London Museums, Galleries and Libraries

1. Apsley House, The Wellington Museum. 'Number One, London', 19th century home of the 1st Duke of Wellington. [Part of Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)]
2. Bank of England Museum & Archive.
3. BBC Experience. Interactive exhibition on the history and work of the BBC. Includes RealAudio clips and news of education support.
4. Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood. [Part of Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)]
5. British Library. Free. One of the "more neglected" (among tourists) among the "crown jewels" of British legacy. History buffs must see the British Library in its new place at Kings Cross if only to view the surviving copy of the Magna Carta; but it has many other very important documents in its collections which can be viewed online; the Treasures Digitisation Project created an impressive digital library available online including the Magna Carta, viewable at various magnifications, as well as the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, ancient Bibles, etc. It also has temporary exhibitions.
6. British Museum, London. Free. See collection highlights and new Cracking Codes - The Rosetta Stone and Decipherment exhibition.
7. Brunel Engine House. Built between 1825 and 1843 by Sir Marc Isambard Brunel as part of the pioneering Thames Tunnel - the first underwater thoroughfare in the World.
8. Cabaret Mechanical Theatre, Covent Garden. A museum of automata (mechanical sculpture).
9. Corporation of London Library and Art Gallery Electronic (COLLAGE). A computerised information system providing access to some 20,000 images from the combined collections of the Guildhall Library Print Room and the Guildhall Art Gallery. Reproductions can be purchased on-line.
10. Courtauld Institute of Art, Courtauld Gallery. If you do not have much time and you are planning to visit the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, and the Giverny Garden in the Giverny house of Claude Monet then consider skipping the Courtauld Gallery. The Musee d'Orsay in Paris has an extensive collection of Monet and Impressionists paintings rivaled only by those at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, MOMA, Guggenheim (both in New York), Boston Museum of Fine Arts -- all in the United States. However, if you love pre-impressionist, Impressionist and post-impressionist paintings and are into art history, there are several key paintings at Courtauld Gallery that are "must see".
11. Design Museum.
12. Dickens House Museum. Includes a virtual tour.
13. Freud Museum. The home of the founder of psychoanalysis.
14. Dulwich Picture Gallery.
15. FA Premier League Hall of Fame. The history of football and the legends of the modern game.
16. Geffrye Museum. English furniture and decorative arts in a chronological series of period rooms.
17. Hayward Gallery, South Bank. Modern art, special exhibitions.
18. The Horniman Museum and Gardens, Forest Hill.
19. Imperial War Museum, London. Also includes the Cabinet War Rooms, HMS Belfast and RAF Duxford (including the American Air Museum in Britain).
20. The Jewish Museum.
21. Kew Bridge Steam Museum, Brentford, Middlesex.
22. Kingston Museum, Kingston upon Thames. Holds a large collection of photographs by Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904).
23. London Canal Museum, King's Cross. See also links to related sites and museums.
24. London Transport Museum, Covent Garden.
25. Lothbury Gallery. Part of the NatWest Group art collection.
26. Madame Tussauds, London. Waxworks.
27. Museum of Garden History, St Mary-at-Lambeth Church, Lambeth Palace.
28. Museum of Installation. An artist led organisation dedicated to the research, production and dissemination of installation art.
29. Museum of London. Free after 4:30 pm. A very comprehensive city museum, telling the fascinating story of London from prehistoric times to the present day. The remains of the ancient Roman walls are just outside the London museum and the surrounding areas.
30. Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI), British Film Institute, South Bank. History of film and television.
31. Museums of The Royal College of Surgeons.
    [Responsible for : Hunterian Museum; Odontological Museum, Wellcome Museum of Anatomy; Wellcome Museum of Pathology]. .
32. National Army Museum, Chelsea.
33. The National Gallery. Free. Collection of Western European paintings (1260-1900). See site map. See also The Micro Gallery (off-line).
34. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
35. National Museum of Science and Industry.
    [Responsible for: Science Museum, London; National Railway Museum, York; and, National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, Bradford.]
36. National Portrait Gallery. Free. See information on the permanent collection. I was thinking of not visiting the National Portrait Gallery initially because I thought I did not have enough time. I am glad, I changed my mind and visited (in fact, I revisited the gallery two more times) -- history and literature buffs must see the collection. There is also a section dealing with "music stars" of the 20th Century -- very popular among the "younger" visitors.
37. Natural History Museum. Free after 4:30 pm. The first UK museum with its own Web server. Includes Virtual Reality fossils using VRML - see a Trilobite and Bryozoan, for example. See also interactive exploration using Science Casebook.
    [Responsible for Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum, Tring, Hertfordshire].
38. Ragged School Museum. Re-created classroom of the Victorian period, and displays on local history, industry and life in the East End of London.
39. Old Operating Theatre, Museum and Herb Garret . Displays the history of herbal medicine, surgery, nursing at Old St. Thomas's (the original home of Florence Nightingale's Nursing School) and Guy's and the Evelina Children's hospitals.
40. Public Record Office, Kew. The repository of the national archives for England, Wales and the United Kingdom. The records, beginning with Domesday Book (1086), span an unbroken period from the 11th century to the present. Site includes on-line catalogues, and a very large education section (with source material for school students, and supporting the National Grid for Learning).
41. The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace. See also Windsor Castle (in Windsor, of course) and the rest of the Royal Collection.
42. Royal Armouries - Tower of London. Includes displays on the history of the Armouries, and royal suits of armour. Other museums in: Leeds, West Yorkshire; and Fort Nelson, Fareham, Hampshire; and the Tower of London.
43. Royal Academy of Arts. Permanent galleries and temporary exhibitions such as the Summer Exhibition.
44. Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon, London.
45. Royal Armouries museums, Leeds, Fort Nelson and London. A major new national museum at Leeds, opened in April 1996, houses a collection of arms and armour originally held at the Tower of London.
46. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
47. The Royal Collection. A distributed collection, mainly in royal palaces, formed by the Royal family, including The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace and the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London.
48. Science Museum, London. Free after 4:30 pm. See galleries, Information Superhighway exhibition, Flight Exhibition On-Line and Treasures of the Science Museum. [Part of the National Museum of Science and Industry].
49. Sherlock Holmes Museum.
50. Sir John Soane's Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields. Free. House and museum of Sir John Soane, R.A., architect (1753-1837).
51. Tate Gallery, London. Free. Part of a national collection of British art and modern 20th century art. An enormous renovated power station on the Southbank of London houses the modern art collection of Tate Gallery, London while the old museum houses its huge collection of British art. If you love Turner, a separate Gallery houses the Turner collection of the museum.
52. Theatre Museum, Covent Garden. [Part of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A)].
53. Tower of London. A must for those with children who love history and have good imagination. Many people visit the tower also for the "Crown Jewels".
54. Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). Free after 4:30 pm. The largest museum of the decorative arts in the world, see collections departments.
    [Responsible for the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood, the Theatre Museum, and Apsley House, The Wellington Museum. See also the National Art Library].
55. The Wallace Collection, Hertford House. Free. Paintings (especially French 18th century), miniatures, decorative arts, arms and armour. If you have time, the collection is worth a visit.
56. William Morris Gallery, Waltham Forest.
57. Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum.

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