Alongside the V&A, Science, Natural History and British Museums, the capital has a host of smaller, lesser-known collections. Here’s our guide to London’s best secret museums.
Museum of London
The history of London, from prehistoric times to the present, told throughreconstructed interiors and street scenes, alongside displays of original artefactsfound during the museum’s archaeological digs. The Stuart, Victorian andTwentieth Century galleries are currently closed for a redevelopment project whichwill transform them by spring 2010, opening up 25 per cent more gallery space.The early galleries will remain open throughout. 150 London Wall, London, EC2Y 5HN St Paul’s or Barbican tube.
Cinema Museum
The Cinema Museum celebrates the art and architecture of the cinema theatre. The museum’s building is under a limited lease – it’s under threat and needs a benefactor – but the posters, projectors, signs and usherettes’ uniforms can still be seen by appointment. The Cinema Museum, The Master’s House, Old Lambeth Workhouse, 2 Dugard Way, SE11 4TH Kennington tube.
Fashion and Textile Museum
Founded by Zandra Rhodes, Bermondsey’s very own celebration of the London (and international) rag trade. 83 Bermondsey St, SE1 3XF London Bridge tube/rail.
Bank of England Museum
Tacked on to the end of the Bank of England, this museum is housed in a replica Sir John Soane interior, the largest of its kind in the world. It offers a good blend of modern, child-friendly attractions and dusty older corridors that the grown-ups will enjoy. The museum tells the history of the Bank and currency in the UK, and there’s lots of stuff about forgery.Threadneedle St, EC2 Bank tube
Cartoon Museum
Chortle your way round this amusing little museum, which displays British cartoons, caricatures, comics and animations. On the ground floor, snigger at time-honoured works by Hogarth and Gillray, WWII cartoons depicting Churchill and more recent subjects of satire: Bush and Blair. There’s an excellent selection of amusing books and cards in the shop, an extensive library and a regular cartooning workshops. 35 Little Russell St, WC1 (7580 8155/). Russell Square tube.
Centre for the Magic Arts
The Magic Circle Museum has historic apparatus, memorabilia and posters as well as the largest collection of magic books in Europe. Appointment only.
Centre for the Magic Arts, 12 Stephenson Way, NW1 2HD . Euston Sq tube. Appointment only.
Charle Dickens Museum
It’s easy to walk past the only surviving London house in which Dickens lived. You have to ring the doorbell to gain access to this unassuming townhouse with just a small plaque to mark it out from its neighbours. Inside, there are four floors of Dickens material, from posters advertising his public speaking to rare editions of his work, in a house decorated as it would have been during Dickens’s tenancy (1837-1839). 48 Doughty St, WC1 Chancery Lane or Russell Square tube.
Churchill Museum
It’s fitting that the man who had 300,000 people file past his coffin before his state funeral now has a museum dedicated to his life. The Churchill Museum is part of the Cabinet War Rooms, preserved to recreate the Cabinet meetings held below ground in WWII. Churchill’s extension explores both his childhood and career while his voice booms out those famous speeches. Clive Steps, King Charles St, SW1 Westminster tube.
National Army Museum
Predictably, weapons feature prominently in here: the 2,500 edged weapons, 200 pole arms and 1,850 firearms should keep bloodthirsty teenagers interested. But it’s the human side of the exhibits that make the National Army Museum work, including oral histories from World War I veterans, and the order that launched the Charge of the Light Brigade. Royal Hospital Rd, SW3 Sloane Square tube.
New London Architecture Museum
A museum in the broader sense, this has regular exhibitions about the future of architecture and planning in London. Includes an incredible scale model of London in its lobby. The Building Centre, 26 Store St, WC1E 7BT Goodge St tube.
Old Operation Theatre Museum
This is the oldest operating theatre in Britain, complete with wooden spectator galleries, lodged up in the roof of a baroque church. St Thomas’s Hospital is long gone from this site but its hair-raising collection of pre-anaesthetic surgical instruments survives. 9a St Thomas St, SE1 London Bridge tube/rail.
