17 Museums to Explore in Greater London

The museum comprises the Cabinet War Rooms, a historic underground complex that housed a British government command centre throughout the Second World War, and the Churchill Museum, a biographical museum exploring the life of British statesman Winston Churchill.

One of the last clipper ship to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of design development. The design development halted as sailing ships gave way to steam propulsion. Built in 1869, she was in service till 1954- first as a tea clipper and later to wool trade and as a cargo ship.

Along with St James' Palace, it is one of only two surviving palaces out of the many the King Henry VIII owned. The palace has two distinct contrasting architectural styles, domestic Tudor and Baroque. It currently is open to the public displaying many of its original furnitures still in their original position, in addition to the works of art from the Royal Collection.

Town-class light cruiser that was built for the Royal Navy, now permanently moored as a museum ship. Commissioned in early August 1939 shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, Belfast was initially part of the British naval blockade against Germany.

A residence of the British Royal Family since the 17th century. Today, the State Rooms are open to the public and displays many paintings and other objects from the Royal Collection.

Established to conserve and explain the transport heritage of London. The museum is spread into locations- in Covent Garden displaying buses, trams, trolleybuses and rail vehicles from the 19th and 20th centuries as well s the first underground electric train, from 1890. Larger exhibits are held at Acton depot location and they include a complete 1938 stock tube train as well as early locomotives from the first sub-surface and first deep-level lines.

Documents the history of London from prehistoric to modern times. The museum is the largest urban history collection in the world, with more than six million objects.

The Museum has the most important holdings in the world on the history of Britain at sea comprising more than two million items, including maritime art, cartography, manuscripts including official public records, ship models and plans, scientific and navigational instruments, instruments for time-keeping and astronomy.

The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 80 million items within five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, paleontology and zoology. The museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons and ornate architecture, and also for the specimens collected by Charles Darwin.

the observatory played a major role in the history of astronomy and navigation, and because the prime meridian passes through it, it gave its name to Greenwich Mean Time. The scientific work of the observatory was moved elsewhere in the first half of 20th century and now it functions almost exclusively as a museum.

Holds a collection of over 300,000 items, including famous items as Stephenson's Rocket, Puffing Billy (the oldest surviving steam locomotive), the first jet engine, the Apollo 10 command module, a reconstruction of Francis Crick and James Watson's model of DNA, among many others.

National gallery of British art from 1500 to the present day. Houses a substantial collection of the art of the United Kingdom since Tudor times, and in particular has large holdings of the works of J. M. W. Turner. It is one of the largest museums in United Kingdom.

Dedicated to human history, art and culture. Its permanent collection of some eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence, having been widely sourced during the era of the British Empire. It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. It was the first public national museum in the world.

Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. It is among the most visited art museums in the world.

Situated in Baker Street, bearing the number 221B, this private museum is dedicated to the famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. The Georgian town house which the museum occupies was built in 1815 and was formerly used as a boarding house from 1860 to 1936. It covers the period of 1881 to 1904 when the stories describe Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson residing there as tenants of Mrs Hudson.

Historic castle founded towards the end of 1066. A grand palace early in its history, the Tower has served variously as an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a public record office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of England. The Tower is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat.

World's largest museum of applied and decorative arts and design, as well as sculpture, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. Its collection spans 5,000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day, from the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa.