British Museum
The world’s first national public museum, in Bloomsbury, with the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon’s marbles.
Photo: Yair Haklai, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Parliament bought the physician Sir Hans Sloane’s collection in 1753 and founded the British Museum around it; it opened in 1759. Sir Robert Smirke’s Greek Revival building, with its front of Ionic columns, was finished in 1852, and in 2000 Norman Foster roofed its Great Court in glass.
It holds some eight million objects, among them the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon Sculptures and Ramesses II, the Younger Memnon. Like Britain’s other national museums it is free to visit. It stands north of the part of London the game maps, but you can still walk into three of its rooms. Visit it in 3D ›
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More in London
Big BenThe great bell in the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament, whose tower is now the Elizabeth Tower.
Houses of ParliamentThe Palace of Westminster on the Thames, rebuilt in Gothic style after the fire of 1834.
Westminster AbbeyThe church where English and British monarchs have been crowned since 1066.
Trafalgar SquareNelson on his column, four bronze lions and the National Gallery along the north side.
National GalleryBritain’s collection of European paintings, free to visit, along the north side of Trafalgar Square.
Downing StreetNumber 10, the home of British prime ministers since 1735, behind black gates off Whitehall.
Horse GuardsMounted troopers of the Household Cavalry stand sentry on Whitehall every day.
London EyeThe giant observation wheel across the Thames, built for the year 2000.
Westminster BridgeThe green bridge over the Thames beside Big Ben, painted the colour of the House of Commons’ benches.
Black cabLondon’s taxis, tall enough for a man in a top hat, driven by cabbies who know every street by heart.
Red double-deckerThe red two-storey buses that have carried London since the days of the horse bus.
Red phone boxThe red cast-iron telephone kiosks of Giles Gilbert Scott, from the 1920s and 1930s.
Changing of the GuardThe ceremony in which the King’s Guard hands over to the new guard, in red tunics and bearskins.