World Class Museums - why are they free to everyone?

Which museums are you talking about Desire, I don’t think what you say is true of the vast majority?

National museum for example

butterandjam

Elusivebutterfly

It is interesting to compare the free museums with the National Trust charges. I was considering taking the family to Chartwell. This would mean £102 for four adults and parking. We would obviously buy drinks and snacks, probably lunch and something in the shop. There is no reduction for pensioners, students or unemployed. It is a very expensive day out.

If the National Trust had not bought and conserved such properties, would we be able to visit them? I doubt it.

They would either be ruins or owned by Russian oligarchs and the Chinese.

There is in fact an alternative historic house organisation, the Historic Houses Association. This is an association of most privately own great houses, including Chatsworth and Blenheim and I am sure the original owners of quite a number of NT properties wish that it had been around when they were on their uppers.

It started as a group for historic houseowners helping each other, then they launched a visitor scheme. We are members of it and now rarely go to NT properties, devoid of any originality and all pumping out the same branding, the same political and social views in every house, a bit like M&S.

With HHA, each represents the family who own it and choose to show as much or as little as they choose. We were in Norfolk on holiday last week and visited Holkham Hall and were there for nearly 5 hours. The restaurant was huge and we were sat down with our food within 10 minutes, including queuing at the busy lunch time period.

In the house I noted that every room had 2 red chairs discretely placed for visitors, like DH, who cannot walk far without a rest, to use, No need to ask for a seat.

Every house is different and reflects the family and current ownership. The HHA also offers private tours of smaller historic homes, where the owner usually does the guiding. We have been on several such tours and seen houses we would not otherwise have seen and talked to owners who are themselves really interesing and knowledgeable,

Desire

National museum for example

In Wales or Scotland? England doesn’t have anywhere called the National Museum as far as I know? Are you meaning the British Imperial museums, which are in very small number compared with other museums?
The Welsh National museum doesn’t have lots of items stolen from other countries, I know.

I can recommend the Ashmolean in Oxford. Free entry. We went to their rooftop restaurant and had a superb afternoon tea which we probably would not have done if we had had to pay a high entry fee.

I don't agree. Everyone should be able to appreciate our museums. A couple of years ago my adult daughter and I visited the Natural History Museum which we enjoyed and I did leave a donation as I was able to afford it but there have been times in the past where I couldn't have left one but enjoyed visiting.

butterandjam

Elusivebutterfly

It is interesting to compare the free museums with the National Trust charges. I was considering taking the family to Chartwell. This would mean £102 for four adults and parking. We would obviously buy drinks and snacks, probably lunch and something in the shop. There is no reduction for pensioners, students or unemployed. It is a very expensive day out.

If the National Trust had not bought and conserved such properties, would we be able to visit them? I doubt it.

They would either be ruins or owned by Russian oligarchs and the Chinese.

Butterandjam - I am sure that is true of many National Trust properties. I do think though that Chartwell would otherwise have been maintained by the rich Churchill family or bought by the Government as a museum, like Churchill's war rooms.

Doodledog

It would be good to see the investment spread around the county instead of concentrated in London so much.

Seeing that list makes the Londoncentric nature of investment very clear, doesn't it? Thirteen of the top fifteen are in the capital.

I agree wholeheartedly. Items should be moved around to give those who don’t live in London a chance to see the “national” treasures especially as London institutions have huge collections in storage that no one ever sees. It would be nice if some of the prestigious jobs curating and researching were outside London too.

In many countries they have free entry for local people/residents but others have to pay. I don't see a problem for visitors from outside the country to have to pay as I do when I go to their country. It would assist museums to have the funding to either add to their inventory, expand or employ more staff.

I think a small fee of even a couple of pounds for adults could bring in quite a large amount. We could easily make it free for children. It's not difficult to make things free or discounted for locals, lots of places do this York is one place I have seen it, tickets that last a year are also popular around the country.

I have long thought that our museums and galleries should charge an entry fee from May to Say October. That way the majority of tourists would pay and local people would go free of charge the rest of the year

Ukelady1

I can recommend the Ashmolean in Oxford. Free entry. We went to their rooftop restaurant and had a superb afternoon tea which we probably would not have done if we had had to pay a high entry fee.

