London's Top 10 : Museums

British Museum

The oldest museum in the world, and one of London’s most fascinating, contains treasures and artifacts from all over the world .

Natural History Museum

Life on Earth and the Earth itself are vividly explained here using hundreds of traditional and interactive exhibits .

Science Museum

This exciting museum traces centuries of scientific and technological development, with impressive and educational displays.

Victoria and Albert Museum

This museum of decorative arts is one of London’s great pleasures, with 145 astonishingly eclectic galleries. One of the highlights is the huge Fashion collection, with exhibits dating from 1600 to the present day. The museum also has collections of jewellery, textiles, metalwork, glass, paintings, prints, sculpture and rooms full of Indian and Far Eastern treasures .

Museum of London

This comprehensive museum located near the Barbican Centre provides a detailed account of London life from prehistoric times to the present day. It is particularly strong on Roman Londinium, but also has a model recreating the Great Fire of 1666 and a reconstruction of a Victorian street including several original shopfronts .

National Maritime Museum

The world’s largest maritime museum, perfectly located in part of Wren’s Royal Naval Hospital, has much to offer. Detailing inspirational stories from Britain’s seafaring past, it tells of the continuing effects the oceans still have on the world today. Admiral Nelson’s fatally pierced tunic is on display, the tragic polar expeditions of explorers are recalled and a state-of-the-art simulator gives an idea of what it is like to steer a ship into port .

Imperial War Museum

In this museum, which is housed in part of the former Bethlehem (“Bedlam”) Hospital for the Insane, a clock in the basement moves remorselessly on, recording the world’s war dead – a figure that has now reached 100 million. Six million of them are commemorated in the Holocaust Exhibition. Other displays include evocative re-creations of World War I trench warfare and the life of Londoners during the World War II Blitz. Now it is “total war” that we have to contemplate, and this, too, is explored .

Design Museum

Based in a clean white 1930s building beside Tower Bridge, this museum is the only one in Britain devoted to 20th- and 21st-century design. Regularly changing exhibitions feature the very best of modern design from the museum’s collection, including both product and graphic design, fashion, furniture, architecture and engineering.

• Butler’s Wharf SE1

• Open 10am–5:45pm daily

• Admission charge

London’s Transport Museum

In this former flower-market building, the history of London’s transport system is illustrated with posters, photographs and examples of early buses, tubes and horse-drawn vehicles. There are also interactive “KidZones” for children .

V&A Museum of Childhood

This branch of the V&A Museum in Bethnal Green has the largest collection of childhood-related objects in the UK. Its array of toys, games, lavish dolls houses, model trains, theatres and costumes dates from the 16th century to the present day.