Do you desperately want to explore one of the cool museums in London, but are unable to do so at the moment? Worry not, since all the major museums in London are now offering virtual tours!
Through clever combinations of 360 videos, photos and interactive timelines, you can explore what the incredible museums of London have to offer. These virtual museum tours are a great way to experience London, while being comfortably sat at home.
How well do you know London? Try our London quiz!
7 awesome virtual tours of London museums
The British Museum virtual tour
The British Museum has put together an incredible virtual experience. Thanks to Google Arts & Culture you can explore pretty much everything the museum has to offer, and at your own pace.
Just click on any of the pictures of stories, collections or items, and you will see a more close up photo of that item, as well as relevant information and history. You can also do a Google Street View tour of the courtyard and interior of the British Museum.
My personal favourite is the interactive The Museum of the World experience. Here you can learn about individual artefacts through a global timeline.
The Tate Modern 360 tour
The Tate Modern put together a 360 tour hosted by Nick Grimshaw, presenter of Radio 1, and Frances Morris, director of the Tate Modern.
Throughout the video you can listen to them talking about and explaining some of the art pieces, while using your controller to turn around and get a 360 view of the rooms.
It’s a really cool virtual tour, which allows you to explore some of the most popular art pieces of the Tate, while learning about them from Frances Morris herself. It’s not every day that you get a museum director giving you a tour!
Virtual tour of the Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum also has a virtual tour hosted through Google Arts & Culture. However it doesn’t go into as much detail as the British Museum with specific artefacts that you can click on to learn more.
It’s still really cool though since you can explore every single room of the museum with a Google Street View interface. You can get closer to specific pieces, turn around and get a 360 view.
It’s my personal favourite museum in London and I’m glad you can get such a detailed virtual tour of it.
Science Museum virtual tours
The Science Museum is my second favourite museum in London after the Natural History Museum. Their huge space exhibition has always fascinated me.
I love their virtual experience also because it’s very varied. They over a Google Street View of their museum spaces, so that you can click through and see all the different rooms and exhibitions.
They also offer curator gallery guides. Here you can select specific exhibitions and watch videos by the museum curators, where they go into more detail about each of them.
The National Portrait Gallery 360 virtual tours
The National Portrait Gallery offers 360 virtual tours of all its main galleries. Just select the gallery you want to explore and you will get a 360 view of it.
You can zoom in and get up close to the portraits. While the National Portrait Gallery wouldn’t be my first choice if I had to pick a London museum to explore, the fact that I can tour it from the comfort of my bedroom makes it very appealing.
Virtual tour of the Courtauld Gallery
The Courtald Gallery is another museum that uses a Google Street View type of interface. You can freely roam around the rooms of the various rooms of the museum and zoom up close to specific paintings.
You can also choose specific rooms from a sidebar menu. Here you will find famous pieces like Vincent Van Gogh’s Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear.
Houses of Parliament virtual tour
You can do a virtual tour of the Houses of Parliament while learning about the main interest points. You can either select the room you want to explore from the drop down menu, or click your way there through the interactive map.
There are also big “i” buttons that, once you click on them, will give you information about the room in general, or about specific hotspots in those rooms. This virtual tour is a great way to tick off one of the main London bucket list experiences.
Final thoughts on virtual tours of London museums
If you can’t currently go out and explore the beautiful city of London, these virtual tours of the major London museums can help satisfy your wanderlust and curiosity, even if only in part!
Thanks to clever 360 technology, great photography and interactive informational articles, these museums bring their passion to your house.
With these virtual tours you can comfortably experience these awesome London museums from the comfort of your home. What is your favourite London museum? Let me know in the comments below!
Looking for more London tips? Check out these guides!
- Discover the prettiest streets in London
- Discover 10 hidden gems in London
- Discover the 20 most panoramic views of London
- The 40 most photogenic spots in London
- 25 beautiful places in London
- Moving to London – the ultimate guide
- How to spend 5 awesome days in London
- Where to stay in London
- How to spend one awesome day in London
- The best rooftop bars in London
- The 20 most famous London landmarks
- 33 fun and totally FREE things to do in London
Enjoyed reading about London museums virtual tours? Pin it!
Thanks for the review! This is one of the very few bright lines of this crazy situation and a timely reminder for me to check them out!!!
You’re welcome! 🙂