List of museums in London



This is a list of museums in London, the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. It also includes university and non-profit art galleries. As of 2016, there were over 250 registered art institutions in Greater London.

Defunct museums
• 491 Gallery, closed in 2013

• Bethnal Green Museum (now known as the V&A Museum of Childhood)

• Bramah Tea and Coffee Museum

• British Music Experience, closed in 2014

• BT Museum

• Church Farmhouse Museum

• Clockmakers' Museum (collections were moved to the Science Museum in 2015)

• Clowns Gallery-Museum closed in 2018 and seeking new venue

• Dalí Universe

• De Morgan Centre, closed Wandsworth location in 2014 and seeking new venue

• Egyptian Hall

• Erith Museum

• Firepower: The Royal Artillery Museum, closed in 2016, collections in storage for proposed Salisbury Plain Heritage Centre

• Fleming Collection

• Geological Museum (now part of the Natural History Museum)

• Gilbert Collection (collections now at the Victoria and Albert Museum)

• Greenwich Heritage Centre, Woolwich

• Heralds' Museum

• Heritage Motor Museum, Syon Park (collections now at the Heritage Motor Centre in Warwickshire)

• Hermitage Rooms

• Holophusikon

• Island History Trust

• Jewish Military Museum (collection moved to the Jewish Museum London)

• Jewish Museum (Finchley)

• King George III Museum (some collections now at the Science Museum)

• Livesey Museum for Children

• London Gas Museum

• London General Cab Company Museum, Brixton

• London Toy and Model Museum, closed in 1999

• London Motor Museum

• London Museum (collections now at the Museum of London)

• Musaeum Tradescantianum

• Museum of British Transport, Clapham (collections now at the National Railway Museum (York) and the London Transport Museum)

• Museum of Mankind (collections now returned to the British Museum)

• Museum of the Moving Image (London)

• Nature Study Museum, 1904–1942 in the old mortuary of St George in the East church

• The Newsroom - Guardian and Observer Archive and Visitor Centre

• North Woolwich Old Station Museum

• Passmore Edwards Museum

• Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art (collections now at the British Museum)

• Prince Henry's Room

• Pumphouse Educational Museum, closed in 2011

• Royal Artillery Museum, closed in 2001 and collections moved to now-defunct Firepower: The Royal Artillery Museum; collections in storage for proposed Salisbury Plain Heritage Centre

• Rotunda (Woolwich)

• Southall Railway Centre, no longer open to the public

• Shakespeare’s Globe Exhibition No longer open to the public; closed in early 2019. Used to contain displays relating to the history of the theatre, costumes, music, theatrical effects, dioramas, and a recreation of a 17th-century printing press

• Theatre Museum (collections now at the Victoria and Albert Museum)

• Type Archive

• West Ham United Museum

• Winston Churchill's Britain At War Experience

• Women's Library, no longer hosts exhibits

• Woodlands Art Gallery

Visitor figures
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) publishes monthly visitor figures for the public sector museums and galleries which it sponsors, which include most of the leading museums in London.

The most popular London museum in the private sector is The Sherlock Holmes Museum.

The DCMS totals for the financial year to 31 March 2008 were as follows:

• Tate Modern and Tate Britain – (see note) 6,769,949

• British Museum – 6,037,930

• National Gallery – 3,914,000

• Natural History Museum – 3,613,953

• Science Museum – 2,711,680

• Victoria and Albert Museum – 2,280,759

• National Maritime Museum – 1,765,814

• National Portrait Gallery – 1,645,680

• Imperial War Museum – 759,571

• Horniman Museum – 477,894

• Wallace Collection – 335,349

• V&A Museum of Childhood – 332,844

• Museum of London – 316,992

• Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms – 306,600

• HMS Belfast – 258,941

• Museum of London Docklands – 100,834

• Sir John Soane's Museum – 93,427

• Geffrye Museum – 80,352

• Theatre Museum – 6,852 (closed permanently in August 2007)


 * NOTE: Tate Modern and Tate Britain are on separate sites two miles apart, but the DCMS only publishes a single combined visitor figure for them. Tate Modern is widely reported to attract the more visitors of the two, but it is not clear whether it received more visitors than the British Museum on its own.

The majority of government-funded museums stopped charging admission fees in 2001 and, although this was challenged in 2007, this has remained the case. Following the removal of admission charges, attendances at London museums increased, with a large percentage of the 42 million annual visitors nationwide.