Leisure
Museums in London
Discover a curated selection of London museums, heritage houses and specialist collections.
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View records: Places in this collection
Places in this collection
Collection dated 2026-09-17
Curated national institutions, borough museums, established specialist museums and heritage houses, and permanent public-facing galleries. Physical sites, not an exhaustive register. Pop-up exhibitions and small retail art shops excluded. Categories are editorial, not funding or admission classifications.
This London reference is independent of the interactive filters above. Scroll across on smaller screens.
| Name | Borough / associated areas | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| The British Museum | Camden | National & public museums | Collections exploring human history, art and cultures from around the world. |
| Natural History Museum | Kensington and Chelsea | National & public museums | Natural history collections covering the diversity of life, fossils, minerals and the Earth. |
| Science Museum | Kensington and Chelsea | National & public museums | Science, technology, engineering and medicine, explored through historic objects and interactive galleries. |
| V&A South Kensington | Kensington and Chelsea | National & public museums | Art, design and performance collections, from fashion and furniture to sculpture and decorative arts. |
| Young V&A | Tower Hamlets | National & public museums | A museum designed around children, creativity, play and design in Bethnal Green. |
| IWM London | Southwark | National & public museums | The effects of war on people and societies, from the First World War to more recent conflicts. |
| Churchill War Rooms | Westminster | National & public museums | The preserved underground wartime headquarters and a museum about Winston Churchill. |
| HMS Belfast | Southwark | National & public museums | A historic Royal Navy cruiser moored on the Thames, with exhibitions about life and service aboard the ship. |
| National Maritime Museum | Greenwich | National & public museums | Britain’s relationship with the sea, explored through maritime collections in Greenwich. |
| Royal Air Force Museum London | Barnet | National & public museums | Aircraft and exhibitions tracing the history of the Royal Air Force and military aviation. |
| National Army Museum | Kensington and Chelsea | National & public museums | The history of the British Army and its relationship with society, beside the Royal Hospital Chelsea. |
| Sir John Soane’s Museum | Camden | National & public museums | Architect John Soane’s house and collections, including antiquities, paintings and architectural models. |
| London Museum Docklands | Tower Hamlets | National & public museums | The history of London’s docks, trade and river communities in a former West India Quay warehouse. |
| Horniman Museum and Gardens | Lewisham | National & public museums | Natural history, anthropology and musical instruments, alongside gardens in Forest Hill. |
| London Transport Museum | Westminster | Other leading & specialist museums | London’s transport history, including vehicles, design and the development of the city’s networks. |
| Design Museum | Kensington and Chelsea | Other leading & specialist museums | Modern and contemporary design, including architecture, fashion, graphics, products and industrial design. |
| The Postal Museum | Islington | Other leading & specialist museums | The history of postal communication, with the separate Mail Rail visitor experience nearby. |
| Museum of the Home | Hackney | Other leading & specialist museums | Changing domestic life, homes and everyday experience in former almshouses in Hoxton. |
| Wellcome Collection | Camden | Other leading & specialist museums | Exhibitions and collections exploring health and human experience through science, medicine and art. |
| Museum of Brands | Kensington and Chelsea | Other leading & specialist museums | Consumer culture explored through historic packaging, advertising and everyday branded objects. |
| V&A East Museum | Newham | National & public museums | Art and design displays and exhibitions at East Bank in Stratford, part of the V&A’s east London expansion. |
| V&A East Storehouse | Hackney | National & public museums | Public access to stored V&A collections and the work of caring for them, at Here East in the Olympic Park. |
| Valence House Museum | Barking and Dagenham | Other leading & specialist museums | Barking and Dagenham's local history collections in a surviving manor house, with displays about the area's people and past. |
| Headstone Manor & Museum | Harrow | Other leading & specialist museums | Harrow's local history museum in the historic Headstone Manor complex, with exhibitions and family activities. |
| Havering Museum | Havering | Other leading & specialist museums | Objects and exhibitions telling the history of Havering and its communities, in Romford's former brewery buildings. |
| Redbridge Museum | Redbridge | Other leading & specialist museums | Local history from early settlement to suburban growth, including the stories of people who have made Redbridge their home. |
| Brent Museum | Brent | Other leading & specialist museums | Brent's history and communities explored through objects, photographs and changing exhibitions at Willesden Green Library. |
| Museum of Croydon | Croydon | Other leading & specialist museums | Croydon's social history and art collections at the Clocktower, with changing exhibitions and community stories. |
| Kingston Museum | Kingston upon Thames | Other leading & specialist museums | Kingston's borough museum, with local heritage collections and temporary exhibitions. |
| Museum of Richmond | Richmond upon Thames | Other leading & specialist museums | Richmond's history and communities, presented through a permanent collection and temporary exhibitions in the Old Town Hall. |
| Honeywood Museum | Sutton | Other leading & specialist museums | A historic house beside Carshalton Ponds housing displays about Sutton's local history. |
| Bruce Castle Museum | Haringey | Other leading & specialist museums | A historic manor house and museum exploring Haringey's people, places and changing communities. |
| Gunnersbury Park Museum | Hounslow | Other leading & specialist museums | Local history collections and exhibitions in the restored Gunnersbury mansion, set within the public park. |
| London Museum of Water & Steam | Hounslow | Other leading & specialist museums | London's public water supply and the historic pumping engines that helped transform the city, at the former Kew Bridge Waterworks. |
| Boston Manor House | Hounslow | Other leading & specialist museums | A restored historic house whose surviving interiors reveal several centuries of domestic life. |
| Down House | Bromley | Other leading & specialist museums | Charles Darwin's former home, with displays exploring his life and scientific work alongside the gardens where he carried out experiments. |
| Bethlem Museum of the Mind | Bromley | Other leading & specialist museums | Art, objects and archives exploring the history of mental health care and the experiences of people associated with Bethlem. |
| Hall Place & Gardens | Bexley | Other leading & specialist museums | A historic house and gardens in Bexley, with exhibitions and public events. |
| Vestry House Museum | Waltham Forest | Other leading & specialist museums | Waltham Forest's local history museum in Walthamstow Village. Currently closed for redevelopment. |
| Forty Hall | Enfield | Other leading & specialist museums | A historic manor house in Enfield with exhibitions, public events and an extensive estate. |
| Fulham Palace | Hammersmith and Fulham | Other leading & specialist museums | The former home of the Bishops of London, with a museum, historic rooms and botanic gardens. |
| Wimbledon Windmill Museum | Merton | Other leading & specialist museums | Exhibits about windmills, milling, local history and the Scouting movement inside Wimbledon Common's windmill. |
| Battle of Britain Bunker | Hillingdon | Other leading & specialist museums | The former RAF fighter operations bunker and exhibition centre, exploring the Battle of Britain and those who served here. |
The collection is not an exhaustive register, and its groups are editorial rather than ownership or admission categories. Open a venue for its source and current visit information.
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