Museums · London
British Museum
Also known as: Yr Amgueddfa Brydeinig, Músaem na Breataine, Gwithti Bretennek
British Museum — national museum in London, United Kingdom.
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Plan your visit
- Typical visit
- 1.5 h–3 h
- Best time of year
- Year-round
- Nearest railway station
- Russell Square · 0.4 km
- Family-friendly
- Wheelchair accessible
About
British Museum is a museum in the United Kingdom. Records date its origin to 1753. Designed by Robert Smirke. Heritage designation: Grade I listed building. Address: http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1544344, WC1B 3DG. Wikidata describes it as: "national museum in London, United Kingdom". Coordinates: 51.5194°, -0.1269°.
Photo gallery
Heritage listing
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. Established in 1753, the British Museum was the world's first public national museum. In 2025, the museum received 6,440,120 visitors and was the second most visited attraction in the United Kingdom. At its beginning, the museum was largely based on the collections of the Anglo-Irish physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. It opened to the public in 1759, in Montagu House, on the site of the current building.
From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.
From the Wikipedia article
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. Established in 1753, the British Museum was the world's first public national museum. In 2025, the museum received 6,440,120 visitors and was the second most visited attraction in the United Kingdom. At its beginning, the museum was largely based on the collections of the Anglo-Irish physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. It opened to the public in 1759, in Montagu House, on the site of the current building. The museum's expansion over the following 250 years was largely a result of British colonisation and resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, or independent spin-offs, the first being the Natural History Museum in 1881. Some of its best-known acquisitions, such as the Greek Elgin Marbles and the Egyptian Rosetta Stone, are subject to long-term disputes and repatriation claims. In 1973, the British Library Act 1972 detached the library department from the British Museum, but it continued to host the now separated British Library in the same Reading Room and building as the museum until 1997. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Like all UK national museums, it charges no admission fee except for loan exhibitions.
Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.
Background
History
On 7 June 1753, King George II gave his royal assent to the act of Parliament which established the British Museum. The British Museum Act 1753 also added two other libraries to the Sloane collection, namely the Cottonian Library, assembled by Sir Robert Cotton, dating back to Elizabethan times, and the Harleian Library, the collection of Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer. They were joined in 1757 by the "Old Royal Library", now the Royal manuscripts, assembled by various British monarchs. Together these four "foundation collections" included many of the most treasured books now in the British Library including the Lindisfarne Gospels and the sole surviving manuscript of…
Architecture
The Greek Revival façade facing Great Russell Street is a characteristic building of Sir Robert Smirke, with 43 columns in the Ionic order 45 ft high, closely based on those of the temple of Athena Polias at Priene in Asia Minor. The pediment over the main entrance is decorated by sculptures by Sir Richard Westmacott depicting The Progress of Civilisation, consisting of fifteen allegorical figures, installed in 1852. The construction commenced around the courtyard with the East Wing (King's Library) in 1823–1828, followed by the North Wing in 1833–1838, which originally housed among other galleries a reading room, now the Wellcome Gallery. Work was also progressing on the northern half of…
Description
Thefts from the museum include: several historic coins and medals in the 1970s; In July 2002 a marble head, valued at £50,000, was stolen from the Archaic Greek gallery. In 2004, 15 Chinese artefacts including jewels, ornate hairpins and fingernail guards were stolen. In 2017, it was revealed that a Cartier diamond had been missing since 2011. Some of the missing artefacts were later found to have been sold on eBay for considerably less than their estimated value. The museum had been warned of the thefts as early as 2021. The museum's director, Hartwig Fischer, resigned because of the museum's inadequate response to the warnings of theft. The number of artefacts stolen was estimated to be…
Sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Coordinates
- 51.5194, -0.1269
- District
- Camden
- Parish
- Camden, unparished area
- Postcode
- WC1B 3DG
- Parliamentary constituency
- Holborn and St Pancras
- Established
- 1753
- Nearest railway station
- Russell Square — 0.4 km
- Official site
- britishmuseum.org
Sources
- wikidata: Q6373 (CC0)
- wikipedia: British Museum (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- commons: British Museum from NE 2 (cropped).JPG (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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Frequently asked questions
- Where is British Museum?
- British Museum is in London, United Kingdom (postcode WC1B 3DG), in the parish of Camden, unparished area.
- When was British Museum built?
- Built or established in 1753. Designed by Robert Smirke.
- Is British Museum a listed building?
- British Museum is officially recognised as Grade I listed building listed.
- How do I get to British Museum?
- The nearest railway station is Russell Square, about 0.4 km away. Drivers can navigate to postcode WC1B 3DG.