Above a sewing shop in Balham, assembled by the Rushton family over decades, including a machine made for Queen Victoria's daughter. It is free.","deep":true,"hours_extra":"Open on the first Saturday of the month only.","maps_q":"London Sewing Machine Museum, 308 Balham High Road, SW17 7AA, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Tooting Market","s":"tooting-market","c":"food-markets","cn":"Food Markets","m":981},{"n":"Brickwood","s":"brickwood-tooting-graveney","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":1003},{"n":"Brickwood","s":"brickwood","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":1035}],"near_same":[{"s":"brixton-windmill","m":3047},{"s":"studio-voltaire","m":3293},{"s":"wimbledon-lawn-tennis-museum","m":3798},{"s":"575-wandsworth-road","m":3892},{"s":"black-cultural-archives","m":4051},{"s":"museum-of-wimbledon","m":4277}]},{"slug":"london-transport-museum","name":"London Transport Museum","area":"Covent Garden","address":"Covent Garden Piazza, WC2E 7BB","station":"Covent Garden","walk":3,"lat":51.511987,"lng":-0.121221,"hours":[[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-18:00","website":"https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/44599803","types":["family","popular","transport"],"verdict":"London's buses, trams and trains, from the horse omnibus to the Tube, in the old flower market in Covent Garden.","note":"The building is the flower market of 1871, iron and glass, from the days when Covent Garden was where London bought its fruit and vegetables; the market left for Nine Elms in 1971 and the museum opened here in 1980. The collection is older than that. The London General Omnibus Company began keeping its retired buses at the start of the twentieth century, the railways added their carriages, and what came down to London Transport now belongs to Transport for London and covers everything that moves people in the city.\n\nThe route runs from the top floor down and the galleries are chronological: Victorian London and the world's first Underground, then Digging Deeper on the tube tunnels, On the Surface for the buses and trams, London by Design, London's transport at war, and the hands-on Future Engineers, with the All Aboard play zone for small children. Most of the vehicles can be climbed into. The ticket is valid for a year. The museum also runs the Hidden London tours of disused stations and wartime shelters, and opens its depot in Acton, where the rest of the collection is kept, on a few weekends a year.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/london-transport-museum.jpg?v=ec420e4d","thumb":"/img/london-transport-museum-480.jpg?v=4c41f354","width":1024,"height":682,"alt":"A photograph of London Transport Museum.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Wei-Te Wong from Taipei City, Taiwan, Republic of China, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:London_Transport_Museum_(42206944281).jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"whats_on":[{"slug":"art-deco-the-golden-age-of-poster-design","name":"Art deco: the golden age of poster design","href":"/museums/london-transport-museum/art-deco-the-golden-age-of-poster-design/","verdict":"A hundred original posters from the 1920s and 30s, and Charles Holden's stations.","runs":{"to":"2027-05-31"},"types":["art","exhibition","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"london-transport-museum-guided-tours","name":"London Transport Museum guided tours","href":"/museums/london-transport-museum/london-transport-museum-guided-tours/","verdict":"Free daily tours and talks from the information desk, ten people at a time.","runs":null,"types":["free","history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]},{"slug":"the-london-transport-museums-permanent-galleries","name":"The London Transport Museum's permanent galleries","href":"/museums/london-transport-museum/the-london-transport-museums-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"Two hundred years of getting about London, and most of the vehicles can be climbed into.","runs":null,"types":["exhibition","family","history","subterranean"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/london-transport-museum/"}],"maps_q":"London Transport Museum, Covent Garden Piazza, WC2E 7BB, London","in_area":{"slug":"covent-garden","name":"Covent Garden"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"\u00d4 Craquelin","s":"o-craquelin","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":97},{"n":"Lyceum Theatre","s":"lyceum-theatre","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":98},{"n":"Theatre Royal, Drury Lane","s":"theatre-royal-drury-lane","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":132}],"near_same":[{"s":"bow-street-museum-of-crime-and-justice","m":170},{"s":"courtauld-gallery","m":246},{"s":"somerset-house","m":285},{"s":"library-and-museum-of-freemasonry","m":336},{"s":"hunterian-museum","m":520},{"s":"british-optical-association-museum","m":539}]},{"slug":"london-transport-museum-depot","name":"London Transport Museum Depot","area":"Acton","address":"W3 9BQ","station":"Acton Town","walk":3,"lat":51.504666,"lng":-0.281375,"hours":null,"hours_raw":"\"special events\"","website":"https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/visit/museum-depot","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/43634102","types":["transport"],"verdict":"Houses the majority of the museum's collection, open day visits and tours.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/london-transport-museum-depot.jpg?v=a8c0daab","thumb":"/img/london-transport-museum-depot-480.jpg?v=22a54b91","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Rows of old Underground carriages and buses stored in a hangar at the Acton depot","caption":"The store at Acton, where most of the collection lives.","credit":"Photo by Gareth James, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:London_Transport_Museum%27s_Acton_Depot_store_-_geograph.org.uk_-_3421913.jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/london-transport-museum-depot/"}],"maps_q":"London Transport Museum Depot, W3 9BQ, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Depot open days: design classics","s":"depot-open-days-design-classics","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":220},{"n":"Strand-on-the-Green","s":"strand-on-the-green","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":2179},{"n":"The Original Maids of Honour","s":"the-original-maids-of-honour","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":2707}],"near_same":[{"s":"gunnersbury-park-museum","m":668},{"s":"london-museum-of-water-steam","m":1852},{"s":"pitzhanger-manor","m":1910},{"s":"musical-museum","m":2037},{"s":"kew-palace","m":2502},{"s":"hogarths-house","m":2677}]},{"slug":"madame-tussauds-london","name":"Madame Tussauds London","area":"Marylebone","address":"8-10 Marylebone Road, NW1 5LR","station":"Baker Street","walk":2,"lat":51.5229,"lng":-0.154874,"hours":[[9.5,17.5],[9.5,17.5],[9.5,17.5],[9.5,17.5],[9.5,17.5],[9.0,18.0],[9.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Fr 09:30-17:30; Sa-Su 09:00-18:00","website":"https://www.madametussauds.com/london/","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/684695074","types":["media"],"verdict":"Waxworks since 1835, and priced as a major attraction.","note":"Marie Tussaud began with death masks taken during the French Revolution, and the Chamber of Horrors descends from that. Now largely celebrity photo opportunities, plus a Marvel section and a short ride. Book online; the walk-up price is steep.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/madame-tussauds-london.jpg?v=11e9e915","thumb":"/img/madame-tussauds-london-480.jpg?v=5b0a408a","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Museum Madame Tussaud, London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Citizen59, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MadameTussaudMuseumLondon.JPG","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Madame Tussauds London, 8-10 Marylebone Road, NW1 5LR, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Sherlock Holmes statue","s":"sherlock-holmes-statue","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":126},{"n":"Hidden London: Baker Street \u2014 the world's first Underground","s":"hidden-london-baker-street-the-worlds-first-underground","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":133},{"n":"Chiltern Street","s":"chiltern-street","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":179}],"near_same":[{"s":"royal-academy-of-music-museum","m":187},{"s":"sherlock-holmes-museum","m":266},{"s":"wallace-collection","m":612},{"s":"royal-college-of-physicians-museum","m":767},{"s":"anaesthesia-heritage-centre","m":780},{"s":"the-showroom","m":1238}]},{"slug":"magic-circle-museum","name":"Magic Circle Museum","area":"Fitzrovia","address":"18-20 Stephenson Way, Fitzrovia, NW1 2DA","station":"Euston Square","walk":1,"lat":51.526389,"lng":-0.135556,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.themagiccircle.co.uk/","instagram":"magiccirclehq","attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["media","niche"],"verdict":"The Magic Circle's own collection of two centuries of stage magic, in its Euston headquarters, seen only on booked evenings.","note":"Twenty-three magicians met at Pinoli's restaurant in Soho in 1905 and founded the Magic Circle, with David Devant as its first president and a rule of secrecy that still binds its members. Its headquarters since 1998 has been a converted house on Stephenson Way behind Euston, and the museum inside holds what the society and its members have collected: Houdini's handcuffs, apparatus from Maskelyne and Devant's shows at St George's Hall, posters, playbills, automata and the props of a dozen famous acts. There is no walking in. The public sees it on scheduled evenings and afternoons, usually with a show in the theatre upstairs, booked in advance.","deep":false,"also_in":[{"name":"Secrets & Espionage","href":"/secrets/magic-circle-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Magic Circle Museum, 18-20 Stephenson Way, Fitzrovia, NW1 2DA, London","in_area":{"slug":"kings-cross-st-pancras","name":"King's Cross & St Pancras"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"The Euston Tap","s":"the-euston-tap","c":"beer","cn":"Beer","m":217},{"n":"Hidden London: Euston \u2014 the lost tunnels","s":"hidden-london-euston-the-lost-tunnels","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":231},{"n":"The Ch\u014dsh\u016b Five","s":"choshu-five","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":233}],"near_same":[{"s":"wellcome-collection","m":115},{"s":"galton-collection","m":229},{"s":"ucl-geology-collections","m":229},{"s":"grant-museum-of-zoology-and-comparative-anatomy","m":308},{"s":"institute-of-archaeology-collections","m":310},{"s":"petrie-museum-of-egyptian-archaeology","m":359}]},{"slug":"mall-galleries","name":"Mall Galleries","area":"Trafalgar Square","address":"12 The Mall, Covent Garden, SW1Y 5AH","station":"Charing Cross","walk":4,"lat":51.506528,"lng":-0.129985,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/","instagram":"mallgalleries","attrs":[],"osm":"node/5015865538","types":["art"],"verdict":"Gallery exhibits of the Federation of British Artists.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/mall-galleries.jpg?v=c0518b1b","thumb":"/img/mall-galleries-480.jpg?v=46b9bf89","width":1024,"height":762,"alt":"An exhibition at the Mall Galleries","caption":"","credit":"Photo by pam fray, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Mall_Galleries,_London_-_geograph.org.uk_-_8342750.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"wildlife-artist-of-the-year-2026","name":"Wildlife Artist of the Year 2026","href":"/art/mall-galleries/wildlife-artist-of-the-year-2026/","verdict":"The David Shepherd Foundation's international wildlife art competition, hung in full.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-08","to":"2026-09-12"},"types":["art","exhibition","nature"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"royal-society-of-marine-artists-annual-exhibition-2026","name":"Royal Society of Marine Artists: Annual Exhibition 2026","href":"/art/mall-galleries/royal-society-of-marine-artists-annual-exhibition-2026/","verdict":"Everything the sea has done to British painting, in one room, once a year.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-16","to":"2026-09-26"},"types":["art","exhibition","water"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"society-of-wildlife-artists-the-natural-eye-2026","name":"Society of Wildlife Artists: The Natural Eye 2026","href":"/art/mall-galleries/society-of-wildlife-artists-the-natural-eye-2026/","verdict":"The wildlife artists' annual show, which is mostly birds and unapologetic about it.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-01","to":"2026-10-10"},"types":["art","exhibition","nature"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"ray-atkins-unseen","name":"Ray Atkins Unseen","href":"/art/mall-galleries/ray-atkins-unseen/","verdict":"Paintings never shown, by a painter who worked outdoors on enormous canvases.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-20","to":"2026-10-24"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"art-for-youth-london-2026","name":"Art For Youth London 2026","href":"/art/mall-galleries/art-for-youth-london-2026/","verdict":"A selling show whose proceeds go to youth clubs, running since 1988.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-04","to":"2026-11-06"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"discerning-eye-2026","name":"Discerning Eye 2026","href":"/art/mall-galleries/discerning-eye-2026/","verdict":"Six selectors, six small hangs, no house style.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-13","to":"2026-11-21"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"royal-institute-of-oil-painters-annual-exhibition-2026","name":"Royal Institute of Oil Painters: Annual Exhibition 2026","href":"/art/mall-galleries/royal-institute-of-oil-painters-annual-exhibition-2026/","verdict":"The only annual show in Britain given over entirely to oil paint.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-26","to":"2026-12-12"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"hope-youth-voices-for-change","name":"HOPE, Youth Voices for Change","href":"/art/mall-galleries/hope-youth-voices-for-change/","verdict":"A youth-led exhibition asking whether anyone is listening.","runs":{"from":"2027-01-10","to":"2027-01-23"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/mall-galleries/"}],"maps_q":"Mall Galleries, 12 The Mall, Covent Garden, SW1Y 5AH, London","in_area":{"slug":"st-jamess","name":"St James's"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Admiralty Citadel","s":"admiralty-citadel","c":"secrets","cn":"Secrets & Espionage","m":96},{"n":"Admiralty Arch","s":"admiralty-arch","c":"royal","cn":"Royal London","m":100},{"n":"Royal Society","s":"royal-society","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":107}],"near_same":[{"s":"institute-of-contemporary-arts","m":78},{"s":"canada-house-gallery","m":157},{"s":"household-cavalry-museum","m":253},{"s":"national-gallery","m":276},{"s":"national-portrait-gallery","m":332},{"s":"british-optical-association-museum","m":352}]},{"slug":"mansion-house","name":"Mansion House","area":"City of London","address":"Walbrook, EC4N 8BH","station":"Bank","walk":1,"lat":51.512973,"lng":-0.089477,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":null,"instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"Guided tours of the public rooms of the official residence of the Lord Mayor of the City of London, includes city regalia, 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings, gold and silver plate collections.","note":null,"deep":true,"hours_extra":"Open on selected days only.","also_in":[{"name":"Power & Politics","href":"/politics/mansion-house/"}],"maps_q":"Mansion House, Walbrook, EC4N 8BH, London","in_area":{"slug":"the-city","name":"The City"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"St Stephen Walbrook","s":"st-stephen-walbrook","c":"sacred","cn":"Sacred London","m":46},{"n":"St Mary Woolnoth","s":"st-mary-woolnoth","c":"sacred","cn":"Sacred London","m":103},{"n":"London Stone","s":"london-stone","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":157}],"near_same":[{"s":"london-mithraeum","m":106},{"s":"bank-of-england-museum","m":184},{"s":"guildhall-art-gallery","m":316},{"s":"college-of-arms","m":647},{"s":"british-red-cross-museum-and-archives","m":699},{"s":"rose-theatre-exhibition","m":763}]},{"slug":"marble-hill-house","name":"Marble Hill House","area":"Richmond","address":"Richmond Road, TW1 2NL","station":"St Margarets","walk":10,"lat":51.449477,"lng":-0.313318,"hours":null,"hours_raw":"Apr-Oct","website":"https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/marble-hill-house/","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/24011012","types":["free","historic-house"],"verdict":"A white Palladian villa by the Thames, built for a king's mistress with money she made him give her, free.","note":"Henrietta Howard was mistress to George II while he was Prince of Wales, deaf, clever and unhappily married, and she used the settlement she extracted from him to build a house of her own in 1724, at a time when a woman keeping her own household was itself remarkable; Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, her neighbours and friends, helped lay out the garden. Roger Morris and Lord Herbert designed it after Palladio's Villa Cornaro, a white cube with a great room on the first floor, and it became the pattern for the English villa and, across the Atlantic, the plantation house. The London County Council bought it in 1902 to stop the builders and opened it the next year, the first Georgian house in England saved by a public body. English Heritage restored it in 2022, with the rooms conserved, the story of Henrietta told in them, and the gardens and their nine-pin bowling alley put back. The house is free from Wednesday to Sunday, and the sixty-odd acres of park along the river are open every day.","deep":false,"hours_extra":"The park is open daily; the house opens on limited days.","figure":{"src":"/img/marble-hill-house.jpg?v=47880c79","thumb":"/img/marble-hill-house-480.jpg?v=a43cec9e","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"The South (River) front of Marble Hill House in west London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Chris McKenna ( user:Thryduulf ), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marble_Hill_House-River(south)front.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Marble Hill House, Richmond Road, TW1 2NL, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"York House Gardens","s":"york-house-gardens","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":731},{"n":"Church Street, Twickenham","s":"church-street-twickenham","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":986},{"n":"Virginia Woolf statue, Richmond riverside","s":"virginia-woolf-statue-richmond-riverside","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":1067}],"near_same":[{"s":"orleans-house-gallery","m":479},{"s":"turners-house","m":528},{"s":"twickenham-museum","m":902},{"s":"museum-of-richmond","m":1154},{"s":"strawberry-hill","m":1947},{"s":"world-rugby-museum","m":2041}]},{"slug":"markfield-beam-engine-and-museum","name":"Markfield Beam Engine and Museum","area":"Tottenham","address":"Markfield Road, West Green, N15 4QA","station":"Tottenham Hale","walk":9,"lat":51.58182,"lng":-0.061485,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.mbeam.org/","instagram":"markfieldbeamengine","attrs":[],"osm":"way/115554282","types":["quirky","science"],"verdict":"Victorian 100 horsepower beam pumping engine.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/markfield-beam-engine-and-museum.jpg?v=8444cbc3","thumb":"/img/markfield-beam-engine-and-museum-480.jpg?v=e8daeec7","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"The brick engine house at Markfield, its tall arched window over the beam engine","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Julian Osley, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Markfield_Road_Pumping_Station,_South_Tottenham,_London_N15_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1918761.jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/markfield-beam-engine-and-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Markfield Beam Engine and Museum, Markfield Road, West Green, N15 4QA, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Blighty India Cafe","s":"blighty-india-cafe","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":815},{"n":"Walthamstow Wetlands","s":"walthamstow-wetlands","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":849},{"n":"Pressure Drop Taproom","s":"pressure-drop-taproom","c":"beer","cn":"Beer","m":1043}],"near_same":[{"s":"walthamstow-pumphouse-museum","m":1939},{"s":"bruce-castle-museum","m":2147},{"s":"museum-of-homelessness","m":2732},{"s":"william-morris-gallery","m":3034},{"s":"vestry-house-museum","m":3367},{"s":"gods-own-junkyard","m":3687}]},{"slug":"marylebone-cricket-club-museum","name":"Marylebone Cricket Club Museum","area":"St John's Wood","address":"St John's Wood Road, St. John's Wood, NW8 8QN","station":"St. John's Wood","walk":10,"lat":51.528275,"lng":-0.173141,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.lords.org/lords/lord-s-experience/tours","instagram":"embed.js","attrs":[],"osm":"node/8983812591","types":["sport"],"verdict":"The Ashes urn and two centuries of cricket, at Lord's, seen on the ground tour with the Long Room and the dressing rooms.","note":"The Marylebone Cricket Club has run cricket's laws since 1787 and collected its relics almost as long, and its museum behind the Pavilion, opened in 1953, is the oldest sporting museum in the world. The object everyone comes for is the smallest: the Ashes urn, four inches of terracotta given to the England captain Ivo Bligh in Australia in 1883 to hold the ashes of a burnt bail, a joke about English cricket's death that became the name of the oldest rivalry in sport, and which never travels; the winners get a replica. Around it are W.G. Grace's bat and cap, the scorebooks of famous matches, paintings of the game from the village green to the Test, the sparrow killed in flight by a ball at Lord's in 1936, stuffed with the ball, and the kit and memories of the great players. It is seen on the Lord's tour, which also takes in the Long Room the players walk through, the dressing rooms and the media centre that looks like a spaceship, and runs most days when there is no match.","deep":false,"maps_q":"Marylebone Cricket Club Museum, St John's Wood Road, St. John's Wood, NW8 8QN, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"The Winery","s":"the-winery","c":"wine","cn":"Wine","m":476},{"n":"Alfies Antique Market","s":"alfies-antique-market","c":"classic-british-shops","cn":"Classic British Shops","m":546},{"n":"London Central Mosque","s":"london-central-mosque","c":"sacred","cn":"Sacred London","m":563}],"near_same":[{"s":"the-showroom","m":535},{"s":"sherlock-holmes-museum","m":1131},{"s":"fleming-museum","m":1229},{"s":"ben-uri-gallery-the-london-jewish-museum-of-art","m":1329},{"s":"madame-tussauds-london","m":1397},{"s":"royal-academy-of-music-museum","m":1543}]},{"slug":"morley-gallery","name":"Morley Gallery","area":"South Bank","address":"147 Westminster Bridge Road, SE1 7HT","station":"Lambeth North","walk":2,"lat":51.498055,"lng":-0.109504,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],null],"hours_raw":"Mo-Sa 10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.morleycollege.ac.uk/the-gallery","instagram":"morleygallery","attrs":[],"osm":"way/89824997","types":["art"],"verdict":"Part of Morley College, exhibitions include painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, ceramics, textiles, installations, digital and sound art.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"Morley Gallery, 147 Westminster Bridge Road, SE1 7HT, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"The Obelisk at St George's Circus","s":"the-obelisk-at-st-georges-circus","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":337},{"n":"Lower","s":"lower","c":"wine","cn":"Wine","m":373},{"n":"Little Bread Pedlar","s":"little-bread-pedlar","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":375}],"near_same":[{"s":"imperial-war-museum-london","m":258},{"s":"florence-nightingale-museum","m":605},{"s":"cinema-museum","m":702},{"s":"lambeth-palace","m":761},{"s":"garden-museum","m":805},{"s":"london-fire-brigade-museum","m":935}]},{"slug":"museum-of-brands","name":"Museum of Brands","area":"Notting Hill","address":"111-117 Lancaster Road, W11 1QT","station":"Ladbroke Grove","walk":1,"lat":51.51625,"lng":-0.210999,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Sa 10:00-17:00; Su 11:00-17:00; Dec 24-26 off","website":"https://museumofbrands.com/","instagram":"MuseumofBrands","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/402345096","types":["media","quirky"],"verdict":"Robert Opie's twelve thousand tins, wrappers and adverts, walked in date order down a Time Tunnel from Victorian soap to last year's cereal.","note":"Robert Opie began keeping packaging at sixteen, with a Munchies wrapper he could not bring himself to throw away, and never stopped; his collection filled a museum at Gloucester Docks from 1984 and came to Notting Hill in 2005, since 2015 in a converted building on Lancaster Road. The heart of it is the Time Tunnel, a single corridor of some 12,000 objects in strict date order: Victorian soap and mustard tins, the first branded cereals, wartime ration packs, coronation mugs, Beatles bubble gum, seventies crisps, and the toys, magazines and adverts of every decade since. It is a history of ordinary life that nobody else thought worth recording, and people come out of it quieter than they went in. There is a caf\u00e9 and a garden, and a changing exhibition alongside, Branding Britain until October 2026.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/museum-of-brands.jpg?v=20cd6169","thumb":"/img/museum-of-brands-480.jpg?v=7d43232e","width":1024,"height":515,"alt":"The Museum of Brands, located in Notting Hill. Exterior with Mural","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Museum of Brands, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Museum_of_Brands_Building.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"branding-britain","name":"Branding Britain","href":"/museums/museum-of-brands/branding-britain/","verdict":"Yorkshire Tea, Marmite, Burberry and Cadbury on how Britain sells itself.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-04","to":"2026-10-31"},"types":["exhibition","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]}],"maps_q":"Museum of Brands, 111-117 Lancaster Road, W11 1QT, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Jawaharlal Nehru","s":"jawaharlal-nehru","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":293},{"n":"Claudia Jones","s":"claudia-jones","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":365},{"n":"Fabrique Bakery","s":"fabrique-bakery","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":389}],"near_same":[{"s":"design-museum","m":1967},{"s":"18-stafford-terrace","m":2007},{"s":"kensington-palace","m":2015},{"s":"leighton-house-museum","m":2036},{"s":"fleming-museum","m":2627},{"s":"the-showroom","m":2764}]},{"slug":"museum-of-comedy","name":"Museum of Comedy","area":"Bloomsbury","address":"Bloomsbury Way, WC1A 2SH","station":"Holborn","walk":4,"lat":51.517555,"lng":-0.124801,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.museumofcomedy.com","instagram":"museum_of_comedy","attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["media","quirky"],"verdict":"Comedy's props, scripts and posters in the crypt of a Hawksmoor church, with shows most nights.","note":"Nicholas Hawksmoor's St George's Bloomsbury, consecrated in 1730, is the church whose steeple carries a statue of George I dressed as a Roman, and its crypt has held the Museum of Comedy since 2014. It began as the collection of Martin Witts, who runs the Leicester Square Theatre, and it is a room of the things comedy leaves behind: scripts, puppets, props, costumes and posters, from music hall through Hancock, Tommy Cooper and Morecambe and Wise to the alternative circuit. What keeps it alive is the small theatre alongside, which stages stand-up, cabaret and previews of Edinburgh shows most evenings, so that the building is a working comedy venue with a museum attached rather than the other way round.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/museum-of-comedy.jpg?v=0c81fadf","thumb":"/img/museum-of-comedy-480.jpg?v=3244dcee","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"The entrance to the Museum of Comedy under St George's Bloomsbury","caption":"","credit":"Photo by ell brown, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_George%27s_Parish_Church_-_Bloomsbury_Way,_Bloomsbury_-_Museum_of_Comedy.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"new-comedian-of-the-year-2026-heats","name":"New Comedian of the Year 2026: heats","href":"/venues/museum-of-comedy/new-comedian-of-the-year-2026-heats/","verdict":"Forty heats to find one new comedian, and the past winners tell you why it matters.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-10","to":"2026-10-11"},"types":["comedy"],"clue":["Comedy"]},{"slug":"character-comedy-showcase","name":"Character Comedy Showcase","href":"/venues/museum-of-comedy/character-comedy-showcase/","verdict":"Twelve comic characters, each built in six weeks, tried out on a room in one night.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-18","to":"2026-11-17"},"types":["comedy"],"clue":["Comedy"]},{"slug":"james-campbells-comedy-4-kids-reducks","name":"James Campbell's Comedy 4 Kids: Reducks","href":"/venues/museum-of-comedy/james-campbells-comedy-4-kids-reducks/","verdict":"The man who invented stand-up for children, back at it after ten years of writing books.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-26","to":"2026-12-20"},"types":["comedy","family"],"clue":["Comedy"]},{"slug":"a-mind-full","name":"A Mind Full","href":"/venues/museum-of-comedy/a-mind-full/","verdict":"A man with impulse problems moves into a Buddhist community and tries, badly, to meditate.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-30","to":"2026-09-30"},"types":["comedy"],"clue":["Comedy"]},{"slug":"the-instant-musical","name":"The Instant Musical","href":"/venues/museum-of-comedy/the-instant-musical/","verdict":"A whole musical improvised from a suggestion, songs and plot twists included.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-30","to":"2026-11-25"},"types":["comedy","theatre"],"clue":["Theatre"]},{"slug":"fingers-on-buzzers","name":"Fingers on Buzzers","href":"/venues/museum-of-comedy/fingers-on-buzzers/","verdict":"The Chase's Vixen and Lucy Porter record their quiz podcast in front of you, twice a night.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-06","to":"2026-11-03"},"types":["comedy"],"clue":["Comedy"]},{"slug":"rachel-parris-tour-preview","name":"Rachel Parris: Tour Preview","href":"/venues/museum-of-comedy/rachel-parris-tour-preview/","verdict":"A career of musical comedy songs, tried out at the piano before the tour proper.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-07","to":"2026-10-22"},"types":["comedy"],"clue":["Comedy"]},{"slug":"adam-larter-who-remembers-the-90s","name":"Adam Larter: Who Remembers The 90s?","href":"/venues/museum-of-comedy/adam-larter-who-remembers-the-90s/","verdict":"An arthouse nostalgia show about a decade that was already strange at the time.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-16","to":"2026-10-16"},"types":["comedy"],"clue":["Comedy"]},{"slug":"richard-ashcroft-revived-my-libido","name":"Richard Ashcroft Revived My Libido","href":"/venues/museum-of-comedy/richard-ashcroft-revived-my-libido/","verdict":"A sexual reawakening at Crystal Palace Park Bowl, told by a Partridge and Catherine Tate writer.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-16","to":"2026-10-16"},"types":["comedy"],"clue":["Comedy"]},{"slug":"emer-maguire-perfectly-chaotic","name":"Emer Maguire: Perfectly Chaotic","href":"/venues/museum-of-comedy/emer-maguire-perfectly-chaotic/","verdict":"Storytelling, quick wit and irreverent songs from one of Ireland\u2019s fastest-rising comics.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-17","to":"2026-10-17"},"types":["comedy"],"clue":["Comedy"]},{"slug":"katie-pritchard-is-sir-elton-scone","name":"Katie Pritchard is Sir Elton Scone","href":"/venues/museum-of-comedy/katie-pritchard-is-sir-elton-scone/","verdict":"A musical comedy gameshow with no rules and a suit made out of curtains.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-22","to":"2026-10-22"},"types":["comedy"],"clue":["Comedy"]},{"slug":"terror-at-the-haunted-starbucks","name":"Terror at the Haunted Starbucks","href":"/venues/museum-of-comedy/terror-at-the-haunted-starbucks/","verdict":"The Weirdos' annual Halloween show: part comedy farce, part horror pantomime, barely rehearsed.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-29","to":"2026-10-31"},"types":["comedy"],"clue":["Comedy"]},{"slug":"gary-faulds-panic-at-the-midlife-disco","name":"Gary Faulds: Panic at the Midlife Disco","href":"/venues/museum-of-comedy/gary-faulds-panic-at-the-midlife-disco/","verdict":"A Glaswegian comic having a public meltdown about turning fifty.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-07","to":"2026-11-07"},"types":["comedy"],"clue":["Comedy"]},{"slug":"british-comedy-guide-awards-final","name":"British Comedy Guide Awards Final","href":"/venues/museum-of-comedy/british-comedy-guide-awards-final/","verdict":"Five acts compete for the BCG Pro Talent Award, hosted by somebody who already has one.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-20","to":"2026-11-20"},"types":["comedy"],"clue":["Comedy"]},{"slug":"not-just-a-game-show","name":"Not Just a Game Show","href":"/venues/museum-of-comedy/not-just-a-game-show/","verdict":"Family Fortunes and Catchphrase run through a blender, with the audience as contestants.","runs":{"from":"2026-12-02","to":"2026-12-23"},"types":["comedy"],"clue":["Comedy"]},{"slug":"holly-stars-a-scandal-in-bohemia","name":"Holly Stars: A Scandal in Bohemia","href":"/venues/museum-of-comedy/holly-stars-a-scandal-in-bohemia/","verdict":"Sherlock Holmes solved by his neighbour, who cannot leave anything alone.","runs":{"from":"2026-12-05","to":"2026-12-05"},"types":["books","comedy"],"clue":["Comedy","Books & writers"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Performance venues","href":"/venues/museum-of-comedy/"}],"maps_q":"Museum of Comedy, Bloomsbury Way, WC1A 2SH, London","in_area":{"slug":"bloomsbury","name":"Bloomsbury"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"St George's Bloomsbury","s":"st-georges-bloomsbury","c":"sacred","cn":"Sacred London","m":17},{"n":"Present & Correct","s":"present-correct","c":"classic-british-shops","cn":"Classic British Shops","m":111},{"n":"Darlish Bloomsbury","s":"darlish-bloomsbury","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":114}],"near_same":[{"s":"pushkin-house","m":139},{"s":"british-museum","m":242},{"s":"library-and-museum-of-freemasonry","m":374},{"s":"bow-street-museum-of-crime-and-justice","m":499},{"s":"wiener-library","m":501},{"s":"sir-john-soanes-museum","m":510}]},{"slug":"museum-of-croydon","name":"Museum of Croydon","area":"Croydon","address":"Katharine Street, Broad Green, CR0 1NX","station":"East Croydon","walk":8,"lat":51.372053,"lng":-0.099252,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://museumofcroydon.com/","instagram":"museumofcroydon","attrs":[],"osm":"node/2043098448","types":["local"],"verdict":"Croydon's story told in Croydon's own voices, free, in the Clocktower, with a room of Chinese porcelain beneath it.","note":"Croydon had no museum until 1995, though it had a collection: the pottery and porcelain that Raymond Riesco, a local businessman, gathered over a lifetime and left to the town in 1964, and two thousand works of art. When the council built the Clocktower, its arts and library complex beside the town hall, it spent five years asking residents what a museum should be, and the answer was one told in their own words, with objects lent or chosen by local people and captioned by them, from Anglo-Saxon brooches to the airport that was London's until 1959. It reopened under its present name in 2006. The Riesco Gallery on the lower floor holds a thousand years of Chinese ceramics alongside the borough's Roman and Anglo-Saxon finds. Entry is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/museum-of-croydon.jpg?v=455934f3","thumb":"/img/museum-of-croydon-480.jpg?v=0f0803eb","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Sign for the Museum of Croydon inside the Crooydon Clocktower arts venue","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Pafcool2, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Museum_of_Croydon.JPG","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Museum of Croydon, Katharine Street, Broad Green, CR0 1NX, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Croydon Minster","s":"croydon-minster","c":"sacred","cn":"Sacred London","m":468},{"n":"\u00c9mile Zola","s":"emile-zola","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":4902},{"n":"Ira Aldridge","s":"ira-aldridge","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":5181}],"near_same":[{"s":"shirley-windmill","m":3102},{"s":"honeywood-museum","m":4632},{"s":"bethlem-museum-of-the-mind","m":4944},{"s":"little-holland-house","m":5295},{"s":"horniman-museum-and-gardens","m":8223},{"s":"dulwich-picture-gallery","m":8267}]},{"slug":"museum-of-domestic-design-and-architecture","name":"Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture","area":"Colindale","address":"Boulevard Drive, Colindale, NW9 5HF","station":"Colindale","walk":8,"lat":51.596044,"lng":-0.240945,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://moda.mdx.ac.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["art"],"verdict":"Open by appointment only, research museum of Middlesex University, 19th- and 20th-century decorative arts for the home including textiles and wallpaper.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture, Boulevard Drive, Colindale, NW9 5HF, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Bang Bang Oriental Foodhall","s":"bang-bang-oriental","c":"food-markets","cn":"Food Markets","m":1352},{"n":"St Lawrence, Little Stanmore","s":"st-lawrence-little-stanmore","c":"sacred","cn":"Sacred London","m":3605},{"n":"Paddock, Dollis Hill","s":"paddock-dollis-hill","c":"secrets","cn":"Secrets & Espionage","m":3725}],"near_same":[{"s":"royal-air-force-museum-london","m":250},{"s":"stephens-collection","m":3226},{"s":"artsdepot","m":4807},{"s":"brent-museum","m":5543},{"s":"kenwood-house","m":5768},{"s":"fenton-house","m":5915}]},{"slug":"museum-of-homelessness","name":"Museum of Homelessness","area":"Finsbury Park","address":"Seven Sisters Road, N4 2DE","station":"Manor House","walk":1,"lat":51.570586,"lng":-0.09665,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://museumofhomelessness.org/","instagram":"our_moh","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"node/11944559638","types":["history"],"verdict":"Social history museum and holder the national collection of homelessness for the UK.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"Museum of Homelessness, Seven Sisters Road, N4 2DE, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Blighty","s":"blighty","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":857},{"n":"Abra\u00e7o","s":"abraco-harringay","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":897},{"n":"New Beacon Books","s":"new-beacon-books","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":926}],"near_same":[{"s":"arsenal-football-club-museum","m":1739},{"s":"markfield-beam-engine-and-museum","m":2732},{"s":"estorick-collection-of-modern-italian-art","m":2977},{"s":"bruce-castle-museum","m":3494},{"s":"sutton-house","m":4029},{"s":"hackney-museum","m":4043}]},{"slug":"museum-of-immigration-and-diversity","name":"Museum of Immigration and Diversity","area":"Spitalfields","address":"19 Princelet Street, E1 6QH","station":"Shoreditch High Street","walk":5,"lat":51.519846,"lng":-0.072486,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.19princeletstreet.org.uk/about/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/2102604123","types":["history"],"verdict":"Open selected days only.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/museum-of-immigration-and-diversity.jpg?v=42a19152","thumb":"/img/museum-of-immigration-and-diversity-480.jpg?v=dd0c7dd0","width":546,"height":1024,"alt":"19 Princelet Street, Spitalfields, London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Nangpa uk, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:19_Princelet_Street,_Spitalfields,_London.jpg","thumb_width":256},"maps_q":"Museum of Immigration and Diversity, 19 Princelet Street, E1 6QH, London","in_area":{"slug":"spitalfields-brick-lane","name":"Spitalfields & Brick Lane"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Brick Lane Jamme Masjid","s":"brick-lane-jamme-masjid","c":"sacred","cn":"Sacred London","m":53},{"n":"Christ Church Spitalfields","s":"christ-church-spitalfields","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":119},{"n":"Brick Lane Curry Festival","s":"brick-lane-curry-festival","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":138}],"near_same":[{"s":"dennis-severs-house","m":386},{"s":"whitechapel-gallery","m":435},{"s":"rivington-place","m":876},{"s":"royal-london-hospital-archives-and-museum","m":878},{"s":"jack-the-ripper-museum","m":1056},{"s":"wesleys-chapel-museum-of-methodism-and-john-wesleys-house","m":1066}]},{"slug":"museum-of-richmond","name":"Museum of Richmond","area":"Richmond","address":"Whittaker Avenue, TW9 1TP","station":"Richmond","walk":8,"lat":51.458899,"lng":-0.306481,"hours":[null,[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0],[10.0,16.0],null],"hours_raw":"Mo,Su off; Tu-Fr 11:00-17:00; Sa 10:00-16:00","website":"https://www.museumofrichmond.com/","instagram":"museumofrichmond","attrs":[],"osm":"node/8988952531","types":["free","local"],"verdict":"Richmond's vanished palace and its famous view, told in the Old Town Hall, free.","note":"Richmond was Sheen until Henry VII rebuilt the royal palace here after a fire in 1497 and renamed it after his Yorkshire earldom, and Elizabeth I died in it in 1603. Almost nothing of the palace is left above ground, and the museum's model and its fragments of the palace's sixteenth-century glass are the best way to see it. Local people led by the historian John Cloake founded the museum in 1983, and the Queen opened it in the Old Town Hall in 1988. Its rooms run from prehistory to the Second World War across Richmond, Kew, Petersham and Ham, with the river and the view from the hill, the only view in England protected by its own Act of Parliament, painted by Leonard Knyff around 1720. Entry is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/museum-of-richmond.jpg?v=dd99ca4d","thumb":"/img/museum-of-richmond-480.jpg?v=7c23ed9d","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"A photograph of Museum of Richmond.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Matt Brown, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Museum_of_Richmond_interior_2024-05-08.jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"maps_q":"Museum of Richmond, Whittaker Avenue, TW9 1TP, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Hagen","s":"hagen-east-twickenham","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":74},{"n":"Virginia Woolf statue, Richmond riverside","s":"virginia-woolf-statue-richmond-riverside","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":86},{"n":"Friars Lane","s":"friars-lane","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":190}],"near_same":[{"s":"turners-house","m":925},{"s":"marble-hill-house","m":1154},{"s":"queen-charlottes-cottage","m":1573},{"s":"orleans-house-gallery","m":1581},{"s":"ham-house","m":1713},{"s":"twickenham-museum","m":1915}]},{"slug":"museum-of-the-home","name":"Museum of the Home","area":"Shoreditch","address":"136 Kingsland Road, E2 8EA","station":"Hoxton","walk":1,"lat":51.531508,"lng":-0.076444,"hours":[null,[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu-Su 10:00-17:00, PH 10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.museumofthehome.org.uk/","instagram":"museumofthehome","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/706183718","types":["art","design","free","history"],"verdict":"Rooms staged decade by decade, free, in Hoxton almshouses.","note":"Formerly the Geffrye, and reopened in 2021 with a broader idea of home than the period rooms alone \u2014 including work on who was excluded from them. The almshouse gardens and the herb garden are free too. The statue of Robert Geffrye, whose slave-trade money built the almshouses, remains and is now captioned.