British Museum
#8de 10 lugares para visitar en LondonLondon, England, United Kingdom
Respuesta rápida
Horario: 10:00–17:00. La entrada es gratuita. Calcula 3 hrs. Mejor momento: 10:00.
Actualizado el · Redactado por Traveliac, con ayuda de IA · 5 min de lectura
- Horario
- 10:00–17:00
- Precio de entrada
- Gratis
- Tiempo necesario
- 3 hrs
- Mejor momento del día
- 10:00
- Mejores meses
- May – Jul, Sep
- Dirección
- Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG
Sobre British Museum
The British Museum holds around 8 million objects spanning two million years of human history, of which only about 80,000 are on public display at any one time across nearly 100 galleries. Founded in 1753 through an Act of Parliament following the bequest of physician Sir Hans Sloane's personal collection of over 71,000 objects, the Museum opened to the public in 1759 in Montagu House, on the same Bloomsbury site the current building occupies, and was among the first national museums anywhere to offer free admission to all visitors regardless of social class, a founding principle it maintains for the permanent collection today. The current neo-classical building, designed by Robert Smirke and constructed between 1823 and 1852, is fronted by a 44-column Ionic colonnade; its central courtyard became the Great Court in 2000, a two-acre space roofed with 3,312 glass panels designed by Norman Foster. The Museum's most contested holdings, including the Parthenon Sculptures removed from Athens in the early 19th century, remain subject to ongoing repatriation disputes with Greece.
Mejor momento del día: 10:00. At opening, especially to reach the Rosetta Stone and Egyptian sculpture gallery before the mid-morning school-group and coach-tour surge; Friday evenings after 17:00 are consistently the calmest hours of the week.
Horario de British Museum
British Museum abre a las 10:00 y cierra a las 17:00. Ese horario se mantiene también los sábados y domingos.
- Horario
- 10:00–17:00
Mon–Sun 10:00–17:00 - Cierra los
- 24-26 December
Horario recopilados de britishmuseum.org y registros públicos, última actualización el . Pueden cambiar sin previo aviso — confírmalos antes de viajar. Cómo escribimos estas guías
Precio de entrada de British Museum
| Entrada | Precio |
|---|---|
| Entrada estándar | Gratis |
| Tarifa reducida (estudiante / mayor) | Gratis |
| Niños | Gratis |
General admission to the permanent collection is free, as of 2026; a £5 donation is suggested but entirely optional and not requested at the door. Special exhibitions in the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery require a paid ticket, often around £18 for adults, varying by show. Free timed tickets to the permanent galleries can be booked online and are recommended for priority entry during busy periods.
Precios recopilados de britishmuseum.org y registros públicos, última actualización el . Pueden cambiar sin previo aviso — confírmalos antes de viajar. Cómo escribimos estas guías
Mejor época para visitar British Museum
- Quiet
- Moderate
- Very busy
10:00 – 10:30
Opening WindowBest time to go
First 30 minutes after opening; the Rosetta Stone and Parthenon Sculptures galleries are walkable without queuing.
Quiet10:30 – 14:00
School Group and Tour Peak
School parties and coach tours converge on the ground-floor Egyptian and Greek galleries; Room 4 and Room 18 become tightly packed.
Very busy14:00 – 17:00
Afternoon
Crowds ease somewhat but remain substantial; upper-floor galleries covering Asia and the Americas stay comparatively calm all day.
Moderate17:00 – 20:30
Friday Late Opening
Extended Friday-only hours draw a smaller, more local evening crowd across all galleries.
Quiet
Historia de British Museum
The British Museum's founding collection came from Sir Hans Sloane, a physician and naturalist whose will offered his cabinet of curiosities, library, and natural history specimens to the nation in exchange for a payment of £20,000 to his heirs, a fraction of the collection's estimated value; Parliament accepted, funded partly through a public lottery, and the Museum was established by Act of Parliament in 1753. It opened to the public on 15 January 1759 in Montagu House, a 17th-century mansion on the current Bloomsbury site, admitting visitors free of charge by written ticket application, a restrictive system gradually liberalised over the following decades.
