London - museum decisions; temporary exhibits?

Your tastes look eclectic! These are some of the more obvious spots off the top of my head:

Finish off the South Kensington majors:
Natural History
Science Museum

Art museums and collections:
The Wallace Collection
Kenwood House
The Saatchi Gallery
Guildhall Art Gallery
Banqueting Hall for the Rubens ceiling
Apsley House (Dukes of Wellington)
(there are more......)

Greenwich Museums:
Cuty Sark
National Maritime Museum
Queen's House
Royal Observatory

British Library - Treasures room

WWII interests:
Churchill War Rooms are missing from your list. Get advance tickets - very popular
HMS Belfast
Battle of Britain Bunker

Random:
Leighton House
Dickens Museum (not as good as many of the others above - recommend only for those with a special Dickens interest)
Bank of England Museum

If you list your specific interests, I and many others I'm certain, can suggest some other spots that may be less well-known.

I really enjoyed the Old Operating Theater Museum and Herb Garrett near Southbank. I was there back in the 90s and found it pretty fascinating. It’s an interesting experience. https://oldoperatingtheatre.com/

Not a museum, but on a nice day in May, consider a day (or a half day) at Kew Gardens. There is the Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, Kew Palace, greenhouses, and lots of gardens to stroll (or tram ride to).

This is an interesting overview focusing on Art and Architecture:
https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/visit-kew-gardens/trails/art-architecture-trail

Temporary exhibitions:

The Siena exhibition at the National Gallery is getting rave reviews, if your tastes are for 14th century art: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/siena-the-rise-of-painting

A major exhibition of Cartier opens at the V&A in April: https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/cartier

These will both need advance booking.

Have you been to the Museum of London Docklands? Really interesting museum out east near Canary Wharf.

A great way to get alerts of exhibititions and other events is to subscribe to the museums email newsletter from their website. I keep the subscriptions even after as reminder what I could be planning next.

Forgot the Docklands Museum. Yes to that as well as my above list!

Thank you all so much for these great ideas! I will be looking at them closer in the next few days.
I forgot to mention we have been to the Wallace and really enjoyed it.
A day in Greenwich sounds like a possibility.
Maybe a 1/2 day at Leighton house plus the nearby Design museum?
A morning at the Imperial War Museum?
So many wonderful options!
As I said I will go to websites and read more on these soon and welcome any more ideas!

National Maritime Museum
Horniman Museum
Hunterian Museum ( then walk over to the Seven Stars pub and meet The General )
Vkytor Wind Museum of Curiosities
Wallace Collection

So many wonderful museums to choose from. Check each website for opening and closing hours.

You could see the Courtald in an hour or two, easily. When I was there in November there was a temporary Monet exhibit that was sold out, so I saw the permanent collection in less than an hour.

I am a WWI & 2 nerd, so the first time I visited the IWM I spent an entire day there, open to close. I went back a second itme a few years later just to see a temporary exhibit. There is a LOT to see there, so plan accordingly - but you can also just hit the highlights and tell yourself you'll come back another time. It's free, so nothing lost if you don't see it all. And if you haven't been to the War Rooms, I recommend those as well if you have any interest.

The Tate Modern also has a nice free collection that you can see in a short period of time.

The commercial galleries in the west end sometimes have interesting small shows that you can see for free. Two that I can mention off the top of my head are Sadie Coles and Hauser & Wirth.

I don't think anyone has mentioned White Cube either.

https://www.sadiecoles.com/exhibitions/current/

https://www.hauserwirth.com/locations/10056-hauser-wirth-london/

https://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/london

Thinking of the west end, The Photographers' Gallery is worth a look too.

https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on

The Design Museum has a Tim Burton exhibition running until May. There isn’t a huge amount to see in the permanent collection but the temporary exhibits are always worth it.

I have tickets for the soon to open Tutankhamen Immersive exhibition at the ExCel in East London. That will still be going in May.

The Serpentine is two galleries in the Hyde Park / Kensington Gardens area. Again, rarely mentioned on here, but another good modern and contemporary gallery with a well curated temporary exhibition program.

You'll be too early for it, but in years gone by I've enjoyed going down for events in their Summer Pavilion. They'll quite often have evening events with music performances etc. There doesn't appear to be a program announced as yet, but worth keeping an eye on for other visitors coming in the summer months. Looks like a really interesting structure planned for 2025.

https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/

https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/serpentine-pavilion-2025-by-marina-tabassum/

Lots of good ideas here- I definitely recommend the London Transport Museum (even better if you can go on a Hidden London tour of a disused station).

For exhibitions, one not mentioned is Wildlife Photography of the Year which is on at the Natural History Museum- one of my favourites which I go to every year. That's on thru June.

One major art museum not mentioned here is Royal Academy (RA)- often have interesting exhibitions tho the entrance is quite expensive. A few others I really like for exhibitions: Barbican, Hayward Gallery (in Southbank), and the Photographer's Gallery.

If you really want off the beaten path there are lots of little specialised museums like the Anaesthesia Heritage Centre, British Optical Association Museum, the British Dental Museum, etc. These tend to have limited opening hours. Slightly more on the beaten path is the Museum of Brands and Packaging in Notting Hill which has consumer goods going back to Victorian times. And the Postal Museum where you can ride a tiny postal train thru tunnels that were used to deliver the post.

While not strictly a museum, there's also Dennis Severs House, which is a home in east London set up as tho a family is living there in different time periods (like they have just left the room). If you're interested in homes, I have a whole other list for that...

The King's Gallery (formerly The Queen's Gallery) has a special exhibition opening April 11 "The Edwardians: Age of Elegance": https://www.rct.uk/collection/exhibitions/the-edwardians-age-of-elegance/the-kings-gallery-buckingham-palace

are you familiar with Ian Visits? Both a website https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/ and a weekly email newsletter, which points you to a vast quantity of current openings and unusual and off the wall exhibits, and he includes closing dates. An excellent resource.

I'm loving this thread! We'll be in London for a week in September, and other than two plays at the Globe, have nothing booked. Bring it on!

Nigel thanks for that Ian Visits tip, that is right up my alley and will be super helpful for my summer trip with my niece. mlstimetotravel you have so many good choices, you can't go wrong :)

I visited the Imperial War Museum last month, the first time in a long time, and thought it was great. It's large but not too big, and they've done a good job integrating domestic history (ie the story of ordinary people) into the broader conflict narrative.

Another recommendation is Foundling Museum, which captures the story of poverty and childhood quite well, and the Florence Nightingale Museum.

I'm traveling domestically and don't have access to the notes for my upcoming London trip, but I remember this:

The Courtauld has or will soon have an exhibition titled "Goya to Impressionism" running until May 26. It seems to be selling out at least a week in advance, even in March.

The Cartier exhibition at the V&A is selling very well. Don't wait too long to get tickets if you're interested.

The National Portrait Gallery has a Munch exhibition running until June 15.