Discover every museum in London all in one place.
There are nearly 250 museums in London – more than just about any other city in the world. Through London’s Museum Guide I want to encourage others to share my love of London’s incredible museum scene, and help you to discover gems you might not have heard of.
Below you’ll find a full, filterable list of everything the city has to offer. Head to the London Museum Guide homepage to explore bespoke guides.
A complete A-Z of London’s museums by theme & location
How to use this guide: The cards below show an A-Z directory of all 250+ museums in London. Use the filters to the right to show only museums you’re interested in.
‘Primary focus’ splits museums by their broad area of focus. You can click ‘additional themes’ to see more specific categories, such as museums covering World War Two, or modern art galleries. If you prefer to look at a map, visit my London Museum Map here.
Finally, have fun, and if you have any tips, want to leave a review for a museum, or notice an error, don’t hesitate to comment or contact me!
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Arsenal Football Club Museum
Read more: Arsenal Football Club MuseumThe museum at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, dedicated to the clubs history from its 19th century origins in Woolwich to present day. Filled with memorabilia, trivia, history and interactive exhibits. Included as part of a stadium tour, but can be visited separately.
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Barnet Museum
Read more: Barnet MuseumLocal museum tracing Barnets history from Bronze Age to present. Set in a historic house.
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Boston Manor House
Read more: Boston Manor HouseA 17th-century Jacobean manor in Brentford, recently restored and open to the public. Set in a scenic park, it offer s beautifully preserved interiors, including original ornate plasterwork, and community exhibition galleries, often about Hounslow’s modern diverse communities.
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Centre for Recent Drawing (C4RD)
Read more: Centre for Recent Drawing (C4RD)A volunteer-run small art gallery devoted to current drawing practice. Provides non-commercial exhibition space for emerging and established artists to show drawings free from market pressures.
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Chiswick House & Gardens
Read more: Chiswick House & GardensA Grade I listed Villa, famous as one of London’s gems of Georgian architecture gems. It features large gardens (the first ever English landscape gardens); while in the house, Neo-Palladian in style and extremely striking, you can explore its ornate details, period rooms and art collection.
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Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art
Read more: Estorick Collection of Modern Italian ArtThe UKs only gallery devoted to modern Italian art, best known for its Futurist masterpieces and figurative art and sculpture dating from 1890 to the 1950s. Housed in a Grade II listed Georgian villa in Canonbury. As well as its permanent collection it hosts temporary exhibitions of modern and contemporary Italian artists
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Gunnersbury Park Museum
Read more: Gunnersbury Park MuseumA large museum, with over 50,000 items in its collection, focused on the history and culture of West London boroughs Ealing and Hounslow. Features archaeological artefacts from the area; exhibitions on the culture of Ealing and Hounslow and its famous residents; social history; fashion and industry. It’s housed in a former Rothschild mansion, and some…
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Hogarth’s House
Read more: Hogarth’s HouseThe former country home of 18th-century artist William Hogarth, now a small museum about his life. It has a large collection of his work, as well as exhibits on the house, its residents and the local area, as well as a lovely garden.
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Islington Museum
Read more: Islington MuseumThe local heritage museum for the Borough of Islington. Its galleries cover themes community and social history, including fashion , food healthcare, wartime Islington and radicals. Includes a bust of Lenin who lived in the borough.
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London Canal Museum
Read more: London Canal MuseumA museum devoted to the history of London’s waterways, exploring the story of canals in London – how they came to be built, the lives of the workers, and how they worked. Housed in a 19th-century ice warehouse it also tells the story of London’s ice industry. Highlights include peering into huge Victorian ice wells…
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London Museum of Water & Steam
Read more: London Museum of Water & SteamA hands-on industrial museum at the former Kew Bridge Waterworks. Tells the story of London’s water supply, with interactive exhibits; live steam demonstration; the world’s largest collection of working Cornish steam engines, and a splash zone for kids.
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Museum of Methodism
Read more: Museum of MethodismA small museum about the history of Methodism, housed in its spiritual home – the Methodist church built under the direction of its founder, John Wesley. Next door is Wesley’s former home, which can also be visited.
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Museum of the Order of St John
Read more: Museum of the Order of St JohnOne of London’s hidden gem museums, telling the history of the Order of St John – from its medieval origins, to the modern day St John Ambulance.
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Musical Museum (Brentford)
Read more: Musical Museum (Brentford)A unique museum of self-playing musical instrument, telling the story of how music has been recorded and reproduced throughout history. Engineering marvels and inventions, such as self-playing violin and The Mighty Wurlitzer, designed to accompany silent films. There are lots of opportunities to listen to the instruments. Also home to a gallery dedicated to music…
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Osterley Park and House
Read more: Osterley Park and HouseA grand Georgian country house remodelled by the famous 18th century architect Robert Adam. It’s set in a vast park and now run by the National Trust, featuring opulent neo-classical rooms, like the famous and stunning Entrance Hall and its luxurious state apartments. Throughout are paintings, sculptures and tapestries.
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Redbridge Museum & Heritage Centre
Read more: Redbridge Museum & Heritage CentreA newly refurbished community museum covering 150,000 – everything from how medieval manors shaped modern Redbridge, to the boroughs links to the British empire, Victorian orphanages and its modern, multicultural community.
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Royal Air Force Museum London
Read more: Royal Air Force Museum LondonThe RAF’s flagship London museum, with six aircraft hangers looking at the RAF’s history, present and future. Plenty of interactive exhibitions and aircrafts.
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Stephens Collection (Stephens House)
Read more: Stephens Collection (Stephens House)A historic mansion with landscaped gardens, owned by Henry Charles Stephens – an ink businessman. The gardens are free to visit, but the house is by guided tour only.
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Syon House and Park
Read more: Syon House and ParkA quite simply stunning Grade I listed stately home, former residence of the Duke of Northumberland. It has many layers of history, but its most famous for its interior, a masterpiece by Robert Adam with exquisite classical-style rooms. Surrounded by 200 acres of parkland and home to a famous Great Conservatory. Overall a relatively uncrowded…
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The Charterhouse
Read more: The CharterhouseA historic building with a multi-layered history – having been a medieval monastry, a Tudor mansion, and a school. You can explore this history through its well-preserved rooms, its garden and its museum
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The Postal Museum (with Mail Rail)
Read more: The Postal Museum (with Mail Rail)A museum about the history of post in the UK, with interactive and immersive displays. Its highlight is the Mail Rail – a small train running underground, originally used to transport mail across the city, which you can ride as part of your visit and learn about its history.
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Valentines Mansion & Gardens
Read more: Valentines Mansion & GardensA beautifully restored 18th-century mansion set in an expansive park, with period rooms (including a recreated Victorian Kitchen and Georgian bedchamber) and audioguides.
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