Plan your visit
Immerse yourself in two million years of human history, art and culture.
Book your free ticket for Museum entry in advance to receive key information and updates before your visit and priority entry during busy periods. In our galleries come face-to-face with objects from the Sutton Hoo ship burial, explore the wonderful collection of the Islamic world and learn more about Egyptian mummies. Please see the list of available galleries to visit.
Exhibition tickets are available to book for:
- Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans (15 January – 25 May 2026)
Occasionally we may need to close galleries at short notice. We regret that we are not always able to alert visitors in advance of their visit.
We look forward to welcoming you.
Opening times
Daily: 10.00–17.00 (Fridays: 20.30)
The Museum is closed 24–26 December.
The British Museum
Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG See getting here
Ways to explore
Discover our latest exhibitions and events, including ‘Hawai’: a kingdom crossing oceans’.
Tours and talks
From ancient Egypt to the Americas, get to know more about the collection on a tour, at a talk or via one of our Hands on desks.
Object trails
Choose a trail and go on your very own fascinating tour around the Museum. Each tour showcases some of our spectacular objects on display.
Gallery information
Explore world cultures from the Mediterranean to the Middle East and from the Americas to Africa.
- View a map of the Museum.
- Explore more of the Museum with our object trails
See the list of available galleries for you to enjoy (please note this list is subject to change):
Lower floor
- Room 25: Africa (The Sainsbury Galleries)
Ground floor
- Great Court
- Room 1: Enlightenment
- Room 2: Collecting the world
- Room 2a: The Waddesdon Bequest (funded by The Rothschild Foundation)
- Room 4: Egyptian sculpture
- Room 6: Assyrian sculpture and Balawat Gates*
- Rooms 7–8: Assyria: Nimrud*
- Room 9: Assyria: Nineveh*
- Room 10: Assyria: Lion hunts, Siege of Lachish and Khorsabad*
- Room 12: Greece: Minoans and Mycenaeans (The Arthur I Fleischman Gallery)
- Room 13: Greece 1050–520 BC
- Room 14: Greek vases
- Room 15: Greece: Athens and Lycia
- Room 16: Greece: Bassai sculptures
- Room 17: Nereid Monument
- Room 18: Greece: Parthenon
- Room 19: Greece: Athens
- Room 20: Greeks and Lycians, 400–325 BC
- Room 21: Mausoleum of Halikarnassos
- Room 22: The world of Alexander
- Room 23: Greek and Roman sculpture
- Room 24: Living and Dying (The Wellcome Trust Gallery)
- Room 26: North America
- Room 27: Mexico
Upper floors
- Room 33: China and South Asia (Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery)
- Room 33a: India: Amaravati (The Asahi Shimbun Gallery)
- Room 33b: Chinese jade (The Selwyn and Ellie Alleyne Gallery)
- Rooms 38–39: Clocks and watches (The Sir Harry and Lady Djanogly Gallery)
- Room 40: Medieval Europe, 1050–1500 (The Sir Paul and Lady Ruddock Gallery)
- Room 41: Sutton Hoo and Europe, AD 300–1100 (The Sir Paul and Lady Ruddock Gallery)
- Rooms 42–43: The Islamic world (The Albukhary Foundation Gallery)(Opens in new window)
- Room 46: Europe 1400–1800
- Room 47: Europe 1800–1900
- Room 48: Europe 1900 to the present
- Room 49: Roman Britain (The Weston Gallery)
- Room 50: Britain and Europe 800 BC–AD43
- Room 51: Europe and Middle East, 10,000–800 BC (The Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Gallery)
- Room 52: Ancient Iran (The Rahim Irvani Gallery)
- Room 53: Ancient South Arabia
- Room 54: Anatolia and Urartu, 7000–300 BC
- Room 55: Mesopotamia, 1500–539 BC
- Room 56: Mesopotamia, 6000–1500 BC
- Rooms 57–59: Ancient Levant
- Room 61: Egyptian life and death: the tomb-chapel of Nebamun (The Michael Cohen Gallery)
- Rooms 62–63: Egyptian death and afterlife: mummies (The Roxie Walker Galleries)
- Room 64: Early Egypt
- Room 65: Sudan, Egypt and Nubia
- Room 66: Ethiopia and Coptic Egypt
- Room 67: Korea (The Korea Foundation Gallery)
- Room 68: Money
- Room 69: Greek and Roman life
- Room 70: Roman Empire (The Wolfson Gallery)
- Room 71: Etruscan world
- Room 72: Ancient Cyprus (The A.G. Leventis Gallery)
- Room 73: Greeks in Italy
- Rooms 90–90a: Prints and drawings displays
- Rooms 92–94: Japan (The Mitsubishi Corporation Japanese Galleries)
- Room 95: Chinese Ceramics – Sir Percival David Collection (The Sir Joseph Hotung Centre for Ceramic Studies)
*Limited opening: Rooms 7, 9, 10, 19, 20, 57 and 58 are open 11.00–15.00 daily.
Galleries in the Museum may be closed for maintenance, refurbishment or private events. Where possible, we’ll list the time and date of the closures below. All planned closures will also be detailed on the affected gallery pages. Occasionally we may need to close galleries at short notice for safety reasons. We regret that in these cases we’re not always able to alert the public in advance.
Due to Museum events the Reading Room will be closed on Wednesday 3 December, 10.00–12.30.
Due to regular maintenance, the following galleries will be temporarily closed:
Lower floor
Exhibitions
Tickets are available to book for Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans (15 January – 25 May 2026) and Samurai (3 February – 4 May 2026).
Hawaiʻi: a kingdom crossing oceans.
Be swept away by the extraordinary history and dazzling artistry of this Pacific Island nation.
