10 Smaller London Museums Worth Your Time (and What to Pair Them With)

Done the British Museum and the V&A and wondering what else London has? In episode 225 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast, Tracy and Doug Collins share ten smaller London museums they have visited themselves, from a ride on London’s old underground mail train to a Roman temple seven metres beneath the City, plus one free bonus by King’s Cross.

This is the follow-up to episode 192, which covered the big names. None of these ten will take you a whole day, so for each one you will hear where it is, roughly what it costs, who it suits, how long to allow, which days it is closed, and what sits nearby so you can build a museum day around it. Prices and London Pass inclusions were correct when we recorded on 5 October 2026 and they do change, so check the official sites before you book.

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What you’ll learn in this episode

• Why the Postal Museum’s Mail Rail ride is worth booking ahead, what the sealed carriages are like if you are claustrophobic, and how to see the tunnels without getting on the train
• Doug’s honest take on the Sherlock Holmes Museum: small, busy, led round in period costume, and why you should book a timed ticket rather than queue on Baker Street
• The Florence Nightingale Museum, where you can pick up a phone and hear her voice, who will get the most out of it, and the day Doug turned up to find it closed
• Why HMS Belfast suits anyone with an interest in naval history, which decks you can reach by lift, and the photos of Tower Bridge from the deck
• The London Mithraeum: a Roman temple seven metres below the City, free to visit, with a light and sound sequence every 20 minutes and the earliest written reference to London
• Why Tracy goes back to the Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College every time, and how to make Greenwich a full day by Uber Boat
• What you will see at the Charles Dickens Museum, the only surviving London home of Dickens, and why December is the time to go
• The Foundling Museum and the tokens mothers left with their babies: a moving stop five minutes from the Dickens Museum
• Apsley House, the Duke of Wellington’s home at Hyde Park Corner, the dinner service Tracy still remembers, and the view from Wellington Arch across the road
• Leighton House and the Arab Hall in Kensington, a quiet morning for art and interiors lovers, with lift access throughout
• The bonus: the free Treasures gallery at the British Library, ten minutes from King’s Cross, St Pancras and Euston, and why Jane Austen’s writing desk now lives in Chawton
• Which of the ten are in the London Pass right now, which have dropped out, and why to check before you buy
• Which of these museums close on Mondays and Tuesdays, so you do not turn up to a locked door
• How to group them by theme: Bloomsbury and Clerkenwell in one day, maritime Greenwich, wartime London, Roman London, literary London and medical London