Free Museums in London
Venues in London Where Families Can Enjoy the Culture for Free
The UK, and London in particular, has many museums and art galleries where admission is free. Two of the best are The Natural History Museum in Cromwell Road, (open Mon. to Sat. 10.00 – 17.50 and Sundays 11.00 – 17.50) and the V. & A.Museum (Victoria and Albert Museum) in the same road, open daily 10.00 – 5.45, but on Wednesday’s and the last Friday in the month the Museum is open until 22.00 hrs. Nearest tube is South Kensington and a tunnel links the tube to the Museum.
The Natural History Museum
This Museum houses hundreds of exciting interactive exhibits covering 4 billion years of Earth’s history, through a collection of over 68 million specimens. Among the highlights of these are “Dinosaurs” with a life-sized roaring T-Rex that both adults and children love, and “Creepy Crawlies” with a tarantula and other dangerous spiders. “Human Biology” is about ourselves and if you want to know how an earthquake feels like, then The Power Within will provide just that. The Darwin Centre is home to Archie the squid, a 8 metre long giant squid taken alive in a fishing net off the Falkland Islands, and kept in a reinforced glass tank.
A free explorers activity pack is provided for children under 7. Tel: 0207 942 5000.
The V & A Museum
Many people regard this as the world’s greatest museum of art and design because of its unrivalled collections. Three thousand years’ worth of artefacts from many of the world’s richest cultures including ceramics, furniture, fashion, glass, jewellery, sculpture and paintings, including Bernini’s Fountain of Neptune and Triton and Canova’s Three Graces, are found here.
One of the best parts of the V. & A. is the Cast Court, two large sky lighted rooms two storeys high and housing hundreds of plaster casts of sculptures, friezes and tombs. One of the rooms is dominated by a full-scale replica of Trajan’s Colum, cut in half in order to fit under the ceiling. In the other room are reproductions of various Italian Renaissance sculptures, including a full-size replica of Michelangelo’s David. If a visit to Florence to see the original isn’t planned, this is the next best thing.
Horniman Museum, 100 London Road, Forest Hill, SE23.
This collection of over 6,000 musical instruments is popular with all age groups, especially after they have been introduced to them and learned how to make music by shaking beans in a pod, and drumming on skins. The music room embraces all sounds and gives examples from gourds and lizard skin to Egyptian clappers from a period BC to a 1991 Fender guitar. Touch screen computer terminals allow further exploration and video recordings and headphones add the modern touch.
The Horniman Museum also has a natural history collection, child-height telescopes, and an observation beehive.
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