The Natural History Museum

Housed in a vast Victorian-style Italian-Renaissance building, the Natural History Museum assumes cathedral-like proportions and is dedicated to worshipping the wonders of nature. The museum first opened in 1881 and now features over 78 million specimens and more than one million books, artworks and manuscripts!
Visitors enter through the highly decorative arches and columns, inspired by Fingal's Cave (Scotland) and are greeted by all manner of sculptured creatures and foliage, clinging to columns and peering down from arches and doorways.
The exhibitions address scientific issues from our ecology to the origin of species and dinosaurs to woodlice.

The Natural History Museum opens daily 10:00-17:50 Mon-Sat, 11:00-17:50 Sun.
Closed 24-26 Dec.
Tube: South Kensington.
Enquiries: 020 7942 5011
Entrance: FREE except for certain exhibitions.

Museum of London

To get a real taste of London life over the last 2000 years, head for the Museum of London - the world's largest urban history museum. Documenting the growth of this vast metropolis from the prehistoric to the present day, the museum contains over 1.1 million objects, many rescued from archaeological digs or during building works in the City of London. Visitors can marvel at the staggering collection of over 47,000 objects from Roman London, the buckles, brooches and belt-fittings of the Medieval period or the extensive glass collection from the seventeenth-century. Favourite displays include recreated street scenes, interiors and the Victorian shop fronts. The Galleries cover topics ranging from Macabre London to London Children and London Entertains. The new World City Galleries explore London between 1789-1914, highlights include Wellington's boots and Queen Victoria's parliamentary robes.

The Museum of London opens daily 10:00-17:50 Mon-Sat and 12:00-17:50 Sun.
Closed 24-26 Dec and 1 Jan 2002.
Tube: Barbican, St Paul's, Moorgate or Bank.
Enquiries: 020 7600 3699
Entrance: FREE.

National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery was founded in 1856 by the historian Philip Stanhope, who campaigned for 'a gallery of original portraits [that] commemorated British history'. Its founding principle was that the paintings on display would reflect the status of the sitter, not the artist. As a result, the primary collection now consists of 10,000 portraits, and over 250,000 archived images, of everyone from statesmen to showbiz stars and media barons. The collection represents Britain from the late fourteenth-century to the present day and is arranged thematically to include the Tudors, politicians and pop stars, Victorian statesmen and the Civil War. The recently opened Ondaajte Wing features the only surviving portrait of Shakespeare taken from life and the famous Hans Holbein cartoon of Henry VIII. The Portrait Restaurant offers superb views of London.

The National Portrait Gallery opens daily 10:00-18:00 Mon-Wed, 10:00-21:00 Thurs-Fri and 10:00-18:00 Sat-Sun.
Closed 24-26 Dec, 1 Jan and Good Friday.
Tube: Leicester Square or Charing Cross.
Enquiries: 020 7312 2463
Entrance: FREE except for certain exhibitions.