Imperial War Museum
A century of conflict from the trenches to now, in a building that was once Bedlam. A Spitfire hangs in the atrium and entry costs nothing.
The lowdown
The Imperial War Museum sits in a grand domed building that was once Bethlem hospital, the original Bedlam. Walk into the atrium and a Spitfire and a Harrier hang over your head, a V2 rocket stands on its tail and a field gun points down the hall. All of it free to walk in and look at.
It is not a museum that glorifies anything. It tells the story of conflict from the First World War to the present through ordinary lives, letters, uniforms, propaganda and reconstructed trenches. The First World War galleries are some of the best in the world at making a hundred-year-old war feel real.
The Holocaust Galleries are the museum's most important rooms, free like the rest, and they are unflinching. They are recommended for ages fourteen and up and they ask a lot of you, so give them time and space rather than tacking them on at the end of a long day.
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