Unusual Museums In London

Sometimes, the very best museums in London just don’t cut it.

Which is exactly why we’ve compiled this list of the very best quirky, strange and unusual museums in London, just for you.

It’s filled with giant skeletons, 4000 year old mice, Sigmund Freud’s Berggasse psychoanalytic couch, 19th-century medical instruments, celebrity poo, an accidentally overstuffed walrus and fans dating back to approximately 1000AD.

So without further ado, the most unusual museums in London –
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The Fan Museum | Greenwich

Wind turbines – big fans. We’re also huge supporters of Greenwich’s Fan Museum, which is not only the only museum in the country dedicated solely to fans, it also has the world’s largest collection – 5,000 fans dating back 1,000 years. Plus, there’s a mural-adorned orangery and secret Japanese garden where you can take tea.

Details: 12 Crooms Hill, SE10 8ER | Open Tues-Sun | £5
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Horniman Museum & Gardens | Dulwich

A collection of Frederick John Horniman’s Victorian-era anthropological, musical and natural curios, including an accidentally overstuffed Walrus and 16-acres of public picnicking gardens.

Details: 100 London Road, SE23 3PQ | Open daily except Wednesdays | Free entry, but book ahead
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Freud Museum | Hampstead

What was once Sigmund Freud’s family home is now a tribute to his life and work, crammed with the family’s accoutrements… including a collection of antiques, Freud’s writing desk and his famed Berggasse psychoanalytic couch. Take your mum.

Details: 20 Maresfield Gardens, NW3 5SX | Open Wed-Sun | £14
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Dennis Severs’ House | Spitalfields

Home to 20th century artist and eccentric Dennis Severs, this eleven-room silent tour is variously described as the sensation of stepping into a painting; a time capsule haunted by Huguenot silk weavers seemingly always just out of sight; a post-materialist journey representing both a chronological, personal and metaphysical sequence of development; and a meta work of art in which people moving through the space becoming a “still life-drama” themselves. As he most concisely put it, “you either see it, or you don’t”.

Details: 18 Folgate Street, E1 6BX | Tours run Fri-Sun | From £15
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Museums and Collections at UCL | Bloomsbury

Proud parent of not one but three unusual museums in London, University College London’s collections include the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archeology, the UCL Art Museum, and The Grant Museum of Zoology (which displays a jar of moles and a Quagga: one half zebra, other half no one knows).

Details: Across the UCL Main Campus, Gower Street, Bloomsbury, WC1E 6BT | Open Tues-Sat, art museum open Wed-Fri during term time only | Free entry
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Sir John Soane’s Museum | Holborn

An architect’s mansion preserved almost exactly as he left it almost 200 years ago, with 45,000 odd objects and 30,000 architectural drawings crammed into every bit of spare space over 3 floors. And just 80 visitors at a time.

Details: 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2A 3BP | Open Wed-Sun | Free entry, book ahead

Soane Candlelight Nights: Check out their candlelit evening events here.
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The Museum of Youth Culture Pop Up | Shaftesbury Avenue

© Museum of Youth Culture

In a couple of years, the Museum of Youth Culture will grow up and get a place of its own. But in the meantime, it’s crashing at other venues – and for the foreseeable future it’s popping up on Shaftesbury Avenue. Here you can pore over old photos and souvenirs of youth movements, from 60’s mods to 80’s punk and the 90’s rave scene. There’s also a load of unusual and retro gifts on sale in their Subculture Bookstore, as well as a programme of speakers and events set to take place over the next few months.

Details: 154-156 Shaftesbury Avenue, WC2H 8HL | Open daily | Free entry
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Museum of the Home | Hoxton

A newly refurbished museum dedicated to domestic life, all housed within historic, Grade I listed almshouses. The main attraction here is their ‘Rooms Through Time’ exhibit, which takes you on a time-travelling journey with living rooms set up as they would have been in 1630, all the way up to the present day. For the first time, they’ve done the same with their gardens, too, and you’ll also find visiting exhibitions and installations in the ‘undercroft’ below…

Details: 136 Kingsland Road, E2 8EA | Open Tues- Sun | Free entry, but book ahead
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The Horse Hospital | Bloomsbury

Edwardx – Wikimedia Commons

Housed in a former horse hospital, the Horse Hospital bears a heft of quirky original features from the 18th century which would already make a strong case for inclusion here – were it not also now a multidisciplinary arts and exhibition space, showcasing subversive work and artefacts from counter-cultural and avant-garde artists, underground film screenings, and talks from societies such as the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies.