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/museum-of-the-home.jpg?v=4ced2ede","thumb":"/img/museum-of-the-home-480.jpg?v=ae46db73","width":1024,"height":682,"alt":"Front facade of the Geffrye Museum in July 2016","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Cmglee, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cmglee_London_Geffrye_Museum_front.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"rooms-through-time","name":"Rooms Through Time","href":"/museums/museum-of-the-home/rooms-through-time/","verdict":"Eleven London living rooms, 1630 to 2049, each dressed as if somebody just left it.","runs":null,"types":["exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"london-textile-month-at-the-museum-of-the-home","name":"London Textile Month at the Museum of the Home","href":"/museums/museum-of-the-home/london-textile-month-at-the-museum-of-the-home/","verdict":"A month of stitching, weaving and quilting in the period rooms, with Selvedge magazine.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-01","to":"2026-09-30"},"types":["art","history","workshop"],"clue":["Make something","Art & design"]},{"slug":"ceramics-in-the-city-2026","name":"Ceramics in the City 2026","href":"/museums/museum-of-the-home/ceramics-in-the-city-2026/","verdict":"Forty potters selling direct in the Museum of the Home's Hive, free, with a clay table for children.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-03","to":"2026-10-04","repeats":"yearly"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","workshop"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"maps_q":"Museum of the Home, 136 Kingsland Road, E2 8EA, London","in_area":{"slug":"shoreditch-old-street","name":"Shoreditch & Old Street"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Alcotraz","s":"alcotraz","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":206},{"n":"Sager + Wilde","s":"sager-wilde","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":303},{"n":"A Bar with Shapes for a Name","s":"a-bar-with-shapes-for-a-name","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":456}],"near_same":[{"s":"rivington-place","m":598},{"s":"wesleys-chapel-museum-of-methodism-and-john-wesleys-house","m":1111},{"s":"dennis-severs-house","m":1178},{"s":"honourable-artillery-company-museum","m":1255},{"s":"museum-of-immigration-and-diversity","m":1325},{"s":"vagina-museum","m":1347}]},{"slug":"museum-of-the-order-of-st-john","name":"Museum of the Order of St John","area":"Clerkenwell","address":"St John's Lane, EC1M 4DA","station":"Farringdon","walk":3,"lat":51.522006,"lng":-0.102556,"hours":[null,null,[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],null],"hours_raw":"We-Sa 10:00-17:00","website":"https://museumstjohn.org.uk/","instagram":"museumstjohn","attrs":[],"osm":"node/1686474834","types":["medical"],"verdict":"A Tudor gatehouse and a Norman crypt in Clerkenwell, free, and the road from the crusader knights to the St John Ambulance.","note":"The Knights of St John began as the monks who ran a hospital for pilgrims in Jerusalem in the eleventh century, became a military order in the crusades, and held Rhodes and then Malta against the Ottomans; their English headquarters was the priory founded at Clerkenwell in 1144. St John's Gate, built in 1504, is what survives of it above ground, with the twelfth-century crypt of the priory church across the square. After Henry VIII dissolved the order the gate had a second life: the Master of the Revels licensed plays here, Shakespeare's among them; the Gentleman's Magazine was printed here with the young Samuel Johnson on its staff; and Hogarth's father kept a coffee house in it. The order, revived in Victorian England, bought the gate back in 1874 and founded the St John Ambulance from it three years later, and the museum tells all of it, from Maltese armour to the first-aid handbooks. Entry is free; the crypt and the rooms upstairs are seen on the guided tours.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/museum-of-the-order-of-st-john.jpg?v=30d4d117","thumb":"/img/museum-of-the-order-of-st-john-480.jpg?v=49be93c3","width":768,"height":1024,"alt":"A photograph of Museum of the Order of St John.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Jim Linwood, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_John%27s_Gate,_Clerkenwell_-_London..jpg","thumb_width":360,"alt_generic":true},"maps_q":"Museum of the Order of St John, St John's Lane, EC1M 4DA, London","in_area":{"slug":"farringdon-clerkenwell","name":"Farringdon & Clerkenwell"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Clerkenwell Green","s":"clerkenwell-green","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":211},{"n":"Marx Memorial Library","s":"marx-memorial-library","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":246},{"n":"fabric","s":"fabric","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":266}],"near_same":[{"s":"goldsmiths-centre","m":115},{"s":"the-charterhouse","m":201},{"s":"st-bartholomews-hospital-museum","m":497},{"s":"islington-museum","m":516},{"s":"barbican-centre","m":648},{"s":"quentin-blake-centre-for-illustration","m":812}]},{"slug":"museum-of-wimbledon","name":"Museum of Wimbledon","area":"Wimbledon","address":"22 Ridgway, SW19 4QN","station":"Wimbledon","walk":10,"lat":51.423343,"lng":-0.216655,"hours":[null,null,null,null,null,[14.5,17.0],[14.5,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Sa-Su 14:30-17:00","website":"https://www.wimbledonmuseum.org.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/469771543","types":["free","local"],"verdict":"Wimbledon's own story, from the Iron Age fort on the common to the tennis, kept by the Wimbledon Society since 1916 and free at weekends.","note":"The Wimbledon Society has kept the village's museum since 1916, in rooms at 22 Ridgway above the town, and its volunteers still open it on weekend afternoons. It runs from Caesar's Camp, the Iron Age fort on the common that has nothing to do with Caesar, through the manor and the great houses on Parkside, the windmill of 1817 where Baden-Powell wrote part of Scouting for Boys, and the village of shops and pubs, to the club down the hill that gave its name to a tennis tournament. The Norman Plastow Gallery next door shows photographs and local art. Entry is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/museum-of-wimbledon.jpg?v=b0cc4cd1","thumb":"/img/museum-of-wimbledon-480.jpg?v=54100fdb","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"The Museum of Wimbledon at 22 Ridgway, Wimbledon, London, SW19 4QN","caption":"","credit":"Photo by No Swan So Fine, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Museum_of_Wimbledon.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Museum of Wimbledon, 22 Ridgway, SW19 4QN, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Megan's in the Village","s":"megans-wimbledon","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":190},{"n":"Wimbledon BookFest","s":"wimbledon-bookfest","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":594},{"n":"Buddhapadipa Temple","s":"buddhapadipa-temple","c":"sacred","cn":"Sacred London","m":863}],"near_same":[{"s":"southside-house","m":758},{"s":"wimbledon-lawn-tennis-museum","m":1288},{"s":"wimbledon-windmill-museum","m":1899},{"s":"dorich-house","m":3402},{"s":"white-lodge-museum-and-ballet-resource-centre","m":4128},{"s":"london-sewing-machine-museum","m":4277}]},{"slug":"musical-museum","name":"Musical Museum","area":"Brentford","address":"399 Brentford High Street, TW8 0DU","station":"Kew Bridge","walk":6,"lat":51.487867,"lng":-0.293134,"hours":[null,null,null,null,[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0]],"hours_raw":"Fr-Su 10:00-16:00","website":"https://www.musicalmuseum.co.uk/","instagram":"musicalmuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"way/129870347","types":["music","niche"],"verdict":"Self-playing pianos, orchestrions and a Wurlitzer cinema organ that rises from the floor, demonstrated rather than displayed, in Brentford.","note":"Frank Holland began collecting self-playing instruments when the rest of the world was throwing them away, and opened his museum in a disused church in Brentford in 1963; in 2007 it moved into a purpose-built home on the High Street, with a concert hall for 250. The collection is the machinery of music before recording made it unnecessary: barrel organs and music boxes, player pianos worked by pedals, orchestrions that stand in for a whole band, a violin that plays itself, and the reproducing pianos of the 1910s and 1920s that replay rolls cut by Rachmaninoff, Gershwin and Paderewski with every hesitation of the original hand, from a library of more than twenty thousand rolls. The Mighty Wurlitzer, built for the Regal cinema in Kingston to accompany silent films, rises out of the floor of the hall. None of it means much silent, which is why the volunteers demonstrate as they go, and why the concerts and silent-film nights are the best way in.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/musical-museum.jpg?v=964f47b2","thumb":"/img/musical-museum-480.jpg?v=2c574b81","width":767,"height":1024,"alt":"A photograph of Musical Museum.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Jim Linwood, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Musical_Museum,_Brentford,_London..jpg","thumb_width":359,"alt_generic":true},"maps_q":"Musical Museum, 399 Brentford High Street, TW8 0DU, London","bank":null,"near_all":[{"n":"The Original Maids of Honour","s":"the-original-maids-of-honour","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":858},{"n":"Strand-on-the-Green","s":"strand-on-the-green","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":972},{"n":"Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew","s":"royal-botanic-gardens-kew","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":1079}],"near_same":[{"s":"london-museum-of-water-steam","m":226},{"s":"kew-palace","m":467},{"s":"the-national-archives","m":1221},{"s":"gunnersbury-park-museum","m":1378},{"s":"queen-charlottes-cottage","m":1813},{"s":"boston-manor-house","m":1817}]},{"slug":"national-army-museum","name":"National Army Museum","area":"Chelsea","address":"SW3 4HT","station":"Sloane Square","walk":9,"lat":51.48624,"lng":-0.160287,"hours":[null,[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5]],"hours_raw":"Tu-Su 10:00-17:30","website":"https://www.nam.ac.uk/","instagram":"nam_london","attrs":[],"osm":"way/10807015","types":["free","military"],"verdict":"The British Army's own museum, free, beside the Royal Hospital, and unusually frank about what soldiers have been asked to do.","note":"Founded by Royal Charter in 1960 to hold the army's story as a whole, where every regiment kept its own, the museum sits on Royal Hospital Road beside the Chelsea Pensioners, and a rebuilding finished in 2017 turned a brown brick bunker into an open building of five galleries that ask questions: Soldier, on who joins and what it does to them; Army, on how the institution grew from the Civil War; Battle, from Waterloo to Helmand; Society, on how the army has shaped Britain and been shaped by it, empire and Northern Ireland included; and Insight, on the army's dealings with the world. It is strongest on the personal, kit, letters and recordings rather than tanks, and it does not flinch. From the summer of 2026 it also shows Lord Ashcroft's collection of Victoria and George Crosses, the largest in the world. Entry is free.","deep":false,"hours_source":"web","hours_checked":"2026-09-03","hours_url":"https://www.nam.ac.uk/plan-visit","figure":{"src":"/img/national-army-museum.jpg?v=328a9d2e","thumb":"/img/national-army-museum-480.jpg?v=9c4356ee","width":1024,"height":525,"alt":"National Army Museum - Joy of Museums, for information see: www.joyofmuseums.com","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Joyofmuseums, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:National_Army_Museum_-_Joy_of_Museums.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"myth-and-reality-military-art-in-the-age-of-queen-victoria","name":"Myth and Reality: Military Art in the Age of Queen Victoria","href":"/museums/national-army-museum/myth-and-reality-military-art-in-the-age-of-queen-victoria/","verdict":"A hundred Victorian paintings of soldiers, and the moment artists stopped painting only the generals.","runs":{"to":"2026-11-01"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"the-national-army-museums-permanent-galleries","name":"The National Army Museum's permanent galleries","href":"/museums/national-army-museum/the-national-army-museums-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"Five free galleries on what a soldier's life has actually been, for 350 years.","runs":null,"types":["exhibition","family","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"drawn-on-the-western-front-paul-sarrut-and-the-indian-army","name":"Drawn on the Western Front: Paul Sarrut and the Indian Army","href":"/museums/national-army-museum/drawn-on-the-western-front-paul-sarrut-and-the-indian-army/","verdict":"Fifty sketches of Indian soldiers in France, unseen for a century, with two Victoria Crosses beside them.","runs":{"from":"2026-07-07","to":"2027-02-21"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"maps_q":"National Army Museum, SW3 4HT, London","in_area":{"slug":"chelsea","name":"Chelsea"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"John Singer Sargent","s":"john-singer-sargent","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":114},{"n":"Mark Twain","s":"mark-twain","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":188},{"n":"Knoops Chelsea","s":"knoops-chelsea","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":424}],"near_same":[{"s":"chelsea-physic-garden","m":219},{"s":"royal-hospital-chelsea-museum","m":256},{"s":"saatchi-gallery","m":501},{"s":"carlyles-house","m":699},{"s":"victoria-and-albert-museum","m":1441},{"s":"natural-history-museum","m":1573}]},{"slug":"national-gallery","name":"National Gallery","area":"Trafalgar Square","address":"Orange Street, Covent Garden, WC2H 7HS","station":"Charing Cross","walk":2,"lat":51.508889,"lng":-0.128752,"hours":[[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,21.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Sa-Th 10:00-18:00; Fr 10:00-21:00","website":"https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/","instagram":"nationalgallery","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/4372002","types":["art","free","popular"],"verdict":"Western painting from Giotto to C\u00e9zanne, 2,300 pictures on one floor, free, on the north side of Trafalgar Square.","note":"Unlike the Louvre or the Prado, the National Gallery was not a royal collection thrown open; Britain bought its one. In 1824 Parliament paid \u00a357,000 for the thirty-eight paintings of the banker John Julius Angerstein and hung them in his house at 100 Pall Mall, and the collection has been built since by purchase and by gift, two-thirds of it given. William Wilkins's building on the north side of Trafalgar Square opened in 1838 and was thought too small almost at once; the Sainsbury Wing of 1991, by Venturi and Scott Brown, added the west end and holds the earliest pictures. The gallery marked its two hundredth birthday in 2024 and reopened the refurbished Sainsbury Wing in 2025.\n\nIt is small for a national gallery, 2,300 paintings, and chosen so that nearly every step in Western painting between the 1250s and 1900 is here in a first-rate example: Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait, Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks and his cartoon of the Virgin and Child, bought by public subscription in 1962, Holbein's Ambassadors, Vel\u00e1zquez's Rokeby Venus, Turner's Fighting Temeraire, Constable's Hay Wain, Seurat's Bathers at Asni\u00e8res and Van Gogh's Sunflowers. Entry to all of it is free. Nobody sees it in a visit and the room plans by the door mean nobody needs to; pick six pictures and come back.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/own-national-gallery.jpg?v=2635fd17","thumb":"/img/own-national-gallery-480.jpg?v=cad2479f","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"The National Gallery's portico and dome from Trafalgar Square, the steps empty","caption":"Before the crowds have arrived."},"whats_on":[{"slug":"the-national-gallerys-permanent-galleries","name":"The National Gallery's permanent galleries","href":"/art/national-gallery/the-national-gallerys-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"Van Eyck, Leonardo, Vel\u00e1zquez, Turner and the Sunflowers, free, off Trafalgar Square.","runs":null,"types":["art","exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"waldmuller-landscapes","name":"Waldm\u00fcller: Landscapes","href":"/museums/national-gallery/waldmuller-landscapes/","verdict":"Alpine light from a painter who worked outdoors decades before the Impressionists.","runs":{"to":"2026-09-20"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"monet-and-renoir-painting-side-by-side","name":"Monet and Renoir: Painting Side by Side","href":"/museums/national-gallery/monet-and-renoir-painting-side-by-side/","verdict":"Two friends painting the same river bank, hung side by side for the first time.","runs":{"from":"2026-07-27","to":"2026-09-15"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"renoir-and-love","name":"Renoir and Love","href":"/museums/national-gallery/renoir-and-love/","verdict":"Renoir's dancers and lovers, and the paintings he built a career on.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-03","to":"2027-01-31"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"yinka-shonibare-and-thomas-gainsborough-a-conversation","name":"Yinka Shonibare and Thomas Gainsborough: A Conversation","href":"/museums/national-gallery/yinka-shonibare-and-thomas-gainsborough-a-conversation/","verdict":"A living artist answering an eighteenth-century portrait, in the same room as it.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-15","to":"2027-02-07"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"van-eyck-the-portraits","name":"Van Eyck: The Portraits","href":"/museums/national-gallery/van-eyck-the-portraits/","verdict":"The portraits of the man who made oil paint do what it does.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-21","to":"2027-04-11"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"catharina-van-hemessen-signature-works","name":"Catharina van Hemessen: Signature Works","href":"/museums/national-gallery/catharina-van-hemessen-signature-works/","verdict":"The first painter of either sex known to have signed a self-portrait at an easel.","runs":{"from":"2027-03-04","to":"2027-05-30"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"german-expressionism-modern-painting-19001918","name":"German Expressionism: Modern Painting 1900\u20131918","href":"/museums/national-gallery/german-expressionism-modern-painting-19001918/","verdict":"Br\u00fccke and Blaue Reiter, from the years before the war swallowed them.","runs":{"from":"2027-03-20","to":"2027-08-01"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/national-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"National Gallery, Orange Street, Covent Garden, WC2H 7HS, London","in_area":{"slug":"soho","name":"Soho"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Diwali on the Square","s":"diwali-on-the-square","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":108},{"n":"Edith Cavell Memorial","s":"edith-cavell-memorial","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":122},{"n":"Trafalgar Square & Nelson's Column","s":"nelsons-column","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":137}],"near_same":[{"s":"national-portrait-gallery","m":59},{"s":"canada-house-gallery","m":118},{"s":"british-optical-association-museum","m":257},{"s":"mall-galleries","m":276},{"s":"benjamin-franklin-house","m":300},{"s":"institute-of-contemporary-arts","m":339}]},{"slug":"national-maritime-museum","name":"National Maritime Museum","area":"Greenwich","address":"Romney Road, SE10 9NF","station":"Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich","walk":5,"lat":51.480783,"lng":-0.005405,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/183090506","types":["family","free","maritime","popular"],"verdict":"Britain and the sea, free, in Greenwich: Nelson's coat with the bullet hole, Turner's Trafalgar and a map of the oceans to walk on.","note":"This is the national museum of Britain's life at sea, opened by George VI in 1937 in the buildings of the old Royal Hospital School beside the Queen's House, and built on the gift of Sir James Caird, a shipowner who bought whatever came up for sale and gave it to the nation. The collection now runs past two and a half million items, the largest holding on the subject anywhere: ship models, charts, instruments for finding the way and the time, and the paintings, among them Turner's Battle of Trafalgar, the largest picture he ever made, commissioned by George IV.\n\nNelson has a gallery to himself. The undress coat he was wearing when he was shot on the deck of Victory is here, with the hole in the left shoulder, beside the story of how the navy became the nation's idea of itself. Other galleries follow the Tudor and Stuart voyages that began it, the Pacific, and the polar expeditions; the Great Map on the floor shows how much of the planet is water, and children are allowed to walk across it. Entry is free, as it is next door at the Queen's House, Inigo Jones's building of 1616 and the first in England in the classical style, where the Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I hangs.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/national-maritime-museum.jpg?v=eca5443f","thumb":"/img/national-maritime-museum-480.jpg?v=34a72803","width":1024,"height":809,"alt":"A photograph of National Maritime Museum.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Katie Chan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EH1211481_National_Maritime_Museum_10_(cropped).JPG","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"whats_on":[{"slug":"national-maritime-museum-treasures-tour","name":"National Maritime Museum Treasures Tour","href":"/museums/national-maritime-museum/national-maritime-museum-treasures-tour/","verdict":"Royal barges, Roman anchors, Tudor ship models and Nelson, in an hour with a guide.","runs":null,"types":["history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]},{"slug":"the-national-maritime-museums-permanent-galleries","name":"The National Maritime Museum's permanent galleries","href":"/museums/national-maritime-museum/the-national-maritime-museums-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"Nelson's coat with the bullet hole in it, and ten free galleries of what the sea did to Britain.","runs":null,"types":["exhibition","family","free","history","water"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"windrush-food-culture","name":"Windrush Food Culture","href":"/museums/national-maritime-museum/windrush-food-culture/","verdict":"How Caribbean cooking went from the margins of Britain to the high street.","runs":{"to":"2026-09-30"},"types":["exhibition","food_available","food_drink","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Food & drink"]},{"slug":"komij-mour-ijin-our-life-is-here","name":"Komij Mour Ijin / Our Life is Here","href":"/museums/national-maritime-museum/komij-mour-ijin-our-life-is-here/","verdict":"Marshall Islands artists on nuclear testing and a rising sea. Free.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-09","to":"2026-10-04"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"lgbtq-history-talks","name":"LGBTQ+ history talks","href":"/museums/national-maritime-museum/lgbtq-history-talks/","verdict":"A free drop-in talk on queer maritime history, twice a week.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-10","to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["free","history","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk","History"]},{"slug":"character-encounters","name":"Character Encounters","href":"/museums/national-maritime-museum/character-encounters/","verdict":"Actors playing people from the museum's collection, free, every Saturday.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-12","to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["family","free","history"],"clue":["History"]},{"slug":"moon-celebration-week","name":"Moon Celebration Week","href":"/museums/national-maritime-museum/moon-celebration-week/","verdict":"Nine days of lunar tours, planetarium shows and LEGO across Greenwich's two museums.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-12","to":"2026-09-20"},"types":["family","science"],"clue":["Science & nature"]},{"slug":"astronomy-photographer-of-the-year","name":"Astronomy Photographer of the Year","href":"/museums/national-maritime-museum/astronomy-photographer-of-the-year/","verdict":"The winning pictures of the sky, printed big and lit from behind.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-18","to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["exhibition","photography","science"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]},{"slug":"zwo-astronomy-photographer-of-the-year","name":"ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year","href":"/museums/national-maritime-museum/zwo-astronomy-photographer-of-the-year/","verdict":"A hundred space photographs on lightboxes, chosen from the world's astrophotographers.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-18","repeats":"yearly"},"types":["exhibition","photography","science"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]},{"slug":"unboxing-the-universe","name":"Unboxing the Universe","href":"/museums/national-maritime-museum/unboxing-the-universe/","verdict":"Science theatre about space, for anyone who will sit still for it.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-26","to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["family","science"],"clue":["Science & nature"]}],"maps_q":"National Maritime Museum, Romney Road, SE10 9NF, London","in_area":{"slug":"greenwich","name":"Greenwich"},"bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Dark Sugars Ice Creams","s":"dark-sugars-ice-creams","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":211},{"n":"Dark Sugars Cocoa House","s":"dark-sugars-cocoa-house","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":249},{"n":"Greenwich Market","s":"greenwich-market","c":"food-markets","cn":"Food Markets","m":267}],"near_same":[{"s":"queens-house","m":123},{"s":"old-royal-naval-college","m":249},{"s":"fan-museum","m":262},{"s":"cutty-sark-museum","m":369},{"s":"royal-observatory-greenwich","m":481},{"s":"rangers-house-wernher-collection","m":859}]},{"slug":"national-portrait-gallery","name":"National Portrait Gallery","area":"Soho","address":"WC2H 0HE","station":"Charing Cross","walk":2,"lat":51.509304,"lng":-0.128212,"hours":[[10.5,18.0],[10.5,18.0],[10.5,18.0],[10.5,18.0],[10.5,21.0],[10.5,21.0],[10.5,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Su-Th 10:30-18:00; Fr-Sa 10:30-21:00","website":"https://www.npg.org.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/59161723","types":["art","free","popular"],"verdict":"British history told through faces, from the Chandos Shakespeare to last year's photographs, reopened in 2023 with far more room.","note":"The National Portrait Gallery was the first in the world given over to portraits, founded in 1856 on the principle that a picture is here for who sat for it, not who painted it. The Earl of Stanhope proposed it three times in Parliament before the Lords agreed, the Commons voted \u00a32,000, and the first portrait given was the Chandos picture of Shakespeare, the most famous likeness of him and quite possibly not him at all. After forty years in borrowed rooms the collection moved in 1896 into Ewan Christian's Portland stone building beside the National Gallery, paid for by an \u00a380,000 gift.\n\nThe rule still holds, which is why the gallery is history first and art second: the Ditchley portrait of Elizabeth I standing on a map of England, the Bront\u00eb sisters painted by their brother Branwell, and rooms of photographs of the living, allowed only since 1969. A \u00a341 million rebuilding by Jamie Fobert closed the gallery from 2020 to 2023 and gave it a new entrance on the north side through three bronze doors etched with Tracey Emin's drawings of women, the Blavatnik Wing of nine galleries for the last century of portraits, and a great deal more of the collection on the walls, with women and living sitters far better represented than before. Entry is free.","deep":false,"note_links":[{"phrase":"National Gallery","name":"National Gallery","href":"/art/national-gallery/"}],"figure":{"src":"/img/national-portrait-gallery.jpg?v=0e87c45f","thumb":"/img/national-portrait-gallery-480.jpg?v=0636eea1","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"National Portrait Gallery, London, June 2023","caption":"","credit":"Photo by No Swan So Fine, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:National_Portrait_Gallery,_London,_June_2023_34.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"the-national-portrait-gallerys-permanent-galleries","name":"The National Portrait Gallery's permanent galleries","href":"/art/national-portrait-gallery/the-national-portrait-gallerys-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"Seven hundred years of British faces, free, and best walked downwards.","runs":null,"types":["art","exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"gillian-wearing-spiritual-family","name":"Gillian Wearing: Spiritual Family","href":"/museums/national-portrait-gallery/gillian-wearing-spiritual-family/","verdict":"Four self-portraits in which Wearing becomes the artists she counts as family.","runs":{"from":"2026-01-09","to":"2027-01-10"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]},{"slug":"a-national-portrait-for-the-national-portrait-gallery","name":"A National Portrait for the National Portrait Gallery","href":"/museums/national-portrait-gallery/a-national-portrait-for-the-national-portrait-gallery/","verdict":"Sit for Es Devlin's collective digital portrait of the nation.","runs":{"from":"2026-05-14","to":"2026-10-26"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"herbert-smith-freehills-kramer-portrait-award-2026","name":"Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026","href":"/museums/national-portrait-gallery/herbert-smith-freehills-kramer-portrait-award-2026/","verdict":"The year's painted portraits, free on Floor 2, with a vote for your favourite.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-25","to":"2026-10-07"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"tim-walkers-fairyland-love-and-legends","name":"Tim Walker's Fairyland: Love and Legends","href":"/museums/national-portrait-gallery/tim-walkers-fairyland-love-and-legends/","verdict":"Five years of Tim Walker photographing queer trailblazers, in his fairytale style.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-09","to":"2027-02-07"},"types":["exhibition","fashion","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Fashion"]},{"slug":"winston-taylor-photo-portrait-prize-2026","name":"Winston Taylor Photo Portrait Prize 2026","href":"/museums/national-portrait-gallery/winston-taylor-photo-portrait-prize-2026/","verdict":"The photographic portrait prize formerly known as Taylor Wessing, in its new name.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-05","to":"2027-01-17"},"types":["exhibition","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]},{"slug":"mary-cassatt-radical-impressionist","name":"Mary Cassatt: Radical Impressionist","href":"/museums/national-portrait-gallery/mary-cassatt-radical-impressionist/","verdict":"The first UK retrospective of the American Impressionist, a century after her death.","runs":{"from":"2027-03-11","to":"2027-06-13"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/national-portrait-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"National Portrait Gallery, WC2H 0HE, London","in_area":{"slug":"soho","name":"Soho"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Edith Cavell Memorial","s":"edith-cavell-memorial","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":72},{"n":"St Martin-in-the-Fields","s":"st-martin-in-the-fields","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":118},{"n":"Diwali on the Square","s":"diwali-on-the-square","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":145}],"near_same":[{"s":"national-gallery","m":59},{"s":"canada-house-gallery","m":176},{"s":"british-optical-association-museum","m":250},{"s":"benjamin-franklin-house","m":294},{"s":"mall-galleries","m":332},{"s":"institute-of-contemporary-arts","m":397}]},{"slug":"natural-history-museum","name":"Natural History Museum","area":"South Kensington","address":"Cromwell Road, SW7 5BD","station":"South Kensington","walk":4,"lat":51.496455,"lng":-0.176022,"hours":[[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5],[10.0,17.5]],"hours_raw":"10:00-17:30","website":"https://www.nhm.ac.uk/","instagram":"natural_history_museum","attrs":[],"osm":"way/24436446","types":["family","free","nature","popular","science"],"verdict":"A cathedral of terracotta animals with a blue whale diving through the nave, free, and the finest building in South Kensington.","note":"The Natural History Museum began as the natural history half of the British Museum, which grew out of Sir Hans Sloane's collection of plants, skeletons and curiosities bought for the nation in 1753, and it was Richard Owen, the palaeontologist who coined the word dinosaur, who won it a home of its own. Alfred Waterhouse's building on Cromwell Road opened in 1881, faced inside and out in terracotta because the tiles shrugged off London soot, and every surface carries a modelled animal or plant, living species on the west side and extinct ones on the east. It has been called a cathedral of nature since it opened; it remained legally part of the British Museum until 1963 and kept that name until 1992.\n\nThe collection is about 80 million specimens, Darwin's among them, and the museum is as much a research institute as a show: the Darwin Centre's eight-storey Cocoon holds the insects and plants and lets you watch the scientists at work. In the great hall, now Hintze Hall, the cast of the Diplodocus that Andrew Carnegie sent in 1905, Dippy, gave way in 2017 to Hope, the real skeleton of a blue whale, diving from the ceiling. The dinosaur gallery, the earthquake room and the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition draw the longest queues. Entry is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/own-natural-history-museum.jpg?v=57ab5f21","thumb":"/img/own-natural-history-museum-480.jpg?v=2aba25a6","width":768,"height":1024,"thumb_width":360,"alt":"The Natural History Museum's terracotta towers against an orange sunset","caption":"Waterhouse's terracotta, at sunset."},"whats_on":[{"slug":"the-natural-history-museums-permanent-galleries","name":"The Natural History Museum's permanent galleries","href":"/museums/natural-history-museum/the-natural-history-museums-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"A blue whale overhead, a roaring T. rex, and an earthquake you can stand in.","runs":null,"types":["exhibition","family","free","nature","science"],"clue":["Exhibition","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"visions-of-nature","name":"Visions of Nature","href":"/museums/natural-history-museum/visions-of-nature/","verdict":"A mixed-reality headset trip a hundred years into a hopeful future.","runs":null,"types":["family","immersive","science"],"clue":["Immersive","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"jurassic-oceans-monsters-of-the-deep","name":"Jurassic Oceans: Monsters of the Deep","href":"/museums/natural-history-museum/jurassic-oceans-monsters-of-the-deep/","verdict":"Pliosaurs, ichthyosaurs and the mosasaur, and you get to touch a fossil poo.","runs":{"from":"2026-05-22","to":"2027-01-03"},"types":["exhibition","family","science"],"clue":["Exhibition","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"wildlife-photographer-of-the-year","name":"Wildlife Photographer of the Year","href":"/museums/natural-history-museum/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year/","verdict":"A hundred new photographs of the natural world, in a darkened, contemplative hang.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-16","to":"2027-07-11","repeats":"yearly"},"types":["exhibition","photography","science"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Architecture","href":"/architecture/natural-history-museum/"},{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/natural-history-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7 5BD, London","in_area":{"slug":"south-kensington","name":"South Kensington"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"The Clockmakers' Museum","s":"the-clockmakers-museum","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":105},{"n":"Venchi Exhibition Road","s":"venchi-exhibition-road","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":232},{"n":"National Art Library","s":"national-art-library","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":265}],"near_same":[{"s":"science-museum","m":105},{"s":"baden-powell-house-exhibition","m":273},{"s":"victoria-and-albert-museum","m":275},{"s":"rcm-museum-of-music","m":365},{"s":"polish-institute-and-sikorski-museum","m":595},{"s":"serpentine","m":919}]},{"slug":"novelty-automation","name":"Novelty Automation","area":"Holborn","address":"1a Princeton Street, WC1R 4AX","station":"Holborn","walk":4,"lat":51.519686,"lng":-0.116909,"hours":[null,[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[12.0,20.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[12.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu,We,Fr,Sa 11:00-18:00; Th 12:00-20:00; Su 12:00-18:00","website":"https://novelty-automation.com/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/3397886782","types":["family","media","quirky"],"verdict":"Tim Hunkin's handmade satirical arcade in a Holborn shopfront: nuclear reactors, divorces and the housing ladder, played with tokens.","note":"Tim Hunkin draws cartoons, builds machines and has spent forty years making amusement arcade games about the things that are not amusing; his first arcade is on Southwold pier and this one, opened in Princeton Street in 2015, is the London branch. You buy tokens at the desk and put them in the slots. The Housing Ladder has you walk a treadmill of steps to move a little figure up towards a home it never reaches; the Small Hadron Collider, the Frisker, an instant divorce, Test Your Nerve and a booth that photographs your expressions were all made by hand in his workshop, with the mechanisms on show. It is a museum of the London arcade tradition, from the laughing sailor onwards, disguised as a place to waste an hour, and it is very funny.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/novelty-automation.jpg?v=d645d0d0","thumb":"/img/novelty-automation.jpg?v=d645d0d0","width":500,"height":667,"alt":"Novelty Automation amusement arcade in Holborn, London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Lord Belbury, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Novelty_Automation.jpg"},"maps_q":"Novelty Automation, 1a Princeton Street, WC1R 4AX, London","in_area":{"slug":"bloomsbury","name":"Bloomsbury"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Conway Hall","s":"conway-hall","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":99},{"n":"Sun Yat-sen","s":"sun-yat-sen","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":203},{"n":"Lamb's Conduit Street","s":"lambs-conduit-street","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":228}],"near_same":[{"s":"sir-john-soanes-museum","m":292},{"s":"charles-dickens-museum","m":436},{"s":"pushkin-house","m":458},{"s":"hunterian-museum","m":494},{"s":"museum-of-comedy","m":595},{"s":"postal-museum","m":595}]},{"slug":"old-operating-theatre-museum-and-herb-garret","name":"Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret","area":"Southwark","address":"9a St. Thomas Street, The Borough, SE1 9RY","station":"London Bridge","walk":1,"lat":51.50506,"lng":-0.0885,"hours":[null,null,null,[10.5,17.0],[10.5,17.0],[10.5,17.0],[10.5,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Th-Su 10:30-17:00","website":"http://oldoperatingtheatre.com/","instagram":"oldoperatingtheatre","attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["medical","quirky","small-gem"],"verdict":"Europe's oldest surviving operating theatre, from the years before anaesthetics, in a church attic up fifty-two spiral steps.","note":"St Thomas' Hospital rebuilt its church in 1703 and put a long attic under the roof for its apothecary to dry herbs; dried opium poppies were still in the rafters when it was found again. In 1822 part of the garret was walled off and fitted with tiers of standing room to make an operating theatre for the women's ward next door, and for forty years surgeons worked here on patients who were awake, held down and given nothing for the pain but speed, in front of students watching from the rails; a box of sawdust under the table caught the blood. When the hospital moved to Lambeth in 1862 the theatre was sealed and forgotten, until a historian climbed into the roof in 1956 and found it intact. It is the oldest operating theatre in Europe and the only one of its kind left, reached by a spiral stair of fifty-two steps, with the instruments, the specimens and the herb garret around it, and demonstrations of what the surgeons did that are not for the squeamish.","deep":false,"whats_on":[{"slug":"museum-late-and-life-drawing","name":"Museum Late and Life Drawing","href":"/science/old-operating-theatre-museum-and-herb-garret/museum-late-and-life-drawing/","verdict":"Drawing a living body in the room where they cut up unanaesthetised ones.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-21","to":"2026-09-21"},"types":["art","late","workshop"],"clue":["Make something","Art & design"]},{"slug":"the-city-for-incurable-women","name":"The City for Incurable Women","href":"/science/old-operating-theatre-museum-and-herb-garret/the-city-for-incurable-women/","verdict":"A performance about the women the Salp\u00eatri\u00e8re put on show.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-28","to":"2026-09-28"},"types":["adults","history","theatre"],"clue":["Theatre","History"]},{"slug":"a-christmas-carol-at-the-old-operating-theatre","name":"A Christmas Carol at the Old Operating Theatre","href":"/science/old-operating-theatre-museum-and-herb-garret/a-christmas-carol-at-the-old-operating-theatre/","verdict":"Dickens's own reading script, performed by one man in a Victorian operating theatre.","runs":{"from":"2026-12-01","to":"2026-12-14"},"types":["books","family","theatre"],"clue":["Theatre","Books & writers"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/old-operating-theatre-museum-and-herb-garret/"}],"maps_q":"Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret, 9a St. Thomas Street, The Borough, SE1 9RY, London","in_area":{"slug":"borough-bermondsey","name":"Borough & Bermondsey"},"bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"The Colombian Coffee Company","s":"the-colombian-coffee-company-borough-market","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":96},{"n":"Konditor","s":"konditor-joiner-street","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":124},{"n":"John Keats statue","s":"john-keats-statue","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":135}],"near_same":[{"s":"gordon-museum-of-pathology","m":182},{"s":"golden-hinde","m":239},{"s":"clink-prison-museum","m":317},{"s":"hms-belfast","m":524},{"s":"rose-theatre-exhibition","m":538},{"s":"fashion-and-textile-museum","m":639}]},{"slug":"old-royal-naval-college","name":"Old Royal Naval College","area":"Greenwich","address":"College Way, East Greenwich, SE10 9JF","station":"Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich","walk":4,"lat":51.482951,"lng":-0.006343,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.ornc.org/","instagram":"oldroyalnavalcollege","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/35535194","types":["history","popular"],"verdict":"Built as a home for old and wounded sailors, with a dining hall whose ceiling took one painter nineteen years.","note":"Queen Mary II watched the wounded come ashore from a sea battle in 1692 and ordered a hospital built for sailors too old or too broken to work. Christopher Wren laid it out as four blocks set either side of an open avenue, so that the Queen's House behind kept its view of the Thames, and Nicholas Hawksmoor and John Vanbrugh carried on the work after him. Pensioners lived here for 177 years; the Royal Navy then trained its officers here for another 125, until 1998. The University of Greenwich and a music and dance conservatoire hold the buildings now, and two rooms are open to visitors.