London, the capital of England is a major city, with a heritage that spans centuries up to the Ancient Roman Empire. It is home to major monuments, markets, events, and institutions. We have put together a series of blog posts on places in London that are worth visiting if you are around.
These recommendations are specially made for creative individuals who seek inspiration on every journey.
- Part one of our London blog consists of a list of Museums and Galleries that we recommend visiting. London has been a major centre for the arts, historically and even today.
- The city is home to several museums and galleries that showcase not only works of art but also objects and specimens of archaeological and historical significance.
- The list below includes public and privately owned galleries where one can soak in the best of London’s artistic offerings, be educated, and inspired.
Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG
- Situated in the Bloomsbury area of London, British Museum is a public institution featuring Human History, Art and Culture.
- The museum has around 8 million collection of works, sourced during the British Empire.
- British Museum was the first national museum open to the public which showcased the - documentation of human culture from its beginning to the present.
- The museum brings an exciting assortment of archives from across the world to give its viewers the best of experience and knowledge.
- Artefacts preserved for several years to understand the human culture's history and its evolution gives a great apprehension to the visitors.
- With the deep belief that the objects are a reliable source of witness and curiosity to know more about the species, the idea of the British Museum was developed.
- With more than 5 million visitors annually, this museum is the third most visited museum in the world.
Entry Fee: Free entry
Opening hours:
Daily: 10:00 am – 5:30 pm.
Friday: Open till 8:30 pm (only specific galleries)
Closed: 1 January, Good Friday, 24, 25, 26 December.
Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL
- Victoria and Albert Museum is the world's largest museum of applied and decorative art and design and sculpture. It was founded in 1852 and was named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
- The museum has a collection of over two million objects, restored and preserved to study the different cultures from across the world.
- Over 12.5 acres of space and 145 galleries, the museum houses art from over a five-thousand-year span. From ancient to the present-day scenario, the museum exhibits the evolving cultures of Europe, North America, Asia, and North Africa.
- Objects like ceramic, glass, silver, costumes, textiles, jewellery, furniture, sculpture, ironworks, printmaking, drawings, and photographs are among the sources of the cultural evolution that the museum showcases.
Entry Fee: Free entry
Opening hours:
Monday to Sunday: 10:00 am to 5:45 pm
Friday: 10:00 am to 10:00pm
Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross, London WC2N 5DN, United Kingdom
- Established at approx. One hundred ninety-four years ago, the national gallery was an art museum located in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London.
- The gallery has a collection of over 2300 paintings, dating from the mid-13thcentury to 1900.
- It includes renowned artworks like van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait, Velázquez's Rokeby Venus, Turner's Fighting Temeraire, and Van Gogh's Sunflowers.
- Initially, when the national gallery was getting built up, no particular type of painting was selected to exhibit. Following the reformation of the gallery administration in 1855, a new director was appointed who travelled throughout Europe to select the best artworks for the national gallery.
- In those ten years of Sir Charles Eastlakerule, the collection of galleries expanded and widened in terms of concept, artists, eras, and style, making the national gallery what it is today.
Opening Hours:
Monday – Thursday, and Saturday - Sunday: 10 am to 6 pm
Friday: 10:00 am to 9:00 pm
St. Martin's Pl, Charing Cross, London WC2H 0HE, United Kingdom
- Inaugurated in 1896, the National Portrait Gallery was the first of its kind. It features a collection of portraits of historically famous people British people.
- The selection of the collection features paintings, sculptures, caricatures, and photographs.
- One of its renowned images is the Chandos portrait, the most famous portrait of William Shakespeare.
- The gallery also features self-portraits of people such as William Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and other British artists.
- With its collection of over 2 million portraits, it is one of the main attractions of the city not only to tourists but also for art enthusiasts.
Entry Fee: Free entry
Opening hours:
Monday – Thursday, and Saturday - Sunday: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Friday: 10:00 am to 9:00 pm
Burlington House, Mayfair, London W1J 0BD
- Founded in 1768, the Royal Academy of Art is the oldest excellent art institute in Britain, known for its most beautiful execution of exhibitions both temporary and permanent.
