All the major galleries in London are free, thanks to government subsidies. These include all of the Tate art museums, the V&A (Victoria and Albert) design museum and the British Museum. Most feature paying temporary exhibitions but unless you have a particular interest in whatever's on, there's more than enough in all the big London museums to keep you busy for days at a time without paying a penny.
Good museums for kids...
Natural History Museum
Dominated by the aging skeletons of dinosaurs, the Natural History Museum still inspires children and adults alike to wonder what it might have been like to stand face to face with the 26-metre-long diplodocus stood in the main hallway all those millions of years ago.
Find out what's on before you visit here.
Normal opening times:
10am - 5.50pm every day (Last admission 5.30pm)
Science Museum
If the word 'science' makes you think of lessons spent at the back of the classroom trying to burn a hole in your tie with a Bunsen burner, think again. The Science Museum makes science amazing again, with thermal imaging cameras, carbon dioxide that turns from solid into gas and lots more. We recommend you head straight for Launchpad (particularly aimed at 8- to 14-year-olds) one of the most recently updated sections of the museum and work back from there.
Normal opening times:
10am - 6pm every day
Good museums for art lovers...
London has some world-beating art on offer for the connoisseur and the casual art browser alike. The addition of the Tate Modern in 2000 finally gave the Tate's extensive international contemporary art collection a home and gave the Tate Britain room to show off the work of major British artists since 1500s. Other large free art museums include the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square.
Tate Britain
Look out for...
Between October and January, the Turner Prize, an annual contemporary art award that often causes headlines for its outlandishness, is usually exhibited here. (In 2007, however it was shown in the Tate Liverpool.)
Normal opening times:
Open daily 10am – 5.50pm (Exhibitions open 10am – 5.40pm)
Find out more: http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
Tate Modern
Normal opening times:
Sunday – Thursday 10am – 6pm
Friday & Saturday 10am – 10pm
Find out more: http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
National Gallery
Normal opening times:
10am - 6pm (Wednesday until 9pm)
Find out more: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/plan/default.htm
National Portrait Gallery
Look out for...
The BP Portrait Awards a yearly award that will appeal to most with its preference for finely painted figurative portraiture and a diverse range of subjects. It's also one of the few temporary exhibitions in London that's actually free.
Normal opening times:
Open daily 10am - 6pm (Thursday and Friday until 9pm)
Find out more: http://www.npg.org.uk/live/index.asp
A good museum for a sense of history...
The British Museum
Housing such prestigious and sometime contentious relics as the Rosetta Stone credited with breaking the code of Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Elgin Marbles, sculptures from the ancient Acropolis in Athens - the British Museum is well worth a visit. Leave a day or so free if you want to get a half-decent look at everything on offer.
Normal opening times:
10am - 6pm (Wednesday until 9pm)
Find out more: http://www.britishmuseum.org/