Details: The Horse Hospital, Colonnade, WC1N 1JD | Generally open Mon-Sat, but check ahead | Entry fee dependent on event
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Museum of Brands | Notting Hill

A collection of over 12,000 original, everyday items from the 1800s to the present day, most of which have since fallen out of kitchen shelf existence, and some of which – like First World War Oxo Cubes, Mars Bars, Rolos and KitKats from the 1930s – have evolved with time.

Details: 111-117 Lancaster Road, W11 1QT | Open daily | £9
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The Foundling Museum | Bloomsbury

Prepare to have your heartstrings relentlessly plucked as you peruse collections of keepsakes and artefacts from the building’s origins as a Foundling Hospital for abandoned children.

Details: 40 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AZ | Open Tues-Sun | £10.50
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Wellcome Collection | Euston

Sex, religion, gender, murder, mental illness and most of all, medicine. 19th-century medicine to be precise, which means guillotine blades and surgical implements made out of ivory.

Details: 183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE | Open Tues-Sun | Free entry, but book ahead
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The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art and Natural History | Hackney

An overflowing Wunderkabinett tucked under The Last Tuesday Society that explicitly rails against all attempts to categorise or educate, filled with occult artefacts, Victorian sex toys, two-headed taxidermied animals and jars of celebrity poo. Best explored with an absinthe sazerac in hand – you’ll need it.

Details: 11 Mare Street, E8 4RP | Open Wed-Sun | £10/£5 Thursday walk-ins (including a cup of tea upon request)
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New London Architecture | Bloomsbury

The New London Architecture museum is not necessarily one of the most unusual museums in London, but it warrants inclusion in this list simply by virtue of the giant, 12 metre, 1:1500 scale model of central London. It’s also regularly updated to include planning permission approved infrastructure, so you can see the future of London.

Details: The Building Centre, 26 Store Street, WC1E 7BT | Open Mon-Fri | Free entry
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London Postal Museum | Clerkenwell

Not merely an intriguing stroll through the history of London’s postal service (including the first ever post box and the plaster cast of Queen Liz used to make stamps), the London Postal Museum also plays host to a secret, cavernous underground tunnel network that was once used to transport mail across the city. And you can ride it.

Details: 15-20 Phoenix Place, WC1X 0DA | Open Wed-Sun | £16 online/£17 OTD
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Novelty Automation | Holborn

Tucked inside an old Tudor-style shop front in Holborn is a bizarre penny arcade of automata created by engineer and cartoonist, Tim Hunkin. Step inside an eclipse-in-a-box, test your nerve against a drooling mechanical dog, play a lighthearted game of “Divorce”, and take a brief holiday on a magic carpet.

Details: 1a Princeton Street, WC1R 4AX | Open Tues-Sat, late openings first Thursday of the month | Pay per game
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Emery Walker’s House | Hammersmith

Step into a perfectly-preserved arts and crafts-era home, boasting original William Morris hand-printed wallpaper and lino, antique furniture from around the world, plus snippets of history from the previous inhabitants, ranging from suffragettes to 18th century faith-healers.

Details: 7 Hammersmith Terrace, W6 9TS | £15, by tour only
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Sambourne House | Kensington

Home of the 19th century Punch cartoonist, Edward Linley Sambourne, 18 Stafford Terrace is an intact time capsule of the Aesthetic Movement, sporting William Morris wallpaper, exotic imported furniture and a conservatory water garden.

Details: 18 Stafford Terrace, W8 7BH | Open Wed-Sun | £11
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Leighton House Museum | Holland Park

The lavishly decorated house and studio specially commissioned by Victorian artist, Frederic, Lord Leighton, is a sight to behold in itself – but if you’re not the sort to be impressed by stuffed peacocks, Arabian tiled foyers and classical architecture, there’s a grand collection of the artist’s works on display, as well as rotating exhibitions based on his interests and contemporaries.

Details: 12 Holland Park Road, W14 8LZ | Closed Tuesdays | £11
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NOTE: The Hunterian Museum, one of London’s undisputed grisly gems, is closed until early 2023.

Up for something a little less quirky? Try our collection of the best museums in London.