- It is an independent, privately funded institution led by renowned artists and architects.
- The royal academy works with the concept of educating people through visual art, creativity, designs, and art while conducting exhibitions to promote the same.
- The idea behind opening the Royal Academy was twofold: to raise the status of artists by initiating instructions and expert judgment in art and by exhibiting contemporary visuals at an appropriate standard.
Opening hours:
Monday – Thursday and Saturday - Sunday: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Friday: 10:00 am to 10:00 pm
University of, 82 Hillhead St, Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom
- Situated in the building of the royal college of the surgeon, the Hunterian Museum is a gallery of the anatomic specimen.
- With the collection of approximately three thousand and five hundred objects on display, the gallery showcases a different sort of art form.
- The showcase includes skeleton, collection of teeth retrieved from soldiers from the war, surgical equipment, necklace of human teeth, and many such objects that give the viewer a better understanding of medical science, history, and evolution.
- It's remarkable features, and historical displays are the reason for its significant tourist attraction.
Entry Fee: Free entry
Opening hours:
Monday to Friday: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm,
Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ
- Founded in 1971, the Imperial War Museum is a British national museum created to document civil and military war heroes and their sacrifices done during the period of world war one. The museum has extended its records and included all the conflicts in which there was any involvement of British or Commonwealth since 1914.
- The Museum aims to give the view and understanding of the modern wars that took place; it encourages the knowledge and study of the wartime experience of people during that time.
- The collection of personal documents, archives of official documents, videos, photographs, oral recording of the experience, or news of that time, history recordings, give the insight to understand the wars thoroughly.
- The extensive library provides written records and information of that period for better understanding. The artifacts, vehicles, aircraft, and other equipment give a live recording of the wartime.
Entry Fee: Free entry
Opening hours:
Open daily 10:00am to 6:00pm
Bankside, London SE1 9TG, United Kingdom
- The Tate first welcomed visitors in 1897 as a collection of British art together with works from the National Gallery.
- The Tate Modern is part of a family of Tate Galleries – Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, and Tate St. Ives.
- Inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II in 2000, the Tate Modern is a major tourist attraction of London.
- With nearly 60 million visitors in 2018, it became one of the most visited galleries in Britain and the 6th most visited gallery in the world.
- The collection includes important artworks from the world’s most exceptional artists. Being one of the largest galleries for modern and contemporary art, the Tate Modern showcases artworks from the 1900s to the present day.
- Collections displayed are categorized into themes such as Artist and Society, Materials and Objects, Media Networks, Material Gestures, Living Cities, etc. Though the themes change less frequently, the artworks on display change periodically.
Entry Fee: Free entry to the Tate Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery (except for special exhibitions).
Opening hours:
Sunday – Thursday: 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Friday - Saturday: 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM
144-152, Bermondsey St, Bermondsey, London SE1 3TQ, United Kingdom
- White Cube is a contemporary art gallery; it is one of the most reputed art galleries in London.
- With its five branches, White Cube Duke Street, White Cube Hoxton, White Cube Hong Kong, and White Cube Mason's Yard, the place has been an excellent platform for young and emerging artists to view and experience contemporary art.
- The gallery achieved its fame by being the first to give one-person shows to many young British artists.
- White Cube has exhibited some of the great artists and continues to do so, to name a few like Etel Adnan, Georg Baselitz, Tracey Emin, Theaster Gates, Mona Hatoum, Damien Hirst, Anselm Kiefer, Ibrahim Mahama, Julie Mehretu, Doris Salcedo, Raqib Shaw, and Danh Vo.
