Many museums are free. However, that seems nice, but usually you have to pay for special exhibitions. It is useful to check this in advance. We have visited a few of these free museums, they are described below. There is a website where kids rated the museums. On this website you can also find helpful comments from a parent's perspective. Note that not all museums on this website are free! A bag check is done at most museums. Do not forget to leave your pocket knife at home ... (we didn't). You can usually also give it in storage. In our case the baggage check went reasonably fast. The advantage is that you -may- take the bag inside. The disadvantage is that you -have to- take the bag with you because of too little/no lockers.
The science museum is free, but you pay for a number of exhibitions. For children there is a fun exhibition "WonderLab" which unfortunately is not free. For 2 adults and 2 children you pay £25,-. The children can perform small scientific experiences. There are also shows. These are fun, but of course are in English, so translate quickly for the children. When you go on school days, there is a chance that there are school classes on the first part of the day. The Science Museum therefore recommends to arrive after 13:30. We had this experience too;-) At level -1 there is a picnic area where you can eat your own food. Please see the website).
The British museum was very busy when we went there, at least the top attractions like the mummies and the Rosetta stone. We were there in the afternoon, it is possible that it is not so crowded at opening time. The lesser-known exhibitions (such as Japanese paintings) were less crowded. For children there are scavenger hunts at the information desk available. There are also backpacks with stuff to discover the museum available, but only during the holidays (see the website for the holiday periods). These are free, but there is a deposit of £10,-. There is also a tablet with a family game available (£6,-). Click here for more information.
This Victorian museum from 1880 is beautiful on the inside and outside. We knew the museum because of the (fake) skeleton dinosaur Dippy in the beautiful Hintze Hall. Dippy has been replaced by the skeleton of a blue whale since the summer of 2017. Dippy goes on tour through Great Britain. There are plenty of interesting things to see, including a large dinosaur exhibition. Unfortunately it was very busy due to bank holiday. There was already a queue in front of the museum. Inside the museum we chose a different route than most of the people and then the crowd was doable. Click here for the website of the museum.
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