Discover 7 Awesome London Museums That Offer Virtual Tours

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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.

The inside of the Natural History Museum
The inside of the Natural History Museum

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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.

Virtual timeline experience of the British Museum
Virtual timeline experience of the British Museum

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!

360 tour of the Tate Modern
360 tour of the Tate Modern

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.

Google Street View view of the Natural History Museum
Google Street View view of the Natural History Museum

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.

Virtual tour of the Science Museum
Virtual tour of the Science Museum

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.

360 view of Weldon Galleries at the National Portrait Gallery
360 view of Weldon Galleries at the National Portrait Gallery

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.

Virtual tour of Courtauld Galleries
Virtual tour of Courtauld Galleries

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.

360 view of the Houses of Parliament
360 view of the Houses of Parliament

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!

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Photo of the main hall at the Natural History Museum with text overlay saying "7 London museums you can visit virtually"

Photo of the main hall at the Natural History Museum with text overlay saying "7 awesome virtual tours of London museums"

2 thoughts on “Discover 7 Awesome London Museums That Offer Virtual Tours

  1. Iuliya says:

    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!!!

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