Camera Museum

The lowdown

Below a small cafe on Museum Street, a few doors from the British Museum, hides a free little museum devoted to the history of the camera. It belongs to a vintage camera shop, and the collection traces photography from early wooden box cameras and brass lenses through to the classic film models that defined the twentieth century.

It is small, you will not need long, but for anyone who loves photography it is a lovely free detour, and the cafe and shop above mean you can easily fold it into a Bloomsbury wander. Proof that some of London's best free corners are hidden in plain sight.