\n\nThe Painted Hall was meant to be the pensioners' dining room. The painter James Thornhill spent nineteen years on it, from 1707 to 1726, covering the walls and ceiling with William and Mary, Queen Anne, ships, seasons and gods across some forty thousand square feet, and was paid by the square yard. The room came out too grand to eat in, so the sailors ate elsewhere and showed visitors round it instead. Nelson's coffin lay here for three days in January 1806, before the funeral at St Paul's. The chapel across the avenue was rebuilt in pale, delicate plasterwork after a fire in 1779.","deep":false,"hours_source":"web","hours_url":"https://ornc.org/plan-a-visit/opening-times/","hours_checked":"2026-09-06","hours_extra":"Painted Hall, chapel and visitor centre; last entry 16:30. The Painted Hall is \u00a319 and children go free; the chapel and the grounds are free, and the grounds are open 08:00 to 23:00.","figure":{"src":"/img/own-old-royal-naval-college.jpg?v=28c95fad","thumb":"/img/own-old-royal-naval-college-480.jpg?v=e62ca94a","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"The Old Royal Naval College's colonnades and courts from the lawn, between plane trees","caption":"Wren's courts from the lawn."},"whats_on":[{"slug":"film-tour-wigs-weddings-powder-and-palaces","name":"Film Tour: Wigs, Weddings, Powder and Palaces","href":"/museums/old-royal-naval-college/film-tour-wigs-weddings-powder-and-palaces/","verdict":"Bridgerton and The Crown's locations, with a lesson in fan etiquette thrown in.","runs":null,"types":["family","history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]},{"slug":"old-royal-naval-college-600-years-of-history-tour","name":"Old Royal Naval College: 600 Years of History 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The exiled Louis-Philippe of France lived in the house from 1815 and gave it its name. Almost everything else was pulled down for the gravel beneath it in 1926; the Octagon was saved by Nellie Ionides, the shipping heiress next door, who bought it and left it to the borough with her pictures of the river. The gallery that has grown round it since 1972 holds the borough's art collection, thousands of works of the Thames from Hampton to Kew, with changing exhibitions in the old stables and a caf\u00e9. 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In 1761 the Child family, bankers of Fleet Street, hired Robert Adam to make the old red-brick house fit for the richest heiress in England, and over twenty years he did: a double portico cut through the front, and a run of state rooms in which he designed everything, the ceilings, the carpets that answer them, the furniture, the door handles and the Etruscan Dressing Room painted after the Greek vases then being dug up in Italy, which Horace Walpole thought went too far. Nothing was changed afterwards, because the family had other houses, and the Earl of Jersey gave it to the National Trust in 1949 with the contents intact, which makes it the most complete Adam interior anywhere. 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The novelist Amelia Edwards left University College her antiquities and the money for a chair in 1892, and its first professor, Flinders Petrie, the man who turned Egyptian digging from treasure hunting into archaeology, sold the college his own finds in 1913. The result, first shown in 1915, is 80,000 objects from his excavations and others: the painted mummy portraits from the Roman cemeteries at Hawara, pieces of Akhenaten's city at Amarna, the earliest evidence of mummification from the pyramid at Meydum, and above all the ordinary things, beads, tools, toys, combs and rows of pots, that Petrie cared about because they date a site. The Tarkhan dress, a pleated linen shirt from about 3000 BC, is the oldest woven garment in the world. It is shown as it always was, in tall wooden cases in two crowded rooms, and it is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/petrie-museum-of-egyptian-archaeology.jpg?v=68a86356","thumb":"/img/petrie-museum-of-egyptian-archaeology-480.jpg?v=ca7667a7","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Muzeum Petriego w Londynie","caption":"","credit":"Photo by w:User:LordHarris, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Petrie_Museum_of_Egyptian_Archaeology.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, Malet Place, WC1E 6BT, London","in_area":{"slug":"bloomsbury","name":"Bloomsbury"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"The Ch\u014dsh\u016b Five","s":"choshu-five","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":132},{"n":"Jeremy Bentham's Auto-Icon","s":"jeremy-benthams-auto-icon","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":135},{"n":"Getting Triggy With It: Matt Parker does the maths","s":"getting-triggy-with-it-matt-parker-does-the-maths","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":163}],"near_same":[{"s":"grant-museum-of-zoology-and-comparative-anatomy","m":90},{"s":"galton-collection","m":134},{"s":"ucl-geology-collections","m":134},{"s":"institute-of-archaeology-collections","m":182},{"s":"wellcome-collection","m":275},{"s":"magic-circle-museum","m":359}]},{"slug":"pitzhanger-manor","name":"Pitzhanger Manor","area":"Ealing","address":"Walpole Park, Mattock Lane, Ealing, W5 5EQ","station":"Ealing Broadway","walk":8,"lat":51.510886,"lng":-0.307107,"hours":[null,null,[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Su 10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.pitzhanger.org.uk/","instagram":"pitzhanger","attrs":[],"osm":"node/27408513","types":["historic-house","art"],"verdict":"Soane's own country villa of 1800, restored to his design in 2019: a house of tricks with light and coloured glass, and a gallery of contemporary art in the grounds.","note":"John Soane bought the house in 1800, kept the wing his old master George Dance had added in 1768, pulled down the rest and built himself a small country house of ideas: a front of Portland stone with columns and caryatids taken from Roman models, a breakfast room under a shallow dome, tribunes and top-lights, mirrors and amber glass that turn daylight into something he had designed, and a fake ruin in the garden. He meant it for a dynasty of architect sons and sold it in 1810 when the sons disappointed him. Ealing bought it in 1900 for a library, the Victorians' additions came off in a three-year restoration, and it reopened in 2019 looking as it had not since Soane left, the painted ceilings and the coloured skylights back. The gallery in the grounds shows contemporary artists, and Walpole Park, laid out around the house, is Ealing's oldest.","deep":false,"hours_url":"https://www.pitzhanger.org.uk/visit/","hours_extra":"Open until 20:00 on the first Thursday of the month, and on bank holidays.","hours_source":"web","hours_checked":"2026-09-08","figure":{"src":"/img/own-pitzhanger-manor.jpg?v=2d5e68e0","thumb":"/img/own-pitzhanger-manor-480.jpg?v=8d102872","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"Pitzhanger Manor's columned yellow-brick front, a modern sculpture on the drive","caption":"Soane's own villa, in Ealing."},"whats_on":[{"slug":"clare-woods-garden-without-seasons","name":"Clare Woods: Garden Without Seasons","href":"/art/pitzhanger-manor/clare-woods-garden-without-seasons/","verdict":"Huge, high-colour paintings of plants, hung through Soane's own country villa.","runs":{"from":"2026-07-29","to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"peter-blake-in-the-studio","name":"Peter Blake: In the Studio","href":"/art/pitzhanger-manor/peter-blake-in-the-studio/","verdict":"The man who made the Sgt. 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Sikorskiego w Londynie - wej\u015bcie","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Kerim44, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IPMS.jpg","thumb_width":418},"maps_q":"Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, 20 Princes Gate, SW7 1PT, London","in_area":{"slug":"south-kensington","name":"South Kensington"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Royal Albert Hall","s":"royal-albert-hall","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":318},{"n":"Albert Memorial","s":"albert-memorial","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":349},{"n":"Diana Memorial Fountain","s":"diana-memorial-fountain","c":"royal","cn":"Royal London","m":368}],"near_same":[{"s":"rcm-museum-of-music","m":339},{"s":"serpentine","m":394},{"s":"victoria-and-albert-museum","m":505},{"s":"science-museum","m":506},{"s":"natural-history-museum","m":595},{"s":"baden-powell-house-exhibition","m":810}]},{"slug":"postal-museum","name":"Postal Museum","area":"Clerkenwell","address":"15-20 Phoenix Place, WC1X 0DA","station":"Russell Square","walk":9,"lat":51.524724,"lng":-0.113998,"hours":[null,null,[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Su 10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.postalmuseum.org/","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"node/4973585223","types":["family","history","niche","transport"],"verdict":"Five centuries of post, and a ride through the Post Office's own underground railway.","note":"Mail Rail ran driverless trains under London from 1927 to 2003; you now ride a narrow train through a loop of the original tunnels. 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culture.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/pushkin-house.jpg?v=d3281cb2","thumb":"/img/pushkin-house-480.jpg?v=a8a0fe9c","width":768,"height":1024,"alt":"A photograph of Pushkin House.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Magnus Manske, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pushkin_House.jpg","thumb_width":360,"alt_generic":true},"maps_q":"Pushkin House, 5a Bloomsbury Square, London","in_area":{"slug":"bloomsbury","name":"Bloomsbury"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Swedenborg House","s":"swedenborg-house","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":37},{"n":"Present & Correct","s":"present-correct","c":"classic-british-shops","cn":"Classic British Shops","m":76},{"n":"Darlish Bloomsbury","s":"darlish-bloomsbury","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":116}],"near_same":[{"s":"museum-of-comedy","m":139},{"s":"british-museum","m":285},{"s":"library-and-museum-of-freemasonry","m":382},{"s":"sir-john-soanes-museum","m":412},{"s":"novelty-automation","m":458},{"s":"wiener-library","m":502}]},{"slug":"queen-charlottes-cottage","name":"Queen Charlotte's Cottage","area":"Kew","address":"Cinder track, TW9 3AQ","station":"Richmond","walk":14,"lat":51.472948,"lng":-0.303715,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":null,"instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"Located within the Kew Gardens, 18th-century rustic retreat built for Queen Charlotte, open seasonally.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"Queen Charlotte's Cottage, Cinder track, TW9 3AQ, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew","s":"royal-botanic-gardens-kew","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":1094},{"n":"Richmond Green","s":"richmond-green","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":1286},{"n":"Old Palace Lane","s":"old-palace-lane","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":1304}],"near_same":[{"s":"kew-palace","m":1350},{"s":"museum-of-richmond","m":1573},{"s":"musical-museum","m":1813},{"s":"the-national-archives","m":1924},{"s":"london-museum-of-water-steam","m":2220},{"s":"turners-house","m":2319}]},{"slug":"queen-elizabeths-hunting-lodge","name":"Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge","area":"Chingford","address":"6 Ranger's Road, E4 7QH","station":"Chingford","walk":7,"lat":51.634446,"lng":0.017551,"hours":[null,[11.0,16.0],[11.0,16.0],[11.0,16.0],[11.0,16.0],[11.0,16.0],[11.0,16.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu-Su 11:00-13:00,14:00-16:00","website":"https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/green-spaces/epping-forest/where-to-go-in-epping-forest/queen-elizabeths-hunting-lodge","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/43171287","types":["free","historic-house"],"verdict":"Henry VIII's timber grandstand of 1543 for watching the hunt in Epping Forest, free, with the forest's visitor centre beside it.","note":"Henry VIII had this built in 1542 as the Great Standing, a three-storey timber tower on the edge of the forest at Chingford from which the court could watch the deer being driven past and shoot at them from the upper floors, which were open to the air; the floors were boarded in later, and it was done up for Elizabeth I in 1589, which is how it got her name. The frame is largely the original oak, and the rooms are shown with the Tudor kitchen and the great chamber laid out for a hunting party. The City of London, which has owned Epping Forest since 1878, has looked after it since 1960 and opens it free, with The View, its visitor centre for the forest, in the old stables next door and a pub on the other side.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/queen-elizabeths-hunting-lodge.jpg?v=debd0264","thumb":"/img/queen-elizabeths-hunting-lodge-480.jpg?v=dec991a6","width":1024,"height":576,"alt":"The white timber-framed Tudor hunting lodge at Chingford","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Irid Escent, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Queen_Elizabeth%27s_Hunting_Lodge_20170608_122627_(49825719407).jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge, 6 Ranger's Road, E4 7QH, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Epping Forest","s":"epping-forest","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":32},{"n":"Lucky Yu Bakery","s":"lucky-yu-bakery","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":5676},{"n":"Wood St. Coffee","s":"wood-st-coffee","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":6147}],"near_same":[{"s":"william-morris-gallery","m":5463},{"s":"gods-own-junkyard","m":5886},{"s":"vestry-house-museum","m":5984},{"s":"enfield-museum","m":6989},{"s":"forty-hall-museum","m":7095},{"s":"walthamstow-pumphouse-museum","m":7357}]},{"slug":"queens-house","name":"Queen's House","area":"Greenwich","address":"SE10 9NF","station":"Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich","walk":6,"lat":51.481188,"lng":-0.003748,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.rmg.co.uk/queens-house","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"relation/15327162","types":["art","free"],"verdict":"Inigo Jones's first classical house in England, free, with the Armada Portrait.","note":"Built for Anne of Denmark and finished for Henrietta Maria, and the Tulip Stairs are the first geometric self-supporting staircase in the country. The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I hangs here. Free, and quieter than the maritime museum below it.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/queens-house.jpg?v=daa6a2cf","thumb":"/img/queens-house-480.jpg?v=29e6cf9e","width":768,"height":1024,"alt":"Queens House 2006","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Pixel8, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Queens_House_2006.jpg","thumb_width":360},"whats_on":[{"slug":"character-actors-at-the-queens-house","name":"Character Actors at the Queen's House","href":"/museums/queens-house/character-actors-at-the-queens-house/","verdict":"People from the house's history, in the house, free.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-13","to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["family","free","history"],"clue":["History"]},{"slug":"afternoon-frequencies","name":"Afternoon Frequencies","href":"/museums/queens-house/afternoon-frequencies/","verdict":"Electronic music in Inigo Jones's Great Hall, free.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-18","to":"2026-10-23"},"types":["concert","electronic","free","music"],"clue":["Gig","Electronic"]},{"slug":"santas-grotto-at-the-queens-house","name":"Santa's Grotto at the Queen's House","href":"/museums/queens-house/santas-grotto-at-the-queens-house/","verdict":"The Snow Queen, a hobgoblin and Father Christmas in Inigo Jones's house.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-14","to":"2026-12-24"},"types":["family"],"clue":[]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/queens-house/"}],"maps_q":"Queen's House, SE10 9NF, London","in_area":{"slug":"greenwich","name":"Greenwich"},"bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Dark Sugars Ice Creams","s":"dark-sugars-ice-creams","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":327},{"n":"Dark Sugars Cocoa House","s":"dark-sugars-cocoa-house","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":364},{"n":"Greenwich Market","s":"greenwich-market","c":"food-markets","cn":"Food Markets","m":369}],"near_same":[{"s":"national-maritime-museum","m":123},{"s":"old-royal-naval-college","m":265},{"s":"fan-museum","m":378},{"s":"cutty-sark-museum","m":443},{"s":"royal-observatory-greenwich","m":462},{"s":"rangers-house-wernher-collection","m":875}]},{"slug":"queer-britain","name":"Queer Britain","area":"Kings Cross, London","address":"2 Granary Square, N1C 4BH","station":"London King's Cross","walk":5,"lat":51.535697,"lng":-0.123905,"hours":[null,null,[12.0,18.0],[12.0,18.0],[12.0,18.0],[12.0,18.0],[12.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Tu off; We-Su 12:00-18:00","website":"https://queerbritain.org.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"node/10240945793","types":["art","free"],"verdict":"The UK's first national LGBTQ+ museum, free, in three rooms on Granary Square.","note":"Britain had no museum of its queer history until this one opened on 5 May 2022, two months short of the fiftieth anniversary of the country's first Pride march. Joseph Galliano-Doig, a former editor of Gay Times, and Ian Mehrtens founded it in 2018 and spent four years staging shows in borrowed rooms before the Art Fund gave it the ground floor of its building at 2 Granary Square. Three connected galleries build a national collection from nothing: protest banners, photographs, a panel of the AIDS memorial quilt, the stories of the footballer Justin Fashanu, of Club Kali, of the Black Lesbian and Gay Centre and of Dora Carrington and Lytton Strachey, in displays that change every year. Its first full exhibition won the Museums Association's award for the best small museum project of 2022. Entry is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/queer-britain.jpg?v=468efb81","thumb":"/img/queer-britain-480.jpg?v=f8075d94","width":768,"height":1024,"alt":"Queer Britain's brick frontage at Granary Square, its name above the door","caption":"The museum at Granary Square, King's Cross.","credit":"Photo by PinkEM, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Queer_Britain_Museum.jpg","thumb_width":360},"whats_on":[{"slug":"trans-is-human","name":"Trans Is Human","href":"/museums/queer-britain/trans-is-human/","verdict":"Thirteen portraits by Mariano Vivanco of trans people from across the UK.","runs":{"from":"2026-08-05","to":"2026-11-29"},"types":["exhibition","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]}],"maps_q":"Queer Britain, 2 Granary Square, N1C 4BH, London","in_area":{"slug":"kings-cross-st-pancras","name":"King's Cross & St Pancras"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Ruby Violet","s":"ruby-violet","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":36},{"n":"Word on the Water","s":"word-on-the-water","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":44},{"n":"Caravan King's Cross","s":"caravan-kings-cross","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":96}],"near_same":[{"s":"lethaby-gallery","m":77},{"s":"london-canal-museum","m":304},{"s":"british-library","m":685},{"s":"foundling-museum","m":1175},{"s":"wellcome-collection","m":1287},{"s":"institute-of-archaeology-collections","m":1305}]},{"slug":"quentin-blake-centre-for-illustration","name":"Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration","area":"Kings Cross","address":"1 Myddelton Passage, EC1R 1AG","station":"Angel","walk":6,"lat":51.528594,"lng":-0.107645,"hours":[null,null,[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Su 10:00-17:00","website":"https://qbcentre.org.uk","instagram":"qbcentre","attrs":[],"osm":"node/13583467062","types":["art"],"verdict":"The UK's only public gallery for illustration, founded by Quentin Blake, now open in the old New River Head waterworks in Clerkenwell.","note":"Quentin Blake, who drew Roald Dahl's books and a great deal else, founded the House of Illustration in 2002 to give the art form a home of its own, the only public gallery in the country devoted to it, and from 2014 it worked out of a building at Granary Square behind King's Cross. In 2026 it reopened under his name at New River Head on Rosebery Avenue, the site where the New River, the man-made channel that brought Hertfordshire spring water to London from 1613, ended in a round pond; the engine house, coal stores and windmill base of the waterworks are now three galleries, the country's only library of illustration, a caf\u00e9 and newly planted gardens. The exhibitions run from children's picture books through political cartoons, manga and advertising to the drawn edge of fine art, and change through the year. One ticket covers the whole site.","deep":false,"whats_on":[{"slug":"murugiah-ever-feel-like","name":"MURUGIAH: Ever Feel Like\u2026","href":"/art/quentin-blake-centre-for-illustration/murugiah-ever-feel-like/","verdict":"Flower-headed, skull-headed characters from an illustrator who trained as an architect.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-05","to":"2026-10-04"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"queer-as-comics","name":"Queer as Comics","href":"/art/quentin-blake-centre-for-illustration/queer-as-comics/","verdict":"Eighty years of LGBTQIA+ comics, most of the artwork never shown before.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-05","to":"2026-10-04"},"types":["art","books","exhibition","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"quentin-blake-performance","name":"Quentin Blake: Performance","href":"/art/quentin-blake-centre-for-illustration/quentin-blake-performance/","verdict":"Over a hundred Blake drawings about the stage, from Punch and Judy to Godot.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-05","to":"2027-04-01"},"types":["art","exhibition","family"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"library-display-sophy-hollington","name":"Library display: Sophy Hollington","href":"/art/quentin-blake-centre-for-illustration/library-display-sophy-hollington/","verdict":"Linocut demons and moons with faces, in the free library.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-06","to":"2026-12-31"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"making-and-me","name":"Making and Me","href":"/art/quentin-blake-centre-for-illustration/making-and-me/","verdict":"Print trails made by older artists from the Peel community centre, and a soundscape of them talking.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-04","to":"2026-10-03"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/quentin-blake-centre-for-illustration/"},{"name":"Literary London","href":"/literary/quentin-blake-centre-for-illustration/"}],"maps_q":"Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, 1 Myddelton Passage, EC1R 1AG, London","in_area":{"slug":"farringdon-clerkenwell","name":"Farringdon & Clerkenwell"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Sadler's Wells","s":"sadlers-wells","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":141},{"n":"Lloyd Square","s":"lloyd-square","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":272},{"n":"Caf\u00e9 Kick","s":"cafe-kick","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":300}],"near_same":[{"s":"islington-museum","m":319},{"s":"postal-museum","m":615},{"s":"museum-of-the-order-of-st-john","m":812},{"s":"charles-dickens-museum","m":818},{"s":"goldsmiths-centre","m":907},{"s":"the-charterhouse","m":961}]},{"slug":"ragged-school-museum","name":"Ragged School Museum","area":"Limehouse","address":"46-50 Copperfield Road, E3 4RR","station":"Limehouse","walk":9,"lat":51.518793,"lng":-0.035738,"hours":[null,[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],null,null,null,[14.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu,We 10:00-17:00; Su[1] 14:00-17:00","website":"https://raggedschoolmuseum.org.uk/","instagram":"raggedschoolmuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"way/388845373","types":["family","history","local","quirky"],"verdict":"The largest of London's free schools for children too poor for any other, with its Victorian classroom kept.","note":"A ragged school was a school for children who were too poor, too ragged, to be let into any other. Thomas Barnardo arrived from Dublin in 1866 meaning to train as a doctor and go to China as a missionary; a cholera epidemic that killed thousands in the East End changed his mind, and in 1867 he opened a ragged school instead.\n\nThese three buildings were warehouses, put up to hold goods coming along the Regent's Canal. Barnardo took them in 1877 and turned them into the largest ragged school in London, and for thirty-one years, until it closed in 1908, it taught tens of thousands of children their letters and their numbers for free.\n\nThe warehouses were nearly pulled down in the 1980s and were saved by people who lived here, who opened the museum in 1990 and restored it again in 2022. The classroom upstairs is set out as it was, rows of iron-framed desks facing a blackboard, and school parties are still taught a lesson in it by a teacher in role; the rest of the museum is about what living in this part of London was actually like while the school was open.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/ragged-school-museum.jpg?v=aa818395","thumb":"/img/ragged-school-museum-480.jpg?v=d6ca9331","width":1024,"height":576,"alt":"The Victorian classroom at the Ragged School Museum, wooden desks facing a blackboard","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Mark Percy, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Ragged_School_Museum_-_geograph.org.uk_-_7648437.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Ragged School Museum, 46-50 Copperfield Road, E3 4RR, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Stepney City Farm","s":"stepney-city-farm","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":561},{"n":"Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park","s":"tower-hamlets-cemetery-park","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":762},{"n":"Troxy","s":"troxy","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":883}],"near_same":[{"s":"london-museum-docklands","m":1491},{"s":"chisenhale-gallery","m":1609},{"s":"royal-london-hospital-archives-and-museum","m":1720},{"s":"young-v-a","m":1748},{"s":"vagina-museum","m":1956},{"s":"the-viktor-wynd-museum-of-curiosities-fine-art-natural-history","m":2329}]},{"slug":"rainham-hall","name":"Rainham Hall","area":"Rainham","address":"The Broadway, Rainham, RM13 9YN","station":"Rainham","walk":2,"lat":51.517936,"lng":0.190792,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/rainham-hall/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/182185331","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"A sea captain's house of 1729 on Rainham's old street, its wrought-iron railings among the finest in London, the National Trust's since 1949 and open only since 2015.","note":"Captain John Harle, a merchant and ship-owner who made his money carrying the building materials of Georgian London up the Thames, built it in 1729 beside the church of St Helen and St Giles: three storeys of brown and red brick in the Dutch-flavoured manner of Queen Anne's reign, with Delft tiles in the fireplaces, painted illusions on the walls of the stair, and outside it the railings with his and his wife Mary's initials twisted into the ironwork, good enough to have been credited to Jean Tijou, who made the gates at Hampton Court. He ran his trade from the coach house in the yard, which is why house and business survive side by side. The Trust took it in 1949 and let it to tenants for sixty-five years, among them a photographer and a nursery school, and opened it in 2015 with exhibitions that change the story told room by room. A community garden with a thirty-tree orchard is behind, and the BBC filmed A Christmas Carol here in 2019.","deep":false,"hours_url":"https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/london/rainham-hall","hours_checked":"2026-09-08","hours_short":"Open days follow the Trust's calendar; the house is seen on a guided tour","hours_source":"web","figure":{"src":"/img/rainham-hall.jpg?v=864f0849","thumb":"/img/rainham-hall-480.jpg?v=9f42aa1b","width":1024,"height":769,"alt":"Rainham Hall, a 1729 Georgian property operated by the National Trust","caption":"","credit":"Photo by \u31f9\u30ee\u30a3\u31f3, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rainham_Hall.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Rainham Hall, The Broadway, Rainham, RM13 9YN, London","bank":1,"near_all":[],"near_same":[{"s":"upminster-windmill","m":5821},{"s":"valence-house-museum","m":5955},{"s":"eastbury-manor-house","m":6577},{"s":"havering-museum","m":6708},{"s":"upminster-tithe-barn-museum-of-nostalgia","m":7106},{"s":"valentines-mansion","m":10502}]},{"slug":"rangers-house-wernher-collection","name":"Ranger's House (Wernher Collection)","area":"Greenwich","address":"Chesterfield Walk, East Greenwich, SE10 8QX","station":"Greenwich","walk":14,"lat":51.473427,"lng":-0.001609,"hours":null,"hours_raw":"May 23-Sep 20 Sa-Su 11:00-16:00;May 25,Aug 31 11:00-16:00;Aug 15 off","website":"https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/rangers-house-the-wernher-collection/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/53099372","types":["art"],"verdict":"A Georgian villa on the edge of Greenwich Park holding a diamond magnate's cabinet of the splendidly ugly, and the outside of the Bridgertons' house.","note":"The house was built about 1722 for Francis Hosier, an admiral who died of yellow fever blockading Porto Bello, and from 1748 it belonged to the Earl of Chesterfield, who wrote the letters of advice to his son that made him a byword for worldly manners; in the nineteenth century it was the official home of the Ranger of Greenwich Park, which gave it its name. Since 2002 it has held the Wernher Collection. Julius Wernher came from Darmstadt, made one of the great fortunes of the Kimberley diamond fields, and spent it on what he called the splendidly ugly: medieval ivories, Limoges enamels, Renaissance jewels and bronzes, majolica, Dutch pictures and tapestries of Chinese scenes, nearly seven hundred pieces hung and cased as densely as he kept them. The outside of the house is the Bridgerton family's home in the Netflix series, which is why the lawn is photographed more often than the ivories. It opens on set dates.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/rangers-house-wernher-collection.jpg?v=eb6b2800","thumb":"/img/rangers-house-wernher-collection-480.jpg?v=01ce3b59","width":1024,"height":682,"alt":"The Ranger's House","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Katie Chan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EH1218679_The_Ranger%27s_House.JPG","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/rangers-house-wernher-collection/"}],"maps_q":"Ranger's House (Wernher Collection), Chesterfield Walk, East Greenwich, SE10 8QX, London","in_area":{"slug":"greenwich","name":"Greenwich"},"bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Prime Meridian","s":"prime-meridian","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":390},{"n":"Greenwich Park","s":"greenwich-park","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":454},{"n":"Dark Sugars Ice Creams","s":"dark-sugars-ice-creams","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":959}],"near_same":[{"s":"royal-observatory-greenwich","m":436},{"s":"fan-museum","m":773},{"s":"national-maritime-museum","m":859},{"s":"queens-house","m":875},{"s":"old-royal-naval-college","m":1108},{"s":"cutty-sark-museum","m":1184}]},{"slug":"rcm-museum-of-music","name":"RCM Museum of Music","area":"South Kensington","address":"Prince Consort Road, Knightsbridge, SW7 2BP","station":"South Kensington","walk":9,"lat":51.4997,"lng":-0.1769,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.rcm.ac.uk/museum/","instagram":"rcmlondon","attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["music"],"verdict":"Musical instruments, art, documents and accessories, part of the Royal College of Music.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"RCM Museum of Music, Prince Consort Road, Knightsbridge, SW7 2BP, London","in_area":{"slug":"south-kensington","name":"South Kensington"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Royal Albert Hall","s":"royal-albert-hall","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":150},{"n":"The Clockmakers' Museum","s":"the-clockmakers-museum","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":260},{"n":"22 Hyde Park Gate","s":"22-hyde-park-gate","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":297}],"near_same":[{"s":"science-museum","m":260},{"s":"polish-institute-and-sikorski-museum","m":339},{"s":"natural-history-museum","m":365},{"s":"victoria-and-albert-museum","m":453},{"s":"baden-powell-house-exhibition","m":503},{"s":"serpentine","m":569}]},{"slug":"red-house","name":"Red House","area":"Bexleyheath","address":"Red House Lane, Bexleyheath, DA6 8JF","station":"Bexleyheath","walk":12,"lat":51.455406,"lng":0.13037,"hours":[null,null,null,[11.0,15.0],[11.0,15.0],[11.0,15.0],null],"hours_raw":"Th-Sa 11:00-15:00","website":"https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/london/red-house","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/209281563","types":["historic-house","art","design"],"verdict":"The house Philip Webb built for William Morris in 1859, red brick and steep roofs in a Bexleyheath orchard, with Burne-Jones's paintings still on the walls, by guided tour.","note":"Morris was twenty-five and newly married to Jane Burden when he bought an orchard in the Kent village of Upton and asked his friend Philip Webb to design him a house that would be, in his words, very medieval in spirit: an L of plain red brick, unrendered when every villa was stuccoed, with steep tiled roofs, pointed arches and a well under a conical cap in the garden. It was finished in 1860 and his friends came to help fill it, Rossetti and Burne-Jones painting the walls and furniture, and the work of furnishing it led straight to the founding of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. in 1861, the firm that became Morris & Co.; his daughters Jenny and May were born here. It proved too far from the works and too dear to run, and after five years he sold it and never came back. Burne-Jones's wall paintings of the Wedding of Sir Degrevant survive in the drawing room, a painted ceiling and stained glass with them, and in 2013 a whole mural by Morris and his circle was found behind a wardrobe. The National Trust bought the house in 2003 from the architect Edward Hollamby, who had lived in it since 1952 and saved it.","deep":false,"hours_url":"https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/london/red-house","hours_extra":"May to October only, by pre-booked guided tour on the hour. Adults \u00a314, children \u00a37.","hours_source":"web","hours_checked":"2026-09-08","figure":{"src":"/img/red-house.jpg?v=6e3d5de5","thumb":"/img/red-house-480.jpg?v=b0377b64","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"The Red House, Bexleyheath","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Velela, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Red_House,_Bexleyheath.JPG","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Red House Lane, Bexleyheath, DA6 8JF, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Lesnes Abbey","s":"lesnes-abbey","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":3728},{"n":"Scadbury Moated Manor","s":"scadbury-moated-manor","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":5474}],"near_same":[{"s":"danson-house","m":839},{"s":"hall-place","m":2219},{"s":"eltham-palace","m":5770},{"s":"crossness-pumping-station","m":5994},{"s":"chislehurst-caves","m":7339},{"s":"rangers-house-wernher-collection","m":9359}]},{"slug":"riverside-gallery","name":"Riverside Gallery","area":"Richmond","address":"36 Barnes High Street, SW13 9LP","station":"Barnes Bridge","walk":2,"lat":51.473409,"lng":-0.251318,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":null,"instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["art"],"verdict":"Municipal art gallery.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"Riverside Gallery, 36 Barnes High Street, SW13 9LP, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"London Children's Literature Festival","s":"london-childrens-literature-festival","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":312},{"n":"The Terrace","s":"the-terrace","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":329},{"n":"Barnes BookFest","s":"barnes-bookfest","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":675}],"near_same":[{"s":"chiswick-house","m":1442},{"s":"hogarths-house","m":1753},{"s":"the-national-archives","m":2113},{"s":"7-hammersmith-terrace","m":2233},{"s":"fulham-palace","m":2840},{"s":"london-museum-of-water-steam","m":3225}]},{"slug":"rivington-place","name":"Rivington Place","area":"Shoreditch","address":"Rivington Place, Shoreditch, EC2A 3AY","station":"Shoreditch High Street","walk":6,"lat":51.526451,"lng":-0.0794,"hours":[null,[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,21.0],[11.0,18.0],[12.0,18.0],null],"hours_raw":"Tu-Fr 11:00-18:00; Th 11:00-21:00; Sa 12:00-18:00","website":"http://www.rivingtonplace.org","instagram":"autographabp","attrs":[],"osm":"way/163827701","types":["art"],"verdict":"International visual arts centre, home to InIVA and Autograph ABP.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/rivington-place.jpg?v=3d496841","thumb":"/img/rivington-place-480.jpg?v=ed4fd05f","width":708,"height":712,"alt":"Photograph of the Rivington Place arts centre in London, England","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Patterncutter, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rivington_place_psi.jpg","thumb_width":500},"whats_on":[{"slug":"nhu-xuan-hua-of-walking-on-fire","name":"Nhu Xuan Hua: Of Walking on Fire","href":"/art/rivington-place/nhu-xuan-hua-of-walking-on-fire/","verdict":"A French-Vietnamese photographer at Autograph, whose whole subject is who gets photographed.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-08","to":"2026-09-19"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/rivington-place/"}],"maps_q":"Rivington Place, Shoreditch, EC2A 3AY, London","in_area":{"slug":"shoreditch-old-street","name":"Shoreditch & Old Street"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Float Hub","s":"float-hub","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":112},{"n":"Origin Coffee","s":"origin-shoreditch","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":121},{"n":"Seed Library","s":"seed-library","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":153}],"near_same":[{"s":"wesleys-chapel-museum-of-methodism-and-john-wesleys-house","m":580},{"s":"museum-of-the-home","m":598},{"s":"dennis-severs-house","m":622},{"s":"honourable-artillery-company-museum","m":730},{"s":"museum-of-immigration-and-diversity","m":876},{"s":"british-red-cross-museum-and-archives","m":1020}]},{"slug":"rose-theatre-exhibition","name":"Rose Theatre Exhibition","area":"Bankside","address":"Park Street, SE1 9HA","station":"London Bridge","walk":6,"lat":51.507215,"lng":-0.095469,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://roseplayhouse.org.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/1948210224","types":["history"],"verdict":"Excavations of an Elizabethan theatre.","note":null,"deep":true,"hours_short":"Guided tours on Thursdays in autumn; otherwise events only","hours_url":"https://www.roseplayhouse.org.uk/guided-tours","hours_checked":"2026-09-05","also_in":[{"name":"Literary London","href":"/literary/rose-theatre-exhibition/"}],"maps_q":"Rose Theatre Exhibition, Park Street, SE1 9HA, London","in_area":{"slug":"southwark","name":"Southwark & Bankside"},"bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Site of the original Globe","s":"site-of-the-original-globe","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":65},{"n":"Shakespeare's Globe","s":"shakespeares-globe","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":150},{"n":"Shakespeare's Globe guided tour","s":"shakespeares-globe-guided-tour","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":155}],"near_same":[{"s":"clink-prison-museum","m":248},{"s":"tate-modern","m":272},{"s":"golden-hinde","m":357},{"s":"bankside-gallery","m":407},{"s":"kirkaldy-testing-museum","m":442},{"s":"old-operating-theatre-museum-and-herb-garret","m":538}]},{"slug":"royal-academy-of-arts","name":"Royal Academy of Arts","area":"Piccadilly","address":"Piccadilly, W1J 0BD","station":"Piccadilly Circus","walk":5,"lat":51.509264,"lng":-0.139698,"hours":[null,[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,21.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu-Th,Sa-Su 10:00-18:00; Fr 10:00-21:00","website":"https://www.royalacademy.org.uk","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/31510288","types":["art","popular"],"verdict":"Artists have run this place since 1768: loan exhibitions most of the year, rooms of their own work, and the Summer Exhibition every year without a break.","note":"George III founded the Royal Academy in 1768 and then left it to itself. It takes no money from the state, and the artists run it: up to eighty of them are Academicians, elected by the ones already in, from Joshua Reynolds and Turner in their day to David Hockney and Tracey Emin in ours. Each one has to give the Academy a work of their own on election, which is how it came to have a collection at all. The art school behind the galleries is the oldest in Britain and takes no fees from its students.\n\nBurlington House, its home since 1868, gives most of the year to borrowed exhibitions. Then every summer since 1769, without missing one, it hangs the Summer Exhibition: anyone may enter, the judging is done without names attached, and more than a thousand works go up frame to frame from floor to ceiling, most of them for sale, an amateur's watercolour beside an Academician's. The collection includes Michelangelo's Taddei Tondo, the only marble he carved that is in this country, though the free gallery it hangs in is closed for rebuilding until 2027.","deep":false,"hours_source":"web","hours_url":"https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/plan-your-visit","hours_checked":"2026-09-06","hours_extra":"Closed Mondays; late until 21:00 on Fridays. Exhibitions are ticketed and the free displays are not; the Collection Gallery at 6 Burlington Gardens, where the Michelangelo hangs, is shut for rebuilding until spring 2027, so use the Piccadilly entrance.","figure":{"src":"/img/own-royal-academy-of-arts.jpg?v=77be8333","thumb":"/img/own-royal-academy-of-arts-480.jpg?v=3112e0b5","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"Burlington House's facade, statues standing in niches along the first floor","caption":"Burlington House, the Academy's home since 1868."