Location: Trafalgar Square / Embankment
Top Things to do in Trafalgar Square / Embankment
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What to do and see in Trafalgar Square / Embankment, England: The Best Museums
The crown jewels, Buckingham Palace, Camden Market…in London, history collides with art, fashion, food, and good British ale. A perfect day is different for everyone: culture aficionados shouldn't miss the Tate Modern and the Royal Opera House. If you love fashion, Oxford Street has shopping galore. For foodies, cream tea at Harrod’s or crispy fish from a proper chippy offers classic London flavor. Music and book buffs will love seeing Abbey Road and the Sherlock Holmes Museum (at 221B Baker Street, of course).
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1. British Optical Association Museum
2. Store Studios
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 4 reviews
Reviewed By mrgaryw
Near to Somerset House, this new art gallery has three installations running by the multi-disciplinary collective UVA : Our Time, The Great Animal Orchestra and Vanishing Point. Our Time is the first room, all blacked-out with lights on pendulums, moving in harmony to create amazingly atmospheric feelings. The second room had a laser light show which created geometric shapes moving around the room - very sci-fi ! The final room was an audio installation & recordings of wild nature - Great Animal Orchestra - in different parts of the world, 98 minutes looped .... when I walked in, it was in northern Canada with sounds of howling wolves and birds etc! Well worth it! Go now ....
3. Tower RNLI Lifeboat Station
Overall Ratings
5.0 based on 15 reviews
We are the RNLI's busiest station. Tower Lifeboat is the dedicated search and rescue resource for central London. The maximum number for a visit is normally 18. Visits usually last about 1½ hours and include an introduction to the RNLI and Tower Lifeboat Station, a tour of the station facilities with a talk about the lifeboat from one of the crew, and a chance to see video footage of rescues.
Reviewed By jammyd2020
I loved going and seeing all the different stuff the rnli did I loved seeing all the boats a great time had by my family
4. Somerset House
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 989 reviews
Somerset House is a spectacular neo-classical building in the heart of London, sitting between the Strand and the River Thames. During summer months 55 fountains dance in the courtyard, and in winter you can skate on London's favourite ice rink. Somerset House also hosts open-air concerts and films, contemporary art, design and fashion exhibitions, family workshops and free guided tours of spaces usually hidden to visitors. The Trust's mission is to conserve and maintain Somerset House to the highest standards and to develop the site as a public space which is universally recognised as a world class visitor attraction and centre of excellence for culture and the arts.
Reviewed By EmmanuelRayLive
London Fashion Week, Emmanuel Ray with Boris Johnson. British Fashion Council. Flashback photo 25th anniversary.
5. National Portrait Gallery
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 5,724 reviews
**This place is temporarily closed** This world-famous museum houses portraits of noted Britons from the Tudors to the present day.
Reviewed By KatC389 - Seattle, United States
We STUMBLED to this museum, needed to kill about 45 minutes before our dinner reservation, oh my goodness! So happy we did. First of all, museum is free (those of us from the US are like WHOA--AWESOME!), donations welcome. We happily donated! As a amateur study of the Tudor & Stewart dynasties, this was FABULOUS. These portraits you only saw in textbooks, to be in the same room was awe-inspiring. The Elizabeth I portraits, the Shakespeare nook and the modern portraits were wonderful. Highly worth it, worthy of coming back, wish it wasn't my last night in town!
6. National Gallery
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 39,791 reviews
The National Gallery houses the national collection of paintings in the Western European tradition from the 13th to the 19th centuries. It is on show 361 days a year, free of charge.
Reviewed By Noraatc - Sudbury, United States
It always happens to me: National Gallery takes much more time than I originally plan. I started with the Renaissance painters, spent plenty of time enjoying my all time favorites, Leonardo’s “Virgin of the Rocks”, Botticelli’s “Venus and Mars” and his portraits. Moved on to amazing El Greco, phenomenal “Rokeby Venus” by Diego Velázquez, Van Eyck and Vermeer, several Rembrandt’s portraits, which I had seen on display recently in the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh... the list is very, very long, so I do not want to bore you with it... Around 2 pm the swarms of noisy school children have become unbearable, so I decided to take a break for lunch in the lovely National Gallery Cafe. After much needed lunch, I went to the Impressionists, the reason why I got stuck in the National Gallery for so long. What a stunning collection! The best Cezanne, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, whom I adore... phenomenal Renoir’s portraits, beautiful Claude Monet’s landscapes, famous Manet’s paintings “The Music in the Tuileries” and “Execution of Maximilian”... I stopped paying attention to noisy school kids and completely drowned in the beauty of the paintings forgetting about everything around me. Forgot about time as well... it was already 6pm, the Gallery was closing. Will be back and hopefully soon.
