As I said in my introductory article, you can evaluate your London excursions by ratings:
A: must see if you have only one day in the area
B: valuable to see, but might require a second day
C: interesting, if you have more time
London is fairly festooned with fabulous museums found all over the city. Here are the top-rated and some interesting lesser-known ones and how much time you need to budget to get a decent experience.
Most publicly funded national museums in the UK do not charge an admission fee. There is usually a box near the door for voluntary donations.
A+: British Museum (several hours to half a day). See the picture at the top.
Perhaps the finest museum of antiquities in the world, at least in my well-traveled opinion. Egyptian mummies and the Rosetta Stone, which, when discovered, first enabled us to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics from Ancient Greek.
Plus, there is the entrance to the royal palace of King Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC) at Nimrud (above).
Amongst the many international exhibits, several have been requested back by the countries from which they came. The Rosetta Stone is claimed by Egypt. The Elgin Marbles have been requested back by Greece. If you tour the Parthenon atop the Acropolis in Athens. You’ll see that one side of the Temple to Athena has no statues in the pediment, the triangular section below the roofline and above the columns. The story you’ll hear goes like this:
Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin was in 1789 appointed “Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty to the Sublime Porte of Selim III, Sultan of Turkey.” In short, he was the British ambassador to Greece, which was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. The Greek version of the story is that he had asked for “a few” statues to bring back to England. The British version is that many of the statues had fallen to the ground and were being burned for lime. Elgin stated that the removal of the marbles had been authorized by an official edict from the Sultan.
In either case, the British Museum has an entire gallery housing what are called the “Elgin Marbles” from amongst the 21 figures from the Parthenon pediments as well as friezes from the Parthenon, slabs from the Temple of Athena Nike (near the Parthenon), and a caryatid from the Erechtheion on the Acropolis.
You won’t see their like in Athens: acid rain has etched the caryatids and other statuary.
And don’t miss the museum shop. See what’s on.
A: Tower of London / Crown Jewels (a few hours to half a day)
Admittedly, the Tower used to be a royal residence. You’ll see the history of the Tudor and Stuart dynasties of England. Lots of (Henry VIII’s) armor and weapons, and the tour will show you where he had his second wife, Anne Boleyn, beheaded.
From there, you can see the Tower Bridge, often erroneously called the London Bridge by visitors. To see the Crown Jewels requires separate tickets. See what’s on.
B: Museum of London (a few hours)
This is an excellent museum of London history and pop culture: London native Michael Caine, the swinging ’60s, The Great London Fire, pearly kings, soccer/football, etc. I did research there on an article I was writing about Charles Dickens. Having said all this, it is only about London, not the rest of the world.
However, outside the museum, you’ll see part of a Roman wall from Imperial days. And you’ll see the sign designating where John Wesley, founder of Methodism, went to a Moravian Bible Study where he felt his heart “strangely warmed.” See What’s on.
NB: this is located in the “City of London,” which roughly corresponds to the ancient Roman city. But more importantly, in one square mile, it has the highest concentration of banks and financial institutions in the world. It has its own Lord Mayor. Also, major international companies will have at least a small office there.
B: National Gallery (several hours, near Trafalgar Square)
This is one of those world-class museums that “you have to see,” though it doesn’t do it for me. As for art, you’ll see better exhibits in Florence, Paris, and Rome. Those move me; the National Gallery doesn’t. Nevertheless, there is no denying that you’ll see a great variety of art: there’s a Van Gogh exhibit coming up and you can see Impressionist art without having to go all the way to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. See what’s on.
B: Tate Britain, formerly Tate Gallery (several hours)
It’s located at Millbank, Westminster. Known originally as the National Gallery of British Art, it changed its name in 2000 from the Tate Gallery when it began to show only British art from 1500 to the present.
It has rooms dedicated to works by one artist, such as: Tracey Emin, John Latham, Douglas Gordon, Sam Taylor-Wood, Tacita Dean, and Marcus Gheeraerts II… sometimes in rotation.
It also has several permanent collections from the 1500 to the present. You can find pre-Raphaelite art there. See What’s On at Tate Britain.
C: Tate Modern (several hours)
If you “get” modern art, this is the place for you. They have Expressionists. Yoko Ono recently had an exhibit there, “Music of the Mind”. Tate Modern is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the world. With over 3.8M visitors a year, it is the third most visited in Britain and the fourth-most visited art museum in the world. See What’s On
Note: There is an exception to what I said above about London museums being scattered all over the city. There are the:
South Kensington Museums
These are all located just south of Kensington Gardens. They sit in the former location of Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert’s “Great Exhibition” of 1851. The glass structure that housed it was called the “Crystal Palace.” It was the first in a series of World’s Fairs. They had the first international chess tournament, and the world’s first soft drink, Schweppes, was the official sponsor of the Exhibition. That area now features several museums, as well as Imperial College London.
A: Victoria & Albert Museum (several hours to half a day)
On the southern side of Imperial College London, on Cromwell Road (Brompton Road) is a singular immense museum that you can get delightfully lost in. I have. The V&A has been called “the British Attic” because in the 19th century, when foreign dignitaries visited Queen Victoria and Prince Albert during her long reign, they brought gifts to present to the Queen. Some are displayed here. It is the world’s largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts, and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It opened in 1852, the year after the Great Exhibition.
The V&A covers 12.5 acres with 145 galleries featuring 5,000 years of art from ancient to present. It has “miles of aisles” featuring the most eclectic and varied exhibits: musical instruments, paintings, photography, sculpture, tapestries, theatrical costumes, jewelry, furniture, ceramics, glass, figurines, shoes, swords, and the William Morris room with prints and wallpaper. Little known, the museum houses the National Art Library with 750,000 items. Of note are the Leonardo da Vinci notebooks: Forster I, II, and II.
Don’t miss the museum shop. Here’s what’s on.
A: Science Museum (several hours)
Surrounded by Imperial College London, this is a remarkable museum for people interested in the history of science: engines, flight, astronomy, space, medicine, computers, and modern plumbing. Begun in 1857 by Victoria and Albert, it attracts 3.3 million visitors a year. It is world-class and stands up to the Smithsonian and the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, though not as large. Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, used to hang out here when he was young.
They have a working model of the “Babbage Differential Engine.” the first major mechanical “computing” (calculating) machine. There’s the oldest surviving James Watt Beam (steam) engine. There’s a V-2 rocket designed by German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, who came to America to help pioneer our rocket age. There’s space stuff, WWII airplanes (a German Messerschmidt, British Spitfire and Hurricane fighters), and a working model of Thomas Crapper’s original patented “Valveless Water Waste Preventer” (toilet). My kids loved it. So did I. Here’s What’s on.
B: Natural History Museum (several hours)
This is a remarkable and fabulous temple to evolution 🙂 It has wonderful static displays and is in a beautiful building you’ve seen in many movies. However, it’s not one of my top picks.
C: Royal Albert Hall (varies)
Just south of Kensington Gardens and across from the Albert Memorial, it’s impressive to see this rotunda, but there’s not much else to see — unless you have tickets to a performance therein. Here’s “what’s on.”
The concert hall was opened by Queen Victoria in 1871. Seating 5,272, it is one of the finest venues in London for music of all kinds, films-in-concert, and even a high tea.
I attended the BBC Proms (promenade concert) there; it’s an eight-week classical music concert season that is a significant event in British culture. Czech conductor Jiří Bělohlávek called them:
“the world’s largest and most democratic musical festival.”
The Beatles’ song A Day In the Life features the line:
“Now I know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall.”
Next article: London Cathedrals
Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
billpetro.com