The Museum's collection expanded dramatically through the imperial and colonial 19th century: the Rosetta Stone arrived in 1802 as a spoil of the Napoleonic Wars in Egypt, seized by British forces from the French under the terms of the 1801 Capitulation of Alexandria, and the Parthenon Sculptures arrived between 1801 and 1812 after Lord Elgin, then British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, removed them from the Acropolis in Athens under a disputed Ottoman permit, later selling them to the British government in 1816.
Montagu House was demolished and replaced by Robert Smirke's current neo-classical building, constructed in phases from 1823 to 1852 to house the growing collection, with the domed Round Reading Room, once used by readers including Karl Marx and Virginia Woolf, added in 1857. The British Library, formerly housed within the Museum, moved to a separate building at St Pancras in 1997, freeing the central courtyard for Norman Foster's 2000 Great Court redevelopment, which remains the Museum's most significant architectural change in over a century.
Normas y etiqueta en British Museum
Photography without flash is permitted throughout most permanent galleries, including of the Rosetta Stone and Parthenon Sculptures, though some temporary loan exhibitions restrict it, marked clearly at the entrance. Large bags and rucksacks beyond cabin-bag size must go through the free cloakroom, and airport-style bag checks operate at the main Great Russell Street entrance.
The Museum can be disorienting on a first visit given its scale, so picking two or three priority galleries before arriving produces a better visit than attempting a full circuit.
Free, museum-run guided tours (Eye Opener tours) covering specific galleries run throughout the day and require no advance booking, departing from gallery entrances at scheduled times posted at the Information Desk in the Great Court.
Consejos para visitar British Museum
- 1
British Museum crowds concentrate overwhelmingly in the Egyptian sculpture gallery (Room 4, home to the Rosetta Stone) and the Parthenon Sculptures gallery (Room 18); visiting these two rooms first, within the opening hour, avoids the worst of the midday bottleneck that builds as school groups and coach tours arrive after 10:30.
- 2
Friday evening opening until 20:30 is the single quietest regular slot in the week, and the Great Court's glass roof is particularly striking under evening lighting, worth the trip even without a specific gallery target.
- 3
The Great Court café offers views of the glass roof itself, and Russell Square, a five-minute walk north, provides a free outdoor pause point. Pickpocket risk is generally low given the volume of staff, but the crowded main-entrance concourse is the highest-risk spot for bag snatching.
Cómo llegar a British Museum
Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DGCómo llegar en Google Maps
Desde Russell Square Underground Station
0.5 km · 7 min walk
£2.80 single Tube fare with Oyster/contactless (Zone 1)
Desde Tottenham Court Road Underground Station
0.5 km · 7 min walk
£2.80 single Tube fare with Oyster/contactless (Zone 1)
Desde Heathrow Airport (LHR)
25 km · 45-50 min
£13.90 off-peak Elizabeth line fare
Aeropuerto más cercano
Desde London City Airport (LCY)
13 km, approximately 40 minutes via DLR and Underground.
Estación más cercana
Desde Russell Square (Piccadilly line) or Tottenham Court Road (Central, Northern, Elizabeth lines)
both approximately 500 metres, 7 minutes on foot.
Preguntas frecuentes sobre British Museum
Is the British Museum free to visit?
Yes, general admission to the permanent collection is free, as of 2026. A £5 donation is suggested at entry points but entirely optional. Only special temporary exhibitions require a paid ticket.
Do you need to book tickets in advance for the British Museum?
Not strictly for the permanent collection, but booking a free timed ticket online is recommended, particularly for priority entry during busy periods and to receive practical visit information in advance.
Where is the Rosetta Stone displayed in the British Museum?
The Rosetta Stone is displayed in Room 4, the Egyptian sculpture gallery, on the ground floor near the main Great Court entrance. It is the single most visited object in the Museum and is busiest between 10:30 and 14:00.
Are the Parthenon Sculptures still at the British Museum?
Yes, as of 2026 they remain on display in Room 18. Their long-term future is the subject of an ongoing dispute between the Museum, the UK government, and Greece, which has formally requested their return; gallery signage now addresses this history.
Redactado con ayuda de IA a partir de fuentes oficiales y registros públicos, y publicado solo tras las comprobaciones descritas en Cómo escribimos estas guías. Nadie de Traveliac ha visitado este lugar. Última actualización el . Cómo clasificamos y verificamos los lugares