7. The Courtauld Gallery
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 3,407 reviews
"This place is temporarily closed." We are now closed for a period of at least two years while we undertake a major transformation project called Courtauld Connects. This will enable us to significantly improve our visitor experience by putting accessibility at the heart of everything we do.
Reviewed By apester
We love small galleries and the Courtauld is one of the best examples we've seen from different European cities. Quiet, charming and in a great part of town - definitely a must go for the art buff.
8. Two Temple Place
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 208 reviews
Reviewed By keithh224 - Chesham, United Kingdom
Built as the Estate Office for the fabulously wealthy William Waldorf Astor, an American of European ancestry who eventually set up residence in England & took British Nationality & gave up his U.S. Nationality. . He chose this site for reasons that matched many of his aesthetics & engaged one of the prominent architects of the day, John Loughborough Pearson, to carry out the project. Pearson used some of the most skilled craftsmen of the period & had the luxury of a virtually blank cheque to draw from. . The building is only open to the public whilst an annual exhibition is being held there, generally between some time in January to mid April. Admission is free. . There is virtually no information available at the property concerning it's features, decor & history so it really is a Good idea to read such information as is available on Wikipedia prior to your visit although this deals mainly with the fabric of 2 , Temple Place & not much with it's creator, William Waldorf Astor who was a secretive & complex character. . Of course, one can admire the building purely as a visual treat but I highly recommend buying Barbara Bryant's excellent book on 2 , Temple Place which I found to be on sale at the property . It not only contains some excellent photographs ( you can take photos yourself- no Flash allowed & most rooms are dark & some features partially obscured by exhibits from the current exhibition ) but also some fascinating facts concerning W. W. Astor & his lifestyle/ character. . There is an old fashioned cloakroom, no lockers or attendant so best to keep your valuables to hand. You will be o. k. to carry round a small bag with you- I was requested to keep my small rucksack off my back ; a reasonable request as the place was fairly busy.There are toilets available & they are of a very Good standard, too. Also a small cafe which I did not use or even look in on. There is a gift shop upstairs in a room off the gallery at the head of The Staircase Hall. . The exterior of 2 , Temple Place is built with Portland stone. A striking weather vane topped with a dazzling , golden coloured copper representation of Columbus's ship, the Santa Maria sits atop the building. . Inside, for purposes of your visit you should turn right from the entrance hall into the Lower Gallery which was once divided up for business purposes into different rooms but is now one long room. . In Astor's time, more exalted visitor's would push on straight ahead into the stunning Staircase Hall. The Staircase Hall leads to an upper gallery off of which you can access The Library & The Great Room. . It is not my place to describe every detail of the craftsmanship on display here which would take up a lot of space but suffice to say that much of the carving & imagery reflects W. W. Astor's particular tastes in literature & his view of his family's origin's & place in the World & those historical character's that he held in esteem. . The stained glass windows set at each end of The Great Room are particularly striking, one representing Sunrise & the other Sunset. Also, of exceptional quality is the door leading from The Great Room to the Gallery which bears beautifully executed plaques representing characters from Arthurian Legend. . Throughout, the finest materials have been used & wrought by expert craftsmen. Of necessity , some features are obscured by exhibits. This is of note in The Great Room where the windows all along one side are covered, making the room unnaturally dark. . Some damage occurred to the building during WW2. Astor's bedroom has gone- After the death of his wife he more or less lived at 2 , Temple Place. Also gone is the fireplace which stood at the West end of The Great Room, the spectacular plaster ceiling which once existed in The Library & the Marble Mantle piece, although this still exists, albeit in storage. .
9. Proud Galleries
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 4 reviews
10. Hermitage Rooms at Somerset House
Overall Ratings
4.0 based on 1 reviews
The Hermitage Rooms at Somerset House is a branch of St. Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum that offers rotating exhibitions drawn from the Russian museum. At Somerset House the focus is on telling the story of royal life through rare objects that include medals, jewelry, portraits, porcelain, and furniture.
