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A political history of Britain in the places where it happened: parliament and palace, courts and counting houses, and the streets where people pushed back.
Two of the four surviving originals of Magna Carta, in a dark room off the entrance hall.
Law & justiceIdeas & memoryFree to enter
Also in Museums and Literary London.
Magna Carta was a peace treaty between King John and rebellious barons, sealed at Runnymede in June 1215, annulled by the Pope within ten weeks and reissued repeatedly afterwards. Most of it concerns feudal grievances nobody has thought about since. Three clauses are still law in England and Wales, including the one that matters: no free man shall be imprisoned or dispossessed except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land. Later centuries read far more into that than the barons ever meant, which is how a failed baronial settlement became the founding text of due process on two continents. Two of the four 1215 originals are in the Treasures gallery, one of them shrivelled by a library fire in 1731.
| Monday | 09:30 – 20:00 |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 09:30 – 20:00 |
| Wednesday | 09:30 – 20:00 |
| Thursday | 09:30 – 20:00 |
| Friday | 09:30 – 18:00 |
| Saturday | 09:30 – 17:00 |
| Sunday | 11:00 – 17:00 |
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.