Opening hours:
Tuesday – Saturday: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Sunday: 12:00 pm to 6:00 pm
6–24 Britannia Street, London
- A contemporary art gallery that showcases some of the most influential artists of both the 20th and 21st
- With artworks from some of the leading artists like Georg Baselitz, Ellen Gallagher, Andreas Gursky, Anselm Kiefer, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra, Taryn Simon, Rachel Whiteread, and many others, Gagosian has delivered vibrant and contemporary exhibitions of leading international artists.
- The first gallery was inaugurated in 1980, since then Larry Gagosian has evolved his art galleries into a global network with 18 exhibitions across the world.
Opening Hours:
Monday – Friday: 11:00 am to 5:00 pm
London W2 3XA, United Kingdom
- They are composed of two galleries, Serpentine gallery established in 1970 and Serpentine Sackler gallery established in 2013.
- Along with its permanent galleries, the serpentine is known for its temporary summer pavilion, which lasts for three months.
- The concept behind the temporary summer pavilion is to provide a multi-purpose social space where people from different backgrounds can meet with the same interest of knowing more about art and get to know each other with their common grounds of literature, film and contemporary style.
- Renowned designers like Zaha Hadid, Frida Escobedo, Selgas Cano, and more are hired each year to develop a space for people to come and interact.
Silk Street London EC2Y 8DS
- The barbican centre known for its brutalist architecture is a performing art centre in the barbican estate of the city of London.
- It features and hosts classical and contemporary music, film screening, live theatre performances and art exhibitions for its visitors.
- apart from this it also houses a library, restaurants, and a conservatory.
- The Barbican art gallery is home to contemporary art, design, fashion, space, and architecture. It showcases a beautiful blend of modernity with vision.
- Made in 1982, the centre took more than ten years to build. characterized by its massive aesthetic and by the use of "solid" materials classic of that methodology in Britain, such as raw concrete, natural stone (mostly Yorkstone), oak wood, and steel.
Opening Hours:
Monday -Saturday: 10:00 am to 9:00 pm
Sunday and Bank Holidays: 12:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Rd, Bishop's, London SE1 8XX, United Kingdom
- Inaugurated on 9 July 1968, Hayward Gallery is another masterpiece of Brutalist Architecture.
- It organizes two to three temporary exhibitions on contemporary and modern art each year. Hayward Gallery of modern art embraces visual art from all eras and time periods.
- The gallery has showcased some of the brilliant works of renowned artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Edward Munch, Dan Flavin, and Antony Gormley.
- The concrete structure of the place complements the artworks and the space created.
Opening hours:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday: 11:00 am to 7:00 pm
Tuesday: closed
Thursday: 11:00 am to 9:00 pm
77-82 Whitechapel High St London E17QX
- Founded in 1901 to bring an artistic vision to the people of East London.
- Whitechapel is renowned worldwide for its contemporary modern art exhibitions, its tremendous education, and its public event programmes.
- The gallery has been a great contributor to cultural terrain and in the growth of east London as a leading art quarter.
- Whitechapel has showcased some of the greatest artists of all-time including Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Frida Kahlo.
- Whitechapel remains open all year long. It also features galleries with artistic vision, exhibitions, historical archives, displays of art and designs, education resources, café, and workshops.
Opening hours:
Monday: Closed
Tuesday - Saturday: 11:00 am to 6:00 pm
Thursday: 11:00 am to 9:00 pm
16 – 18 Ramillies Street, London, W1F 7LW, United Kingdom
- The first public gallery dedicated to the photographic medium of creativity and vision was opened in 1971.
- The photographer's gallery has always believed in public engagement and awareness to promote the idea of their vision.
- Over the years, the gallery has successfully achieved the attention of viewers by introducing international photographers like Juergen Teller, Sebastião Salgado, Dave Heath, Rinko Kawauchi, Roman Vishniac, Andreas Gursky and Taryn Simon.
- The vision of the photographer's gallery is to stimulate public understanding and deeper engagement with photography and its value to society.
Opening hours:
Monday - Saturday: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Thursday: 10:00 am to 8:00 pm
Sunday: 11:00 am to 6:00 pm