The best museums and galleries in the UK

The biggest museum in the UK is also one of the best.

In our survey of over 2,000 Which? members, visitors loved the Beamish Living Museum - spread out over 350 acres of County Durham. Like the similar St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff - another engaging brick-by-brick reconstruction of past life - it scored top marks for lack of crowds as well as value for money.

Just as popular were museums devoted to classic aeroplanes. The highest rated museum in London was not the British Museum, the Science Museum or the Natural History Museum - instead the RAF museum took top spot.

The RAF Museum in Cosford, Shropshire took joint top spot overall.

The best museums were spread far and wide, so there are plenty of well-rated places to explore all over the country. 

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Best museums in London 

• Royal Air Force Museum London 87% - showcasing over 100 years of aviation history and the RAF, this museum is home to Battle of Britain fighter aircrafts
• The Wallace Collection 87% - one family's stash of eighteenth century French art and old masters such as Rembrandt and Velazquez, in a handsome townhouse.
• V&A South Kensington 86% - a museum of decorative art, design and sculpture, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects 
• National Portrait Gallery 85% - home to one of the largest portrait collections in the world and through this, promotes those who have made and are making British history
• Horniman Museum 84% - away from the main tourist hotspots this attractive arts and crafts building includes works of quirky anthropology as well as an aquarium.
• Imperial War Museum 84% -  a museum that takes a deep dive into wars over time from WW1 to the present day, giving a voice to ordinary people who lived through the conflict
• Tate Britain 83% - Tate Britain houses a collection of British art from 1500 to the present day, including a major collection of J. M. W. Turner's works.
• National Gallery 82% - a free to enter art gallery in Trafalgar Square that contains over 2,300 paintings - a huge array of Western European Art 
• British Library 81% Containing a copy of the Magna Carta, as well as John Lennon's lyrics for 'Strawberry Fields Forever' this is one of the world's great libraries.
• Natural History Museum 81% -  home to natural and historic exhibits including dinosaur fossils, a meteorite and moon rock

Best museums and galleries in the UK

Best museums in UK outside london

1. Beamish: The Living Museum of the North, County Durham – 93%

That it costs £33 but still received five stars for value for money tells you everything you need to know. The 1950s ice cream shoppe is pure nostalgia for visitors of a certain age. Others fall for the wartime farm or the Edwardian tram – a treat for the feet that makes this massive 350-acre model village feel a little smaller. A ‘living museum’ in the Scandinavian tradition, Beamish prides itself on the authenticity of its reconstruction and the volunteers in period dress who are clearly passionate about staying in character. 

Vast, immersive and covering all aspect of village life (an affordable annual pass encourages visitors to take their time over repeat visits), Beamish is like the Eras Tour of the North in all its incarnations: rural breadbasket, spirited village and industrial workhorse.

2. Royal Air Force (RAF) Museum Cosford, Shropshire – 93%

Ask an RAF veteran (we did) and they’ll tell you Cosford is the best aircraft museum in the nation, nay the world. They marvel at the Vulcan, Victor and Valiant V-bombers that dangle from the ceiling of this Midlands hangar for all to examine, and they stand in awe of the supersonic BAC TSR-2 prototype. 

Kids get a kick out of the Virtual Reality Zone, where they can do loop-the-loops in the pilot seat of an iconic Spitfire while unwittingly honing their World War history. Older generations sing the praises of the Cold War exhibition, and take selfies in the vintage fighter jet. Come early and often for a chance on the Eurofighter Typhoon flight simulator, which ‘soars’ over the Lake District

3 St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff – 92%

It’s a rare thing to wander through a woodland and happen upon an Iron Age roundhouse, a saddler’s workshop or a row of miners’ cottages. But that’s what a visit to St Fagan’s, on the River Ely outside Cardiff, has in store.

The mission of the outdoor museum is to rescue, restore and maintain the built environment of a bygone Wales and recreate an authentic, traffic-free experience where you can hear strains of Cymraeg spoken by the ironmonger. Don’t miss the latest rescue: a 19th-century Irish alehouse from the demolished Cardiff neighbourhood Newtown, aka Little Ireland. The so-called Vulcan Hotel was dismantled a few years back and rebuilt in its original weathered brick near St Fagans’ old sawmill and kiln.

4 Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow 90%

While there are undoubtedly museums and art galleries in the UK with better collections, at Kelvingrove it’s the space and time to see them that makes the difference.

Alongside art and artefacts dating back millennia there's a collection of Art Nouveau paintings and furnishings from Scottish big-hitters like The Four, the creative posse led by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. There are rooms devoted to rural landscapes from notorious turn-of-the-century painter-rebels the Glasgow Boys, and vibrant portraits of Scottish society by FCB Cadell. 

Together, it’s a picture of Scotland’s recent history that provides a gracious backdrop to free, daily organ recitals in the Baroque centre hall, a favourite of museum members. Restoration projects promise to make the building even more breathtaking.

5 National Museum Royal Navy, Portsmouth 89%

Centuries of British Naval power are remembered here at the centrepiece of Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard. 

The museum’s galleries feature treasures like the Trafalgar Sail from HMS Victory and a collection dedicated to Lord Nelson - including the fork that was made for him after he lost his right arm, and an exploration of his scandalous  love affair with Lady Emma Hamilton.

6 Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 89%

British art and design reigns supreme in this neoclassical temple near Lime Street station. This year the collection of Pre-Raphaelites, Hockneys, Wylies and Stubbs culminates in a blockbuster Turner exhibition. 

Apart from its status as a major Northern hub, the Walker is also one of the nation’s coolest museums. Swoon over Romantic marbles by the likes of ‘New Sculptor’ John Gibson, then move on to the fashion: overwrought Georgian gowns, jaunty tailoring by Paul Smith and Oswald Boateng and – not to be missed – street style from the punk and New Romantic denizens of late 20th[1]century Liverpool.