Overlooked London museum galleries hold permanent treasures
Barnet residents can reach hidden collections by Tube without tickets or queues
News London evidence indexOpen analysis ▾
No named sources, documents, or independent outlets cited.
Higher is stronger
No affected parties quoted or right of reply offered.
Higher is stronger
Headline and framing overstate a routine cultural feature piece.
Lower is better
Barnet residents who travel into central London can see rare and historic objects without joining queues or paying entry fees. Five major museums house permanent galleries on upper or lower floors that most visitors overlook. The collections include maritime clocks, extinct animal remains, and paintings by major artists.
Clock gallery at the Science Museum
Mahrajan Festival brings Arabic music to Crystal Palace Bowl
One-day event on 2 August 2026 features Saint Levant, Khaled and Lella Fadda
The Science Museum’s second-floor clock gallery tells the history of timekeeping through objects that enabled sailors to navigate at sea. London was the centre of clockmaking from the 17th to the 19th century. The gallery displays a clock that won the prize for measuring longitude, a problem that had caused shipwrecks and lost cargo. The gallery is located on the second floor, away from the crowded Space section on the ground floor.
Treasures Gallery at the Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum’s Treasures Gallery is reached by stairs near the Darwin statue. The room holds a cabinet of curiosities, including a Barbary lion skull excavated from the Tower of London. The lion was part of the royal menagerie 700 years ago. The species is now extinct. The gallery also displays minerals, including a large topaz and a Victorian amethyst that its owner tried to discard.
EastEnders introduces Hawkins family to Albert Square this summer
Five new actors join the BBC soap as Nicola Mitchell’s estranged relatives bring drama to Walford
Paintings galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum’s paintings galleries are on the second floor, accessed through the Silver Gallery. The Sheepshanks Collection includes works by William Blake and Edwin Landseer. The Ionides Gallery displays a shipwreck painting by Eugène Delacroix and a portrait by GF Watts. A separate room holds John Constable’s The Hay Wain alongside works by J.M.W. Turner. The galleries also display 15th-century Flemish tapestries once owned by the Dukes of Devonshire.
Pastels collection at the National Gallery
The National Gallery’s Room 42 holds a collection of pastel works that visitors often miss. The room includes Rosalba Carriera’s Portrait of a Man and Jean-Étienne Liotard’s Lavergne Family Breakfast. Pastels became popular in the 18th century for their soft finish and again in the 19th century with the Impressionists. The gallery displays pastel sketches by Edgar Degas.
National Portrait Gallery’s Tudor self-portrait
The National Portrait Gallery displays a 16th-century self-portrait by Gerlach Flicke, a German painter imprisoned in the Tower of London. Flicke painted the work using a mirror and included a portrait of his fellow inmate, the pirate Henry Strangwich. The portrait is believed to be the first self-portrait in oils created in Britain. The gallery also holds a decoupage screen made for Lord Byron by his boxing coach.
How to visit
All five galleries are free to enter and do not require advance booking. The Science Museum, Natural History Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum are in South Kensington, served by South Kensington Tube station. The National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery are in Trafalgar Square, served by Charing Cross and Leicester Square Tube stations. Each museum publishes opening hours on its website.
Questions this report answers
+Which London museums have hidden galleries?
The Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery each have permanent galleries on upper or lower floors that most visitors overlook. These galleries display rare or historic objects and are free to enter.
+What can I see in the Science Museum’s clock gallery?
The Science Museum’s second-floor clock gallery displays a clock that won the prize for measuring longitude at sea. The gallery also shows maritime clocks, sundials and a coffin-shaped clock with a skeleton. It is located away from the crowded ground-floor sections.
+How do I get to these museum galleries from Barnet?
The Science Museum, Natural History Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum are in South Kensington, reachable by Northern line to High Barnet, then Piccadilly line to South Kensington. The National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery are in Trafalgar Square, reachable by Northern line to Charing Cross or Leicester Square.
+Do I need to book tickets for these galleries?
No. All five galleries are free to enter and do not require advance booking. The museums publish opening hours on their websites. Some temporary exhibitions may charge a fee, but the permanent galleries listed here are free.
News London Desk
This article was written at the News London news desk from the reporting of the outlets listed below it. Drafting is done by a language model under human editorial supervision — there is no reporter behind this byline, and we would rather say so than invent one.
How stories are produced and scoredWho runs News LondonCorrections
The London Ledger
A considered capital-wide edit delivered each morning.
More Coverage in Culture & Arts
Mahrajan Festival brings Arabic music to Crystal Palace Bowl
EastEnders introduces Hawkins family to Albert Square this summer
Taika Waititi on Sam Neill: death is not ‘the end of things’