},"whats_on":[{"slug":"the-john-madejski-fine-rooms","name":"The John Madejski Fine Rooms","href":"/art/royal-academy-of-arts/the-john-madejski-fine-rooms/","verdict":"The Academy's own collection, free, in the rooms most visitors walk straight past.","runs":{"from":"2025-12-16","to":"2027-01-29"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"richard-dadd-beyond-bedlam","name":"Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam","href":"/museums/royal-academy-of-arts/richard-dadd-beyond-bedlam/","verdict":"The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke and a hundred other works painted inside the asylum.","runs":{"from":"2026-07-25","to":"2026-10-25"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"curator-talk-richard-dadd","name":"Curator talk: Richard Dadd","href":"/art/royal-academy-of-arts/curator-talk-richard-dadd/","verdict":"The curator on the painter who killed his father and worked forty years in asylums.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-12","to":"2026-09-12"},"types":["art","history","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk","Art & design"]},{"slug":"nicole-eisenman","name":"Nicole Eisenman","href":"/museums/royal-academy-of-arts/nicole-eisenman/","verdict":"A free display of the American painter's work at Burlington House.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-22","to":"2027-02-05"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"white-cube-x-ra","name":"White Cube x RA","href":"/art/royal-academy-of-arts/white-cube-x-ra/","verdict":"A commercial gallery's artists hung in the Academy, and everything is for sale.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-22","to":"2027-03-07"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"painting-the-french-riviera","name":"Painting the French Riviera","href":"/museums/royal-academy-of-arts/painting-the-french-riviera/","verdict":"Monet, Matisse, Picasso, C\u00e9zanne and Klein on the C\u00f4te d'Azur, in 160 works.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-02","to":"2027-01-31"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"curator-talk-painting-the-french-riviera","name":"Curator talk: Painting the French Riviera","href":"/art/royal-academy-of-arts/curator-talk-painting-the-french-riviera/","verdict":"How a malarial coastline became the light every painter wanted.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-09","to":"2026-10-09"},"types":["art","history","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk","Art & design"]},{"slug":"friday-night-life-drawing-bathers-by-the-sea","name":"Friday night life drawing: bathers by the sea","href":"/art/royal-academy-of-arts/friday-night-life-drawing-bathers-by-the-sea/","verdict":"Draw from a life model in the Academy after hours, with a drink.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-23","to":"2026-10-23"},"types":["art","workshop"],"clue":["Make something","Art & design"]},{"slug":"peggy-guggenheim-in-london-the-making-of-a-collector","name":"Peggy Guggenheim in London: The Making of a Collector","href":"/museums/royal-academy-of-arts/peggy-guggenheim-in-london-the-making-of-a-collector/","verdict":"The Cork Street gallery that scandalised 1938 London, reassembled round the corner.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-21","to":"2027-03-14"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/royal-academy-of-arts/"}],"maps_q":"Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly, W1J 0BD, London","in_area":{"slug":"mayfair","name":"Mayfair"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Burlington Arcade","s":"burlington-arcade","c":"shopping","cn":"Shopping","m":44},{"n":"Le Caf\u00e9 by Nicolas Rouzaud","s":"le-cafe-by-nicolas-rouzaud","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":44},{"n":"Penhaligon's","s":"penhaligons","c":"classic-british-shops","cn":"Classic British Shops","m":49}],"near_same":[{"s":"faraday-museum","m":185},{"s":"kennel-club-dog-art-gallery","m":446},{"s":"spencer-house","m":458},{"s":"handel-hendrix-house","m":592},{"s":"clarence-house","m":593},{"s":"the-photographers-gallery","m":631}]},{"slug":"royal-academy-of-music-museum","name":"Royal Academy of Music Museum","area":"Regent's Park","address":"Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT","station":"Baker Street","walk":4,"lat":51.523372,"lng":-0.152271,"hours":[null,null,null,null,[11.0,18.0],null,null],"hours_raw":"Fr 11:00-18:00","website":"https://www.ram.ac.uk/museum","instagram":"royalacademyofmusic","attrs":[],"osm":"node/6414630967","types":["free","music","niche"],"verdict":"Stradivari violins kept in playing order, composers' letters and a working piano workshop, free, in Nash's York Gate.","note":"The Royal Academy of Music, Britain's oldest conservatoire, keeps its museum in York Gate, the pair of stuccoed lodges John Nash built in 1822 as the gate into Regent's Park, across the road from the Academy's home on Marylebone Road. Three galleries over three floors: the story of the Academy since 1822, with one of Henry Wood's batons and letters from Mendelssohn; the strings, a collection of Cremonese instruments with Stradivari, Amati and Guarneri among them, kept in playing condition and lent to students rather than left in cases; and the pianos, with a workshop where instruments are restored in view. Entry is free, and practice comes through the walls.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/royal-academy-of-music-museum.jpg?v=14d50eea","thumb":"/img/royal-academy-of-music-museum-480.jpg?v=a471b484","width":1024,"height":682,"alt":"Full view of string gallery in the Royal Academy of Music Museum","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Museumworker, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Full_Strings_gallery.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Royal Academy of Music Museum, Marylebone Road, NW1 5HT, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Royal Academy of Music","s":"royal-academy-of-music","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":31},{"n":"Marylebone High Street","s":"marylebone-high-street","c":"shopping","cn":"Shopping","m":165},{"n":"Fischer's","s":"fischers","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":201}],"near_same":[{"s":"madame-tussauds-london","m":187},{"s":"sherlock-holmes-museum","m":431},{"s":"royal-college-of-physicians-museum","m":582},{"s":"wallace-collection","m":654},{"s":"anaesthesia-heritage-centre","m":663},{"s":"cartoon-museum","m":1145}]},{"slug":"royal-air-force-museum-london","name":"Royal Air Force Museum London","area":"Colindale","address":"Grahame Park Way, Colindale, NW9 5NZ","station":"Colindale","walk":10,"lat":51.597981,"lng":-0.239102,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/london","instagram":"rafmuseum","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/118906069","types":["family","free","military"],"verdict":"A hundred aircraft in six hangars on the field where London learned to fly, from a Sopwith Camel to a Vulcan, free.","note":"Claude Grahame-White bought the fields at Hendon in 1911 and made them the first aerodrome in Britain, where crowds came by Tube to watch the flying displays and the RAF later trained its pilots, and when the runways closed in 1968 the museum opened on them in 1972. About a hundred aircraft stand in six hangars laid out by era: the biplanes and the Sopwith Camel of the first air war, in a hangar that is Grahame-White's own factory building re-erected; the Battle of Britain's Spitfires and Hurricanes with the German aircraft they fought; the Lancaster bomber, which the museum lets you stand beneath and imagine seven men inside; a Sunderland flying boat you can walk through; the Cold War's Vulcan and Lightning; and the Harrier, Tornado and Typhoon of the decades since. It is free, open every day, and needs the whole of one; the cockpit experiences and guided tours are the only things that charge.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/royal-air-force-museum-london.jpg?v=f52fec87","thumb":"/img/royal-air-force-museum-london-480.jpg?v=aad45403","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Spitfire replica and Hurricane replica at the RAF Museum London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Panhard, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RAF_Museum_London_053.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"the-raf-museums-hangars","name":"The RAF Museum's hangars","href":"/museums/royal-air-force-museum-london/the-raf-museums-hangars/","verdict":"A Lancaster, a Spitfire and a Sunderland flying boat you can walk inside, free.","runs":null,"types":["exhibition","family","free","history","science"],"clue":["Exhibition","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"the-spitfire-experience","name":"The Spitfire Experience","href":"/museums/royal-air-force-museum-london/the-spitfire-experience/","verdict":"Ten minutes in the pilot's seat of a real Second World War Spitfire.","runs":null,"types":["family","history"],"clue":["History"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/royal-air-force-museum-london/"}],"maps_q":"Royal Air Force Museum London, Grahame Park Way, Colindale, NW9 5NZ, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Bang Bang Oriental Foodhall","s":"bang-bang-oriental","c":"food-markets","cn":"Food Markets","m":1538},{"n":"Paddock, Dollis Hill","s":"paddock-dollis-hill","c":"secrets","cn":"Secrets & Espionage","m":3935},{"n":"Tom\u00e1\u0161 Masaryk","s":"tomas-masaryk","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":5138}],"near_same":[{"s":"museum-of-domestic-design-and-architecture","m":250},{"s":"stephens-collection","m":3102},{"s":"artsdepot","m":4608},{"s":"brent-museum","m":5739},{"s":"kenwood-house","m":5762},{"s":"fenton-house","m":5980}]},{"slug":"royal-college-of-physicians-museum","name":"Royal College of Physicians Museum","area":"Regent's Park","address":"11 St Andrew's Place, Fitzrovia, NW1 4LB","station":"Great Portland Street","walk":3,"lat":51.525778,"lng":-0.144788,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://history.rcplondon.ac.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/6307248821","types":["free","medical"],"verdict":"Portraits, silver, medical instruments and artefacts.","note":null,"deep":true,"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/royal-college-of-physicians-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Royal College of Physicians Museum, 11 St Andrew's Place, Fitzrovia, NW1 4LB, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Joseph Lister's house, 12 Park Crescent","s":"joseph-listers-house-12-park-crescent","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":243},{"n":"Fitzroy Square","s":"fitzroy-square","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":451},{"n":"Frieze London and Frieze Masters","s":"frieze-london-and-frieze-masters","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":525}],"near_same":[{"s":"royal-academy-of-music-museum","m":582},{"s":"magic-circle-museum","m":642},{"s":"anaesthesia-heritage-centre","m":706},{"s":"wellcome-collection","m":745},{"s":"grant-museum-of-zoology-and-comparative-anatomy","m":762},{"s":"madame-tussauds-london","m":767}]},{"slug":"royal-hospital-chelsea-museum","name":"Royal Hospital Chelsea Museum","area":"Chelsea","address":"Royal Hospital Road, SW3 4SR","station":"Sloane Square","walk":7,"lat":51.487429,"lng":-0.15711,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.chelsea-pensioners.co.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/901555513","types":["military"],"verdict":"Wren's retirement home for old soldiers, founded by Charles II in 1682 and still lived in by three hundred veterans in scarlet, with a small museum and tours led by them.","note":"Charles II founded the Royal Hospital in 1682, on the model of Louis XIV's Invalides in Paris and, by the story the pensioners still tell, at Nell Gwyn's prompting, as a home rather than a pension for soldiers broken by age or war; Christopher Wren built it over the next decade in brick and stone around a court that looks down to the river, with a chapel and a great hall facing each other under one portico. About three hundred Chelsea Pensioners live in it now, veterans who have given up their army pension for their board, the scarlet coat and the company, and they are the point of the place: the museum of the hospital's history is small, but the tours of the hall, the chapel and the courts are led by the men and women who eat and pray in them. Grinling Gibbons's gilded statue of the founder stands in the Figure Court, and on Founder's Day in June the pensioners parade round it wearing oak leaves. The grounds are open free on weekdays.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/royal-hospital-chelsea-museum.jpg?v=59ebfae8","thumb":"/img/royal-hospital-chelsea-museum-480.jpg?v=ecfa3fd4","width":1024,"height":577,"alt":"Courtyard of the Royal Hospital Chelsea (south front)","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Camster2, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Hospital_Chelsea_south_front.JPG","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Royal Hospital Chelsea Museum, Royal Hospital Road, SW3 4SR, London","in_area":{"slug":"chelsea","name":"Chelsea"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"RHS Chelsea Flower Show","s":"rhs-chelsea-flower-show","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":234},{"n":"L'Artisan du Chocolat","s":"lartisan-du-chocolat","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":285},{"n":"John Singer Sargent","s":"john-singer-sargent","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":315}],"near_same":[{"s":"national-army-museum","m":256},{"s":"saatchi-gallery","m":376},{"s":"chelsea-physic-garden","m":466},{"s":"carlyles-house","m":952},{"s":"victoria-and-albert-museum","m":1480},{"s":"royal-mews","m":1557}]},{"slug":"royal-london-hospital-archives-and-museum","name":"Royal London Hospital Archives and Museum","area":"Whitechapel","address":"Stepney Way, Whitechapel, E1 2JL","station":"Whitechapel","walk":3,"lat":51.51727,"lng":-0.060486,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.museumslondon.org/museum/141/royal-london-hospital-museum","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/12557437165","types":["medical"],"verdict":"History of the hospital and medical care in the East End.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"Royal London Hospital Archives and Museum, Stepney Way, Whitechapel, E1 2JL, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Altab Ali Park","s":"altab-ali-park","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":567},{"n":"Rinkoff's","s":"rinkoffs","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":593},{"n":"Rinkoff Bakery","s":"rinkoff-bakery","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":598}],"near_same":[{"s":"whitechapel-gallery","m":693},{"s":"museum-of-immigration-and-diversity","m":878},{"s":"jack-the-ripper-museum","m":885},{"s":"royal-pharmaceutical-society-museum","m":1066},{"s":"dennis-severs-house","m":1265},{"s":"young-v-a","m":1367}]},{"slug":"royal-mews","name":"Royal Mews","area":"Victoria","address":"Victoria Square, SW1W 0RB","station":"Victoria","walk":4,"lat":51.498919,"lng":-0.14425,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.rct.uk/visit/the-royal-mews-buckingham-palace","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"relation/78961","types":["transport"],"verdict":"The working stables of Buckingham Palace, with the four-tonne Gold State Coach that has carried every monarch to their coronation since 1831.","note":"The Royal Mews is where the horses and carriages of the head of state live and work, in the quadrangle John Nash built behind Buckingham Palace in 1825; the name is older, from the mews at Charing Cross where the royal hawks were kept to moult in the fourteenth century. It is a working yard: the Windsor Greys and Cleveland Bays that pull the carriages on state occasions are in the stables, the coachmen's families live above them, and the state cars are in the garage. In the coach houses are the Diamond Jubilee State Coach of 2014, the Glass Coach that brings brides to royal weddings and, at the end, the Gold State Coach, built for George III in 1762, four tonnes of gilded wood and painted panels pulled by eight horses at a walk, which has taken every monarch to their coronation since William IV in 1831 and which every one of them has called the most uncomfortable ride in the kingdom. It opens for most of the year on a Royal Collection ticket.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/royal-mews.jpg?v=6c6d6c8f","thumb":"/img/royal-mews-480.jpg?v=7f438ebf","width":771,"height":1024,"alt":"The Gold State Coach in the Royal Mews, with model horses harnessed in red and gold","caption":"The Gold State Coach, finished in 1762, in the Mews.","credit":"Photo by Dgp4004, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gold_State_Coach_in_the_Royal_Mews.jpg","thumb_width":361},"also_in":[{"name":"Royal London","href":"/royal/royal-mews/"}],"maps_q":"Royal Mews, Victoria Square, SW1W 0RB, London","in_area":{"slug":"westminster","name":"Westminster"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Changing the Guard","s":"changing-the-guard","c":"royal","cn":"Royal London","m":229},{"n":"Coffee Geek and Friends","s":"coffee-geek-and-friends","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":235},{"n":"Badiani Victoria","s":"badiani-victoria","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":279}],"near_same":[{"s":"kings-gallery","m":155},{"s":"buckingham-palace","m":239},{"s":"guards-museum","m":576},{"s":"wellington-arch","m":607},{"s":"clarence-house","m":692},{"s":"apsley-house","m":724}]},{"slug":"royal-observatory-greenwich","name":"Royal Observatory, Greenwich","area":"Greenwich","address":"Blackheath Avenue, SE10 8XJ","station":"Maze Hill","walk":9,"lat":51.477347,"lng":-0.001176,"hours":[[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-18:00; Dec 24-26 off","website":"https://www.rmg.co.uk/royal-observatory","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/268533448","types":["maritime","science"],"verdict":"The hill where the world's clocks were set, and where the longitude problem was finally solved.","note":"Charles II founded the observatory in 1675 for one practical reason. A ship could work out how far north it was from the height of the sun, but not how far east or west, and ships were being lost for want of it. The astronomers here were set to map the stars accurately enough that a navigator could read the sky as a clock. Wren designed the house on the hill, and it is named for John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal, who spent forty years measuring the heavens from it.\n\nThe other answer came from a carpenter. John Harrison spent his life building clocks that would keep time at sea through damp, heat and the roll of a ship \u2014 if you know the time at Greenwich and the time where you are, the difference is your longitude \u2014 and his sea clocks are here, three of them still ticking. Outside, a red ball has dropped down its mast at exactly one o'clock every day since 1833, so that ships in the river could set their chronometers by it before sailing.\n\nGreenwich became the world's zero first by habit and then by vote: British charts were drawn from this meridian, most of the world's shipping used British charts, and a conference in Washington made it official in 1884. That is why the line in the courtyard is where east meets west, and why the world's time zones are counted from a hill in south-east London. The astronomers left for darker skies in the 1950s; the buildings, the instruments, the clocks and the view stayed.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/royal-observatory-greenwich.jpg?v=47c6ae97","thumb":"/img/royal-observatory-greenwich-480.jpg?v=c81eab0d","width":1024,"height":661,"alt":"Flamsteed House at the Royal Observatory, the red time ball on its turret","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Jakub Ha\u0142un, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flamsteed_House,_Royal_Observatory,_Greenwich,_London,_20260719_0921_4494.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"lunar-tours","name":"Lunar Tours","href":"/museums/royal-observatory-greenwich/lunar-tours/","verdict":"The Observatory's history of watching, mapping and reaching the Moon, plus a mirror Moon to touch.","runs":null,"types":["family","science","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"royal-observatory-treasures-tour","name":"Royal Observatory Treasures Tour","href":"/museums/royal-observatory-greenwich/royal-observatory-treasures-tour/","verdict":"An hour with the astronomers who fixed time and longitude, on the hill where they did it.","runs":null,"types":["history","science","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"the-royal-observatorys-permanent-galleries","name":"The Royal Observatory's permanent galleries","href":"/museums/royal-observatory-greenwich/the-royal-observatorys-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"Stand on the Prime Meridian, and see the clocks that solved longitude.","runs":null,"types":["exhibition","heights","history","science"],"clue":["Exhibition","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"mirror-moon","name":"Mirror Moon","href":"/museums/royal-observatory-greenwich/mirror-moon/","verdict":"Luke Jerram's lunar surface, close enough to touch.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-09","to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["art","immersive","science"],"clue":["Immersive","Science & nature"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/royal-observatory-greenwich/"}],"maps_q":"Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Blackheath Avenue, SE10 8XJ, London","in_area":{"slug":"greenwich","name":"Greenwich"},"bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Prime Meridian","s":"prime-meridian","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":56},{"n":"Greenwich Park","s":"greenwich-park","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":145},{"n":"Dark Sugars Ice Creams","s":"dark-sugars-ice-creams","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":642}],"near_same":[{"s":"rangers-house-wernher-collection","m":436},{"s":"queens-house","m":462},{"s":"national-maritime-museum","m":481},{"s":"fan-museum","m":515},{"s":"old-royal-naval-college","m":718},{"s":"cutty-sark-museum","m":844}]},{"slug":"royal-pharmaceutical-society-museum","name":"Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum","area":"Lambeth","address":"66-68 East Smithfield, Wapping, E1W 1AW","station":"Tower Gateway","walk":5,"lat":51.50902,"lng":-0.068357,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":null,"instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/12557420113","types":["medical"],"verdict":"British pharmacy history, medicines and artefacts.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum, 66-68 East Smithfield, Wapping, E1W 1AW, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Wilton's Music Hall","s":"wiltons-music-hall","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":205},{"n":"Girl with a Dolphin","s":"girl-with-a-dolphin","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":483},{"n":"E1","s":"e1","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":492}],"near_same":[{"s":"jack-the-ripper-museum","m":198},{"s":"fusiliers-museum","m":485},{"s":"tower-of-london","m":557},{"s":"tower-bridge","m":622},{"s":"all-hallows-by-the-tower-crypt-museum","m":765},{"s":"whitechapel-gallery","m":806}]},{"slug":"saatchi-gallery","name":"Saatchi Gallery","area":"Chelsea","address":"King's Road, SW3 4RY","station":"Sloane Square","walk":3,"lat":51.490653,"lng":-0.158763,"hours":[[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 11:00-18:00","website":"http://www.saatchigallery.com","instagram":"saatchi_gallery","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/5317958","types":["art","free"],"verdict":"The gallery that made the Young British Artists, now a charity filling fifteen rooms of a Chelsea barracks with big shows, some of them free.","note":"Charles Saatchi opened his gallery in a former paint factory in St John's Wood in 1985 to show what he was buying, and what he bought in the 1990s, Damien Hirst's shark, Tracey Emin's bed, the Chapman brothers and the rest of the Young British Artists, made his name and theirs; the Sensation show of 1997 drew 300,000 people to the Royal Academy. After five years in County Hall the gallery moved in 2008 into the Duke of York's Headquarters, a barracks of 1801 on the King's Road, with fifteen high white rooms across 70,000 square feet, and in 2019 it became an independent charity. It no longer shows Saatchi's collection. The programme is large themed and single-artist exhibitions, photography prizes and graduate shows, with several rooms free at any time and a ticket for the headline show.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/saatchi-gallery.jpg?v=5e8c8b63","thumb":"/img/saatchi-gallery-480.jpg?v=4fdbe0ee","width":1024,"height":681,"alt":"The Saatchi Gallery at the former Duke of York's Headquarters in Chelsea, London, UK","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Jack Gavigan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SaatchiGallery.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"rps-international-photography-exhibition-167","name":"RPS International Photography Exhibition 167","href":"/art/saatchi-gallery/rps-international-photography-exhibition-167/","verdict":"The oldest photography competition in the world, in its hundred and sixty-seventh year.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-08","to":"2026-09-11"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]},{"slug":"the-raw-the-cooked","name":"The Raw & The Cooked","href":"/art/saatchi-gallery/the-raw-the-cooked/","verdict":"Eleven contemporary artists working in a medieval register, free, in Gallery 3.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-08","to":"2026-09-11"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"british-art-fair","name":"British Art Fair","href":"/art/saatchi-gallery/british-art-fair/","verdict":"The only fair devoted entirely to modern and contemporary British art, running since 1988.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-24","to":"2026-09-27"},"types":["art","exhibition","festival"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/saatchi-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"Saatchi Gallery, King's Road, SW3 4RY, London","in_area":{"slug":"chelsea","name":"Chelsea"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Percy Grainger","s":"percy-grainger","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":126},{"n":"John Sandoe Books","s":"john-sandoe-books","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":170},{"n":"Peter Jones","s":"peter-jones","c":"shopping","cn":"Shopping","m":178}],"near_same":[{"s":"royal-hospital-chelsea-museum","m":376},{"s":"national-army-museum","m":501},{"s":"chelsea-physic-garden","m":707},{"s":"carlyles-house","m":1054},{"s":"victoria-and-albert-museum","m":1157},{"s":"natural-history-museum","m":1357}]},{"slug":"salvation-army-international-heritage-centre","name":"Salvation Army International Heritage Centre","area":"Denmark Hill","address":"Champion Park, Camberwell, SE5 8BQ","station":"Denmark Hill","walk":1,"lat":51.467636,"lng":-0.088509,"hours":[null,[9.5,16.0],[9.5,16.0],[9.5,16.0],[9.5,16.0],null,null],"hours_raw":"Tu-Fr 09:30-16:00","website":"https://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/international-heritage-centre","instagram":"salvarmyarchive","attrs":[],"osm":"node/5610431353","types":["history"],"verdict":"Within William Booth College; museum and archive charting the history of the Christian church and charity, The Salvation Army.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"Salvation Army International Heritage Centre, Champion Park, Camberwell, SE5 8BQ, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Toad Bakery","s":"toad-bakery","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":830},{"n":"Dudleys","s":"dudleys-east-dulwich","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":846},{"n":"Ukkei Brew Bar","s":"ukkei-brew-bar","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":1324}],"near_same":[{"s":"south-london-gallery","m":956},{"s":"house-of-dreams-museum","m":1069},{"s":"peckham-platform","m":1493},{"s":"black-cultural-archives","m":1977},{"s":"dulwich-picture-gallery","m":2414},{"s":"gasworks-gallery","m":2700}]},{"slug":"science-museum","name":"Science Museum","area":"South Kensington","address":"Frankland Road, Brompton, SW7 2AD","station":"South Kensington","walk":5,"lat":51.497397,"lng":-0.176231,"hours":[[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-18:00","website":"https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/27765411","types":["family","free","popular","science"],"verdict":"Watt's workshop, the Apollo 10 capsule and a hall of steam engines, in the museum that grew out of the Great Exhibition.","note":"This is Britain's national museum of science and industry, and it began as the leftovers of the Great Exhibition of 1851. The machinery nobody wanted to send home was gathered in South Kensington beside the art that became the V&A, and the two shared one museum until 1909, when the science collections were given a building and a name of their own. The present galleries on Exhibition Road opened between 1919 and 1928, and the Wellcome Wing behind them in 2000.\n\nThe ground floor tells the story of steam. The Energy Hall holds the oldest surviving James Watt beam engine and, rebuilt piece by piece, Watt's own attic workshop, sealed at his death in 1819 and moved here with its 8,300 objects when his house was pulled down in 1927. Beyond it stands the Apollo 10 command module, which orbited the Moon thirty-one times in May 1969 on the rehearsal for the landing, and Making the Modern World lines up Puffing Billy, the oldest surviving steam locomotive, Crick and Watson's model of DNA and a V-2 rocket. Stephenson's Rocket, for years the star of this floor, left for the National Railway Museum in York in 2019.\n\nUpstairs are the newer galleries: Medicine, five rooms and more than three thousand objects, much of it from Henry Wellcome's collection; Mathematics, in a gallery shaped by Zaha Hadid's studio around a 1929 aeroplane; Information Age, where the Queen sent her first tweet at the opening in 2014; and Flight, with the Vickers Vimy in which Alcock and Brown crossed the Atlantic in 1919. Entry is free. Wonderlab, the hands-on gallery of live experiments, and the IMAX cinema are the parts that sell tickets.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/science-museum.jpg?v=d9350305","thumb":"/img/science-museum-480.jpg?v=f0966f44","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"The Science Museum, London, as seen from Exhibition Road","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Shadowssettle, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Science_Museum,_Exhibition_Road_(cropped).jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"astronights","name":"Astronights","href":"/museums/science-museum/astronights/","verdict":"Sleep under the rockets: the Science Museum's sleepover for seven-to-elevens.","runs":null,"types":["family","immersive","science"],"clue":["Immersive","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"smithsonian-starstruck-an-immersive-experience","name":"Smithsonian Starstruck: An Immersive Experience","href":"/museums/science-museum/smithsonian-starstruck-an-immersive-experience/","verdict":"Forty minutes in virtual reality among galaxies, black holes and supernovas.","runs":null,"types":["immersive","science"],"clue":["Immersive","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"the-science-museums-permanent-galleries","name":"The Science Museum's permanent galleries","href":"/museums/science-museum/the-science-museums-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"Watt's workshop, the Apollo 10 capsule and a V-2 rocket, free on seven floors.","runs":null,"types":["exhibition","family","free","science"],"clue":["Exhibition","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"bubble-explorers","name":"Bubble Explorers","href":"/museums/science-museum/bubble-explorers/","verdict":"A family show about bubbles, which is more science than it sounds.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-12","to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["family","science"],"clue":["Science & nature"]},{"slug":"power-up-evening-sessions","name":"Power Up evening sessions","href":"/museums/science-museum/power-up-evening-sessions/","verdict":"A hundred and sixty consoles, no children, and the games the daytime cannot show.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-17","to":"2026-12-10"},"types":["adults","games","late","science"],"clue":["Games","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"becoming-america-how-science-shaped-a-nation","name":"Becoming America: How Science Shaped a Nation","href":"/museums/science-museum/becoming-america-how-science-shaped-a-nation/","verdict":"A 1776 print of the Declaration, George III's microscope, and the science behind a new nation.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-23","to":"2027-04-25"},"types":["exhibition","free","history","science"],"clue":["Exhibition","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"horrible-science-cosmic-chaos","name":"Horrible Science: Cosmic Chaos","href":"/museums/science-museum/horrible-science-cosmic-chaos/","verdict":"The Horrible Science TV series as a walk-through solar system, with a villain to defeat.","runs":{"from":"2027-03-18","to":"2028-02-27"},"types":["exhibition","family","science"],"clue":["Exhibition","Science & nature"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/science-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Science Museum, Frankland Road, Brompton, SW7 2AD, London","in_area":{"slug":"south-kensington","name":"South Kensington"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"National Art Library","s":"national-art-library","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":292},{"n":"Venchi Exhibition Road","s":"venchi-exhibition-road","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":323},{"n":"Ma\u00eetre Choux","s":"maitre-choux","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":381}],"near_same":[{"s":"natural-history-museum","m":105},{"s":"rcm-museum-of-music","m":260},{"s":"victoria-and-albert-museum","m":290},{"s":"baden-powell-house-exhibition","m":317},{"s":"polish-institute-and-sikorski-museum","m":506},{"s":"serpentine","m":815}]},{"slug":"serpentine","name":"Serpentine","area":"Kensington Gardens","address":"Mount Walk, Knightsbridge, W2 3XA","station":"Lancaster Gate","walk":10,"lat":51.5047,"lng":-0.1751,"hours":[[12.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,19.0],[10.0,19.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo 12:00-18:00; Tu-Fr 10:00-18:00; Sa-Su 10:00-19:00","website":"https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/","instagram":"serpentineuk","attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["art","free"],"verdict":"Two small free galleries in Kensington Gardens, and a pavilion each summer.","note":"Serpentine South, in a 1930s tea pavilion, and Serpentine North, in a former gunpowder store extended by Zaha Hadid, are a five-minute walk apart across the bridge. The annual pavilion commission \u2014 a different architect every year \u2014 stands outside the south gallery from June.","deep":false,"whats_on":[{"slug":"serpentine-pavilion-2026","name":"Serpentine Pavilion 2026","href":"/museums/serpentine/serpentine-pavilion-2026/","verdict":"This year's pavilion is a brick crinkle-crankle wall by LANZA atelier of Mexico City.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-06","to":"2026-10-25","repeats":"yearly"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","nature"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"jesus-rafael-soto-penetrable-bbl-jaune","name":"Jes\u00fas Rafael Soto: P\u00e9n\u00e9trable BBL Jaune","href":"/museums/serpentine/jesus-rafael-soto-penetrable-bbl-jaune/","verdict":"A hanging field of yellow rods outside Serpentine South that you are meant to walk through.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-16","to":"2026-10-25"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","nature"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"amar-kanwar","name":"Amar Kanwar","href":"/museums/serpentine/amar-kanwar/","verdict":"Three film works from New Delhi turn Serpentine North into a place to sit and watch.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-23","to":"2027-01-31"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"justin-caguiat-change-ringing","name":"Justin Caguiat: Change Ringing","href":"/museums/serpentine/justin-caguiat-change-ringing/","verdict":"Heat-sensitive paintings and bronze bells cast as flowers, rung to an English change-ringing score.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-08","to":"2027-01-10"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","music"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/serpentine/"}],"maps_q":"Serpentine, Mount Walk, Knightsbridge, W2 3XA, London","in_area":{"slug":"hyde-park-kensington-gardens","name":"Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Diana Memorial Fountain","s":"diana-memorial-fountain","c":"royal","cn":"Royal London","m":252},{"n":"Albert Memorial","s":"albert-memorial","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":313},{"n":"Kensington Gardens","s":"kensington-gardens","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":406}],"near_same":[{"s":"polish-institute-and-sikorski-museum","m":394},{"s":"rcm-museum-of-music","m":569},{"s":"science-museum","m":815},{"s":"victoria-and-albert-museum","m":890},{"s":"kensington-palace","m":897},{"s":"natural-history-museum","m":919}]},{"slug":"sherlock-holmes-museum","name":"Sherlock Holmes Museum","area":"Regent's Park","address":"221B Baker Street, NW1 6XE","station":"Baker Street","walk":2,"lat":51.523763,"lng":-0.158474,"hours":[[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 09:30-18:00","website":"https://www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk/","instagram":"thesherlockholmesmuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"node/3916613190","types":["history","quirky"],"verdict":"221B Baker Street, a Georgian house furnished as the stories describe Holmes's lodgings, waxworks and all, with a queue on the pavement.","note":"There never was a 221B Baker Street when Conan Doyle wrote the stories, and when the numbers caught up the address belonged to a building society, which employed a secretary to answer Holmes's post. The museum, in a house of 1815 that was a boarding house from 1860 to 1936, won the right to the number from Westminster council in 1990, though it stands between 237 and 241. Inside it is the lodgings as the stories describe them from 1881 to 1904: the first-floor study with the fire, the violin, the chemistry bench and the Persian slipper of tobacco, Holmes's and Watson's bedrooms above, and on the top floor a set of waxwork scenes from the cases. A policeman in Victorian uniform keeps the door, the queue on the pavement is part of the experience, and the shop next door sells deerstalkers. It is a museum of the fiction rather than of the author, and makes no apology for it.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/sherlock-holmes-museum.jpg?v=68e45a9a","thumb":"/img/sherlock-holmes-museum-480.jpg?v=f0a57018","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Photo showing the address as 221B beside the location of the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London England","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Jordan 1972, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:221B_Baker_Street,_London_-_Sherlock_Holmes_Museum.jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Literary London","href":"/literary/sherlock-holmes-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Sherlock Holmes Museum, 221B Baker Street, NW1 6XE, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Jos\u00e9 de San Mart\u00edn","s":"jose-de-san-martin","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":95},{"n":"Hidden London: Baker Street \u2014 the world's first Underground","s":"hidden-london-baker-street-the-worlds-first-underground","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":177},{"n":"Sherlock Holmes statue","s":"sherlock-holmes-statue","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":191}],"near_same":[{"s":"madame-tussauds-london","m":266},{"s":"royal-academy-of-music-museum","m":431},{"s":"wallace-collection","m":789},{"s":"royal-college-of-physicians-museum","m":972},{"s":"the-showroom","m":988},{"s":"anaesthesia-heritage-centre","m":1045}]},{"slug":"shirley-windmill","name":"Shirley Windmill","area":"Shirley","address":"Postmill Close, CR0 5DY","station":"East Croydon","walk":34,"lat":51.368886,"lng":-0.054851,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.shirleywindmill.org.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/1934455440","types":["local"],"verdict":"Croydon's brick tower mill of 1854, its two pairs of stones and most of its machinery intact, opened by its Friends on the first Sunday of the month in summer.","note":"Richard Alwen built it in 1854 to replace a timber post mill of 1808 that had burned down, and it ground corn for about thirty-five years before the wind trade gave out around 1890. It kept its works, which is the rare thing: the cap and fantail, the great spur wheel and both pairs of millstones are all in place, and the tour goes up through them. Croydon Council owns it and the Friends of Shirley Windmill show it, with extra open days for National Mills Weekend in May and Open House in September.","deep":true,"hours_short":"Guided tours on the first Sunday of the month, June to October","hours_url":"https://www.shirleywindmill.org.uk/","hours_checked":"2026-09-08","hours_source":"web","hours_extra":"Group visits on weekdays by arrangement.","figure":{"src":"/img/shirley-windmill.jpg?v=e341d318","thumb":"/img/shirley-windmill-480.jpg?v=7224c81f","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Shirley Windmill's black tower and white sails above the trees","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Peter S, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shirley_Windmill_-_geograph.org.uk_-_5969112.