The Clockmakers' Museum
the world's oldest clock collection
The oldest collection of clocks and watches in the world, free, tucked inside the Science Museum, including the marine timekeepers that helped solve the great problem of longitude.
Free to visit · South Kensington · South Kensington · SW7 2DD
Opening: Daily · within Science Museum hours · free
Few people visiting the Science Museum realise there is a small free gallery inside it holding the oldest collection of clocks and watches in the world. The Clockmakers' Museum belongs to the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, founded in 1631, and gathers six centuries of beautiful and ingenious timekeeping.
Cases glitter with ornate pocket watches, astronomical clocks and the precision instruments that pushed engineering forward. The star is one of John Harrison's marine timekeepers, part of the story of how sailors finally cracked the problem of working out their longitude at sea, a puzzle that had defeated the greatest minds for centuries.
It is free, it is rarely crowded and it is a lovely, focused contrast to the huge halls around it. A quiet quarter of an hour among ticking history in the middle of a famous free museum.
Getting there: On the second floor of the Science Museum on Exhibition Road, a short walk from South Kensington.
Best time to go: Any time the Science Museum is open. It is one quiet gallery, so half an hour is enough to do it justice.
Insider tip: It is free and easy to miss, on the second floor of the Science Museum, so seek it out rather than assuming the big galleries are all there is. Look for the Harrison marine timekeeper, the centrepiece of the longitude story.
Official site: https://www.clockmakers.org
Free things to do in London · London Free Guide