Fiona MacLeod on the world-class collections that charge nothing and how to see them without crowds
By Fiona MacLeod
The British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, the Tate Modern, the Tate Britain, the National Maritime Museum, the Wallace Collection: these are among the finest museums and galleries in the world, collectively housing objects and collections that would constitute the primary attraction of cities across Europe if they were anywhere else. They are free. They are free because the UK government funds them as public institutions, and because that policy decision, which is periodically debated and has so far survived, reflects a belief that cultural institutions of this scale should be accessible to everyone rather than to those who can afford admission.
I have brought visitors to these museums for twenty years and I never entirely stop being surprised by the fact of the free admission, even now. The Rosetta Stone is free to see. The Sutton Hoo helmet is free to see. The Elgin Marbles, whatever your view of their provenance, are free to see. The first iteration of the World Wide Web is free to see at the Science Museum. The entire decorative and applied arts collection of the V&A, which is one of the most comprehensive in the world, is free to see.
How to See Them Without Hating It
On weekdays before 11am and after 3pm, the major museums are quiet enough to actually look at things rather than experience them as crowd management exercises. On weekend mornings the queues form early; on weekend afternoons they are longest. The museums that attract the least tourist traffic relative to their quality are the Wallace Collection in Manchester Square (extraordinary French 18th-century furniture and painting, almost never crowded) and the Sir John Soane’s Museum in Lincoln’s Inn Fields (architecturally extraordinary, limited capacity by design, worth booking).
Special exhibitions at the major museums charge admission and are often worth it. The permanent collections are the reason to go and require no additional expenditure. The British Museum and V&A publish visitor guidance on best times to visit. Fiona MacLeod writes about London travel at prat.uk.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