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Shirley Windmill, Postmill Close, CR0 5DY, London","bank":0,"near_all":[],"near_same":[{"s":"bethlem-museum-of-the-mind","m":2214},{"s":"museum-of-croydon","m":3102},{"s":"honeywood-museum","m":7663},{"s":"horniman-museum-and-gardens","m":8165},{"s":"little-holland-house","m":8180},{"s":"down-house","m":8595}]},{"slug":"sir-john-soanes-museum","name":"Sir John Soane's Museum","area":"Holborn","address":"13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, WC2A 3BP","station":"Holborn","walk":2,"lat":51.517075,"lng":-0.117469,"hours":[null,[10.0,16.5],[10.0,16.5],[10.0,16.5],[10.0,16.5],[10.0,16.5],null],"hours_raw":"Tu-Sa 10:00-16:30","website":"https://www.soane.org/","instagram":"soanemuseum","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/61453261","types":["art","free","quirky","small-gem"],"verdict":"An architect's house left exactly as he arranged it, and the strangest interior in London.","note":"Soane rebuilt three houses around his collection and lit them with mirrors and coloured glass so the rooms fold into each other. The picture room's walls open outwards to reveal more paintings behind; the basement holds the sarcophagus of Seti I, bought when the British Museum would not pay. Free, small, and capacity-limited, so expect to queue.","deep":false,"note_links":[{"phrase":"British Museum","name":"British Museum","href":"/museums/british-museum/"}],"figure":{"src":"/img/sir-john-soanes-museum.jpg?v=4d6d2a14","thumb":"/img/sir-john-soanes-museum-480.jpg?v=157bf66f","width":590,"height":1024,"alt":"Sir John Soane Museum","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_John_Soane_Museum_(13952611347).jpg","thumb_width":276},"whats_on":[{"slug":"sir-john-soanes-museum-highlights-tour","name":"Sir John Soane's Museum Highlights Tour","href":"/museums/sir-john-soanes-museum/sir-john-soanes-museum-highlights-tour/","verdict":"An hour through Soane's house as he left it in 1837, with the sarcophagus and the Hogarths.","runs":null,"types":["art","history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","Art & design"]},{"slug":"madelon-vriesendorp-mind-games","name":"Madelon Vriesendorp: Mind Games","href":"/museums/sir-john-soanes-museum/madelon-vriesendorp-mind-games/","verdict":"Fifty works by the Soane Medal winner who paints skyscrapers in bed together.","runs":{"from":"2026-07-15","to":"2026-09-20"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/sir-john-soanes-museum/"},{"name":"Architecture","href":"/architecture/sir-john-soanes-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Sir John Soane's Museum, 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields, WC2A 3BP, London","in_area":{"slug":"holborn","name":"Holborn"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Scarfes Bar","s":"scarfes-bar","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":71},{"n":"Hidden London: Holborn \u2014 the secret platforms","s":"hidden-london-holborn-the-secret-platforms","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":167},{"n":"The Old Curiosity Shop","s":"the-old-curiosity-shop","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":232}],"near_same":[{"s":"hunterian-museum","m":227},{"s":"novelty-automation","m":292},{"s":"library-and-museum-of-freemasonry","m":349},{"s":"pushkin-house","m":412},{"s":"bow-street-museum-of-crime-and-justice","m":495},{"s":"museum-of-comedy","m":510}]},{"slug":"somerset-house","name":"Somerset House","area":"Strand","address":"Strand, WC2R 1LA","station":"Temple","walk":3,"lat":51.510934,"lng":-0.117456,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.somersethouse.org.uk","instagram":"somersethouse","attrs":[],"osm":"way/372841786","types":["art","popular"],"verdict":"A Georgian government palace on the Strand, now a courtyard of fountains and an ice rink, with the Courtauld's Impressionists upstairs.","note":"Somerset House is the grandest public building of Georgian London, begun in 1776 to Sir William Chambers's design as offices for the Navy Board, the tax and stamp offices and a dozen smaller departments, with the Royal Academy and the learned societies given the block on the Strand. It stands where the Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector to the boy king Edward VI, began a Renaissance palace in 1549 and was executed before it was finished. Elizabeth I lived there as a princess, Charles I's queen Henrietta Maria had Inigo Jones build her a Catholic chapel there, and after the king's execution Parliament sold his pictures from it, 1,570 paintings for \u00a3118,000. Cromwell lay in state there in 1658. Until the Embankment was built in the 1860s the river came up to its south wall.\n\nThe Inland Revenue kept the building until 2013, and for most of the twentieth century the great courtyard was a car park for civil servants. The Courtauld Institute moved into the north wing in 1989, and the trust that took the building on in 1997 cleared the courtyard: fifty-five jets of water rise from the paving in summer, and an ice rink fills it in winter. The wings hold a rolling programme of design, photography and fashion shows, studios for artists and small creative businesses, and the summer concerts. The Courtauld Gallery, a separate ticket, is one of the finest small collections anywhere: Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Berg\u00e8re, Van Gogh's Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear and a room of C\u00e9zannes.","deep":false,"note_links":[{"phrase":"Courtauld Gallery","name":"Courtauld Gallery","href":"/art/courtauld-gallery/"}],"figure":{"src":"/img/own-somerset-house.jpg?v=30436146","thumb":"/img/own-somerset-house-480.jpg?v=a5484d4f","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"Somerset House's courtyard under a clear sky, the ranges around it and the fountain jets flat in the paving","caption":"The courtyard, between fountains."},"whats_on":[{"slug":"somerset-house-historical-highlights-tour","name":"Somerset House Historical Highlights Tour","href":"/museums/somerset-house/somerset-house-historical-highlights-tour/","verdict":"An hour through the parts of Somerset House that are normally shut, down to the Deadhouse.","runs":null,"types":["history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]},{"slug":"fleurs-de-villes-diana","name":"Fleurs de Villes DIANA","href":"/museums/somerset-house/fleurs-de-villes-diana/","verdict":"Fifteen of Diana's outfits rebuilt in fresh flowers by British florists.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-16","to":"2026-10-06"},"types":["exhibition","fashion","nature"],"clue":["Exhibition","Fashion"]},{"slug":"reviving-craft-reflection-of-the-mind","name":"Reviving Craft: Reflection of the Mind","href":"/museums/somerset-house/reviving-craft-reflection-of-the-mind/","verdict":"Sixty Chinese makers in ceramics, glass, jewellery, textile and furniture, free for twelve days.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-16","to":"2026-09-27"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"jenkin-van-zyl-enclosure","name":"Jenkin van Zyl: Enclosure","href":"/museums/somerset-house/jenkin-van-zyl-enclosure/","verdict":"A new film about a facility that stores copies of you, and the wreck of it as a walk-in set.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-24","to":"2026-11-29"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","immersive"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"1-54-contemporary-african-art-fair","name":"1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair","href":"/museums/somerset-house/1-54-contemporary-african-art-fair/","verdict":"The African art fair in Somerset House's courtyard rooms, the same weekend as Frieze.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-16","to":"2026-10-18","repeats":"yearly"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"skate-at-somerset-house","name":"Skate at Somerset House","href":"/museums/somerset-house/skate-at-somerset-house/","verdict":"The courtyard rink under a forty-foot tree, with apr\u00e8s-ski, from November to January.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-11","to":"2027-01-10","repeats":"yearly"},"types":["family","food_available"],"clue":[]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/somerset-house/"}],"maps_q":"Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 1LA, London","in_area":{"slug":"holborn","name":"Holborn"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Bustronome","s":"bustronome","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":82},{"n":"Roman Bath, Strand Lane","s":"roman-bath-strand-lane","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":148},{"n":"Michael Faraday statue, Savoy Place","s":"michael-faraday-statue-savoy-place","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":149}],"near_same":[{"s":"courtauld-gallery","m":78},{"s":"london-transport-museum","m":285},{"s":"two-temple-place","m":366},{"s":"bow-street-museum-of-crime-and-justice","m":409},{"s":"hunterian-museum","m":495},{"s":"library-and-museum-of-freemasonry","m":524}]},{"slug":"south-london-gallery","name":"South London Gallery","area":"Camberwell","address":"65-67 Peckham Road, SE5 8UH","station":"Peckham Rye","walk":11,"lat":51.474343,"lng":-0.079873,"hours":[null,[11.0,18.0],[11.0,21.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu,Th-Su 11:00-18:00; We 11:00-21:00","website":"https://www.southlondongallery.org/","instagram":"southlondongallery","attrs":[],"osm":"way/67163594","types":["art"],"verdict":"Contemporary art in Camberwell, free since 1891, in a Victorian gallery and the old fire station across the road.","note":"William Rossiter, who ran a working men's college on Blackfriars Road, believed that the poor of south London deserved pictures as much as anyone, and after twenty years of free shows in libraries he built them a gallery on Peckham Road that opened on 4 May 1891, with Leighton, Burne-Jones and Watts behind him and Gladstone as its first president. It has been free ever since. Since the 1990s it has been one of the sharpest contemporary galleries in the city, showing artists early, from Tracey Emin and Gilbert & George to the young painters and sculptors it commissions now, and in 2018 it took over the Victorian fire station across the road for more galleries, an archive, a kitchen and studios. Behind the main gallery is a garden designed by the Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco. Entry is free, and Wednesday evenings run late.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/south-london-gallery.jpg?v=e22242f4","thumb":"/img/south-london-gallery-480.jpg?v=e2fe867c","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Peckham Road, Camberwell. Designed by Maurice Adams and completed in 1896-8.The Art school is to the left, the gallery to the right","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Reading Tom, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Camberwell_School_of_Arts_and_Passmore_Edwards_South_London_Art_Gallery.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"monika-sosnowska-weight-of-matter","name":"Monika Sosnowska: Weight of Matter","href":"/museums/south-london-gallery/monika-sosnowska-weight-of-matter/","verdict":"Half-tonne steel and concrete sculptures of collapsed modernism, across the gallery and the old fire station.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-10","to":"2026-11-22"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/south-london-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"South London Gallery, 65-67 Peckham Road, SE5 8UH, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Toad Bakery","s":"toad-bakery","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":126},{"n":"The Feminist Library","s":"the-feminist-library","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":613},{"n":"Peckham Library","s":"peckham-library","c":"architecture","cn":"Architecture","m":730}],"near_same":[{"s":"peckham-platform","m":727},{"s":"salvation-army-international-heritage-centre","m":956},{"s":"house-of-dreams-museum","m":1604},{"s":"cinema-museum","m":2657},{"s":"gasworks-gallery","m":2744},{"s":"southwark-park-galleries","m":2842}]},{"slug":"southside-house","name":"Southside House","area":"Wimbledon","address":"3 Woodhayes Road, SW19 4RJ","station":"Raynes Park","walk":17,"lat":51.420928,"lng":-0.226883,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":null,"instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/371688658","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"17th-century period house.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/southside-house.jpg?v=ce89038b","thumb":"/img/southside-house-480.jpg?v=ca4be636","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Southside House, Wimbledon, a Grade II* listed mansion in England","caption":"","credit":"Photo by David Anstiss, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Southside_House_geograph_3298503.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Southside House, 3 Woodhayes Road, SW19 4RJ, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Cannizaro Park","s":"cannizaro-park","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":399},{"n":"Megan's in the Village","s":"megans-wimbledon","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":853},{"n":"Buddhapadipa Temple","s":"buddhapadipa-temple","c":"sacred","cn":"Sacred London","m":1173}],"near_same":[{"s":"museum-of-wimbledon","m":758},{"s":"wimbledon-lawn-tennis-museum","m":1798},{"s":"wimbledon-windmill-museum","m":1888},{"s":"dorich-house","m":2861},{"s":"white-lodge-museum-and-ballet-resource-centre","m":3767},{"s":"london-sewing-machine-museum","m":5035}]},{"slug":"southwark-park-galleries","name":"Southwark Park Galleries","area":"Canada Water","address":"1 Park Approach, Southwark Park, SE16 2UA","station":"Surrey Quays","walk":5,"lat":51.494141,"lng":-0.053908,"hours":[null,null,[12.0,17.0],[12.0,17.0],[12.0,17.0],[12.0,17.0],[12.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Su 12:00-17:00","website":"https://southwarkparkgalleries.org/","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/87676701","types":["art"],"at":{"category":"outdoors","slug":"southwark-park"},"verdict":"Two free galleries in a park \u2014 one a purpose-built room by the lake, one a deconsecrated church.","note":"Founded in 1984 by Ron Henocq and the Bermondsey Artists' Group, who turned a derelict park caf\u00e9 into a gallery, and still run as an artists' organisation forty years on. It commissions artists at the point where the work is ambitious and unproven, which is why Iain Sinclair called it the best-kept arts secret in Britain and why the programme is more interesting than the postcode suggests.\n\nTwo rooms, a few minutes apart inside Southwark Park. The Lake Gallery is the original, a purpose-built white space beside the water. Dilston Gallery is a historically protected deconsecrated church in the south-west corner, and work made for that nave tends to be the thing worth crossing London for. Everything is free.\n\nThe Lake Gallery is fully step-free; Dilston's nave altar is up two steps.","hours_source":"web","hours_url":"https://southwarkparkgalleries.org/visit/","hours_checked":"2026-09-04","whats_on":[{"slug":"danfong-wang-the-sparkle-the-blossom-and-the-milky-land","name":"DanFong Wang: The Sparkle, The Blossom and The Milky Land","href":"/art/southwark-park-galleries/danfong-wang-the-sparkle-the-blossom-and-the-milky-land/","verdict":"Moving image, textile and sculpture on women's work and the body, in a first UK solo show.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-08","to":"2026-11-01"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"isabel-nolan-some-fundamental-forces","name":"Isabel Nolan: some fundamental forces","href":"/art/southwark-park-galleries/isabel-nolan-some-fundamental-forces/","verdict":"The Irish artist who represented her country in Venice, in two galleries in a Rotherhithe park.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-08","to":"2026-11-01"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"url":"/museums/southwark-park-galleries/","at_name":"Southwark Park","at_href":"/outdoors/southwark-park/","maps_name":"Southwark Park","also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/southwark-park-galleries/"}],"maps_q":"Southwark Park, 1 Park Approach, Southwark Park, SE16 2UA, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"The Snapery Bakery","s":"the-snapery-bakery","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":475},{"n":"Renforth Pump House","s":"renforth-pump-house","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":574},{"n":"Mouse Tail Coffee Stories","s":"mouse-tail-coffee-stories-canada-water","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":579}],"near_same":[{"s":"brunel-museum","m":837},{"s":"tower-bridge","m":1950},{"s":"fashion-and-textile-museum","m":2075},{"s":"tower-of-london","m":2249},{"s":"fusiliers-museum","m":2254},{"s":"hms-belfast","m":2346}]},{"slug":"spencer-house","name":"Spencer House","area":"St James's","address":"27 St. James's Place","station":"Green Park","walk":3,"lat":51.505153,"lng":-0.140252,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.spencerhouse.co.uk/","instagram":"spencer.house","attrs":[],"osm":"relation/16057566","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"The grandest private house left in London, built for the Spencers in the 1750s and looking over Green Park, open on Sundays.","note":"John Spencer, made Earl Spencer in 1765, commissioned this house in 1756 to announce his arrival among the great families, and it is the finest London town house of its century still standing. John Vardy, a pupil of William Kent, built the Palladian shell and the Palm Room, where gilded palm trees grow up the walls; in 1758 James 'Athenian' Stuart, just back from measuring the ruins of Greece, took over the interiors and gave the first floor the Painted Room, the earliest complete neoclassical room in Europe. The Spencers lived here until 1895 and let it out afterwards; Diana, Princess of Wales, was born into the family that built it. In 1985 Lord Rothschild's company took the lease and spent nine years putting the eight state rooms back as they were, with furniture and pictures lent back from the Royal Collection and the V&A, and the house opens on Sundays for guided tours of about an hour.","deep":false,"hours_extra":"Access is by guided tour on Sundays only, and the house closes for part of the year.","figure":{"src":"/img/spencer-house.jpg?v=de6c6e48","thumb":"/img/spencer-house-480.jpg?v=910474f1","width":1024,"height":750,"alt":"Spencer House (1752-4) by John Vardy. Spencer House was the home of the Earls of Spencer until 1895. This is the view from Green Park","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Steve Cadman, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spencer_House.jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Royal London","href":"/royal/spencer-house/"}],"maps_q":"Spencer House, 27 St. James's Place, London","in_area":{"slug":"st-jamess","name":"St James's"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Dukes Bar","s":"dukes-bar","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":66},{"n":"The American Bar at The Stafford","s":"the-american-bar-at-the-stafford","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":83},{"n":"Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin","s":"frederic-chopin","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":99}],"near_same":[{"s":"clarence-house","m":180},{"s":"kennel-club-dog-art-gallery","m":364},{"s":"royal-academy-of-arts","m":458},{"s":"buckingham-palace","m":508},{"s":"faraday-museum","m":524},{"s":"kings-gallery","m":613}]},{"slug":"st-bartholomews-hospital-museum","name":"St Bartholomew's Hospital Museum","area":"West Smithfield","address":"Barts North Wing, West Smithfield, EC1A 7BE","station":"Barbican","walk":4,"lat":51.517723,"lng":-0.100474,"hours":[[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],null,null,null,null,null],"hours_raw":"Mo-Tu 10:00-16:00","hours_url":"https://bartsnorthwing.org.uk/visit/museum/","hours_source":"web","hours_checked":"2026-09-04","website":"https://bartsnorthwing.org.uk/visit/museum/","instagram":"bartsnorthwing","attrs":[],"osm":"node/4354554594","types":["art","free","history","medical","small-gem"],"verdict":"Nine centuries of one hospital, with Hogarth's staircase on the way in.","note":"Barts has treated the sick on this spot since 1123, which makes it the oldest hospital in Britain still standing where it was founded, and the museum is the hospital telling its own story out of its own archive. Allow time for the building: William Hogarth painted the two enormous canvases on the Great Hall stair in the 1730s and took no fee for them, to keep the commission from going to a Venetian. Both came back in 2025 when the North Wing's restoration finished.","deep":false,"regular":[{"what":"Guided tour of the Great Hall and Hogarth Stair","when":"First Sunday of the month, 10:00 and 13:00","price":"\u00a310, concessions available","url":"https://bartsnorthwing.org.uk/whats-on/","note":"A tour of the building rather than the museum, for individuals, pairs and groups of fewer than eight."}],"hours_extra":"Also open on the first Sunday of the month.","whats_on":[{"slug":"i-am-being-cacao-and-sound-immersion","name":"I am Being: Cacao and Sound Immersion","href":"/museums/st-bartholomews-hospital-museum/i-am-being-cacao-and-sound-immersion/","verdict":"A ceremonial cacao circle and crystal-bowl sound bath under a Georgian ceiling.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-13","to":"2026-09-13"},"types":["immersive","wellness"],"clue":["Immersive"]},{"slug":"talk-celebration-and-ceremony-at-barts-charterhouse-and-the-royal-hospital-chelsea","name":"Talk: Celebration and Ceremony at Barts, Charterhouse and the Royal Hospital Chelsea","href":"/museums/st-bartholomews-hospital-museum/talk-celebration-and-ceremony-at-barts-charterhouse-and-the-royal-hospital-chelsea/","verdict":"Three ancient City institutions on the ceremonies they have each kept going for centuries.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-15","to":"2026-09-15"},"types":["free","history","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk","History"]},{"slug":"wild-arts-an-evening-of-opera-at-barts-north-wing","name":"Wild Arts: An Evening of Opera at Barts North Wing","href":"/museums/st-bartholomews-hospital-museum/wild-arts-an-evening-of-opera-at-barts-north-wing/","verdict":"Handel to Sondheim, semi-staged for four singers and a string quintet in the Great Hall.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-17","to":"2026-09-17"},"types":["concert","music","opera"],"clue":["Opera","Opera"]},{"slug":"sofar-sounds-at-barts-north-wing","name":"Sofar Sounds at Barts North 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Nielsen.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-23","to":"2026-09-23"},"types":["classical","concert","music"],"clue":["Concert","Classical"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/st-bartholomews-hospital-museum/"}],"maps_q":"St Bartholomew's Hospital Museum, Barts North Wing, West Smithfield, EC1A 7BE, London","in_area":{"slug":"the-city","name":"The City"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Sir William Wallace Memorial","s":"sir-william-wallace-memorial","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":61},{"n":"St Bartholomew's Gatehouse","s":"st-bartholomews-gatehouse","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":91},{"n":"Golden Boy of Pye Corner","s":"golden-boy-of-pye-corner","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":93}],"near_same":[{"s":"goldsmiths-centre","m":399},{"s":"the-charterhouse","m":418},{"s":"museum-of-the-order-of-st-john","m":497},{"s":"barbican-centre","m":517},{"s":"dr-johnsons-house","m":617},{"s":"college-of-arms","m":628}]},{"slug":"stephens-collection","name":"Stephens Collection","area":"Finchley","address":"East End Road, N3 3QT","station":"Finchley Central","walk":6,"lat":51.596624,"lng":-0.194238,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"http://www.stephenshouseandgardens.com/about/the-stephens-collection","instagram":"stephenshouseandgardens","attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["history","niche"],"verdict":"Life of Dr Henry Stephens, inventor of an indelible blue-black ink, and his son Henry Charles Stephens, their ink company and local history.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"Stephens Collection, East End Road, N3 3QT, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Central Square, Hampstead Garden Suburb","s":"central-square-hampstead-garden-suburb","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":1777},{"n":"Campbell & Syme","s":"campbell-syme","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":2279},{"n":"Anna Pavlova","s":"anna-pavlova","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":3179}],"near_same":[{"s":"artsdepot","m":2182},{"s":"royal-air-force-museum-london","m":3102},{"s":"museum-of-domestic-design-and-architecture","m":3226},{"s":"kenwood-house","m":3350},{"s":"fenton-house","m":4315},{"s":"burgh-house-hampstead-museum","m":4472}]},{"slug":"strawberry-hill","name":"Strawberry Hill","area":"Twickenham","address":"268 Waldegrave Road, TW1 4ST","station":"Strawberry Hill","walk":4,"lat":51.438194,"lng":-0.334814,"hours":[[11.0,16.0],[11.0,16.0],[11.0,16.0],null,null,null,[11.0,16.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 11:00-16:00; Th off; Fr off; Sa off","website":"https://www.strawberryhillhouse.org.uk/","instagram":"strawbhillhouse","attrs":[],"osm":"way/207444024","types":["historic-house","small-gem"],"verdict":"Horace Walpole's Gothic fantasy villa, white as a wedding cake.","note":"Built from 1749 as a deliberate confection of borrowed medieval details, it invented Strawberry Hill Gothic and helped invent the Gothic novel \u2014 Walpole wrote The Castle of Otranto here. Restored in 2010 to its original bare, light-filled state.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/strawberry-hill.jpg?v=2e2102ee","thumb":"/img/strawberry-hill-480.jpg?v=0aa83197","width":1024,"height":598,"alt":"Horace Walpole's Twickenham house, Strawberry Hill, gleaming white in spring sunshine, soon after restoration","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Chiswick Chap, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Strawberry_Hill_House_from_garden_in_2012_after_restoration.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"strawberry-hill-house-flower-festival","name":"Strawberry Hill House Flower Festival","href":"/museums/strawberry-hill/strawberry-hill-house-flower-festival/","verdict":"Thirty florists fill Walpole's Gothic villa with British-grown flowers, for four days.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-10","to":"2026-09-13","repeats":"yearly"},"types":["art","festival","nature"],"clue":["Festival","Art & 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Common","walk":2,"lat":51.46208,"lng":-0.134611,"hours":[null,null,[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Su 10:00-17:00","website":"https://studiovoltaire.org/","instagram":"studiovoltairelondon","attrs":[],"osm":"node/4723196972","types":["art"],"verdict":"Contemporary art.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/studio-voltaire.jpg?v=cf298286","thumb":"/img/studio-voltaire-480.jpg?v=cbe90194","width":1024,"height":578,"alt":"Performance of Laetitia Sadier and Basch in Studio Voltaire in July 2017","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LaetitiaSadierVoltaire150717-15.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"christine-hazell-different-faces","name":"Christine Hazell: Different Faces","href":"/art/studio-voltaire/christine-hazell-different-faces/","verdict":"New work in a converted Clapham chapel that has been an artists' studio since 1994.","runs":{"from":"2026-07-15","to":"2026-10-18"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"abbas-zahedi-sonic-support-eco-the-extracorporeal-orchestra","name":"Abbas Zahedi: SONIC SUPPORT: ECO (The Extracorporeal Orchestra)","href":"/art/studio-voltaire/abbas-zahedi-sonic-support-eco-the-extracorporeal-orchestra/","verdict":"A one-night performance built out of the sounds of medical machinery.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-10","to":"2026-09-10"},"types":["art","free","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk","Art & design"]},{"slug":"carlos-idun-tawiah-open-studio","name":"Carlos Idun-Tawiah: open studio","href":"/art/studio-voltaire/carlos-idun-tawiah-open-studio/","verdict":"Two days inside a working studio, with the artist in it.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-19","to":"2026-09-20"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"katherine-hubbard-the-great-room","name":"Katherine Hubbard: The Great Room","href":"/art/studio-voltaire/katherine-hubbard-the-great-room/","verdict":"A New York photographer's first solo show in Britain, in a converted Clapham chapel.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-07","to":"2027-01-10"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/studio-voltaire/"}],"maps_q":"Studio Voltaire, 1A Nelsons Row, SW4 7JR, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Brickwood","s":"brickwood-clapham","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":281},{"n":"Megan's Old Town","s":"megans-old-town","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":447},{"n":"Clapham Book Festival","s":"clapham-book-festival","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":568}],"near_same":[{"s":"575-wandsworth-road","m":945},{"s":"brixton-windmill","m":1237},{"s":"black-cultural-archives","m":1392},{"s":"gasworks-gallery","m":2888},{"s":"salvation-army-international-heritage-centre","m":3252},{"s":"tate-britain","m":3277}]},{"slug":"sutton-house","name":"Sutton House","area":"Hackney","address":"2 and 4 Homerton High Street, Hackney, E9 6JQ","station":"Hackney Central","walk":6,"lat":51.548476,"lng":-0.05046,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/sutton-house","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/854498662","types":["historic-house","local"],"verdict":"The oldest house in Hackney, Sir Ralph Sadleir's brick manor of 1535, with Tudor linenfold panelling, a Georgian parlour and the murals of the squatters who saved it in the 1980s.","note":"Ralph Sadleir, Principal Secretary of State to Henry VIII, built Bryck Place in 1535, a three-storey H of red brick when Hackney was a village in the fields, and sold it in 1550 to John Machell, a clothworker, who lined the parlour with the linenfold panelling that is still there. It was a girls' boarding school for eighty years from 1657, was given a Georgian front and Georgian rooms in the 1700s, and took its present name in the 1890s from a wrong guess that Thomas Sutton, founder of Charterhouse, had lived in it. The National Trust bought it in 1938 and let it out, squatters moved in when the tenants left in the 1980s and painted the walls, and a local campaign turned it into a museum in 1994 with the squatters' murals kept in one room as part of the story. Breaker's Yard, the garden next door, was made in 2013 on the site of a car-breaker's, with a caravan and a folly in it.","deep":false,"hours_url":"https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/london/sutton-house-and-breakers-yard","hours_checked":"2026-09-08","hours_short":"Open days follow the Trust's calendar; the house is seen on a guided tour","hours_source":"web","figure":{"src":"/img/sutton-house.jpg?v=187231b6","thumb":"/img/sutton-house-480.jpg?v=3d84b5fc","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"A photograph of Sutton House.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Julian Mason from London, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sutton_House_1.jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"maps_q":"Sutton House, 2 and 4 Homerton High Street, Hackney, E9 6JQ, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Hackney Church Brew Co","s":"hackney-church-brew-co","c":"beer","cn":"Beer","m":194},{"n":"Behind This Wall","s":"behind-this-wall","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":338},{"n":"Dark Arts Coffee","s":"dark-arts-coffee","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":346}],"near_same":[{"s":"hackney-museum","m":581},{"s":"the-viktor-wynd-museum-of-curiosities-fine-art-natural-history","m":1610},{"s":"chisenhale-gallery","m":1868},{"s":"v-a-east-storehouse","m":2037},{"s":"vagina-museum","m":2064},{"s":"young-v-a","m":2180}]},{"slug":"syon-house","name":"Syon House","area":"Brentford","address":"Lime Avenue, Spring Grove, TW7 6XE","station":"Syon Lane","walk":13,"lat":51.476805,"lng":-0.312778,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"http://www.syonpark.co.uk/explore/about-syon-house/","instagram":"syonparkestate","attrs":[],"osm":"node/6872669162","types":["historic-house"],"verdict":"Adam's other great west London interior, and still the Duke of Northumberland's house.","note":"The Great Hall and Ante Room are as theatrical as English neoclassicism gets \u2014 coloured marble, gilding and a floor that answers the ceiling. The Capability Brown park and the Great Conservatory are open more often than the house.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/syon-house.jpg?v=f5290c1a","thumb":"/img/syon-house-480.jpg?v=87cad2fd","width":1024,"height":634,"alt":"Syon House Brentford London West Aspect","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Russ Hamer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Syon_House_West_Aspect.JPG","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Syon House, Lime Avenue, Spring Grove, TW7 6XE, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Old Palace Yard","s":"old-palace-yard","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":2146},{"n":"Old Palace Lane","s":"old-palace-lane","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":2194},{"n":"Richmond Green","s":"richmond-green","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":2342}],"near_same":[{"s":"kew-palace","m":1454},{"s":"boston-manor-house","m":1733},{"s":"musical-museum","m":1833},{"s":"london-museum-of-water-steam","m":2057},{"s":"museum-of-richmond","m":2358},{"s":"turners-house","m":2564}]},{"slug":"tate-britain","name":"Tate Britain","area":"Millbank","address":"Millbank, SW1P 4RG","station":"Pimlico","walk":7,"lat":51.491142,"lng":-0.127585,"hours":[[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-18:00","website":"https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-britain","instagram":"tate","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/24553580","types":["art","free","popular"],"verdict":"Five hundred years of British art in one walk, and the largest Turner collection in the world, free, on Millbank.","note":"Tate Britain is the national collection of British art from the Tudors to now, and it stands on Millbank on the site of the old Millbank prison, built by the sugar merchant Henry Tate, who gave his pictures and the building and opened it on 21 July 1897. The Tate name was informal until 1932 and official until 2000, when the modern collection moved downriver to Bankside and this became the British half.\n\nThe displays are hung as a walk through time, so a visitor can go from Tudor portraits to Hockney and Bridget Riley in one line of rooms, and the Clore Gallery of 1987, James Stirling's postmodern wing, holds the Turner Bequest: everything J.M.W. Turner left the nation, the largest collection of his work anywhere. The building was renovated in 2013 by Caruso St John, who reopened the balcony of the rotunda, shut since the 1920s, and put a spiral staircase beneath the dome. Entry is free, and the Turner Prize exhibition comes here every other year.","deep":false,"hours_extra":"Until 2027 the Millbank steps are closed for building work; the way in is the Manton entrance on Atterbury Street.","figure":{"src":"/img/tate-britain.jpg?v=8554b6e9","thumb":"/img/tate-britain-480.jpg?v=420f8b87","width":1024,"height":575,"alt":"Tate Britain, Millbank","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Carlos Cunha, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tate_Britain,_Millbank_-_panoramio_(1).jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"tate-britains-permanent-galleries","name":"Tate Britain's permanent galleries","href":"/art/tate-britain/tate-britains-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"Five hundred years of British art in one free run, and all the Turner there is.","runs":null,"types":["art","exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"james-mcneill-whistler","name":"James McNeill Whistler","href":"/museums/tate-britain/james-mcneill-whistler/","verdict":"The first big European Whistler show in thirty years, with the Old Battersea Bridge Nocturne.","runs":{"from":"2026-05-21","to":"2026-09-27"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"the-90s-art-and-fashion","name":"The 90s: Art and Fashion","href":"/museums/tate-britain/the-90s-art-and-fashion/","verdict":"Edward Enninful's 1990s: McQueen, Westwood, Corinne Day, Hirst and Steve McQueen in one show.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-08","to":"2027-02-14"},"types":["art","exhibition","fashion","music"],"clue":["Exhibition","Fashion"]},{"slug":"vanessa-bell-duncan-grant-inside-bloomsbury","name":"Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury","href":"/museums/tate-britain/vanessa-bell-duncan-grant-inside-bloomsbury/","verdict":"Three hundred works and a Charleston studio moved into the gallery.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-12","to":"2027-04-11"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/tate-britain/"},{"name":"Literary London","href":"/literary/tate-britain/"}],"maps_q":"Tate Britain, Millbank, SW1P 4RG, London","in_area":{"slug":"westminster","name":"Westminster"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Locking Piece","s":"locking-piece","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":196},{"n":"MI5, Thames House","s":"mi5-thames-house","c":"secrets","cn":"Secrets & Espionage","m":337},{"n":"Regency Cafe","s":"regency-cafe","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":445}],"near_same":[{"s":"garden-museum","m":701},{"s":"lambeth-palace","m":741},{"s":"london-fire-brigade-museum","m":802},{"s":"jewel-tower","m":820},{"s":"houses-of-parliament","m":940},{"s":"guards-museum","m":1153}]},{"slug":"tate-modern","name":"Tate Modern","area":"Bankside","address":"Bankside, SE1 9TG","station":"London Blackfriars","walk":5,"lat":51.507429,"lng":-0.099386,"hours":[[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,21.0],[10.0,21.0],[10.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Su-Th 10:00-18:00; Fr-Sa 10:00-21:00","website":"https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern","instagram":"tate","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/24642569","types":["art","free","popular"],"verdict":"The national collection of modern art in a power station on Bankside, free, and the most visited gallery in the country.","note":"Tate Modern holds the nation's international modern and contemporary art, everything from 1900 onwards, and it lives in Bankside Power Station, built by Giles Gilbert Scott between 1947 and 1963 directly across the river from St Paul's and shut down in 1981. Refused protection and marked for demolition, it was saved when the Tate chose it in 1994; Herzog & de Meuron's \u00a3134 million conversion kept the brick shell, the 99-metre chimney and the Turbine Hall, and added the two-storey glass box on the roof. It opened on 11 May 2000 and drew 5.25 million people in its first year, twice what all three existing Tates had managed together.\n\nThe Turbine Hall is the heart of it: a single space the full length and six-storey height of the building, where one artist a year is commissioned to fill it. The collection displays on the floors either side are free and hung by theme rather than date. In 2016 the Switch House, the southern third of the power station, became a ten-storey brick tower, now the Blavatnik Building, standing over the old oil tanks, which are used for performance and film; Level 10 at the top of it is a free viewing gallery over the river. In 2025 four and a half million people came, more than to any other art gallery in Britain.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/tate-modern.jpg?v=cadbf674","thumb":"/img/tate-modern-480.jpg?v=f017f793","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Tate Modern from across the Thames: the long brick power station and its single chimney","caption":"The power station from the north bank.","credit":"Photo by Acabashi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tate_Modern_-_Bankside_Power_Station.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"gathering-ground","name":"Gathering Ground","href":"/museums/tate-modern/gathering-ground/","verdict":"Nine artists on the ecological crisis, free, in a former power station.","runs":{"to":"2027-03-07"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"tate-moderns-permanent-galleries","name":"Tate Modern's permanent galleries","href":"/art/tate-modern/tate-moderns-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"Matisse, Picasso and Rothko for free, in a power station the size of a cathedral.","runs":null,"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"julio-le-parc-light-colour-action","name":"Julio Le Parc: Light. Colour. Action.","href":"/museums/tate-modern/julio-le-parc-light-colour-action/","verdict":"Seven decades of kinetic light works that only finish when you walk into them.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-08","to":"2027-05-03"},"types":["art","exhibition","immersive"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"frida-the-making-of-an-icon","name":"Frida: The Making of an Icon","href":"/museums/tate-modern/frida-the-making-of-an-icon/","verdict":"Thirty Kahlo paintings, her clothes and jewellery, and the two hundred objects that made her a brand.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-25","to":"2027-01-03"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"ana-mendieta","name":"Ana Mendieta","href":"/museums/tate-modern/ana-mendieta/","verdict":"The Silueta series and newly restored films, in the first UK retrospective for over a decade.","runs":{"from":"2026-07-14","to":"2027-01-17"},"types":["art","exhibition","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]},{"slug":"light-and-magic-the-birth-of-art-photography","name":"Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography","href":"/museums/tate-modern/light-and-magic-the-birth-of-art-photography/","verdict":"Two hundred rare prints by eighty pictorialists, from Seoul to Cape Town.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-14","to":"2027-02-21"},"types":["art","exhibition","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]},{"slug":"monet-painting-time","name":"Monet: Painting Time","href":"/museums/tate-modern/monet-painting-time/","verdict":"Tate Modern's first Monet show, from the Gare Saint-Lazare to the water lilies.","runs":{"from":"2027-02-25","to":"2027-06-27"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"ink","name":"Ink","href":"/museums/tate-modern/ink/","verdict":"Eighty ink paintings from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan that modernised a tradition.","runs":{"from":"2027-04-22","to":"2027-08-30"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"baya","name":"Baya","href":"/museums/tate-modern/baya/","verdict":"The Algerian painter who impressed Picasso and Breton, in her first UK solo show.","runs":{"from":"2027-06-10","to":"2027-10-17"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"nalini-malani","name":"Nalini Malani","href":"/museums/tate-modern/nalini-malani/","verdict":"Nearly two hundred works across six decades from the Mumbai artist of Partition.","runs":{"from":"2027-07-01","to":"2028-01-09"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"lynda-benglis","name":"Lynda Benglis","href":"/museums/tate-modern/lynda-benglis/","verdict":"The latex pours and Day-Glo floors that rewrote what sculpture could be.","runs":{"from":"2027-09-30","to":"2028-03-05"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"edvard-munch","name":"Edvard Munch","href":"/museums/tate-modern/edvard-munch/","verdict":"The Frieze of Life and Munch's soul paintings, seen through film.","runs":{"from":"2027-11-11","to":"2028-04-23"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/tate-modern/"},{"name":"Architecture","href":"/architecture/tate-modern/"}],"maps_q":"Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1 9TG, London","in_area":{"slug":"southwark","name":"Southwark & Bankside"},"bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Shakespeare's Globe guided tour","s":"shakespeares-globe-guided-tour","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":168},{"n":"Shakespeare's Globe","s":"shakespeares-globe","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":176},{"n":"The Table Cafe","s":"the-table-cafe","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":222}],"near_same":[{"s":"bankside-gallery","m":148},{"s":"kirkaldy-testing-museum","m":220},{"s":"rose-theatre-exhibition","m":272},{"s":"clink-prison-museum","m":520},{"s":"college-of-arms","m":535},{"s":"golden-hinde","m":629}]},{"slug":"the-building-centre","name":"The Building Centre","area":"Bloomsbury","address":"26 Store Street, WC1E 7BT","station":"Goodge Street","walk":3,"lat":51.519513,"lng":-0.131581,"hours":[[9.0,18.0],[9.0,18.0],[9.0,18.0],[9.0,18.0],[9.0,18.0],[10.0,14.0],null],"hours_raw":"Mo-Fr 09:00-18:00; Sa 10:00-14:00","website":"https://www.buildingcentre.co.uk/","instagram":"thebuildingcentre","attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["design"],"verdict":"Exhibits on architecture and design.