The Guardian Guide to London's best small museums....

Good wee list. Some I've never heard of.

I've been to The Cinema Museum a couple of times, out of hours though, for events by Exploding Cinema. It's an eclectic quirky little collection for sure.

I actually just watched this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ssn8850RK4 visiting Croydon airport a couple of weeks ago.

The Postal Museum is something that interests me. That area around Mount Pleasant is nice too. Just across the way is Exmouth Market, which is very chic, and The Willmington is a nice little neighbourhood pub. I should take a ride on that little train someday.

Another thing that I might add is a couple of commercial galleries that often have interesting things on, if you like contemporary art. Hauser and Wirth are showing works by Harmony Korine at the moment, which is somewhat intriguing if you watched "Kids" or saw his appearances on Letterman 30 or so years ago. Sadie Coles usually have something on at one of their galleries in London. They have a mailing list which you can use to keep up to date. I'm not a fan of the "art market" but it's a chance to see bang up to date work at a very high level.

Neat list. Several if them are included on the London Pass, although unless you have a pass for lots of days and are also going to expensive, blockbuster sights to help justify the price of the pass, it might be better to just visit them and pay for entry.

A couple of other, very worthwhile and interesting small museums (which we visited using our London Pass back in April) are the Florence Nightingale Museum, close to Westminster Bridge and on the south side of the Thames, and a bit farther south (we walked), the delightful Garden Museum, in a former church. The Garden Museum also has a very good cafe, with a talented baker chef who bakes outstanding breads and pastries on-site. The tomb of Admiral Bligh (who was Captain Bligh during the Mutiny on the Bounty) is in the courtyard.

I've got another couple if anyone's interested...

I went to The Gilbert & George Centre today. It's in Heneage Street, off Brick Lane. Nearest tube, Aldgate East or Liverpool Street. You'll see the lovely gates they have.

It's a fairly new gallery space. I've got a lot of time for Gilbert & George. They have a fantastic body of work. I've linked to their Wikipedia, but there's lots more all over the internet if you're curious to know more. I think it's a really great thing they've done creating this space where people can see their work. They're both in their 80's now and I think they're creating something which is going to be great as part of their legacy, as well as still being around to enjoy it now.

They're sort of local heroes to me. They've worked and lived in Fournier Street, Spitalfields for many years and much of their work reflects the local area.

Their work is often vulgar, crude, sexually explicit and some have (wrongly, in my opinion) been accused of being exploitative. They express quite oddly conservative political views which often don't chime with how I feel. Their art is true and honest so I can live with the differences I might have with them. The vulgarity and crudeness, I suggest approaching like a movie with some bad language or upsetting themes if you're new to it.

The show at the moment is great. "The London Pictures". It bombards the senses with thousands of words. I was reading the works left to right and top to bottom I found. All Gilbert & George "pictures" are made from multiple panels, but these pictures are made from many, and the work respects the boundaries of the panel more than some works. The pictures work on two layers really well. There's the "fake newspaper headline" text and then these huge images in the background that you need to look past into.

Beautiful gallery on two levels, great show and friendly staff. I had the big room to myself with the pictures for about fifteen minutes before someone else came in. I bought a pack of sixteen postcards for £12.

They live their life together as "the artist". They're a part of the landscape in Spitalfields. Their life in general is sculpture. Part of that sculpture is dinner at Mangal II in Dalston every night around 7 or 8pm.

I have another small gallery to mention but this post is long enough for now.

Not a small gallery, but continuing on my slight tangent off to contemporary art.

Frieze is great way to see some amazing work. If you're lucky and your visit coincides, it's October 9th - 13th this year in Regents Park. I've been a couple of times. It's very much "art market" but you get to see work by important artists before they disappear into billionaire's collections.

https://www.frieze.com/fairs/frieze-london

I'm hogging this thread a little, but Bold Tendencies and Frank's Cafe are open for the season. Peckham Rye on the Overground. 12 bus from Piccadilly Circus or 78 from Shoreditch.

https://boldtendencies.com/

One last one (for now), the smaller gallery I referred to up thread. Please let me know if any of this is the slightest bit interesting to anyone.

LUX in Waterlow Park is great. Nearest tube Archway. LUX grew out of the London Film Makers' Co-op in the late 60's. It's now the UK's finest collection of artists' moving image works [art film, time-based media].

They're based in a lovely little space in Waterlow Park in north London. They have regular exhibitions installed with moving image work, a garden, a bookshop and a library. Works from their collection are available to view on request. There's an opening event for the latest exhibition tomorrow, 8th June, which sounds like a real community-orientated affair.

Worth visiting if that might float your boat. Well worth a trip up to north London anyway, especially if you have an interest in Highgate Cemetery too, and the weather's nice.

https://lux.org.uk/

Just wanted to add the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow. A favourite of mine. www.wmgallery.org.uk

wasleys, those are really interesting. I would love to visit the Sewing Machine museum! The Guardian is really great for giving out information like this. I've found so many ideas and places to visit there.

The Museum of Brands started at Gloucester Historic Docks.
It was there for many years before moving to London.

Leighton House and the Design Museum are well done and within walking distance of one another. Also close to a favorite spot I discovered per chance years ago, the Japanese Garden in Holland Park.

The Photographers' Gallery (Oxford Circus tube) is excellent. They consistently show great work and and have thought-provoking exhibitions. It's a great location for the visitor to central London too. Good bookshop.

https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/

Dulwich also has a lovely small art museum so one could make it a day outing to this quaint area.

A short editorial from The Guardian which accompanies the article from the other day that wasleys so kindly posted.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/07/the-guardian-view-of-small-museums-stories-of-what-we-have-been-and-who-we-are

Thanks Gerry - I'd missed that one.

There’s a Fan Museum in southern Greenwich. It’s covered in the London Pass, and would be just a little hard to work into a sightseeing schedule, as it’s open only a few days in the week. With a 10-day London pass this spring, I’d made note of it, because of what seemed to be its quirkiness, but couldn’t fit it in. The fan collection seems to be a multitude of hand fans (used for personal cooling, or to convey demureness), but apparently nothing motorized, and nothing related to soccer hooligans.

Try the Bank of England museum near Bank station (who’d have thought it). It’s free.