Royal Academy of Music Museum
The academy’s museum boasts hundreds of different musical instruments. Marylebone Rd, NW1 5HT Regent’s Park tube.
Royal Air Force Museum
Fancy a career as a pilot? In the interactive Aeronauts Gallery you can take a pilotaptitude test to discover whether you are, or not, the ‘right stuff’, plus there’s asimulator (extra charge) to help you identify if you’d be able to keep your lunchdown. Other attractions include 80 aircraft and a multimedia account of the Battle of Britain. Grahame Park Way, NW9 Colindale or Broadway rail.
Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising
This 120-year history of consumerism, culture, design, domestic life, fashion, folly and fate, presented as a magnificently cluttered time tunnel of cartons and bottles, toys and advertising displays, is a small part of the collection amassed by Robert Opie – son of the celebrated collectors of children’s lore and literature Iona and Peter Opie – since the day in 1963 when the then 16-year-old arrived home with a Munchies wrapper and declared his intention never to throw away anything ever again. Colville Mews, Lonsdale Rd, W11 Notting Hill Gate tube.
Museum of Domestic Design & Architeture
This outpost of Middlesex University focuses on British domestic design from 1870 to the present. Themed temporary exhibitions draw out quotidian treasures from its collections. Part of the fun is revelling in nostalgia for a lost way of life, be it butcher boys, ‘make ‘n’ mend’ or Soda Streams. Cat Hill, Barnet, EN4 Cockfosters tube.
Museum of Immigration and Diversity
Just one building between Brick Laneand Spitalfields Market tells much ofthe story of immigration into London’sEast End. This museum has been thehome of a Huguenot master silk weaverfleeing persecution from Louis IV’sFrance, a nineteenth-centurysynagogue, a community centre whereanti-fascist marches were planned andnow it’s at the heart of the Bengali community. It houses a small exhibitionexploring immigrants’ stories. The museum only holds occasional openings as itneeds money for repairs.
19 Princelet St, E1 Liverpool St tube/rail.
Sherlock Holmes Museum
The last word in factional conceit, 221b’s study isa loving Victorian recreation and a splendid photoop. Bedrooms are fittingly scattered with iconicpersonal effects, make-believe papers andparaphernalia, and waxwork tableaux from thestories have recently been added upstairs. 221b Baker St, NW1 Baker St tube.
Museum of Fulham Palace
Located in Bishop’s Park just north of the Thames, Fulham Palace is a relativelyundiscovered London gem. Until WWII it variously served as a summer retreat andpermanent residence to the bishops of London. Its attractive grounds are its bestasset – look out for the Bishops’ Tree, a cedar with some peculiar growths: woodensculptures of churchmen peeping out over the top. After that, relax on the verdantlawn with scrumptious snacks from the rather posh Drawing Room Café. Indoors,there’s a gallery and small museum (open Saturday to Tuesday), with a handful ofwell-designed exhibits at children’s height. Kids can position their faces in a mirrorpainted with bishops’ hats, or guess the smells of herbs found in the garden (watchout for the sneaky addition of stinky manure). A quiet, pretty and highly civilisedretreat from the urban jungle. Bishops Avenue, SW6 Putney Bridge tube.
Grant Museum of Zoology
If you’re not fazed by the skeletons of a walrus,a baboon and a giant iguanadon that face theentrance, you’ll find many a fascinating animalspecimen here (quite a lot of them preserved inglass jars, and plenty of skeletons). Part ofUniversity College London, it might at firstappear chaotically cluttered, but specimens arecarefully categorised into evolutionary groups.University College London, Gower St, WC1E Goodge St tube.
Guildhall Clockmakers’ Museum
Situated in a single room within the Guildhall Library building, this collection ofwatches and clocks is reckoned to be the oldest in the world. The collection tellsthe story of clockmakers in London and Europe and contains some of the mostdecadent and spectacular timepieces you’ll ever lay your eyes on. Guildhall Library, Aldermanbury, EC2 St Paul’s tube.
Yuxin Yang 