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"The Building Centre, 26 Store Street, WC1E 7BT, London","in_area":{"slug":"bloomsbury","name":"Bloomsbury"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Store Street Espresso","s":"store-street-espresso","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":132},{"n":"Raja Ram Mohan Roy","s":"ram-mohan-roy","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":192},{"n":"Maggs Bros.","s":"maggs-bros","c":"classic-british-shops","cn":"Classic British Shops","m":196}],"near_same":[{"s":"soas-gallery","m":316},{"s":"british-museum","m":326},{"s":"wiener-library","m":340},{"s":"petrie-museum-of-egyptian-archaeology","m":462},{"s":"grant-museum-of-zoology-and-comparative-anatomy","m":504},{"s":"museum-of-comedy","m":517}]},{"slug":"the-charterhouse","name":"The Charterhouse","area":"Clerkenwell","address":"Charterhouse Square, Clerkenwell, EC1M 6AX","station":"Barbican","walk":2,"lat":51.521464,"lng":-0.099784,"hours":[null,[11.0,16.75],[11.0,16.75],[11.0,16.75],[11.0,16.75],[11.0,16.75],[11.0,16.75]],"hours_raw":"Tu-Su 11:00-16:45","website":"https://thecharterhouse.org/","instagram":"charterhouselondon","attrs":[],"osm":"node/5247197725","types":["free","historic-house","small-gem"],"verdict":"A plague pit, a monastery, a Tudor palace and, since 1611, an almshouse whose residents still live around the courts, with a free museum and tours led by them.","note":"The Charterhouse began as a burial ground for the Black Death in 1348 and became, in 1371, a monastery of the Carthusians, the silent order whose prior, John Houghton, was hanged at Tyburn for refusing Henry VIII's supremacy. After the dissolution it was rebuilt as one of the great courtyard houses of Tudor London, where Elizabeth I held her first court and the Duke of Norfolk plotted for Mary, Queen of Scots, and in 1611 Thomas Sutton, the richest commoner in England, bought it to found a school for poor boys and an almshouse for old men. The school became Charterhouse and left for Surrey in 1872; the almshouse never left. Some forty Brothers, men and now women over sixty in need of a home, still live around the courts and eat in the Tudor great hall, which is why the place feels lived in rather than preserved. The museum in the gatehouse and the chapel, where Sutton lies, are free; the great chamber, the cloisters and the rest are seen on the daily tours, some of them led by a Brother.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/own-the-charterhouse.jpg?v=8c999c78","thumb":"/img/own-the-charterhouse-480.jpg?v=e853e870","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"A grass court inside the Charterhouse, the hall range in flint and stone with a carved coat of arms and a red sundial","caption":"The court inside the gate, on a summer afternoon."},"figures":[{"src":"/img/own-the-charterhouse-5.jpg?v=af2c5ccf","thumb":"/img/own-the-charterhouse-5-480.jpg?v=309a9f0f","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"A brick and flint tower with a cupola and gilded weathervane, above an arcaded cloister of three gables","caption":"The chapel tower, above the cloister."},{"src":"/img/own-the-charterhouse-2.jpg?v=3f515afb","thumb":"/img/own-the-charterhouse-2-480.jpg?v=7cd1e674","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"A cobbled courtyard inside the Charterhouse, stone ranges with dormer windows","caption":"One of the courts inside."},{"src":"/img/own-the-charterhouse-3.jpg?v=65045cad","thumb":"/img/own-the-charterhouse-3-480.jpg?v=8f059bc9","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"Charterhouse Square's cobbles looking towards the gatehouse and its clock turret","caption":"Looking towards the entrance from the square."},{"src":"/img/own-the-charterhouse-4.jpg?v=8e48c850","thumb":"/img/own-the-charterhouse-4-480.jpg?v=f109e5f5","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"Charterhouse Square at dusk, lit windows in the Georgian range and the gatehouse beyond","caption":"Charterhouse Square at dusk."},{"src":"/img/own-the-charterhouse-6.jpg?v=18c8aad6","thumb":"/img/own-the-charterhouse-6-480.jpg?v=372b7172","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"A garden of clipped box in a knot pattern and a bed of yellow rudbeckias, purple geraniums and red spikes of flowers, in front of a stone and brick tower with leaded windows, a gabled Tudor range on the left and an old flint wall on the right."}],"also_in":[{"name":"Literary London","href":"/literary/the-charterhouse/"}],"maps_q":"The Charterhouse, Charterhouse Square, Clerkenwell, EC1M 6AX, London","in_area":{"slug":"farringdon-clerkenwell","name":"Farringdon & Clerkenwell"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Golden Lane Estate","s":"golden-lane-estate","c":"architecture","cn":"Architecture","m":279},{"n":"fabric","s":"fabric","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":279},{"n":"St Bartholomew the Great","s":"st-bartholomew-the-great","c":"sacred","cn":"Sacred London","m":287}],"near_same":[{"s":"museum-of-the-order-of-st-john","m":201},{"s":"goldsmiths-centre","m":221},{"s":"st-bartholomews-hospital-museum","m":418},{"s":"barbican-centre","m":447},{"s":"islington-museum","m":647},{"s":"honourable-artillery-company-museum","m":806}]},{"slug":"the-photographers-gallery","name":"The Photographers' Gallery","area":"Soho","address":"16-18 Ramillies Street, W1F 7LW","station":"Oxford Circus","walk":3,"lat":51.514926,"lng":-0.139018,"hours":[[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,20.0],[10.0,20.0],[10.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-We 10:00-18:00; Th-Fr 10:00-20:00; Sa 10:00-18:00; Su,PH 11:00-18:00","website":"https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/","instagram":"thephotographersgallery","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/65489529","types":["art"],"verdict":"Britain's first public gallery for photography alone, since 1971, on several floors behind Oxford Street.","note":"Sue Davies opened the Photographers' Gallery on 14 January 1971 in a former Lyons tea bar on Great Newport Street, and it was the first public gallery in Britain given to photography, at a time when the art museums did not collect it. Its first show was Cornell Capa's The Concerned Photographer, and over the decades it brought Robert Capa, Sebasti\u00e3o Salgado, Andreas Gursky and Juergen Teller to British audiences and gave early rooms to Martin Parr, Nick Knight and Corinne Day. In 2008 it moved to a converted warehouse on Ramillies Street, rebuilt in 2012 into galleries over several floors with a bookshop and a print sales room at the bottom. It runs the Deutsche B\u00f6rse Photography Foundation Prize, the main award in the field since 1996, whose shortlist is shown here every year.","deep":false,"hours_extra":"Free after 17:00 on Fridays.","figure":{"src":"/img/the-photographers-gallery.jpg?v=36a66bb1","thumb":"/img/the-photographers-gallery-480.jpg?v=02468dbb","width":682,"height":1024,"alt":"The Photographers' Gallery, London, just off Oxford Street","caption":"","credit":"Photo by The wub, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Photographers%27_Gallery,_London.jpg","thumb_width":320},"whats_on":[{"slug":"ninagawa-mika-captive-blooms","name":"NINAGAWA Mika: Captive Blooms","href":"/museums/the-photographers-gallery/ninagawa-mika-captive-blooms/","verdict":"Goldfish, cherry blossom and saturated flowers on the walls of Ramillies Street, free, for a year.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-19","to":"2027-06-01"},"types":["exhibition","free","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]},{"slug":"japanese-women-photographers-from-1950s-to-now","name":"Japanese Women Photographers: From 1950s to Now","href":"/museums/the-photographers-gallery/japanese-women-photographers-from-1950s-to-now/","verdict":"Twenty-seven photographers, two hundred works, and a history of Japanese photography retold.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-24","to":"2026-09-27"},"types":["exhibition","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/the-photographers-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"The Photographers' Gallery, 16-18 Ramillies Street, W1F 7LW, London","in_area":{"slug":"soho","name":"Soho"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Venchi Great Marlborough Street","s":"venchi-great-marlborough-street","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":119},{"n":"Liberty London","s":"liberty-london","c":"shopping","cn":"Shopping","m":141},{"n":"Department of Coffee and Social Affairs","s":"department-of-coffee-and-social-affairs-soho","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":148}],"near_same":[{"s":"cartoon-museum","m":296},{"s":"handel-hendrix-house","m":523},{"s":"faraday-museum","m":623},{"s":"royal-academy-of-arts","m":631},{"s":"anaesthesia-heritage-centre","m":652},{"s":"the-building-centre","m":724}]},{"slug":"the-showroom","name":"The Showroom","area":"Paddington","address":"63 Penfold Street","station":"Edgware Road","walk":5,"lat":51.523461,"lng":-0.172759,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.theshowroom.org","instagram":"theshowroomlondon","attrs":[],"osm":"node/6495297744","types":["art","free"],"verdict":"Contemporary art gallery.","note":null,"deep":true,"whats_on":[{"slug":"bahar-noorizadeh-the-debtors-portal","name":"Bahar Noorizadeh: The Debtor's Portal","href":"/art/the-showroom/bahar-noorizadeh-the-debtors-portal/","verdict":"A science-fiction opera about the global credit system, staged as a film in a Marylebone gallery.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-25","to":"2026-12-19"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/the-showroom/"}],"maps_q":"The Showroom, 63 Penfold Street, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Alfies Antique Market","s":"alfies-antique-market","c":"classic-british-shops","cn":"Classic British Shops","m":282},{"n":"Lisson Gallery","s":"lisson-gallery","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":360},{"n":"GoBoat Paddington","s":"goboat-paddington","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":493}],"near_same":[{"s":"marylebone-cricket-club-museum","m":535},{"s":"fleming-museum","m":694},{"s":"sherlock-holmes-museum","m":988},{"s":"madame-tussauds-london","m":1238},{"s":"royal-academy-of-music-museum","m":1417},{"s":"wallace-collection","m":1514}]},{"slug":"the-viktor-wynd-museum-of-curiosities-fine-art-natural-history","name":"The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History","area":"Hackney","address":"11 Mare Street, E8 4RP","station":"Cambridge Heath","walk":4,"lat":51.534699,"lng":-0.057643,"hours":[null,[15.0,23.0],[15.0,23.0],[15.0,23.0],[15.0,23.0],[12.0,23.0],[12.0,22.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo off; Tu-Fr 15:00-23:00; Sa 12:00-23:00; Su 12:00-22:00","website":"https://thelasttuesdaysociety.org/","instagram":"thelasttuesdaysociety","attrs":[],"osm":"node/4973886525","types":["nature","quirky"],"verdict":"A cabinet of curiosities in a Hackney basement, two-headed lambs and dodo bones with hardly a label between them, and an absinthe bar above.","note":"Viktor Wynd opened this in 2014 as the Last Tuesday Society's answer to the tidy museum: a cabinet of curiosities in the seventeenth-century manner, everything at once and nothing explained. In the basement on Mare Street are dodo bones and the feathers of extinct birds, the skeleton of a giant anteater, two-headed lambs and an eight-legged one, shrunken heads and tribal skulls, a mermaid, the nails from the artist Sebastian Horsley's crucifixion, the largest showing anywhere of the occult artist Austin Osman Spare, a wall of Leonora Carrington, celebrity hair and stranger celebrity leavings, and the condoms used by the Rolling Stones. It is insured for a million pounds and takes itself precisely as seriously as it should. The bar upstairs is the Absinthe Parlour, and the society runs lectures, s\u00e9ances and exhibitions of artists such as Alasdair Gray from the same rooms.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/the-viktor-wynd-museum-of-curiosities-fine-art-natural-history.jpg?v=50c4fee6","thumb":"/img/the-viktor-wynd-museum-of-curiosities-fine-art-natural-history-480.jpg?v=a7801ae4","width":1024,"height":684,"alt":"The interior of the Viktor Wynd Museum","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Jwslubbock, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Viktor_Wynd_Museum_cabinet_of_curiosities_26.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History, 11 Mare Street, E8 4RP, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Forno","s":"forno-bethnal-green","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":25},{"n":"Yeast Bakery","s":"yeast-bakery","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":152},{"n":"Five Points Taproom & Courtyard","s":"five-points-taproom-courtyard","c":"beer","cn":"Beer","m":181}],"near_same":[{"s":"vagina-museum","m":483},{"s":"young-v-a","m":655},{"s":"hackney-museum","m":1095},{"s":"chisenhale-gallery","m":1253},{"s":"museum-of-the-home","m":1348},{"s":"sutton-house","m":1610}]},{"slug":"tower-bridge","name":"Tower Bridge","area":"Butler's Wharf","address":"Tower Bridge, Bermondsey, SE1 2LY","station":"Tower Hill","walk":6,"lat":51.505517,"lng":-0.075366,"hours":[[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0],[9.5,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 09:30-18:00","website":"https://www.towerbridge.org.uk/","instagram":"towerbridge","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"node/2079674503","types":["history","science"],"verdict":"Two towers, the high walkways with a glass floor over the road, and the Victorian machinery that lifted it.","note":"By the 1880s London had spread a long way east of London Bridge, which was still the furthest bridge downstream: getting across meant walking west or paying a ferryman. A bridge here was the obvious answer and an impossible one, because the water below London Bridge \u2014 the Pool of London, the city's port \u2014 was lined with wharves and full of masted ships that had to reach them. Whatever was built had to let them through.\n\nThe answer was a road that opens. Horace Jones, the City's own architect, and John Wolfe Barry, an engineer, won the competition with a middle span in two halves that swing upward, and dressed the towers holding the machinery in stone, with turrets and pointed windows, so they would not shame the Tower of London next door. It opened in 1894 and the costume has fooled people ever since: this is a steel machine wearing a castle.\n\nThe visit goes up the north tower to the two walkways slung between them, forty-two metres above the road. They were built so that people on foot could cross while the bridge was open, were closed in 1910 because almost nobody bothered to climb up, and reopened in 1982; a glass floor went in in 2014, so you can watch the buses pass under your feet. The route ends in the engine rooms at the south end, with the Victorian steam engines that used to raise the road, kept polished and turning.","deep":false,"reading":"Tower Bridge is one of London's most successful architectural deceptions. Its turrets, battlements, pointed windows and pale stone make it look like a surviving fragment of medieval London, somehow extending the neighbouring Tower of London across the Thames. In reality it opened in 1894. Beneath the Gothic costume is an enormous Victorian steel machine, assembled with millions of rivets and designed to solve an extremely modern problem: how to carry London's rapidly growing road traffic across one of the busiest commercial waterways in the world without preventing ships from reaching the docks upstream.\n\nEven its name encourages the wrong conclusion. Tower Bridge is not called Tower Bridge because it has two towers. The name refers to the Tower of London beside it; proposed designs existed before the familiar towers had even been decided upon. Its castle-like appearance came partly from the requirement that whatever enormous new structure appeared here should not overwhelm its far older neighbour.\n\nThe bridge exists because Victorian London had developed a serious geographical problem. By the second half of the nineteenth century the East End had expanded dramatically, with industry, docks and a population approaching a million people east of London Bridge. Yet London Bridge remained the lowest road crossing of the Thames. Getting from one side of the river to the other could mean a long diversion towards the City or reliance on ferries; journeys could take hours.\n\nBuilding another ordinary bridge downstream sounded obvious until the importance of the river was considered. The stretch between London Bridge and what became Tower Bridge formed part of the Pool of London, surrounded by wharves and warehouses and crowded with vessels bringing goods from around the world. Thousands of substantial ships still needed to reach the Upper Pool each year. A fixed bridge low enough to be convenient for carts, horses and pedestrians would effectively have put a barrier across one of the commercial arteries of the British Empire.\n\nLondon therefore needed two contradictory things in exactly the same place: an uninterrupted road and an uninterrupted shipping channel.\n\nIn 1876 the City of London established a Special Bridge or Subway Committee and invited ideas. More than fifty schemes were considered. Engineers proposed swing bridges, lifting bridges, rolling bridges, tunnels and extraordinary multi-level structures. Joseph Bazalgette \u2014 already famous for London's sewer system and Embankments \u2014 suggested high-level bridges that would simply pass above much of the shipping. Other proposals attempted to separate river and road traffic completely.\n\nThe process was hardly a model architectural competition. No winner emerged and the original competition was abandoned. One of the men involved in assessing the proposals was Horace Jones, the City Architect \u2014 who was simultaneously developing ideas of his own. The awkwardness is acknowledged even by Tower Bridge's official history. Eventually Jones joined forces with the civil engineer John Wolfe Barry and produced the scheme that was approved in 1884.\n\nTheir solution was not simply a lifting bridge. Tower Bridge is actually a combination of bridge types. The approaches on either side incorporate suspension structures, while the central roadway is divided into two enormous moving leaves called bascules. High above them, two walkways connect the towers and also form part of the structural system tying the bridge together. Historic England describes the result as a steel structure with Gothic towers, suspension side spans and a central opening bridge integrated into a single composition.\n\nThe word bascule comes from the French for a balance or seesaw, and that is essentially how the moving road works. Each half pivots around a shaft inside the river pier. The visible section projecting over the Thames is counterbalanced by an enormous weight moving through a hidden chamber behind the pivot. Each bascule weighs more than 1,200 tonnes, but a counterweight of roughly 400 tonnes means the machinery does not have to lift anything like that full mass from rest.\n\nSome of Tower Bridge's most spectacular spaces are consequently ones most people never see. Inside each river pier is a vast bascule chamber around 27 metres high. When the bridge opens, the counterweights descend into these cavernous brick-lined spaces as the road rises above the Thames. The towers that appear to stand solidly on massive stone piers are therefore partly wrapped around enormous moving machinery and voids.\n\nConstruction began in April 1886. Creating foundations in the middle of a tidal working river while allowing shipping to continue was one of the project's most difficult tasks. Iron caissons were sunk into the riverbed and excavated to depths approaching eight metres below it, providing enclosed working areas from which the foundations for the two central piers could be constructed. The river could not simply be closed while the Victorians built their bridge around it.\n\nThe project rapidly became less the work of a single architect than a huge collaboration between engineering specialists. Wolfe Barry served as chief engineer, Edward Cruttwell as resident engineer and Henry Marc Brunel \u2014 the son of Isambard Kingdom Brunel \u2014 as assistant engineer. Horace Jones died in 1887, only about a year after construction began, and never saw the bridge that bears the visual stamp of his design.\n\nWhat rose above the foundations was fundamentally a steel bridge. More than 11,000 tonnes of structural steel were fabricated for the towers and walkways, much of it by William Arrol & Co., the celebrated Scottish engineering company also involved with the Forth Bridge. An additional 1,200 tonnes of ornamental cast iron formed part of its contract. The steel skeleton was then enclosed in brick and clad with Cornish granite and Portland stone.\n\nThis is the key to understanding Tower Bridge's appearance. The masonry does not work like the load-bearing stone of the medieval Tower beside it. It protects and disguises an industrial frame. Look through some of the windows and internal spaces and the Victorian steelwork becomes visible behind the Gothic architecture. What seems at first to be a castle is closer to an extraordinarily elaborate stone casing around a piece of nineteenth-century infrastructure.\n\nThat disguise was deliberate. The competition demanded architecture appropriate to the setting of the Tower of London, and the final design uses pointed arches, pinnacles, turrets, steep roofs and fortress-like masonry to make an unprecedented piece of engineering look as though it belongs beside a medieval royal castle. There is even French ch\u00e2teau influence in the towers.\n\nThe effect can obscure just how technologically ambitious the bridge was. Its moving spans were originally operated not directly by steam engines but through a sophisticated hydraulic energy-storage system. Coal-fired boilers produced steam to power pumping engines. Those pumps forced water under pressure into six large accumulators, which stored energy until a ship required the bridge to open. High-pressure water could then be released to hydraulic drive engines, whose pistons turned huge cogs engaging with the bascules.\n\nThe accumulators were the Victorian equivalent of batteries. The boilers and pumps could steadily build up stored hydraulic pressure even while the bridge was closed, so enormous amounts of power were immediately available when an opening was required. It was an elegant answer to the problem of repeatedly moving roadways weighing more than a thousand tonnes while keeping waiting times manageable.\n\nThe high-level walkways were intended to solve the remaining inconvenience. A ship might interrupt horses and vehicles on the roadway, but pedestrians could climb the towers and continue across the river 42 metres above the Thames even while the bascules were open. The walkways were therefore not originally sightseeing platforms. They were part of the bridge's transport system.\n\nLondoners largely rejected the walkways. Climbing all those stairs proved less attractive than simply waiting a few minutes for the bridge to close again. The walkways were used so little that they were closed to the public in 1910. One of the most visually distinctive components of Tower Bridge had failed in its intended everyday purpose only sixteen years after opening. They remained inaccessible to ordinary visitors until 1982, when they reopened as part of the Tower Bridge visitor attraction.\n\nBefore any of that could be discovered, London celebrated the completion of what had taken eight years to build. On 30 June 1894 the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, formally opened Tower Bridge accompanied by Princess Alexandra and their son, the future George V. When the bascules rose, the first vessel through was the harbour master's cutter Daisy, followed by a ceremonial procession of ships.\n\nThe demand for the new crossing became obvious almost immediately. When it opened to pedestrian traffic in July 1894, more than 140,000 people crossed on the first day. By later that month an estimated 60,000 pedestrians and 8,000 horse-drawn vehicles were using it daily. This was not a decorative civic monument looking for a function: Victorian London had been waiting for it.\n\nThe river remained just as important. In its first year the bridge opened 6,194 times \u2014 an extraordinary average of roughly seventeen lifts every day. Bridge staff effectively watched continuously for vessels requiring passage, clearing the road and raising the bascules as ships approached.\n\nThat figure also tells the story of the vanished London around it. Today's riverside apartments, offices, restaurants and tourist attractions occupy a landscape that was once one of the busiest working ports on earth. Tower Bridge was designed around a Thames packed with commercial shipping. As London's docks migrated downstream and containerisation helped destroy the old upriver port, the need for constant bridge openings collapsed. By the late 1960s there were only a few hundred lifts a year.\n\nThe bridge nevertheless remained a working machine, sometimes with dramatic consequences. On the evening of 30 December 1952, route 78 bus driver Albert Gunter was crossing Tower Bridge when the bascule beneath him unexpectedly began to rise. Faced with the prospect of the bus sliding backwards or becoming trapped, he accelerated. The double-decker cleared the widening gap and landed on the other half of the bridge. Everyone survived, and Gunter received a \u00a310 reward for his quick thinking.\n\nBy then the machinery below was already becoming an anachronism. The original system required boilers to be fired and teams of workers to maintain steam pressure around the clock. From 1974 the machinery was modernised, and in 1976 the bridge became fully electro-hydraulic. Electric pumps now pressurise oil rather than steam engines pressurising water, but the basic mechanical principle remains beautifully Victorian: counterbalanced bascules rotating on their pivots while great cogs drive them open and closed. The original steam engines, pumps and accumulators survive in the Engine Rooms.\n\nEven the colours most people associate with Tower Bridge are relatively recent. Its ironwork was originally painted a bright chocolate brown. Before the Second World War the bridge was given a more subdued grey camouflage scheme. The red, white and blue treatment familiar today dates from its repainting for Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977.\n\nThe next transformation was cultural rather than mechanical. In 1982 the long-closed walkways reopened as part of an exhibition inside the bridge. Their original transport function had become unnecessary, but their position high above the Thames made them ideal viewing galleries. Glass floors added in 2014 now allow visitors to stand above the roadway and, during a lift, watch the bascules separate beneath their feet.\n\nThe bridge has consequently reversed one of its original relationships. In the 1890s the high-level walkways existed so pedestrians would not have to wait for ships. Today people deliberately wait for the ships because watching Tower Bridge open has become an attraction in itself.\n\nRemarkably, river traffic still has priority under circumstances established by the bridge's original purpose. City Bridge Foundation states that registered vessels with a mast or superstructure of at least 30 feet can request an opening with 24 hours' notice, at no charge. The bridge can be required to lift at any time of day or night, throughout the year. A yacht on the Thames can therefore still stop road traffic across one of London's busiest landmarks because the fundamental bargain made with nineteenth-century shipping has never entirely disappeared.\n\nTower Bridge is unusual because its architecture encourages us to look at almost exactly the wrong things. The stone towers attract attention, but the important structure is the steel skeleton behind them. The picturesque upper walkways seem decorative, but they help tie the bridge together and were originally pedestrian bypasses. The enormous towers appear solid, while giant counterweights move through hidden chambers beneath them. The famous blue suspension elements are not merely ornament, and the apparently medieval bridge is younger than the Eiffel Tower.\n\nIt is also not quite the monument to Victorian certainty that its monumental appearance suggests. The design took years of argument. Its architect died before it was completed. Contemporary critics sometimes thought it ugly or dishonest. One of its major transport features was so unpopular that it closed. Its original steam machinery became obsolete, and the great commercial port it was designed around disappeared.\n\nYet almost everything essential worked. Tower Bridge successfully reconciled road traffic with shipping, wrapped advanced engineering in architecture capable of standing beside the Tower of London, and created a structure robust enough to continue performing its original mechanical trick more than 130 years later.\n\nThe most interesting way to look at it, then, is not as London's imitation medieval castle. It is a gigantic Victorian machine that became so familiar we stopped noticing the machine.","hours_extra":"Forthcoming bridge lifts are listed on the bridge's site at towerbridge.org.uk/bridge-lifts; a lift can be watched from the river walls for free.","figure":{"src":"/img/own-tower-bridge.jpg?v=8462663e","thumb":"/img/own-tower-bridge-480.jpg?v=b557d989","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"Tower Bridge from the north bank, its towers and high walkway above the river","caption":"From the north bank on a clear morning."},"also_in":[{"name":"What\u2019s On","href":"/whats-on/tower-bridge/"},{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/tower-bridge/"},{"name":"Harry Potter","href":"/harry-potter/tower-bridge/"}],"maps_q":"Tower Bridge, Bermondsey, SE1 2LY, London","in_area":{"slug":"borough-bermondsey","name":"Borough & Bermondsey"},"bank":null,"near_all":[{"n":"Girl with a Dolphin","s":"girl-with-a-dolphin","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":138},{"n":"Bridge Theatre","s":"bridge-theatre","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":207},{"n":"WatchHouse","s":"watchhouse","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":217}],"near_same":[{"s":"tower-of-london","m":297},{"s":"fusiliers-museum","m":301},{"s":"hms-belfast","m":427},{"s":"all-hallows-by-the-tower-crypt-museum","m":514},{"s":"royal-pharmaceutical-society-museum","m":622},{"s":"fashion-and-textile-museum","m":649}]},{"slug":"tower-of-london","name":"Tower of London","area":"Tower Hill","address":"Tower Hill, EC3N 4AB","station":"Tower Hill","walk":2,"lat":51.508133,"lng":-0.076286,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.hrp.org.uk/toweroflondon","instagram":null,"attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/370870741","types":["family","history","military","popular"],"verdict":"A Norman fortress that has been a palace, a prison, a mint, a zoo and the strongroom for the Crown Jewels, and is still the last of these.","note":"The Tower is the castle William the Conqueror began in the years after 1066 to hold the city he had just taken. Its heart, the White Tower, went up from 1078 and is still among the most complete eleventh-century palaces in Europe; two rings of walls and a moat grew around it under Richard I, Henry III and Edward I, and the plan has barely changed since 1285. Over nine centuries it has been an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie, the Royal Mint, the public record office and the home of the Crown Jewels, which is what most of the queue is for. In the eighteenth century the lions could be seen for three halfpence, or for a cat or dog to feed them.\n\nIts reputation is bloodier than its record. Before the twentieth century only seven people were executed inside the walls, on Tower Green, among them Anne Boleyn in 1536 and Lady Jane Grey in 1554; the other 112 died in public on Tower Hill outside. Elizabeth I was a prisoner here before she was queen, Guy Fawkes confessed here, and twelve spies were shot here in the two world wars. Kings once spent the nights before their coronation at the Tower and rode from it to Westminster Abbey, a custom that ended with Charles II.\n\nThe Yeoman Warders, the Beefeaters, have guarded it since at least 1509, and their tours are included in the ticket and are the best way in. Six ravens are kept at all times, on the belief that the kingdom falls if they leave, with a Ravenmaster to look after them. The Crown Jewels pass on a moving walkway, so the day is decided by the queue, and the White Tower holds the Royal Armouries' arms and armour, Henry VIII's among it.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/tower-of-london.jpg?v=2e4d3716","thumb":"/img/tower-of-london-480.jpg?v=f02693b3","width":1024,"height":643,"alt":"Tower of London viewed from the River Thames","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Bob Collowan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tower_of_London_viewed_from_the_River_Thames.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"ceremony-of-the-keys","name":"Ceremony of the Keys","href":"/museums/tower-of-london/ceremony-of-the-keys/","verdict":"The Tower has been locked this way every night for around 700 years.","runs":null,"types":["history"],"clue":["History"]},{"slug":"ravens-experience","name":"Ravens experience","href":"/museums/tower-of-london/ravens-experience/","verdict":"Forty-five minutes with the Ravenmaster before the Tower opens.","runs":null,"types":["history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]},{"slug":"the-crown-jewels","name":"The Crown Jewels","href":"/museums/tower-of-london/the-crown-jewels/","verdict":"The working regalia of a monarchy, on a moving walkway, behind the thickest glass in London.","runs":null,"types":["exhibition","family","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]},{"slug":"yeoman-warder-tours","name":"Yeoman Warder tours","href":"/museums/tower-of-london/yeoman-warder-tours/","verdict":"The Beefeaters' own tour, every 45 minutes, included in the ticket and unbookable.","runs":null,"types":["family","history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]},{"slug":"keys-club-experience","name":"Keys Club experience","href":"/museums/tower-of-london/keys-club-experience/","verdict":"A Warder, forty-five minutes, and a room the public does not normally get into.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-09","to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]},{"slug":"tower-of-london-opening-ceremony-experience","name":"Tower of London Opening Ceremony experience","href":"/museums/tower-of-london/tower-of-london-opening-ceremony-experience/","verdict":"In through the Middle Drawbridge before the Tower opens, to watch the gates unlocked.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-09","to":"2026-09-30"},"types":["history","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","History"]},{"slug":"tower-of-london-river-tour","name":"Tower of London River Tour","href":"/museums/tower-of-london/tower-of-london-river-tour/","verdict":"Forty minutes on the Thames, leaving from the Tower every hour.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-09","to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["family","tour","water"],"clue":["Guided tour"]},{"slug":"halloween-at-the-tower-of-london","name":"Halloween at the Tower of London","href":"/museums/tower-of-london/halloween-at-the-tower-of-london/","verdict":"The Tower's ghosts come out for half term: a poet, a pirate, a queen and a bear.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-24","to":"2026-11-01"},"types":["family","history"],"clue":["History"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Royal London","href":"/royal/tower-of-london/"},{"name":"Power & Politics","href":"/politics/tower-of-london/"},{"name":"Secrets & Espionage","href":"/secrets/tower-of-london/"}],"maps_q":"Tower of London, Tower Hill, EC3N 4AB, London","in_area":{"slug":"the-city","name":"The City"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Tower Subway","s":"tower-subway","c":"science","cn":"Science & Engineering","m":185},{"n":"London Wall at Tower Hill","s":"london-wall-at-tower-hill","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":198},{"n":"Tower Hill Memorial","s":"tower-hill-memorial","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":202}],"near_same":[{"s":"fusiliers-museum","m":71},{"s":"all-hallows-by-the-tower-crypt-museum","m":257},{"s":"tower-bridge","m":297},{"s":"hms-belfast","m":389},{"s":"royal-pharmaceutical-society-museum","m":557},{"s":"jack-the-ripper-museum","m":650}]},{"slug":"trent-park-house-of-secrets","name":"Trent Park House of Secrets","area":"Cockfosters","address":"Daffodil Crescent, Enfield EN4 0PS","station":"Cockfosters","walk":17,"lat":51.66005,"lng":-0.13488,"hours":[null,[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu-Su 10:00-17:00","website":"https://trentparkhouse.org.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/14125912357","types":["historic-house","history"],"verdict":"The bugged mansion where Hitler's captured generals talked freely for three years while German-Jewish refugees in the basement wrote it all down.","note":"Philip Sassoon's house parties here in the 1930s had Churchill, Chaplin and the Prince of Wales; from 1942 the same rooms held fifty-nine German generals in comfort, with a billiard table, a garden and newspapers, and microphones in the light fittings, the skirting, the plant pots and the benches. In the basement the Secret Listeners - most of them Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria in British uniform - recorded and transcribed what the generals said to each other about the V-weapons, the state of the Reich and the murder of the Jews, evidence that reached the Allies years before the camps were opened. The museum that opened in July 2026 shows both halves: the state rooms restored to their 1930s look, and the listeners' rooms below.","deep":null,"hours_source":"web","hours_url":"https://trentparkhouse.org.uk/pages/tickets","hours_checked":"2026-09-05","hours_extra":"Closed Mondays. Adults \u00a314, free-flow through two floors; the caf\u00e9 opens at 09:00.","figure":{"src":"/img/trent-park-house-of-secrets.jpg?v=6d140815","thumb":"/img/trent-park-house-of-secrets-480.jpg?v=5222c7e7","width":1024,"height":765,"alt":"Trent park House, south front","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Poliphilo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trent_Park_House,_south_front.JPG","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Secrets & Espionage","href":"/secrets/trent-park-house-of-secrets/"}],"maps_q":"Trent Park House of Secrets, Daffodil Crescent, Enfield EN4 0PS, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Trent Park","s":"trent-park","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":300},{"n":"Southgate station","s":"southgate-station","c":"architecture","cn":"Architecture","m":3122}],"near_same":[{"s":"enfield-museum","m":3906},{"s":"forty-hall-museum","m":4717},{"s":"barnet-museum","m":4730},{"s":"artsdepot","m":5977},{"s":"bruce-castle-museum","m":7925},{"s":"stephens-collection","m":8156}]},{"slug":"turners-house","name":"Turner's House","area":"St Margarets","address":"Sandycombe Lodge, 40 Sandycoombe Road, Twickenham TW1 2LR","station":"St Margarets","walk":4,"lat":51.453848,"lng":-0.316296,"hours":[null,null,[12.0,16.0],[12.0,16.0],[12.0,16.0],[12.0,16.0],[12.0,16.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Su 12:00-16:00","hours_url":"https://turnershouse.org/visit-us/plan-your-visit/","hours_source":"web","hours_checked":"2026-09-04","website":"https://turnershouse.org/","instagram":"turners_house","attrs":[],"osm":"way/864162419","types":["art","historic-house","small-gem"],"verdict":"The only building Turner ever designed, built as his own retreat from London.","note":"Turner was a painter with an architect's habit, and this small villa of 1813 \u2014 his design, with advice from his friend John Soane \u2014 is the one building he had built. He kept it thirteen years and installed his father in it as gardener. By the time the trust took it on it had been subdivided and was close to derelict; the restoration put it back to the original plan, so the rooms are small, bare and lit the way he wanted them, which is the whole reason to come. It shuts for the winter.","deep":false,"whats_on":[{"slug":"unfinished-business-the-mystery-of-margate-and-turners-bequest","name":"Unfinished Business: The Mystery of Margate and Turner's Bequest","href":"/art/turners-house/unfinished-business-the-mystery-of-margate-and-turners-bequest/","verdict":"One unfinished seascape, and the will that tied up thirty thousand works for decades.","runs":{"from":"2026-04-23","to":"2026-10-25"},"types":["art","exhibition","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/turners-house/"}],"maps_q":"Turner's House, Sandycombe Lodge, 40 Sandycoombe Road, Twickenham TW1 2LR, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Friars Lane","s":"friars-lane","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":800},{"n":"Virginia Woolf statue, Richmond riverside","s":"virginia-woolf-statue-richmond-riverside","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":820},{"n":"York House Gardens","s":"york-house-gardens","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":863}],"near_same":[{"s":"marble-hill-house","m":528},{"s":"orleans-house-gallery","m":759},{"s":"museum-of-richmond","m":925},{"s":"twickenham-museum","m":1013},{"s":"world-rugby-museum","m":1746},{"s":"strawberry-hill","m":2162}]},{"slug":"twickenham-museum","name":"Twickenham Museum","area":"Twickenham","address":"25 The Embankment, TW1 3DU","station":"Twickenham","walk":6,"lat":51.44682,"lng":-0.325618,"hours":[null,null,null,null,null,[13.0,15.0],[14.0,16.0]],"hours_raw":"Sa 13:00-15:00; Su 14:00-16:00","website":"https://twickenham-museum.org.uk","instagram":"twickenhammuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"node/10314624068","types":["free","local"],"verdict":"The riverside's history in an eighteenth-century house on Twickenham's embankment, free and run by volunteers.","note":"Twickenham's museum is a three-storey house of the early 1700s on the Embankment, facing St Mary's church across the lane, given to the volunteers who run it. Its subject is the stretch of river that eighteenth-century London made fashionable: Alexander Pope's villa and grotto, Horace Walpole's Gothic Strawberry Hill, Marble Hill built for a king's mistress, and the villas, watermen and eel-pie sellers between them, with Teddington, Whitton and the Hamptons further up the river. The cases start with flint axes from the Thames gravel and run to the rugby ground, and the museum's website holds far more of the record than the rooms can.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/twickenham-museum.jpg?v=0cddccdc","thumb":"/img/twickenham-museum-480.jpg?v=a144f32a","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Twickenham Museum on the Embankment","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Jim Linwood from London, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Twickenham_Museum_-_London._(19977475534).jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Twickenham Museum, 25 The Embankment, TW1 3DU, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Church Street, Twickenham","s":"church-street-twickenham","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":87},{"n":"York House Gardens","s":"york-house-gardens","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":171},{"n":"Arts Richmond Literature Festival","s":"arts-richmond-literature-festival","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":533}],"near_same":[{"s":"orleans-house-gallery","m":443},{"s":"marble-hill-house","m":902},{"s":"turners-house","m":1013},{"s":"strawberry-hill","m":1151},{"s":"world-rugby-museum","m":1420},{"s":"museum-of-richmond","m":1915}]},{"slug":"two-temple-place","name":"Two Temple Place","area":"Temple","address":"2 Temple Place, WC2R 3BD","station":"Temple","walk":2,"lat":51.51165,"lng":-0.112284,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://twotempleplace.org/","instagram":"twotempleplace","attrs":[],"osm":"way/98485763","types":["art","small-gem"],"verdict":"The estate office William Waldorf Astor built to be safe in, carved with Musketeers, Arthurian heroines and fifty-four gilded heads.","note":"Astor left America for England in 1891, in part because he feared his children would be kidnapped, and in 1895 had John Loughborough Pearson - the Gothic Revival architect of Truro Cathedral - build him this on the Embankment: an estate office with rooms to live in and somewhere secure to keep his books, instruments and art. It is Portland stone throughout, early Elizabethan in manner, and the weathervane on the roof, by the metalworker J. Starkie Gardner, is a model of Columbus's Santa Maria.