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The British Museum: the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon and the mummies

The British Museum opened in 1759 as the first national museum in the world open to anyone who cared to come. It holds about eight million objects, from the first stone tools to the present, and it has never charged for entry.

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Admission
Free
Open
Every day, 10:00 to 17:00. Fridays to 20:30
Closed
24 to 26 Dec
Allow
2½ to 4 hours

London this week

    What to see at the British Museum

    1. The Rosetta Stone

      A slab cut in 196 BC with the same decree in three scripts. Because one of them was Greek, scholars could at last read the hieroglyphs. It is the most visited object in the museum: see it first, in Room 4.

    2. The Parthenon sculptures

      Room 18 holds about half of what survives of the sculpture of the Parthenon: the frieze of a procession, the battles of men and centaurs, and the worn gods from the gables.

    3. The Egyptian mummies

      On the upper floor, Rooms 62 and 63: painted coffins, mummies of people and of cats, and the things buried with them for the next life.

    4. The Assyrian lion hunts

      Stone reliefs from the palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, carved about 645 BC, in Room 10. The dying lions are among the finest animals ever carved.

    5. Sutton Hoo and the Lewis Chessmen

      Room 41 has the helmet, the gold buckle and the shoulder clasps from the ship burial found in Suffolk in 1939. Room 40 has the chessmen carved from walrus ivory in the twelfth century, with their worried faces.

    6. The Great Court

      The glass roof is made of 3,312 panes, no two the same. Look for Hoa Hakananai'a, the statue from Easter Island, in Room 24 just off it.

    Tickets and tours for the British Museum

    • Sold by GetYourGuide

      London: 2h British Museum Guided Tour with Priority Entrance

      Two hours with a guide through ancient Egypt, Greece and Assyria, entering by the priority line.

      Included

      • A two-hour tour with a guide, entering by the priority line
      • Ancient Egypt, Greece and Assyria, with the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon sculptures

      From

      £28.99

      Book Tickets

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    Visiting the British Museum: hours and admission

    Opening hours

    Saturday to Thursday
    10:00 to 17:00
    Friday
    10:00 to 20:30
    • Closed from 24 to 26 December.
    • Rooms are sometimes closed at short notice. The museum's site lists the galleries open on the day.

    Who gets in free

    • Everyone. Entry to the museum is free. The museum recommends booking a free timed ticket, which gives priority at busy times.
    • Special exhibitions are charged for.

    Getting there

    Tube
    Tottenham Court Road (Central, Northern, Elizabeth line) or Holborn (Central, Piccadilly), each about eight minutes on foot. Russell Square (Piccadilly) is as near, to the north.
    On foot
    Fifteen minutes from Covent Garden, twenty from Trafalgar Square.

    Address

    The British Museum
    Great Russell Street
    London WC1B 3DG, United Kingdom

    Entrances

    The main entrance is through the gates in Great Russell Street, across the forecourt and up the steps under the columns. A second entrance is at the back, in Montague Place. Bags are searched in a tent before you reach the doors, and large cases are not let in.

    On the map

    Before you go

    • Entry is free, but book a timed ticket on the museum's site: at busy times those with one go in first.
    • Do not try to see it all. Pick the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon rooms, the Assyrian reliefs and the mummies, and you have a good two and a half hours.
    • On Fridays the museum stays open into the evening, and the rooms are quieter then than at any other time.
    • The entrance in Montague Place, at the back, usually has a shorter queue than the one in Great Russell Street.
    • A guided tour is worth the money here, where the labels are short and the rooms are many.

    The first museum that belonged to everyone

    The museum began with the collection of one man, the physician Sir Hans Sloane, which Parliament bought when he died in 1753. It grew with the empire and with the new science of archaeology, and by the nineteenth century it needed the great building with the Greek columns that stands in Bloomsbury today.

    What it shows is the history of the whole world in one place. The stone that unlocked Egyptian writing is here, with the marbles Lord Elgin took from the Parthenon in Athens, the winged bulls of the Assyrian kings, the helmet of an Anglo-Saxon king buried in a ship, and a statue from Easter Island. Greece and other countries ask for some of these back, and the museum says so in its own rooms.

    Since 2000 the courtyard at its centre has been roofed in glass. The Great Court, by Norman Foster, is the largest covered square in Europe, and the round Reading Room where Karl Marx worked stands in the middle of it.

    The British Museum: common questions

    What are the opening hours of the British Museum?
    Saturday to Thursday: 10:00 to 17:00. Friday: 10:00 to 20:30. Closed from 24 to 26 December. Rooms are sometimes closed at short notice. The museum's site lists the galleries open on the day.
    What does the tour include?
    A two-hour tour with a guide, entering by the priority line. Ancient Egypt, Greece and Assyria, with the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon sculptures. It is sold by GetYourGuide.
    Is the British Museum free?
    Yes. Entry to the museum and its permanent rooms costs nothing. Special exhibitions are charged for, and so are guided tours.
    What should you not miss at the British Museum?
    The Rosetta Stone in Room 4, the Parthenon sculptures in Room 18, the Assyrian lion hunts in Room 10, the Egyptian mummies in Rooms 62 and 63, and the Sutton Hoo helmet in Room 41.
    How long do you need at the British Museum?
    Two and a half hours for the best-known rooms, and four if you want the upper floors as well. It is better to come twice than to stay until you can take in no more.

    What visitors say about the British Museum

    Rating from Google

    4.5

    3,065 ratings on Google

    Google's figures as read on 8 October 2026.

    Read every review on Google

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