The British Museum, located in the Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia area, is interesting, if only for the fact that it’s the world’s oldest public museum, established in 1753. The items housed in the museum cover prehistoric periods to the present-day. The most famous attractions are Egyptian mummies, the Sutton Hoo Treasure (a preserved 7th century ship burial), Parthenon sculptures, and the Lindow Man (a 2,000 year old corpse preserved in a peat bog in Cheshire). The displays represent not just British history, but European, Eastern, Egyptian, ancient Greek and Roman, Asian, and African. The museum’s Reading Room is world-renowned. There are also bookstores, cafes, and restaurants. If you go, plan on a full day. There are 94 galleries and 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) worth of artifacts.
The National Gallery
The National Gallery, located in tourist-clogged Trafalgar Square, offers works by Raphael, Rembrandt, van Eyck, da Vinci, and Seurat, in addition to excellent paintings by some lesser-known artists. The works span in years from 1250 to 1900, located in four different wings on one floor. Lesser-known works are located on a lower floor.
The National Portrait Gallery
Next to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, the National Portrait Gallery houses portraits of some of Britain’s most famous sons and daughters. Kings, queens, poets, artists, musicians, and other notables grace the walls of the museum, which covers every period since the late 14th century. Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I have pride of place in the Ondaatje Wing, which features other famous people (if not famous faces) from the Tudor Period. Portraits of King Henry VIII and his wives are also displayed here. In addition to the portrait displays, there is a bookshop, which focuses on art books and literature, and prints, posters and cards featuring portraits from their collections.