\n\nThe interior is the reason to come. Thomas Nicholls carved the characters from The Three Musketeers onto the newel posts of the staircase. Fifty-four gilded portrait heads by Nathaniel Hitch look down from the Great Hall, historical figures and fictional ones side by side. George Frampton made nine silver-gilt panels of Arthurian heroines for the doors into it. Mahogany, marble and cedar throughout.\n\nSun Life of Canada had it, then a body of accountants, then Smith & Nephew, whose lion still appears on the radiator covers. A flying bomb damaged it in 1944 and it was repaired between 1949 and 1951. Since October 2011 the Bulldog Trust has opened it as a gallery, showing collections from museums outside London that rarely travel - a house built to keep one man's things to himself, spending its old age showing other people's.","deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/two-temple-place.jpg?v=4c17e15b","thumb":"/img/two-temple-place-480.jpg?v=6a8862a3","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Incorporated Accounts Hall","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Leela0808, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Incorporated_Accounts_Hall_2013-09-07_17-34-10.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"gathering-rest","name":"Gathering Rest","href":"/museums/two-temple-place/gathering-rest/","verdict":"Two Temple Place's free winter show, this year on rest as healing and imagination.","runs":{"from":"2027-01-23","to":"2027-04-18"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","wellness"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/two-temple-place/"}],"maps_q":"Two Temple Place, 2 Temple Place, WC2R 3BD, London","in_area":{"slug":"holborn","name":"Holborn"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Middle Temple","s":"middle-temple-hall","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":98},{"n":"Twinings","s":"twinings","c":"shopping","cn":"Shopping","m":183},{"n":"Toklas","s":"toklas","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":186}],"near_same":[{"s":"somerset-house","m":366},{"s":"courtauld-gallery","m":374},{"s":"dr-johnsons-house","m":461},{"s":"hunterian-museum","m":474},{"s":"london-transport-museum","m":619},{"s":"bow-street-museum-of-crime-and-justice","m":684}]},{"slug":"ucl-geology-collections","name":"UCL Geology Collections","area":"Bloomsbury","address":"Gower Street, Bloomsbury, WC1E 6BT","station":"Euston Square","walk":2,"lat":51.524722,"lng":-0.133611,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":null,"instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["nature"],"verdict":"Part of the University College London, rocks, minerals, fossils on display in the Rock Room.","note":null,"deep":true,"hours_extra":"Limited opening hours.","maps_q":"UCL Geology Collections, Gower Street, Bloomsbury, WC1E 6BT, London","in_area":{"slug":"bloomsbury","name":"Bloomsbury"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"The Ch\u014dsh\u016b Five","s":"choshu-five","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":6},{"n":"Getting Triggy With It: Matt Parker does the maths","s":"getting-triggy-with-it-matt-parker-does-the-maths","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":65},{"n":"Jeremy Bentham's Auto-Icon","s":"jeremy-benthams-auto-icon","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":85}],"near_same":[{"s":"grant-museum-of-zoology-and-comparative-anatomy","m":119},{"s":"petrie-museum-of-egyptian-archaeology","m":134},{"s":"institute-of-archaeology-collections","m":137},{"s":"wellcome-collection","m":142},{"s":"magic-circle-museum","m":229},{"s":"soas-gallery","m":482}]},{"slug":"upminster-tithe-barn-museum-of-nostalgia","name":"Upminster Tithe Barn Museum of Nostalgia","area":"Upminster","address":"RM14 1AU","station":"Upminster","walk":12,"lat":51.566826,"lng":0.256968,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://upminstertithebarn.co.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/206348902","types":["history"],"verdict":"Artefacts of rural domestic and agricultural life.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/upminster-tithe-barn-museum-of-nostalgia.jpg?v=889931f6","thumb":"/img/upminster-tithe-barn-museum-of-nostalgia-480.jpg?v=4b097e3d","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Upminster Tithe Barn Museum of Nostalgia , London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by MRSC at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Upminster_tithe_barn_south.jpg","thumb_width":500},"maps_q":"Upminster Tithe Barn Museum of Nostalgia, RM14 1AU, London","bank":1,"near_all":[],"near_same":[{"s":"upminster-windmill","m":1284},{"s":"havering-museum","m":5502},{"s":"rainham-hall","m":7106},{"s":"valence-house-museum","m":8539},{"s":"eastbury-manor-house","m":11477},{"s":"valentines-mansion","m":13183}]},{"slug":"upminster-windmill","name":"Upminster Windmill","area":"Upminster","address":"St Mary's Lane, Upminster, RM14 2QL","station":"Upminster","walk":6,"lat":51.557919,"lng":0.245132,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://www.upminsterwindmill.org/","instagram":"upminsterwindmill","attrs":[],"osm":"way/856992438","types":["local"],"verdict":"One of the finest smock mills in England, built for a farmer in 1803 and returned to working order for 2023, open on set days through the season.","note":"James Nokes, a local farmer, had it built in 1803: a smock mill, an octagonal weatherboarded tower on a brick base, so called because it looks like a countryman in his smock. It worked until 1934 and was bought for the public by the council in 1937, and after a long decline the Upminster Windmill Preservation Trust took it apart, repaired it and put it back together with money from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, reopening it in 2023 with a visitor centre alongside. It is protected at the higher historic grade for the completeness of its machinery, and on open days the volunteers take you up through all five floors.","deep":true,"hours_short":"Open days on set dates through the season, 10am or 11am to 4pm; see the calendar","hours_url":"https://www.upminsterwindmill.org/","hours_checked":"2026-09-08","hours_source":"web","figure":{"src":"/img/upminster-windmill.jpg?v=64a74765","thumb":"/img/upminster-windmill-480.jpg?v=bfed28e6","width":768,"height":1024,"alt":"A photograph of Upminster Windmill.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Michael Roots, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Upminster_mill_150912.JPG","thumb_width":360,"alt_generic":true},"maps_q":"Upminster Windmill, St Mary's Lane, Upminster, RM14 2QL, London","bank":1,"near_all":[],"near_same":[{"s":"upminster-tithe-barn-museum-of-nostalgia","m":1284},{"s":"havering-museum","m":5057},{"s":"rainham-hall","m":5821},{"s":"valence-house-museum","m":7669},{"s":"eastbury-manor-house","m":10411},{"s":"valentines-mansion","m":12454}]},{"slug":"v-a-east-museum","name":"V&A East Museum","area":"Stratford","address":"107 Carpenters Road, E20 2AR","station":"Stratford International","walk":6,"lat":51.541871,"lng":-0.013566,"hours":[[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,22.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,22.0],[10.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Th,Sa 10:00-22:00; Mo-We,Fr,Su,PH 10:00-18:00; Dec 24-26 off","website":"https://www.vam.ac.uk/east/museum/visit","instagram":"vamuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"way/1042201707","types":["design","free"],"verdict":"The V&A's new East Bank building, free, opened 2025.","note":"A purpose-built museum in Stratford drawing on the V&A's collections across art, design, fashion and performance, with a programme aimed at east London rather than at South Kensington's visitors. Free; expect a queue.","deep":false,"maps_q":"V&A East Museum, 107 Carpenters Road, E20 2AR, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Sadler's Wells East","s":"sadlers-wells-east","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":150},{"n":"The Music is Black: A British Story","s":"the-music-is-black-a-british-story","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":268},{"n":"Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park","s":"queen-elizabeth-olympic-park","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":304}],"near_same":[{"s":"v-a-east-storehouse","m":731},{"s":"chisenhale-gallery","m":2056},{"s":"sutton-house","m":2654},{"s":"hackney-museum","m":2942},{"s":"ragged-school-museum","m":2989},{"s":"the-viktor-wynd-museum-of-curiosities-fine-art-natural-history","m":3151}]},{"slug":"v-a-east-storehouse","name":"V&A East Storehouse","area":"Hackney Wick","address":"Parkes Street, E20 3AX","station":"Hackney Wick","walk":5,"lat":51.546437,"lng":-0.021183,"hours":[null,null,null,[10.0,22.0],null,[10.0,22.0],null],"hours_raw":"PH,Mo-Su 10:00-18:00; Th,Sa 10:00-22:00; Dec 24-26 off","website":"https://www.vam.ac.uk/east","instagram":"vam_east","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"node/12278757767","types":["design","free"],"verdict":"The V&A's working store, opened up so you can walk through the shelves \u2014 free.","note":"Half a million objects on open racking in a former Olympic broadcast centre, with a system that lets anyone order an item out of store to look at. The David Bowie Centre is here. Free, and unlike any other museum visit in the city.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/v-a-east-storehouse.jpg?v=4ade4402","thumb":"/img/v-a-east-storehouse-480.jpg?v=3b2352de","width":1024,"height":771,"alt":"V&A East Storehouse exterior","caption":"","credit":"Photo by The wub, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:V%26A_East_Storehouse_exterior_2025-08-17_(2).jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"V&A East Storehouse, Parkes Street, E20 3AX, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"David Bowie Centre","s":"david-bowie-centre","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":167},{"n":"The Big Brine","s":"the-big-brine","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":227},{"n":"Beer Merchants Tap","s":"beer-merchants-tap","c":"beer","cn":"Beer","m":286}],"near_same":[{"s":"v-a-east-museum","m":731},{"s":"chisenhale-gallery","m":1963},{"s":"sutton-house","m":2037},{"s":"hackney-museum","m":2411},{"s":"the-viktor-wynd-museum-of-curiosities-fine-art-natural-history","m":2839},{"s":"young-v-a","m":3026}]},{"slug":"vagina-museum","name":"Vagina Museum","area":"Camden","address":"275-276 Poyser Street, E2 9RF","station":"Cambridge Heath","walk":2,"lat":51.530368,"lng":-0.057045,"hours":[null,null,[12.0,19.0],[12.0,19.0],[12.0,19.0],[12.0,19.0],[12.0,19.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Su 12:00-19:00","website":"https://www.vaginamuseum.co.uk/","instagram":"vagina_museum","attrs":[],"osm":"node/12076130969","types":["medical","quirky","science"],"verdict":"The world's first museum of the female reproductive system, in two railway arches.","note":"Founded to counter myth and shame around anatomy, and it has moved three times since 2019 \u2014 now settled on Poyser Street in Bethnal Green. Free, small, funny, and more rigorous than the name leads people to expect.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/vagina-museum.jpg?v=eb62c734","thumb":"/img/vagina-museum-480.jpg?v=dcbe6554","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"The Vagina Museum, Bethnal Green","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Matt Brown, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Vagina_Museum.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Vagina Museum, 275-276 Poyser Street, E2 9RF, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Satan's Whiskers","s":"satans-whiskers","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":115},{"n":"All My Gods","s":"all-my-gods","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":216},{"n":"Mother Kelly's","s":"mother-kellys","c":"beer","cn":"Beer","m":234}],"near_same":[{"s":"young-v-a","m":209},{"s":"the-viktor-wynd-museum-of-curiosities-fine-art-natural-history","m":483},{"s":"chisenhale-gallery","m":1235},{"s":"museum-of-the-home","m":1347},{"s":"royal-london-hospital-archives-and-museum","m":1475},{"s":"hackney-museum","m":1572}]},{"slug":"valence-house-museum","name":"Valence House Museum","area":"Dagenham","address":"Becontree Avenue, Becontree Heath, RM8 3HT","station":"Chadwell Heath","walk":14,"lat":51.5583,"lng":0.1342,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://valencehousecollections.co.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["local"],"verdict":"The last of Dagenham's five manor houses, timber-framed and half-moated, with the borough's story inside, free.","note":"Valence House is the only one of Dagenham's five manor houses still standing, a timber-framed house with a moat round two sides of it, named after the Valence family who held it in the thirteenth century. It has been a manor, a family home, the council's town hall and the headquarters of its libraries, and since a refurbishment finished in 2010 it has been the museum of Barking and Dagenham. The portraits are the surprise: the Fanshawes, the family that held Parsloes and Barking for three centuries, left a run of them from the 1600s onwards, one of the best sets of family pictures in any local museum. The rest is the borough: Barking's fishing fleet, the Ford works at Dagenham, and the Becontree estate, the largest public housing estate in the world when the London County Council built some 26,000 homes here between 1921 and 1935, told with the residents' own things. There is a herb garden beside the house, and entry is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/valence-house-museum.jpg?v=2d6f5bc2","thumb":"/img/valence-house-museum-480.jpg?v=b1b8b29f","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Valence House","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Gordon Joly, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Valence_House_Museum_2010.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Valence House Museum, Becontree Avenue, Becontree Heath, RM8 3HT, London","bank":1,"near_all":[],"near_same":[{"s":"eastbury-manor-house","m":3591},{"s":"havering-museum","m":3802},{"s":"valentines-mansion","m":4931},{"s":"rainham-hall","m":5955},{"s":"upminster-windmill","m":7669},{"s":"upminster-tithe-barn-museum-of-nostalgia","m":8539}]},{"slug":"valentines-mansion","name":"Valentines Mansion","area":"Ilford","address":"Emerson Road, Ilford, IG1 4XA","station":"Gants Hill","walk":6,"lat":51.572134,"lng":0.066407,"hours":[[12.0,17.0],null,null,null,null,null,[12.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Su,Mo 12:00-17:00","website":"https://valentinesmansion.com/","instagram":"valentines.mansion","attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["historic-house","free"],"verdict":"A house of 1696 built for an archbishop's widow, restored by the council and opened free two days a week: a Victorian kitchen, a Georgian bedchamber and a walled garden in Ilford's best park.","note":"Lady Tillotson, widow of the Archbishop of Canterbury, built it in 1696, and Sir Charles Raymond, an East India ship-owner turned banker, gave it its Georgian face in the 1760s; a cutting from his vine was taken to Hampton Court in 1768 and became the Great Vine there. The last of the family, Sarah Ingleby, died in the house in 1906 and Ilford bought the grounds for its park, then let the house drift through offices and emptiness until a restoration finished in 2009 with the Heritage Lottery Fund. The rooms are furnished by period, with an audio story in each: the Victorian kitchen, the Georgian bedchamber, the drawing room over the garden. Outside are the walled kitchen garden, an Old English garden and the dovecote, and beyond them Valentines Park, 130 acres of lakes and cricket, the biggest green space in Redbridge.","deep":false,"hours_url":"https://valentinesmansion.com/visit-us/open-days/","hours_extra":"From November to February the hours are 11:00 to 15:00. Free.","hours_source":"web","hours_checked":"2026-09-08","figure":{"src":"/img/valentines-mansion.jpg?v=0f5647ee","thumb":"/img/valentines-mansion-480.jpg?v=f496148d","width":1024,"height":576,"alt":"Valentines Mansion front entrance","caption":"","credit":"Photo by The wub, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Valentines_Mansion,_front_entrance.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Valentines Mansion, Emerson Road, Ilford, IG1 4XA, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Perky Blenders","s":"perky-blenders-little-ilford","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":1400},{"n":"Wanstead Park","s":"wanstead-park","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":1748},{"n":"Barking Abbey and the Curfew Tower","s":"barking-abbey-and-the-curfew-tower","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":4070}],"near_same":[{"s":"eastbury-manor-house","m":4785},{"s":"valence-house-museum","m":4931},{"s":"gods-own-junkyard","m":5323},{"s":"vestry-house-museum","m":5637},{"s":"william-morris-gallery","m":6358},{"s":"v-a-east-museum","m":6472}]},{"slug":"vestry-house-museum","name":"Vestry House Museum","area":"Walthamstow","address":"2 Vestry Road, E17 9NH","station":"Walthamstow Central","walk":6,"lat":51.584058,"lng":-0.012887,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":"https://vestryhousemuseum.org.uk/","instagram":"vestryhousemuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"way/23941901","types":["local"],"verdict":"Local history, culture.","note":null,"deep":true,"figure":{"src":"/img/vestry-house-museum.jpg?v=4be0df1b","thumb":"/img/vestry-house-museum-480.jpg?v=3666ce90","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"Vestry House Museum in Walthamstow Village, seen along the lane","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Marathon, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Looking_past_the_Vestry_House_Museum,_Walthamstow_Village_-_geograph.org.uk_-_3815573.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Vestry House Museum, 2 Vestry Road, E17 9NH, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"The Good Egg Walthamstow","s":"the-good-egg-walthamstow","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":175},{"n":"Soho Theatre Walthamstow","s":"soho-theatre-walthamstow","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":562},{"n":"Suba Bakery","s":"suba-bakery","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":645}],"near_same":[{"s":"gods-own-junkyard","m":321},{"s":"william-morris-gallery","m":953},{"s":"walthamstow-pumphouse-museum","m":1707},{"s":"markfield-beam-engine-and-museum","m":3367},{"s":"v-a-east-storehouse","m":4222},{"s":"bruce-castle-museum","m":4628}]},{"slug":"victoria-and-albert-museum","name":"Victoria and Albert Museum","area":"South Kensington","address":"Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL","station":"South Kensington","walk":4,"lat":51.496911,"lng":-0.172115,"hours":[[10.0,17.75],[10.0,17.75],[10.0,17.75],[10.0,17.75],[10.0,22.0],[10.0,17.75],[10.0,17.75]],"hours_raw":"Sa-Th 10:00-17:45; Fr 10:00-22:00; Dec 24-26 off","website":"https://www.vam.ac.uk/","instagram":"vamuseum","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"relation/29795","types":["art","design","free","popular"],"verdict":"The world's largest museum of art and design: 2.8 million objects, 145 galleries, and the Cast Courts with Trajan's Column in two halves.","note":"The V&A is the world's largest museum of applied and decorative art and design, and it began as an argument about trade. The Government School of Design was founded in 1832 because ministers feared that badly designed British goods would lose their markets, and after the Great Exhibition of 1851 Henry Cole and Prince Albert turned its teaching collection into a museum in South Kensington, opened in 1857 in iron sheds so plain they were called the Brompton Boilers, with the first museum restaurant in the world. Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of Aston Webb's grand front on Cromwell Road in 1899 and gave the museum its name; Edward VII opened it in 1909.\n\nThe collection spans five thousand years and 2.8 million objects across 145 galleries, seven miles of them: the Cast Courts, the Raphael Cartoons, the Jewellery Gallery, the Gilbert Collection, Islamic Middle East around the Ardabil Carpet, Europe 1600 \u2013 1815, Design 1900 \u2013 Now, Theatre and Performance and the Photography Centre, with medieval and Renaissance sculpture \u2014 the largest holding outside Italy \u2014 running through the middle of the building. Tipu's Tiger, a mechanical organ in the shape of a tiger eating a British soldier, and the Great Bed of Ware are both here somewhere. The John Madejski Garden, with its shallow oval pool, is where to stop when the scale defeats you. Entry is free, and since 2017 the porcelain-tiled courtyard of the Exhibition Road Quarter is the other way in. The Fashion Gallery is shut for redevelopment until autumn 2028.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/victoria-and-albert-museum.jpg?v=6b425008","thumb":"/img/victoria-and-albert-museum-480.jpg?v=1c1d9203","width":1024,"height":988,"alt":"The southern entrance of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victoria_%26_Albert_Museum_Entrance,_London,_UK_-_Diliff.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"american-photographs","name":"American Photographs","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/american-photographs/","verdict":"How photography made America, from the V&A's own collection.","runs":{"to":"2027-05-16"},"types":["exhibition","free","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]},{"slug":"bharti-kher-at-the-v-a","name":"Bharti Kher at the V&A","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/bharti-kher-at-the-v-a/","verdict":"Sari-fabric, resin and bronze figures set among the V&A's historic sculpture.","runs":{"to":"2027-01-24"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"dimensions-contemporary-chinese-studio-crafts","name":"Dimensions: Contemporary Chinese Studio Crafts","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/dimensions-contemporary-chinese-studio-crafts/","verdict":"How Chinese makers turned craft into art from the 1980s onward.","runs":{"to":"2027-09-26"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"free-daily-tours-of-the-v-a","name":"Free daily tours of the V&A","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/free-daily-tours-of-the-v-a/","verdict":"Volunteer-led introductions to the collection, several times a day, no booking.","runs":null,"types":["art","free","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","Art & design"]},{"slug":"lasting-impressions-women-printmakers-1900-now","name":"Lasting Impressions: Women Printmakers 1900 \u2013 Now","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/lasting-impressions-women-printmakers-1900-now/","verdict":"Kollwitz, Faith Ringgold, Laura Knight and the Guerrilla Girls, in prints.","runs":{"to":"2026-09-27"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"lost-music-venues","name":"Lost Music Venues","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/lost-music-venues/","verdict":"Fifty vanished gig venues from the 1980s to the 2010s, in flyers, posters and merch.","runs":{"to":"2027-10-30"},"types":["exhibition","free","music"],"clue":["Exhibition"]},{"slug":"rising-voices-contemporary-art-from-asia-australia-and-the-pacific","name":"Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/rising-voices-contemporary-art-from-asia-australia-and-the-pacific/","verdict":"Forty artists from the Asia Pacific, in a partnership with Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art.","runs":{"to":"2027-01-10"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"schiaparelli-fashion-becomes-art","name":"Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/schiaparelli-fashion-becomes-art/","verdict":"The Skeleton Dress, the Tears Dress, and a century of Schiaparelli in one room.","runs":{"to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["art","exhibition","fashion"],"clue":["Exhibition","Fashion"]},{"slug":"the-v-as-permanent-galleries","name":"The V&A's permanent galleries","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/the-v-as-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"Seven miles of galleries, from Trajan's Column in plaster to the first iPhone.","runs":null,"types":["art","exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"urushi-now-contemporary-japanese-lacquer","name":"Urushi Now: Contemporary Japanese Lacquer","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/urushi-now-contemporary-japanese-lacquer/","verdict":"A 7,000-year-old Japanese craft, as practised by artists working now.","runs":{"to":"2027-04-30"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"golden-threads-dress-from-saudi-arabia","name":"Golden Threads: Dress from Saudi Arabia","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/golden-threads-dress-from-saudi-arabia/","verdict":"Gold-threaded thobes that King Abdulaziz gave to an ambassador's daughter in the 1940s.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-04","to":"2027-05-30"},"types":["exhibition","fashion","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Fashion"]},{"slug":"sun-artists-a-serial-of-artistic-photography","name":"Sun Artists: A Serial of Artistic Photography","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/sun-artists-a-serial-of-artistic-photography/","verdict":"The eight issues of an 1889 journal that argued photography was art.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-04","to":"2027-05-09"},"types":["exhibition","free","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]},{"slug":"v-a-illustration-awards-2026","name":"V&A Illustration Awards 2026","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/v-a-illustration-awards-2026/","verdict":"The year's best illustration, from picture books to advertising, free for a month.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-04","to":"2026-10-04"},"types":["art","books","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"v-a-x-ldf-awakenings","name":"V&A x LDF: Awakenings","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/v-a-x-ldf-awakenings/","verdict":"The V&A's London Design Festival installations, scattered through the galleries.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-12","to":"2026-10-18"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"digital-design-weekend-2026","name":"Digital Design Weekend 2026","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/digital-design-weekend-2026/","verdict":"Thirty installations, live coding and arcade games across the V&A, free, first come first served.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-18","to":"2026-09-20","repeats":"yearly"},"types":["art","family","free","workshop"],"clue":["Make something","Art & design"]},{"slug":"freddie-mercury-splendid-things","name":"Freddie Mercury | Splendid Things","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/freddie-mercury-splendid-things/","verdict":"A free display of what Freddie Mercury kept, from the Garden Lodge sale.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-24"},"types":["exhibition","fashion","free","music"],"clue":["Exhibition","Fashion"]},{"slug":"constantinople-to-istanbul-one-city-two-empires","name":"Constantinople to Istanbul: One City, Two Empires","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/constantinople-to-istanbul-one-city-two-empires/","verdict":"Sixteen hundred years of one city, Byzantine and Ottoman, in the V&A's first show on it.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-07"},"types":["art","exhibition","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"punk-to-pop","name":"Punk to Pop","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/punk-to-pop/","verdict":"1972 to 1985: the do-it-yourself decade, in music and clothes.","runs":{"from":"2027-03-13"},"types":["exhibition","fashion","music"],"clue":["Exhibition","Fashion"]},{"slug":"sculpture-in-clay","name":"Sculpture in Clay","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/sculpture-in-clay/","verdict":"British artists who picked up clay to break the rules of ceramics.","runs":{"from":"2027-05-29"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"chintz","name":"Chintz","href":"/museums/victoria-and-albert-museum/chintz/","verdict":"Four centuries of the South Indian cotton that Europe coveted, copied and banned.","runs":{"from":"2027-09-18"},"types":["exhibition","fashion","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Fashion"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/victoria-and-albert-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL, London","in_area":{"slug":"south-kensington","name":"South Kensington"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"National Art Library","s":"national-art-library","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":35},{"n":"Brompton Oratory","s":"brompton-oratory","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":173},{"n":"Venchi Exhibition Road","s":"venchi-exhibition-road","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":244}],"near_same":[{"s":"natural-history-museum","m":275},{"s":"science-museum","m":290},{"s":"rcm-museum-of-music","m":453},{"s":"polish-institute-and-sikorski-museum","m":505},{"s":"baden-powell-house-exhibition","m":545},{"s":"serpentine","m":890}]},{"slug":"wallace-collection","name":"Wallace Collection","area":"Marylebone","address":"George Street, Marylebone, W1H 5BJ","station":"Bond Street","walk":6,"lat":51.517509,"lng":-0.153066,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.wallacecollection.org/","instagram":"wallacemuseum","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"node/7046046492","types":["art","free"],"verdict":"Four generations of a family's buying, the Laughing Cavalier, Fragonard's Swing and one of Europe's great armouries, free in a Marylebone townhouse that nothing may ever leave.","note":"The Marquesses of Hertford were among the richest men in Europe, and the fourth of them spent his life in Paris buying what the French Revolution and its aftermath had shaken loose: Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard's The Swing, S\u00e8vres porcelain, Boulle furniture and the arms and armour that fill the ground floor. He left it all to his illegitimate son Richard Wallace, who added the medieval and Renaissance pieces and brought everything to Hertford House on Manchester Square, and Wallace's widow gave it to the nation in 1897 on one condition: that nothing should ever be added or lent out. So the collection is still exactly what they bought, twenty-five rooms of it, opened in 1900, with Frans Hals's Laughing Cavalier, Titian, Rembrandt, Vel\u00e1zquez, Canaletto and Poussin upstairs among the French. It is free and rarely crowded, and the glazed courtyard in the middle is one of the better lunches in Marylebone.","deep":false,"whats_on":[{"slug":"the-wallace-collections-permanent-galleries","name":"The Wallace Collection's permanent galleries","href":"/art/wallace-collection/the-wallace-collections-permanent-galleries/","verdict":"Fragonard's The Swing, the Laughing Cavalier and an armoury, free in a Marylebone house.","runs":null,"types":["art","exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"the-wallace-collection-at-war","name":"The Wallace Collection at War","href":"/museums/wallace-collection/the-wallace-collection-at-war/","verdict":"The year Hertford House emptied its galleries and filled them with Soviet banners.","runs":{"from":"2026-04-15","to":"2026-10-25"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"winston-churchill-the-painter","name":"Winston Churchill: The Painter","href":"/museums/wallace-collection/winston-churchill-the-painter/","verdict":"Fifty Churchill canvases, half from private hands, in the first retrospective since his death.","runs":{"from":"2026-05-23","to":"2026-11-29"},"types":["art","exhibition","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"metamorphoses-porcelain-sculpture-by-rachel-kneebone","name":"Metamorphoses: Porcelain Sculpture by Rachel Kneebone","href":"/museums/wallace-collection/metamorphoses-porcelain-sculpture-by-rachel-kneebone/","verdict":"Nine white porcelain sculptures set among Fragonard, Boulle and the armour.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-23","to":"2027-04-25"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/wallace-collection/"}],"maps_q":"Wallace Collection, George Street, Marylebone, W1H 5BJ, London","in_area":{"slug":"marylebone","name":"Marylebone"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar","s":"simon-bolivar","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":163},{"n":"Arome Bakery","s":"arome-bakery-marylebone","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":253},{"n":"Rococo Chocolates","s":"rococo-chocolates","c":"desserts","cn":"Desserts & Gelato","m":256}],"near_same":[{"s":"anaesthesia-heritage-centre","m":593},{"s":"madame-tussauds-london","m":612},{"s":"royal-academy-of-music-museum","m":654},{"s":"handel-hendrix-house","m":710},{"s":"sherlock-holmes-museum","m":789},{"s":"cartoon-museum","m":1002}]},{"slug":"walthamstow-pumphouse-museum","name":"Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum","area":"Walthamstow","address":"10 South Access Road, E17 8AX","station":"St James Street","walk":6,"lat":51.576759,"lng":-0.034621,"hours":[null,null,null,null,null,null,[10.5,15.5]],"hours_raw":"Su 10:30-15:30","website":"https://walthamstowpumphouse.org.uk/","instagram":"walthamstowpumphousemuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"way/82785023","types":["free","transport"],"verdict":"The museum is due to become the Lea Valley Experience, pioneering achievements in road, rail, air and sea transport in the River Lea valley from the early 19th century.","note":null,"deep":true,"regular":[{"what":"The steam engines run","when":"Every Sunday, 10:30 to 16:00, last entry 15:45","price":"Free, donations welcome","url":"https://walthamstowpumphouse.org.uk/","note":"A pair of Marshall steam engines in a Victorian pumping station, with a fire-engine collection, two original Victoria line carriages and a model railway of the Liverpool Street to Chingford line."}],"figure":{"src":"/img/walthamstow-pumphouse-museum.jpg?v=cce73da0","thumb":"/img/walthamstow-pumphouse-museum-480.jpg?v=fce31a9e","width":1024,"height":685,"alt":"The Governor, a steam engine under steam at the Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Robert Lamb, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:View_of_The_Governor_in_steam_in_the_Walthamstow_Pumphouse_Museum_-_geograph.org.uk_-_5817993.jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/walthamstow-pumphouse-museum/"}],"maps_q":"Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum, 10 South Access Road, E17 8AX, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Walthamstow Market","s":"walthamstow-market","c":"food-markets","cn":"Food Markets","m":667},{"n":"Forest Wines","s":"forest-wines","c":"wine","cn":"Wine","m":1227},{"n":"Soho Theatre Walthamstow","s":"soho-theatre-walthamstow","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":1417}],"near_same":[{"s":"vestry-house-museum","m":1707},{"s":"william-morris-gallery","m":1895},{"s":"markfield-beam-engine-and-museum","m":1939},{"s":"gods-own-junkyard","m":1992},{"s":"sutton-house","m":3330},{"s":"v-a-east-storehouse","m":3497}]},{"slug":"wellcome-collection","name":"Wellcome Collection","area":"St Pancras","address":"183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE","station":"Euston Square","walk":1,"lat":51.525974,"lng":-0.13402,"hours":[null,[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,20.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0],[10.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu-We,Fr-Su 10:00-18:00; Th 10:00-20:00","website":"http://www.wellcomecollection.org","instagram":"wellcomecollection","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"node/2617821322","types":["free","medical","science"],"verdict":"Medicine, art and the human body, free, and consistently the most interesting free show in London.","note":"Henry Wellcome's collecting was indiscriminate \u2014 Napoleon's toothbrush, Darwin's walking stick, votive offerings, forceps \u2014 and the museum now sets that against contemporary art and a reckoning with how the collection was formed. Being Human is the free permanent gallery. The reading room upstairs is part library, part exhibition, and a good place to sit.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/wellcome-collection.jpg?v=d601abc6","thumb":"/img/wellcome-collection-480.jpg?v=49c3f5a3","width":1024,"height":556,"alt":"The Wellcome Collection @ The Wellcome Building, Euston Road, London","caption":"","credit":"Photo by David Samuel, User:Hellodavey1902, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Wellcome_Building.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"being-human","name":"Being Human","href":"/museums/wellcome-collection/being-human/","verdict":"Fifty objects on what it is to be a person now, including a jukebox of epidemics.","runs":null,"types":["art","exhibition","free","science"],"clue":["Exhibition","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"wellcome-collection-daily-tours","name":"Wellcome Collection daily tours","href":"/museums/wellcome-collection/wellcome-collection-daily-tours/","verdict":"Free half-hour drop-in tours and discussions, three times a day, Tuesday to Sunday.","runs":null,"types":["free","science","tour"],"clue":["Guided tour","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"the-coming-of-age","name":"The Coming of Age","href":"/museums/wellcome-collection/the-coming-of-age/","verdict":"150 works on getting older, from Paula Rego to a Japanese restaurant staffed by people with dementia.","runs":{"from":"2026-03-26","to":"2026-11-29"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","science"],"clue":["Exhibition","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"tenderness-and-rage","name":"Tenderness and Rage","href":"/museums/wellcome-collection/tenderness-and-rage/","verdict":"HIV and AIDS from the 1980s wards to today's activists, and a placard-making table.","runs":{"from":"2026-05-29","to":"2027-05-30"},"types":["exhibition","free","history","photography"],"clue":["Exhibition","Photography"]},{"slug":"audrey-amiss-the-surviving-exhibitions","name":"Audrey Amiss: The Surviving Exhibitions","href":"/museums/wellcome-collection/audrey-amiss-the-surviving-exhibitions/","verdict":"Fifty thousand sketchbook pages by an artist who fought the mental health system with them.","runs":{"from":"2026-07-10","to":"2027-02-07"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"rudy-loewe-intimacies-of-care","name":"Rudy Loewe: Intimacies of Care","href":"/museums/wellcome-collection/rudy-loewe-intimacies-of-care/","verdict":"Sculpture, painting and sound on Black mental healthcare in Britain, made with the people who use it.","runs":{"from":"2026-07-10","to":"2027-02-07"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"wellcome-collection-lates-the-friendship-effect","name":"Wellcome Collection Lates: The Friendship Effect","href":"/museums/wellcome-collection/wellcome-collection-lates-the-friendship-effect/","verdict":"A free Thursday night on friendship: philosophers, jewellers, dancers and a Care Caf\u00e9.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-24","to":"2026-09-24"},"types":["free","wellness"],"clue":[]},{"slug":"conversations-about-death","name":"Conversations about Death","href":"/museums/wellcome-collection/conversations-about-death/","verdict":"A session for talking about the thing nobody talks about.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-03","to":"2026-10-03"},"types":["free","science","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk","Science & nature"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/wellcome-collection/"}],"maps_q":"Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE, London","in_area":{"slug":"bloomsbury","name":"Bloomsbury"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Getting Triggy With It: Matt Parker does the maths","s":"getting-triggy-with-it-matt-parker-does-the-maths","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":132},{"n":"The Ch\u014dsh\u016b Five","s":"choshu-five","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":143},{"n":"The Euston Tap","s":"the-euston-tap","c":"beer","cn":"Beer","m":150}],"near_same":[{"s":"magic-circle-museum","m":115},{"s":"galton-collection","m":142},{"s":"ucl-geology-collections","m":142},{"s":"institute-of-archaeology-collections","m":195},{"s":"grant-museum-of-zoology-and-comparative-anatomy","m":249},{"s":"petrie-museum-of-egyptian-archaeology","m":275}]},{"slug":"wellington-arch","name":"Wellington Arch","area":"Hyde Park Corner","address":"Apsley Way, Belgravia, W1J 7NT","station":"Hyde Park Corner","walk":3,"lat":51.502536,"lng":-0.150818,"hours":[null,null,[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Su 10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/wellington-arch/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/24923117","types":["history"],"verdict":"Decimus Burton's arch at Hyde Park Corner, with the largest bronze sculpture in Europe on top and balconies inside to climb to.","note":"Decimus Burton built the arch between 1826 and 1830 as the outer gate of Buckingham Palace, facing his screen into Hyde Park across the road, and the money ran out before any sculpture went on it. What went on in 1846 instead was a bronze of the Duke of Wellington on his horse, twenty-eight feet high and so out of scale that Burton begged to have it removed; it stayed until 1883, when the whole arch was taken down and rebuilt where it stands now, at the top of Constitution Hill, and the Duke was sent to Aldershot. Adrian Jones's Quadriga of 1912 replaced him: a boy driving four horses while the Angel of Peace descends into the chariot of war, the largest bronze sculpture in Europe. For most of the twentieth century the arch's hollow piers held the smallest police station in London. English Heritage has it now, with rooms of exhibitions inside and balconies at the top from which the Household Cavalry can be watched riding under it to the changing of the guard.","deep":false,"reading":"Wellington Arch is one of those London monuments whose name tells only a fraction of its story. It was not built as a memorial to the Duke of Wellington, it no longer stands in its original position, and the enormous sculpture on top has nothing directly to do with Wellington at all. Even its relatively austere appearance is accidental: much of the decoration its architect intended was never built.\n\nThe arch began life in the 1820s as part of a grand redesign of Hyde Park Corner. London was expanding westwards and the junction had effectively become a ceremonial entrance to the capital. George IV was simultaneously transforming Buckingham House into Buckingham Palace, and the government commissioned the young architect Decimus Burton to redesign the entrances to Hyde Park and Green Park.\n\nBurton designed the long classical screen that still forms the entrance to Hyde Park, and opposite it an arch leading towards Constitution Hill and Buckingham Palace. The government decided that this second gateway should be particularly impressive because it effectively formed an outer entrance to the palace. Burton responded with a triumphal arch in Portland stone, using the architecture of ancient Rome to give a decidedly modern London the grandeur of an imperial capital.\n\nLook closely and the architecture is much more sophisticated than its apparently simple form suggests. Pairs of enormous fluted Corinthian columns stand forward from the walls, supporting an entablature that runs uninterrupted across the central opening. An ancient Roman builder could not actually have constructed such a wide stone span in this way: Burton concealed cast-iron beams inside it. The arch is therefore less of a literal recreation of classical architecture than a nineteenth-century interpretation of it, combining Roman proportions with the technology of the Industrial Revolution.\n\nIt was also supposed to be considerably more elaborate. Burton designed carved trophies of weapons and armour for the large panels between the columns, rich garlands for the frieze and, most dramatically, a gilded four-horse chariot on the roof. But the cost of the arch was already exceeding its estimate, while the redevelopment of Buckingham Palace was consuming enormous sums of money. The Treasury refused to pay for most of the sculpture. The blank expanses of stone visible today are therefore not entirely an exercise in restrained neoclassicism: in places they are simply unfinished.