Full opening hours
Our opening hours are daily, 10.00–17.00 (Fridays: 20.30)
Last entry: 16.45 (Fridays: 20.15)
- Ticket Desk: To book tickets please book online or call the Box Office on +44(0)20 7323 8181.
- Box Office: 10.00–16.50, Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays)
- Cloakroom: 10.00–17.00 (20.30 on Fridays). Last deposit is one hour before closing.
- Families Desk: 10.00–12.30 and 13.15–16.30, weekends and London Borough of Camden school holidays only.
- Ford Centre for Young Visitors: 10.00–16.30, weekends and London Borough of Camden school holidays
- Galleries: 10.00–17.00 (20.30 on Fridays). Please note: we begin clearing galleries 10 minutes before they close.
- Great Court: 10.00–17.30 (Fridays 20.30)
- Guide Desk: 10.00–16.30
- Information Desk: 10.00–17.00
Find out about upcoming late opening on Fridays. There will be no late night opening on Good Friday (3 April 2026).
The Museum is closed 24–26 December.
Special exhibitions are open daily 10.00–17.00 (last entry at 16.45) and on Fridays until 20.30 (last entry at 20.15).
Please arrive at the time stated on your ticket – we cannot guarantee admission before or after your allotted time slot.
We begin clearing galleries 10 minutes before they close.
- Court Cafés: daily, 10.00–17.00
- Great Court Restaurant: daily, 11.30–17.00 (last sitting 16.00).
- Pizzeria: daily, 11.00–16.00
- Coffee Lounge: daily, 10.30–16.30
- Outside dining: daily, 10.00–17.00
Entering the Museum
- You are advised to book a free ticket(Opens in new window) in advance of your visit for your chosen timeslot.
- Entry to the Museum without a free pre-booked ticket is dependent on capacity and queues for non-ticket holders are to be expected at busier times.
- All visitors must pass through a security check and bag search before entering the Museum. Please note that wheeled suitcases and larger bags are not permitted.
- Visitors are kindly requested to arrive only at their pre-booked entry time. This allows us to keep our security wait times to a minimum.
- Entry to the Museum is via the Main entrance on Great Russell Street or the Montague Place entrance.
- If you require more information on accessibility for disabled visitors, please see our Accessibility at the Museum page for details.
- For everyone’s safety, all bags, rucksacks, packages and personal items may be searched before entry.
- Wheeled cases, sports equipment and large items of luggage are not allowed on British Museum premises.
- Storage for luggage is available at major rail stations, including Euston, King’s Cross and Charing Cross.
- An easy access route is available for disabled visitors, Members and visitors with buggies and/or children under five.
- If you require assistance or the entrance into the Museum poses an accessibility barrier, please let our uniformed staff know and they’ll be happy to assist you.
- Please don’t leave your bags unattended at any point during your visit.
- For security reasons, no large items of luggage can be brought into the Museum (bigger than 40cm x 40cm x 50cm and heavier than 8kg) or onto the premises.
- Wheeled cases are not permitted regardless of their size and weight.
- Folding bicycles are not permitted inside the Museum.
- Adult scooters, skateboards and musical instruments are not allowed onto the premises.
- Pushchairs are permitted on-site. Fold-up prams and buggies can be left free of charge in the cloakroom, which is found by turning left immediately after passing through the Main entrance of the Museum.
- Offensive weapons, dangerous chemicals, and other suspicious items will be confiscated before entry is granted.
- You’ll be able to retrieve any confiscated items when you leave, provided there are no legal barriers.
- All visitors entering the Museum agree to abide by the Visitor guidelines and conditions of entry.
- The Museum reserves the right to vary or alter these regulations without prior notice.
- Special exhibitions may have additional regulations.
Entering the Museum
- You are advised to book a free ticket in advance of your visit for your chosen timeslot.
- Entry to the Museum without a free pre-booked ticket is dependent on capacity and queues for non-ticket holders are to be expected at busier times.
- All visitors must pass through a security check and bag search before entering the Museum. Please note that wheeled suitcases and larger bags are not permitted.
- Visitors are kindly requested to arrive only at their pre-booked entry time. This allows us to keep our security wait times to a minimum.
- Entry to the Museum is via the Main entrance on Great Russell Street or the Montague Place entrance.
- If you require more information on accessibility for disabled visitors, please see our Accessibility at the Museum page for details.
- Opening hours: 10.00–17.00 (20.30 on Fridays).
- Last deposits are one hour before closing time.
- Please collect items 30 minutes before closing time.
- The cloakroom can be found by turning left immediately after passing through the Main entrance to the Museum.
- Please note that items of luggage weighing more than 8kg and larger than 40x40x50cm (including all wheeled suitcases) are not permitted.
- Please see the restricted items section for full details.
- Storage for luggage is available at major rail stations, including Euston, King’s Cross and Charing Cross.
- Use of the cloakroom is charged per-item:
- Coats – £2
- Bags up to 4kg – £2.50
- Bags 4–8kg – £5
- Umbrellas – £1
- Fold-up pushchairs – free
- Members can use the cloakroom free of charge. The same restrictions apply.
- You must retrieve items from the cloakroom before you leave the Museum site.
- In the event of a fire evacuation, the cloakroom will be closed immediately and you must follow our fire evacuation instructions. Our staff will help to retrieve your items from the cloakroom as soon as possible after the Museum reopens.
- Please note that the cloakroom has limited capacity, and when this capacity is reached, it cannot accept items until space becomes available again.
- The Museum reserves the right to vary or alter these conditions without prior notice.
If you’ve lost an item while visiting the Museum, please email lostproperty@britishmuseum.org
- All visitors entering the Museum agree to abide by the Visitor guidelines and conditions of entry.
- The Museum reserves the right to vary or alter these regulations without prior notice.
- Special exhibitions may have additional regulations.