Top 5 London Museums To Visit

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1. Museum of London

Situated on London Wall, the Museum of London features a documentation of the history of London from prehistoric to modern times. It is part of the Barbican complex of buildings erected in the 1960s and 1970s as part of reconstruction following bombings in the City of London. The museum keeps a record of the social history of London and its residents throughout time. The Museum of London and The Museum of London Docklands are part of the same group and they also work in close collaboration with the Museum of London Archeology, sharing equipment and specialist expertise.

2. Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum exhibits a wide range of specimens pertaining to different segments of natural history. It is situation on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, along with the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The museum is home to around 80 million items, divided in five major collections, which are Botany, Entomology, Paleontology and Zoology. Is is well known for its research specialized in taxonomy, identification and conservation. It’s famous for its dinosaur skeleton exhibition and for valuable specimens collected by the likes of Charles Darwin. The museum also features an extensive library, hosting books, manuscripts, journals and artwork collections, connected to the research of the scientific deparments. However, in order to be granted access in the Natural History Museum Library, an appointment is required.

3. Victoria and Albert Museum

Housed on the same road as the Natural History Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum is the largest museum of decorative arts and design in the world. Its impressive collection counts 4.5 million items and 5,000 years’ worth of art from four different continents, exhibited in 145 galleries. The world’s largest collection of post-classical sculpture can be found here, as well as one of the best East Asian collections in Europe and the biggest Islamic collection in the Western World. Items in the museum’s complete collection include costumes, jewelry, ceramics, furniture, silver, glass textiles, ironwork, medieval objects, drawings, sculpture and photographs.

4. National Gallery

The National Gallery was founded in 1824 and it is an art museum situated in Trafalgar Square. Its collection of paintings spans from the mid-13^th century to 1900 and it is comprised of over 2,300 pieces. The National Gallery is an exempt charity and is in fourth place among the most visited museums in the world, after the Musée du Louvre, the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The main collection can be visited free of charge, due to the fact that it belongs to the public of the United Kingdom.

5. National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery is a London art gallery which hosts a series of portraits of British historical figures and other famous people. At its opening in 1856, it was the first portrait gallery in the world. In 1896, it moved at St. Martin’s Place, where it is still situated in the present, and it has undergone two expansions since. The site is just off Trafalgar Square and neighboring the National Gallery.