\n\nWellington entered the story only afterwards. By the 1830s he was Britain's supreme living military hero, celebrated above all for the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. A committee raising money for a national monument to him decided that an enormous equestrian statue should be placed on Burton's arch, conveniently within sight of Wellington's London home at Apsley House.\n\nThe resulting statue, by Matthew Cotes Wyatt, produced one of Victorian Britain's great arguments about public art. It was the largest equestrian statue yet created and was wildly out of proportion with the architecture beneath it. Critics regarded the idea of turning a triumphal arch into a gigantic statue pedestal as artistically absurd; the dispute reached Parliament and the government tried to prevent the installation. When the bronze Wellington finally appeared above the arch in 1846, supposedly on a trial basis, it was greeted with widespread ridicule.\n\nWellington himself made clear that taking down his statue would appear to be a mark of royal disapproval and indicated that he would resign his public offices, including his position as commander-in-chief. Few politicians were willing to pick a fight with the victor of Waterloo over a piece of sculpture. The government backed down, and the giant duke remained above the arch for nearly four decades.\n\nTraffic eventually achieved what Victorian art critics could not. Hyde Park Corner had become increasingly congested, and in the early 1880s the government decided to create a new road between Piccadilly and Grosvenor Place. The arch stood in the way. Beginning in 1883 it was dismantled and reconstructed a short distance to the south-east, using its original Portland-stone facing, in the position where it stands today facing down Constitution Hill.\n\nThe move provided an opportunity to remove Wellington at last. His colossal statue was sent to Aldershot, the military town in Hampshire, where it remains. A much better-proportioned equestrian Wellington by Joseph Boehm was subsequently erected near Apsley House in 1888. London therefore still has a Wellington statue beside Wellington Arch - just not the Wellington statue that made it Wellington Arch in the first place.\n\nFor several decades the roof was empty. Then another quadriga (an ancient chariot or car pulled by four horses) appeared, unexpectedly fulfilling something close to Burton's original intention. Adrian Jones, a former army veterinary officer and sculptor with an exceptional knowledge of horses, had exhibited a four-horse chariot at the Royal Academy in 1891. The future Edward VII thought it would work well on the arch. Funding took years to secure, but a donation from the banker Sir Herbert Stern eventually allowed Jones to produce the monumental bronze sculpture installed in 1912.\n\nJones called it *Peace descending on the Quadriga of War*. Four horses pull a chariot driven by a small boy while an enormous winged figure of Peace descends behind him carrying a laurel wreath. It is not an established scene from classical mythology but an allegory apparently devised by Jones himself. There is a pleasing circularity to its presence: more than eighty years after the Treasury cancelled Burton's proposed quadriga, the arch finally acquired one.\n\nThe building has had an unexpectedly practical life too. Its huge stone piers contain rooms spread over several storeys. A park keeper lived in one side after the nineteenth-century reconstruction while the other housed a police station, reputedly London's smallest permanently manned police station, which survived until the late 1950s. When Hyde Park Corner was transformed into its present roundabout and underpass in 1960-62, part of the southern pier was hollowed out to become an emergency ventilation shaft for the road tunnel below.\n\nThat reconstruction also explains why the arch can feel strangely stranded today. It was designed as part of a sequence of gates, roads and parks, and after its first move became an important ceremonial entrance to Constitution Hill. The twentieth-century road system turned it into an island surrounded by traffic. The Household Cavalry still passes beneath it on its route between Hyde Park Barracks and Whitehall, briefly restoring the monument to something like its intended role as a ceremonial gateway.\n\nThe Wellington Arch is therefore less a monument to a single person than an unusually visible record of London continually rebuilding itself. Georgian ambitions to create an imperial capital, Victorian hero worship, arguments over public art, Edwardian pageantry and twentieth-century traffic engineering have all altered it. The arch standing at Hyde Park Corner today is not really the work of one moment at all: it is the accumulated result of nearly two centuries of London changing its mind.","figure":{"src":"/img/wellington-arch.jpg?v=1b3e2260","thumb":"/img/wellington-arch-480.jpg?v=3fc925e4","width":1024,"height":669,"alt":"Arco de Wellington","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arco_de_Wellington,_Hyde_Park.jpg","thumb_width":480},"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/wellington-arch/"},{"name":"Royal London","href":"/royal/wellington-arch/"},{"name":"Monuments & Ruins","href":"/monuments/wellington-arch/"}],"maps_q":"Wellington Arch, Apsley Way, Belgravia, W1J 7NT, London","in_area":{"slug":"westminster","name":"Westminster"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Royal Artillery Memorial","s":"royal-artillery-memorial","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":78},{"n":"Queen Elizabeth Gate","s":"queen-elizabeth-gate","c":"royal","cn":"Royal London","m":205},{"n":"Achilles statue","s":"achilles-statue","c":"art","cn":"Art","m":254}],"near_same":[{"s":"apsley-house","m":122},{"s":"buckingham-palace","m":595},{"s":"royal-mews","m":607},{"s":"kennel-club-dog-art-gallery","m":631},{"s":"kings-gallery","m":646},{"s":"spencer-house","m":787}]},{"slug":"wesleys-chapel-museum-of-methodism-and-john-wesleys-house","name":"Wesley's Chapel, Museum of Methodism and John Wesley's House","area":"Finsbury","address":"49 City Road, EC1Y 1AU","station":"Old Street","walk":3,"lat":51.523745,"lng":-0.086575,"hours":[null,[10.5,16.0],[10.5,16.0],[10.5,16.0],[10.5,16.0],[10.5,16.0],null],"hours_raw":"Tu-Sa 10:30-16:00","website":"https://www.wesleyschapel.org.uk/","instagram":"wesleyschapel.lm","attrs":[],"osm":"way/157892853","types":["history"],"verdict":"Where John Wesley lived, preached and died, with the museum of the movement he began in the crypt.","note":"John Wesley was a Church of England priest who spent fifty years riding the country to preach to people the parish system was not reaching: miners, weavers and the poor of the new industrial towns. At Oxford he and his brother Charles had belonged to a small group whose strict timetable of study, prayer and prison visiting got them mocked as Methodists, and the nickname stuck to the movement that grew out of his preaching. He rode perhaps a quarter of a million miles and preached more than forty thousand sermons; Charles wrote the hymns, several thousand of them. Wesley never intended to leave the Church of England, and Methodism only became a separate church after his death.\n\nHe built this chapel in 1778, the first the Methodists put up in London for the purpose, and lived in the house beside it from 1779 until he died there in 1791. The house is kept as he had it, down to his study and the electrical machine he used to treat melancholy \u2014 he thought electricity the great unexploited medicine of the age and wrote a book arguing for it. He is buried behind the chapel and his mother Susanna lies across the road in Bunhill Fields. Margaret Thatcher was married in the chapel in 1951.\n\nThe Museum of Methodism is in the crypt, with a collection of some fifteen thousand objects, Wesley's teapot among them. Chapel, house and museum are all free.","deep":false,"hours_url":"https://wesleysheritage.org.uk/visiting-us/","hours_checked":"2026-09-06","hours_source":"web","hours_extra":"Closed to visitors on Sundays and Mondays. The chapel holds Sunday worship; the times are on its own site rather than here.","figure":{"src":"/img/own-wesleys-chapel.jpg?v=5f5505e9","thumb":"/img/own-wesleys-chapel-480.jpg?v=ef7d0189","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"John Wesley's statue on the cobbled forecourt in front of his chapel on City Road","caption":"Wesley in his own courtyard."},"figures":[{"src":"/img/own-wesleys-chapel-2.jpg?v=e0e1c4a0","thumb":"/img/own-wesleys-chapel-2-480.jpg?v=fb7a1f75","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"Wesley's Chapel's brick front, a portico between round-headed windows","caption":"The chapel front, of 1778."}],"also_in":[{"name":"Sacred London","href":"/sacred/wesleys-chapel-museum-of-methodism-and-john-wesleys-house/"}],"maps_q":"Wesley's Chapel, Museum of Methodism and John Wesley's House, 49 City Road, EC1Y 1AU, London","in_area":{"slug":"shoreditch-old-street","name":"Shoreditch & Old Street"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Lantana Shoreditch","s":"lantana-shoreditch","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":83},{"n":"Ozone Coffee Roasters","s":"ozone-leonard","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":107},{"n":"Bunhill Fields","s":"bunhill-fields","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":150}],"near_same":[{"s":"honourable-artillery-company-museum","m":149},{"s":"british-red-cross-museum-and-archives","m":518},{"s":"rivington-place","m":580},{"s":"barbican-centre","m":662},{"s":"dennis-severs-house","m":683},{"s":"the-charterhouse","m":948}]},{"slug":"white-lodge-museum-and-ballet-resource-centre","name":"White Lodge Museum and Ballet Resource Centre","area":"Richmond","address":"46 Floral Street, Covent Garden, WC2E 9DA","station":"Mortlake","walk":32,"lat":51.4452,"lng":-0.2648,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"website":null,"instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["music"],"verdict":"History of the Royal Ballet School, daily life of its students, history and development of Classical ballet, history of White Lodge, visits by appointment.","note":null,"deep":true,"maps_q":"White Lodge Museum and Ballet Resource Centre, 46 Floral Street, Covent Garden, WC2E 9DA, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Richmond Park","s":"richmond-park","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":897},{"n":"Isabella Plantation","s":"isabella-plantation","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":1576},{"n":"Richmond Hill","s":"richmond-hill","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":2437}],"near_same":[{"s":"dorich-house","m":1323},{"s":"wimbledon-windmill-museum","m":2448},{"s":"museum-of-richmond","m":3265},{"s":"riverside-gallery","m":3272},{"s":"ham-house","m":3415},{"s":"wimbledon-lawn-tennis-museum","m":3745}]},{"slug":"whitechapel-gallery","name":"Whitechapel Gallery","area":"Whitechapel","address":"77-82 Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX","station":"Aldgate East","walk":1,"lat":51.516163,"lng":-0.070356,"hours":[null,[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,21.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0],[11.0,18.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu-We,Fr-Su 11:00-18:00; Th 11:00-21:00","website":"https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/","instagram":"whitechapelgallery","attrs":[],"osm":"way/264131965","types":["art","free"],"verdict":"The East End's gallery since 1901, free, where Guernica hung in 1939 and Rothko, Pollock and Hockney were first shown to London.","note":"Canon Samuel Barnett and his wife Henrietta, who had been hanging borrowed pictures in a Whitechapel school for the poor since 1881, built this gallery for them; Charles Harrison Townsend's front of 1901, with its great arch and the blank space above it where a mosaic never came, is one of the best Arts and Crafts buildings in London, and the gallery was among the first anywhere paid for by the public to show changing exhibitions rather than a collection. It has stayed free and stayed ahead. Picasso's Guernica hung here in January 1939, the price of entry a pair of boots for the Spanish republicans; This Is Tomorrow in 1956 gave pop art its start; Pollock had his first British show here in 1958 and Rothko in 1961, and the New Generation show of 1964 introduced Hockney, Bridget Riley and Patrick Caulfield. In 2009 it took over the Victorian library next door and doubled in size. Entry is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/whitechapel-gallery.jpg?v=6a262173","thumb":"/img/whitechapel-gallery-480.jpg?v=b1cfcfa0","width":768,"height":1024,"alt":"A photograph of Whitechapel Gallery.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Ham, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Whitechapel_Gallery_in_August_2014.JPG","thumb_width":360,"alt_generic":true},"whats_on":[{"slug":"cecilia-vicuna-living-threads","name":"Cecilia Vicu\u00f1a: Living Threads","href":"/museums/whitechapel-gallery/cecilia-vicuna-living-threads/","verdict":"Six decades of the Chilean poet-artist, from the precarios to a new city of geometry.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-07","to":"2027-02-14"},"types":["art","exhibition"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]},{"slug":"this-must-be-the-place-artists-for-whitechapel-gallery","name":"This Must Be the Place: Artists for Whitechapel Gallery","href":"/museums/whitechapel-gallery/this-must-be-the-place-artists-for-whitechapel-gallery/","verdict":"Twenty-four painters' new work for the gallery's 125th birthday, in the Assembly Room, all for sale.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-07","to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["art","exhibition","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/whitechapel-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX, London","in_area":{"slug":"spitalfields-brick-lane","name":"Spitalfields & Brick Lane"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Altab Ali Park","s":"altab-ali-park","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":128},{"n":"Toynbee Hall","s":"toynbee-hall","c":"politics","cn":"Power & Politics","m":137},{"n":"Department of Coffee and Social Affairs","s":"department-of-coffee-and-social-affairs","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":261}],"near_same":[{"s":"museum-of-immigration-and-diversity","m":435},{"s":"jack-the-ripper-museum","m":621},{"s":"royal-london-hospital-archives-and-museum","m":693},{"s":"dennis-severs-house","m":739},{"s":"royal-pharmaceutical-society-museum","m":806},{"s":"fusiliers-museum","m":945}]},{"slug":"whitehall","name":"Whitehall","area":"Cheam","address":"Park Lane, Benhilton, SM3 8BW","station":"Cheam","walk":6,"lat":51.359427,"lng":-0.217133,"hours":[null,null,null,[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[12.0,16.0],null],"hours_raw":"Th-Fr 10:00-16:00; Sa 12:00-16:00","website":"https://libraries.sutton.gov.uk/digital-content/sutton-heritage/whitehall-historic-house","instagram":"suttonlibrarieslondon","attrs":[],"osm":"node/425669383","types":["free","historic-house"],"verdict":"A white weatherboarded house of about 1500 in Cheam village, kept as a free museum of itself.","note":"A yeoman farmer built this house in the middle of Cheam around 1500. The eighteenth century covered its close-set timber frame in the white weatherboarding you see now, a stair tower went up in the sixteenth century, and most centuries since have added or changed something, so the building is its own best exhibit. Sutton council opened it as a museum in 1978 after local people campaigned for it. Inside are the parlour, the kitchens and the dressing room of Harriet Killick, a schoolteacher whose family lived here for generations, together with displays on Cheam and on Nonsuch, Henry VIII's palace a mile away, of which nothing is left above ground.","deep":true,"hours_source":"web","hours_url":"https://libraries.sutton.gov.uk/digital-content/sutton-heritage/whitehall-historic-house","hours_checked":"2026-09-06","hours_extra":"Free entry. Closed Sunday to Wednesday, and the times can vary.","figure":{"src":"/img/whitehall.jpg?v=3706a491","thumb":"/img/whitehall.jpg?v=3706a491","width":412,"height":269,"alt":"Whitehall, the white weatherboarded Tudor house in Cheam","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Roger Miller, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Whitehall,_Cheam_-_geograph.org.uk_-_32986.jpg"},"maps_q":"Whitehall, Park Lane, Benhilton, SM3 8BW, London","bank":0,"near_all":[],"near_same":[{"s":"little-holland-house","m":3260},{"s":"honeywood-museum","m":3671},{"s":"southside-house","m":6871},{"s":"museum-of-wimbledon","m":7107},{"s":"kingston-museum","m":8022},{"s":"museum-of-croydon","m":8303}]},{"slug":"wiener-library","name":"Wiener Library","area":"Bloomsbury","address":"29 Russell Square, WC1B 5DN","station":"Russell Square","walk":4,"lat":51.521606,"lng":-0.127996,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,19.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],null,null],"hours_raw":"Mo-Fr 10:00-17:00, Tu 10:00-19:00","website":"http://www.wienerlibrary.co.uk","instagram":"wienerlibrary","attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["history"],"verdict":"The world's oldest archive of the Holocaust, begun in 1933 before it happened, free to read in a Russell Square townhouse.","note":"Alfred Wiener was a German Jew who saw what the Nazis were and began collecting the evidence in 1933, first in Amsterdam and from 1939 in London, where his office fed the British government and the press through the war and supplied material to the prosecutors at Nuremberg. It became a research library and has never stopped collecting: more than a million items, documents, photographs, eyewitness accounts gathered in the 1950s while memories were fresh, family papers and the propaganda itself, with the British copy of the International Tracing Service archive on the survivors and the catalogue of the United Nations War Crimes Commission that it fought to have opened. The townhouse on Russell Square, its home since 2011, has a reading room anyone may use, a gallery of changing exhibitions on the ground floor and a programme of talks. Entry is free.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/wiener-library.jpg?v=e7af8f8e","thumb":"/img/wiener-library-480.jpg?v=409d570a","width":1024,"height":768,"alt":"The reading room of the Wiener Library","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Paul the Archivist, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wiener_Library,_29_Russell_Square,_London_2.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Wiener Library, 29 Russell Square, WC1B 5DN, London","in_area":{"slug":"bloomsbury","name":"Bloomsbury"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Senate House","s":"senate-house","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":85},{"n":"Faber & Faber, 24 Russell Square","s":"faber-faber-24-russell-square","c":"literary","cn":"Literary London","m":136},{"n":"Store Street Espresso","s":"store-street-espresso","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":212}],"near_same":[{"s":"soas-gallery","m":44},{"s":"british-museum","m":266},{"s":"the-building-centre","m":340},{"s":"petrie-museum-of-egyptian-archaeology","m":408},{"s":"institute-of-archaeology-collections","m":454},{"s":"grant-museum-of-zoology-and-comparative-anatomy","m":494}]},{"slug":"william-morris-gallery","name":"William Morris Gallery","area":"Walthamstow","address":"Forest Road, E17 4PP","station":"Walthamstow Central","walk":12,"lat":51.591296,"lng":-0.020294,"hours":[[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"10:00-17:00; May-Sep Fr-We off; May-Sep Th 10:00-20:00","website":"https://www.wmgallery.org.uk/","instagram":"morrisgallery","attrs":[],"osm":"way/181770911","types":["art","free"],"verdict":"Morris's boyhood home in Walthamstow, free, and the only museum devoted to him: the patterns, the politics and the workshop.","note":"William Morris lived at Water House from 1848, when he was fourteen, until 1856, and the Georgian house in what is now Lloyd Park has held his museum since Clement Attlee opened it in 1950. It is the most complete collection of his work anywhere and the only public museum devoted to him: the wallpapers and printed cottons, the tapestries and stained glass of Morris & Co, the Kelmscott Press books and the furniture, shown room by room from the boy to the firm to the shop, with a room for the socialist who marched, lectured and was arrested, taken as seriously here as the designer. A \u00a35 million rebuilding won it Museum of the Year in 2012. The gallery is closed for renovation until the autumn of 2026, when it reopens with an exhibition on radical living; the park and the caf\u00e9 stay open, and entry is free.","deep":false,"hours_extra":"Closed for renovation until 3 October 2026; the caf\u00e9 and Lloyd Park stay open.","figure":{"src":"/img/william-morris-gallery.jpg?v=b9d614ba","thumb":"/img/william-morris-gallery-480.jpg?v=ef789a85","width":1024,"height":588,"alt":"William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow London E17, view of the front","caption":"","credit":"Photo by ProfDEH, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Morris_Gallery-001.JPG","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"flow-state-sessions","name":"Flow State Sessions","href":"/museums/william-morris-gallery/flow-state-sessions/","verdict":"Art and craft workshops run by art therapists, for anyone finding things hard.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-27","to":"2026-11-08"},"types":["wellness","workshop"],"clue":["Make something"]},{"slug":"earthly-paradise-radical-living-in-the-uk","name":"Earthly Paradise: Radical Living in the UK","href":"/museums/william-morris-gallery/earthly-paradise-radical-living-in-the-uk/","verdict":"Red House, Charleston, Prospect Cottage and Dial House: two centuries of living otherwise.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-03","to":"2027-03-28"},"types":["art","exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Art","href":"/art/william-morris-gallery/"}],"maps_q":"William Morris Gallery, Forest Road, E17 4PP, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Soho Theatre Walthamstow","s":"soho-theatre-walthamstow","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":592},{"n":"Lucky Yu Bakery","s":"lucky-yu-bakery","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":840},{"n":"The Good Egg Walthamstow","s":"the-good-egg-walthamstow","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":1103}],"near_same":[{"s":"vestry-house-museum","m":953},{"s":"gods-own-junkyard","m":1163},{"s":"walthamstow-pumphouse-museum","m":1895},{"s":"markfield-beam-engine-and-museum","m":3034},{"s":"bruce-castle-museum","m":3901},{"s":"v-a-east-storehouse","m":4988}]},{"slug":"wimbledon-lawn-tennis-museum","name":"Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum","area":"Wimbledon","address":"Church Road, Raynes Park, SW19 5JE","station":"Wimbledon Park","walk":13,"lat":51.434752,"lng":-0.213428,"hours":null,"hours_raw":"Apr-Sep 10:00-17:30; Oct-Mar 10:00-17:00","website":"https://www.wimbledon.com/en_GB/museum_and_tours/index.html","instagram":"wimbledonmuseum","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/121750021","types":["sport"],"verdict":"The largest tennis museum in the world, inside the All England Club, with the trophies and a window onto Centre Court.","note":"The All England Club opened its museum in 1977 for the centenary of the Championships and rebuilt it in 2006, and it is the largest museum of the game anywhere. The cases run from real tennis in the 1550s through the lawn game invented in the 1870s to the present: the trophies, kit from ankle-length skirts to carbon fibre, the racquets and rituals, and a gallery of the champions, with a film theatre that puts you on Centre Court during a final and a projection of John McEnroe haunting the rooms the public never reaches. A window looks straight onto Centre Court, and the ticket can be combined with a guided tour of the grounds. It closes to all but ticket holders for the fortnight of the Championships.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/wimbledon-lawn-tennis-museum.jpg?v=6f4f93ed","thumb":"/img/wimbledon-lawn-tennis-museum-480.jpg?v=fada0896","width":1024,"height":576,"alt":"A photograph of Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum.","caption":"","credit":"Photo by ozziebackpacker, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wimbledon_Lawn_Tennis_Museum_(485259229).jpg","thumb_width":480,"alt_generic":true},"maps_q":"Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum, Church Road, Raynes Park, SW19 5JE, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"The Championships, Wimbledon","s":"the-championships-wimbledon","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":112},{"n":"Buddhapadipa Temple","s":"buddhapadipa-temple","c":"sacred","cn":"Sacred London","m":666},{"n":"Megan's in the Village","s":"megans-wimbledon","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":1099}],"near_same":[{"s":"museum-of-wimbledon","m":1288},{"s":"wimbledon-windmill-museum","m":1301},{"s":"southside-house","m":1798},{"s":"dorich-house","m":3441},{"s":"white-lodge-museum-and-ballet-resource-centre","m":3745},{"s":"london-sewing-machine-museum","m":3798}]},{"slug":"wimbledon-windmill-museum","name":"Wimbledon Windmill Museum","area":"Wimbledon","address":"Windmill Road, SW19 5NR","station":"Southfields","walk":24,"lat":51.437656,"lng":-0.231617,"hours":[null,null,null,null,null,null,[11.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Mar Su[-1] - Oct Su[-1]; Su 11:00-17:00","website":"https://www.wimbledonwindmill.org.uk/","instagram":"wimbledonwindmill","attrs":[],"osm":"way/411460232","types":["family","free","local"],"verdict":"The mill of 1817 on Wimbledon Common where Baden-Powell wrote part of Scouting for Boys, with the workings of a rare hollow-post mill explained across two floors, free on summer Sundays.","note":"Charles March, a carpenter from Roehampton, took a ninety-nine-year lease on a corner of the Common in 1817 at two shillings a year, on condition that he kept a public corn mill for the neighbourhood, and being a carpenter rather than a millwright he built it his own way: a hollow-post mill of a kind common in Holland and almost unknown here, with the drive to the stones running down through the centre of the post. It stopped in 1864 when Earl Spencer, lord of the manor, set out to enclose the Common and build himself a house on the site; the six-year fight that followed ended in the Act of 1871 that handed the Commons to their own conservators, and the mill, its stones removed, was turned into six cottages. Robert Baden-Powell wrote part of Scouting for Boys in the mill house in 1908. The museum opened on the upper floor in 1976 and took the ground floor too in 1999, when the sails were put back into working order: models of every kind of windmill, the tools of the trade, a cottage room kept as it was in 1870 and a cabinet of Scouting relics. On a few weekends a year the rangers release the brake at two o'clock and the sails turn.","deep":false,"hours_url":"https://www.wimbledonwindmill.org.uk/","hours_checked":"2026-09-08","hours_source":"web","hours_extra":"Sundays during British Summer Time only; the last day of 2026 is 25 October. Group tours on weekdays by arrangement.","figure":{"src":"/img/wimbledon-windmill-museum.jpg?v=b44e6c9f","thumb":"/img/wimbledon-windmill-museum-480.jpg?v=ad6b11a7","width":1024,"height":682,"alt":"The weatherboarded windmill on Wimbledon Common, white sails against the sky","caption":"","credit":"Photo by John Myers, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Windmill,_Wimbledon_Common_-_geograph.org.uk_-_6305706.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Wimbledon Windmill Museum, Windmill Road, SW19 5NR, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Wimbledon Common","s":"wimbledon-common","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":963},{"n":"Buddhapadipa Temple","s":"buddhapadipa-temple","c":"sacred","cn":"Sacred London","m":1088},{"n":"Cannizaro Park","s":"cannizaro-park","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":1575}],"near_same":[{"s":"wimbledon-lawn-tennis-museum","m":1301},{"s":"southside-house","m":1888},{"s":"museum-of-wimbledon","m":1899},{"s":"dorich-house","m":2229},{"s":"white-lodge-museum-and-ballet-resource-centre","m":2448},{"s":"fulham-palace","m":3937}]},{"slug":"world-rugby-museum","name":"World Rugby Museum","area":"Twickenham","address":"Whitton Road, TW2 7BA","station":"Twickenham","walk":12,"lat":51.454951,"lng":-0.341437,"hours":[null,[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[10.0,17.0],[11.0,17.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu-Sa 10:00-17:00; Su 11:00-17:00; PH 11:00-17:00","website":"https://worldrugbymuseum.com/","instagram":"wrugbymuseum","attrs":[],"osm":"node/12544691342","types":["sport"],"verdict":"Rugby's memory, 37,000 pieces of it, under the South Stand at Twickenham.","note":"The Rugby Football Union keeps the game's history under the South Stand of its own stadium: 37,000 boots, balls, jerseys, programmes and tickets, the largest collection of rugby memorabilia anywhere. It opened in 1996 and was rebuilt in 2018 into rooms that follow the game from the schoolboy legend at Rugby in 1823 to the professional era: the 1871 Room for the first international, played between Scotland and England in Edinburgh that March; the amateurs and the professionals, and the split with the northern clubs that made rugby league; rugby in the wars; the Six Nations and the World Cup; and a gallery that tests what kind of player you would be. Most visitors pair it with the stadium tour, which walks the dressing rooms and the tunnel.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/world-rugby-museum.jpg?v=00d9bb43","thumb":"/img/world-rugby-museum-480.jpg?v=c7388c4c","width":1024,"height":683,"alt":"Sport of Empire and the World Gallery","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Algernon Rutter, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sport_of_Empire_and_the_World_Gallery.jpg","thumb_width":500},"maps_q":"World Rugby Museum, Whitton Road, TW2 7BA, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Arts Richmond Literature Festival","s":"arts-richmond-literature-festival","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":888},{"n":"Church Street, Twickenham","s":"church-street-twickenham","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":1357},{"n":"York House Gardens","s":"york-house-gardens","c":"outdoors","cn":"Outdoors & Nature","m":1504}],"near_same":[{"s":"twickenham-museum","m":1420},{"s":"turners-house","m":1746},{"s":"orleans-house-gallery","m":1758},{"s":"strawberry-hill","m":1918},{"s":"marble-hill-house","m":2041},{"s":"museum-of-richmond","m":2551}]},{"slug":"young-v-a","name":"Young V&A","area":"Bethnal Green","address":"Cambridge Heath Road, E2 9PA","station":"Bethnal Green","walk":3,"lat":51.52906,"lng":-0.054871,"hours":[[10.0,17.75],[10.0,17.75],[10.0,17.75],[10.0,17.75],[10.0,17.75],[10.0,17.75],[10.0,17.75]],"hours_raw":"Mo-Su 10:00-17:45; Dec 24-26 off","website":"https://www.vam.ac.uk/young","instagram":"young.vam","attrs":["stepfree"],"osm":"way/10790633","types":["family","free","media","popular"],"verdict":"The V&A's East End museum, rebuilt for children and free to walk into.","note":"The V&A is the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington, the national collection of art and design: furniture, fashion, ceramics, jewellery, photographs, whole rooms lifted out of old buildings. This is its East End branch, and the building came first. The iron and glass hall was put up in South Kensington in the 1850s to hold the young museum, then taken to pieces and re-erected here in 1872, on the argument that the collections should also stand in a poor part of London.\n\nIt held the V&A's collections of childhood for decades and was known as the Museum of Childhood until 2023, when it reopened as Young V&A after a rebuild that handed the place to the people who use it. Three galleries \u2014 Play, Imagine, Design \u2014 are pitched at under-fourteens rather than at adults with children in tow: things to build, a stage to perform on, dressing up, and cases of toys, dolls' houses and puppets set at the height of the people looking at them.","deep":false,"figure":{"src":"/img/young-v-a.jpg?v=a8f68d6d","thumb":"/img/young-v-a-480.jpg?v=43473e07","width":1024,"height":771,"alt":"The iron and glass hall of the Young V&A, galleries running round a central space","caption":"","credit":"Photo by Andy Li, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Interior_of_Young_V%26A_(towards_the_cafe)_2026-06-04.jpg","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"inside-aardman-wallace-gromit-and-friends","name":"Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends","href":"/museums/young-v-a/inside-aardman-wallace-gromit-and-friends/","verdict":"How Wallace, Gromit, Shaun and Morph are made, in Aardman's fiftieth year.","runs":{"to":"2026-11-15"},"types":["exhibition","family"],"clue":["Exhibition"]}],"maps_q":"Young V&A, Cambridge Heath Road, E2 9PA, London","bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Satan's Whiskers","s":"satans-whiskers","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":100},{"n":"All My Gods","s":"all-my-gods","c":"cocktails","cn":"Cocktails","m":111},{"n":"Mother Kelly's","s":"mother-kellys","c":"beer","cn":"Beer","m":121}],"near_same":[{"s":"vagina-museum","m":209},{"s":"the-viktor-wynd-museum-of-curiosities-fine-art-natural-history","m":655},{"s":"chisenhale-gallery","m":1139},{"s":"royal-london-hospital-archives-and-museum","m":1367},{"s":"museum-of-the-home","m":1516},{"s":"museum-of-immigration-and-diversity","m":1592}]},{"slug":"the-national-archives","name":"The National Archives","area":"Kew","address":"Bessant Drive, Kew, TW9 4DU","station":"Kew Gardens","walk":7,"lat":51.481116,"lng":-0.27921,"hours":[null,[9.0,19.0],[9.0,17.0],[9.0,19.0],[9.0,17.0],[9.0,17.0],[11.0,16.0]],"hours_raw":"Tu,Th 09:00-19:00; We,Fr,Sa 09:00-17:00; Su 11:00-16:00","website":"https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/4788807","types":["history","free","family"],"verdict":"A thousand years of the state's own paperwork in a 1970s block beside a lake at Kew, from Domesday Book to last century's census, free to enter and free to read.","note":"The Public Record Office was set up in 1838 to gather the records of government from the Tower, the Rolls Chapel and a dozen damp store rooms into one building on Chancery Lane, and in 1977 the Queen opened its successor at Kew, a hard-edged concrete block by the government's own architects on the site of a First World War hospital, with a glass wing added in the 1990s; the Office became The National Archives in 2003. It holds the records of the English and then the British state for a thousand years: Domesday Book of 1086, Shakespeare's will, Guy Fawkes's confession with its broken signature, the census returns, Cabinet minutes, war diaries and the files on flying saucers. Anyone may walk in. The ground floor has a gallery of changing exhibitions drawn from the shelves, a bookshop and a caf\u00e9 looking over the ponds, and a reader's ticket, issued on the spot to anyone with two proofs of identity, lets you order the original documents to a desk upstairs and turn the pages yourself.","deep":false,"hours_url":"https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/visit/plan-your-visit/opening-times/","hours_checked":"2026-09-08","hours_source":"web","hours_extra":"Closed Mondays and on English bank holidays. The reading rooms keep their own hours and close on Sundays.","figure":{"src":"/img/the-national-archives.jpg?v=ad5659ea","thumb":"/img/the-national-archives-480.jpg?v=34c4a85b","width":1024,"height":765,"alt":"Photograph of the The National Archives , taken by Nick Cooper 3 February, 2007","caption":"","credit":"Photo by National_archives_2007_02_03.JPG : Original uploader was Nick Cooper at en.wikipedia derivative work: Harumphy, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:National_Archives_2007_02_03.JPG","thumb_width":480},"whats_on":[{"slug":"hamilton-at-the-national-archives","name":"Hamilton at The National Archives","href":"/museums/the-national-archives/hamilton-at-the-national-archives/","verdict":"Four costumes from the musical in the entrance hall: Washington, George III, Alexander Hamilton and Eliza.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-10","to":"2026-11-29"},"types":["exhibition","fashion","free"],"clue":["Exhibition","Fashion"]},{"slug":"revolution-250-americas-independence-story","name":"Revolution 250: America's Independence Story","href":"/museums/the-national-archives/revolution-250-americas-independence-story/","verdict":"The American Revolution from the British side of the table, told in the government's own papers, with a Dunlap broadside of the Declaration of Independence printed on the night of 4 July 1776.","runs":{"from":"2026-06-24","to":"2026-11-29"},"types":["exhibition","free","history"],"clue":["Exhibition","History"]}],"maps_q":"The National Archives, Bessant Drive, Kew, TW9 4DU, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Strand-on-the-Green","s":"strand-on-the-green","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":444},{"n":"The Original Maids of Honour","s":"the-original-maids-of-honour","c":"breakfast","cn":"Breakfast & Brunch","m":632},{"n":"Head of the River Race","s":"head-of-the-river-race","c":"whats-on","cn":"What\u2019s On","m":1194}],"near_same":[{"s":"kew-palace","m":1138},{"s":"london-museum-of-water-steam","m":1169},{"s":"musical-museum","m":1221},{"s":"queen-charlottes-cottage","m":1924},{"s":"riverside-gallery","m":2113},{"s":"gunnersbury-park-museum","m":2268}]},{"slug":"chislehurst-caves","name":"Chislehurst Caves","area":"Chislehurst","address":"Old Hill, Chislehurst, BR7 5NL","station":"Chislehurst","walk":3,"lat":51.407317,"lng":0.057849,"hours":[null,null,[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0]],"hours_raw":"We-Su 10:00-16:00","website":"https://chislehurst-caves.co.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"node/693728457","types":["history","quirky","family"],"verdict":"Twenty-two miles of chalk mine under Chislehurst, seen by lamplight on a guided tour: a Blitz shelter for fifteen thousand people with its own chapel and hospital, and a rock venue where Bowie and Hendrix played.","note":"The chalk under Chislehurst was dug for lime and flint from the Middle Ages until the 1860s, leaving thirty-five kilometres of galleries that an Edwardian antiquary named Druid, Roman and Saxon on a theory nobody has since been able to prove. The First World War filled them with Woolwich ammunition and the 1930s with mushrooms. Then, from September 1940, they became the largest air-raid shelter outside central London: electric light, bunks in numbered streets, a chapel, a hospital, a cinema, a penny a night and up to fifteen thousand people sleeping underground, among them a baby born down here and christened Cavena. In the 1960s the caves were a music venue, and Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and the Rolling Stones all played in the dark. The tour is led by hurricane lamp, lasts about forty-five minutes and keeps to a fraction of the workings; the caf\u00e9 is at the entrance.","deep":false,"hours_url":"https://chislehurst-caves.co.uk/contact-2#time","hours_checked":"2026-09-08","hours_source":"web","hours_extra":"Tours leave on the hour, the first at 10:00 and the last at 16:00; open every day in local school holidays. Adults \u00a310, children \u00a38.","figure":{"src":"/img/chislehurst-caves.jpg?v=bf99a222","thumb":"/img/chislehurst-caves-480.jpg?v=580ddc20","width":600,"height":450,"alt":"Inside en:Chislehurst Caves . Taken by C Ford, June 2004","caption":"","credit":"Photo by The original uploader was Secretlondon at English Wikipedia ., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","credit_url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Insidechislehurstcaves.jpg","thumb_width":480},"maps_q":"Chislehurst Caves, Old Hill, Chislehurst, BR7 5NL, London","bank":0,"near_all":[{"n":"Scadbury Moated Manor","s":"scadbury-moated-manor","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":2729},{"n":"Peter Kropotkin","s":"peter-kropotkin","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":2991}],"near_same":[{"s":"crofton-roman-villa","m":4352},{"s":"eltham-palace","m":4472},{"s":"bethlem-museum-of-the-mind","m":6729},{"s":"danson-house","m":6885},{"s":"red-house","m":7339},{"s":"rangers-house-wernher-collection","m":8427}]},{"slug":"college-of-arms","name":"College of Arms","area":"The City","address":"130 Queen Victoria Street, EC4V 4BT","station":"Mansion House","walk":3,"lat":51.512175,"lng":-0.098744,"hours":[[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],[10.0,16.0],null,null],"hours_raw":"Mo-Fr 10:00-16:00","hours_url":"https://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/contact-us","hours_checked":"2026-09-08","website":"https://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/111354093","types":["free","history","niche"],"verdict":"The heralds' own building, with four centuries of arms and pedigrees in the record room.","note":"The College is the official heraldic authority for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and much of the Commonwealth, and its real substance is the archive: the registers of arms and pedigrees kept unbroken since the sixteenth century, the rolls, the grants, the visitation records of the heralds who rode out to check who was entitled to what. The building that holds them is the 1670s replacement for the one that burnt in the Great Fire.\n\nWalk in on a weekday and you get the Earl Marshal's Court and the portraits for free. That is one room of three, though: the evening tours, arranged through the Officer in Waiting for parties of up to twenty, add the Waiting Room and the Record Room, and bring manuscripts out of the archive chosen for whoever has come. Worth the booking.","figure":{"src":"/img/own-college-of-arms-2.jpg?v=e594270b","thumb":"/img/own-college-of-arms-2-480.jpg?v=27e797de","width":768,"height":1024,"thumb_width":360,"alt":"A raised wooden throne with a velvet cushion under a carved canopy, a gilt crown on either side, painted heraldic crests on the bench below, a cherub with a baton and the royal arms above, portraits on the panelled walls and a carved chandelier.","caption":"The entrance hall also doubles as a rarely used court room."},"figures":[{"src":"/img/own-college-of-arms-3.jpg?v=1fb3fe52","thumb":"/img/own-college-of-arms-3-480.jpg?v=760faea1","width":1024,"height":768,"thumb_width":480,"alt":"Dark carved panelling over a doorway: swags of flowers and leaves around a framed document under glass, a gilt eagle and a small shield on the shelf, a portrait in a gold frame to the left and an oval one to the right."},{"src":"/img/own-college-of-arms-4.jpg?v=fdd4a6d6","thumb":"/img/own-college-of-arms-4-480.jpg?v=bf41d954","width":768,"height":1024,"thumb_width":360,"alt":"A panelled library under a gallery with a red iron balustrade and arched windows: shelves of bound volumes behind open cupboard doors, ledgers stacked on the counter, and a desk in front with a notice reading Silence is Golden.","caption":"The library."}],"also_in":[{"name":"Royal London","href":"/royal/college-of-arms/"},{"name":"Power & Politics","href":"/politics/college-of-arms/"}],"maps_q":"College of Arms, 130 Queen Victoria Street, EC4V 4BT, London","in_area":{"slug":"the-city","name":"The City"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"The Wren Coffee","s":"the-wren-coffee","c":"coffee","cn":"Coffee","m":122},{"n":"Tower of St Mary Somerset","s":"tower-of-st-mary-somerset","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":156},{"n":"St Paul's Cathedral","s":"st-pauls-cathedral","c":"venues","cn":"Performance venues","m":180}],"near_same":[{"s":"bankside-gallery","m":527},{"s":"tate-modern","m":535},{"s":"london-mithraeum","m":558},{"s":"rose-theatre-exhibition","m":627},{"s":"st-bartholomews-hospital-museum","m":628},{"s":"guildhall-art-gallery","m":632}]}]}