I won't try to include links (they are easily found online if you want more info) but an interesting report was the subject of stories in the Guardian and elsewhere: The UK's most popular visitor attractions, based on visitor numbers in 2025. The survey includes all attractions that are members of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA), which looks like it encompasses pretty much everything, and the full results can be found on ALVA's website.
Top 10 attractions (all in London or environs):
1. Natural History Museum (7.1 million)
2. British Museum
3. Crown Estates Windsor (this is Windsor Great Park surrounding Windsor Castle, not the Castle itself; that is separately reported at #23).
4. Tate Modern
5. National Gallery
6. Southbank Centre (building only)
7. Victoria and Albert
8. Somerset House (this is a venue for various exhibits, an ice rink, etc. The notes say their high numbers are due to success of "Cute Exhibit and Cute Cafe", plus "one-off UEFA Festival").
9. Tower of London
10. Science Museum.
The most popular place outside the London area was the National Museum of Scotland at #12 (Royal Museums Greenwich is 11). Not surprisingly, venues with free admission tended to do best. There are 409 attractions on the list. At the very bottom is a small National Trust of Scotland museum called the "Bachelors Club" in Tarbolton, Scotland, with 461 visitors, which adds up, I suppose, to about two per working day. So if you want to avoid crowds, it looks like there still are plenty of "back doors" in the UK such as the Bachelors Club.
Posted by
Duluth, MN🌲
11570 posts
That's an interesting list and not one that I would have expected. I guess I would have thought that a lot of the tourist attractions like Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, and places like that, would be at the top, but that makes sense that the free admission venues would be more popular. I've been to all of them except for number six and number eight.
But of course I had to look up the Bachelor's Club in Scotland, and that intrigued me. That's going to be on my list of things to see. I love Rabbie Burns, and it looks really interesting. I wasn't sure what to expect from the name. 😂 Here's a link for anyone else who's interested: https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/bachelors-club
Posted by
Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
3 posts
That’s such a fun list. I definitely would’ve guessed places like Westminster Abbey or St Paul’s would be near the top, but free museums totally winning actually makes a lot of sense. And the Bachelors’ Club bit is amazing - now I’m curious too, because that’s not a name you just casually scroll past.
Posted by
Portsmouth
5963 posts
We really should be charging foreign visitors for these free attractions rather than burden the UK taxpayer with the running costs. The idea of free museums in the UK was intended to allow those more disadvantaged Brits to be able to visit the museums and to prevent only the better off from accessability. With very few exceptions pretty much all the museums I've visited around the world I've had to pay an admission fee.
I know people say that they often make donations but if the British Museum donation box is anything to go by at the end of the day it's a very, very small number and that's even if the box represents a single day's 'takings'. I've been pretty much at the front of the queue when the museum has opened and there was already a fairly decent amount of banknotes in the box, I doubt for one moment that it was all donated that morning..
Posted by
Duluth, MN🌲
11570 posts
We really should be charging foreign visitors for these free attractions rather than burden the UK taxpayer with the running costs.
You won't get any argument from me, but I'm assuming there is a reason why they don't do that. I'd be curious to know why. Maybe they feel the benefit of giving free access to residents is worth it, or maybe it's funded in some way that makes it difficult to do that?
Recently there has been talk about some places that are free or even those that are not charging an extra fee for visitors from outside the country. I think the Louvre is one of those that has mentioned it after their upcoming renovation period.
Posted by
Lake District, England
11460 posts
On the subject of less well known places associated with Rabbie Burns another is the Globe Inn, Dumfries. It is very much still a working pub, with a Michelin grade restaurant, but they also do tours of his rooms. The place is tucked away unassumedly down a side alley
Not far north is his farm, Ellisland farm, and also the Hermitage at Friars Carse Hotel- there is a lovely walk between the two.
Posted by
London
1254 posts
I will just say that as a long time UK taxpayer I am delighted that my taxes go towards keeping major cultural institutions free for all, and I hope they can remain that way. The proof of the impact is right here in this list! The only one here that costs money to enter is the Tower of London (which is in my opinion the best major site in London due to its fascinating history). Of course many of these also include paid options for exhibitions or e.g. the ice rink at Somerset House.