Free museums in London

London's museums are among the most renowned in the world, but best of all: they are often free. So head to London by train, to venture into one of them during your stay!

• The National Gallery
• The National Portrait Gallery
• The Victoria & Albert museum
• The National History Museum
• The Tate Modern

Start your museum tour with the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square. It’s the most important art museum in England, displaying paintings from the Middle Ages to the end of the 19th century. Its collections include many paintings of the greatest painters: Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Van Gogh and Monet, as well as the masterpieces of the english painting masters, like Turner or Constable.

Follow this with the nearby the National Portrait Gallery, where you can admire the portraits of the major figures of British history. Paintings, caricatures and even photographs will teach you all about English kings, noblemen and scientists.

Located on Cromwell Road, you will find the Victoria & Albert museum, dedicated to decorative arts. Its collections recall a period stretching from Antiquity to the 20th century: furniture, clothes (including haute couture dresses), photographs or even pieces of pottery from all over the world, letting you get a better idea of how you are going to decorate your new apartment!

Go a bit further up that same street and you are already in front of the Natural History Museum. The pace is set right from the entrance hall: you are standing beneath an enormous diplodocus skeleton ! Its collections, including those built by Darwin or even James Cook, contain over 70 million specimens (forgive so little). Botany, zoology or mineralogy, you’re going to have to choose!

On the right bank of the Thames, the Tate Modern gives you access to the national collection of contemporary art. Located in an old closed down power plant, the museum spreads out over seven floors, including one for permanent exhibitions and therefore free! You will be able to see extremely rich content. Our favourites : The many paintings of Francis Bacon or even the beautiful Rothko room and its enormous colourful canvases.