Indeed, the British Museum

they should be free to ALL UK citizens - not to foreign tourists. I travel a lot and always have to pay to go to foreign museums - sometimes 1 day is set aside as free or half price if you check in advance.
I strongly believe. as the items in the UK museums belongs to the UK citizens in effect, they should have cost free access.

I travel a lot and always have to pay to go to foreign museums
I'm glad someone has said that. I was starting think I was the only one paying abroad, because I know I paid in Vienna, though the gardens were free to enter. I also definitely paid in Paris, and family recently paid at the Egyption Museum in Turin, 20 euros I think, though the younger children only paid one euro.

We had a holiday home in Normandy for 30 years. I do not remember paying for many museums there. Where we did pay the charges were much cheaper than charges in the UK.

Remember that not all museums in the UK are state owned and you pay to visit private museums.

I always think this 'make the foreigner pay' little Englander attitude very depressing. All those tourists visiting our museums will spend money in the gift shops and for catering . They pay to see private exhibitions, many of these exhibitions pull in 10s of thousands of visitors.

DD and I went to the Dior exhibition and the Chanel one, both of which had to be extended so many people wanted to visit them. My whole working life was based on making information available to as many people as possible in the manner that suited them best.

I think any kind of hiding information from people, whether by pay walls, museum charges etc etc, unless really necessary to be a retrogade step in this modern world.

I agree with you M0nica when you say this 'make the foreigner pay' little Englander attitude [is] very depressing.

When people say they were charged entry to a museum or gallery in a country other than the UK, are they saying they were charged because they were not from that country whereas nationals of that country have free entry? That seems to be what OP is arguing for.

What counts as “local"? OP refers to council tax when it isn’t council tax which is funding "world class" museums but a mix of central government funding, donations and own enterprise.

Other organisations have different funding models. National Trust has been mentioned. Its funding is a mix of membership fees, legacies, own trading income and enterprise plus grants for specific projects. For example, it receives funding from DEFRA for landscape and species recovery projects. The RHS is largely funded by membership fees and trading income including its national shows.

As I quoted very early in this thread, within the first decade of free entry to museums and galleries, visits to places which which used to charge rose by 151% – the uplift was 180% at the Natural History Museum and V&A, and 269% at National Museums Liverpool.

The latter which received just £20 million in central government funding in 2024/25, includes the Lady Lever Art Gallery, International Slavery Museum, Maritime Museum, Museum of Liverpool, Sudley House, Walker Art Gallery and World Museum.

In total, these attracted over 2.3 million visitors in 2024/25 including more than 600,000 from overseas. Impressive for a city outside of London. Think of how much that is generating for business in terms of travel, accommodation and retail sectors and in turn for the Treasury. It gets a return on its investment many times over.

When other countries charge their non-residents, do you immediately think derogatory thoughts about their attitude, M0nica? I know I don't. As a lot of the museums are funded by direct Government support (in conjunction with other sources), it makes sense to me whilst we are struggling to fund various critical services, that we make saving where we can.

When people say they were charged entry to a museum or gallery in a country other than the UK, are they saying they were charged because they werenotfrom that country whereas nationals of that country have free entry?
No, not at all, Graphite. The museum I mentioned in Turin, owned by the Italian state, does not offer free admission to anyone living locally, although on their birthday, I think entry is free. Locals can buy a pass to include several museums, the same as tourists.

I don't think many posters have read Graphites post (though she has said it twice) I knew this too - many of our museums and galleries found that they actually made MORE money from letting all visitors in free and having a very visible donation box in their foyer, often with a notice saying how much it cost to keep the place open per day. This meant that they needed LESS government money.

Think also how much it is worth in "soft" diplomacy - if more foreign visitors know more about our history and arts, it must be a good thing. It is a good thing if more of our own visit them too, and know more, particularly the young people who will bring their children.

See Graphite's posts at
Wed 26-Aug-26 12:10:01,
Thu 27-Aug-26 18:43:23
and Wed 26-Aug-26 15:03:09

icanhandthemback

When other countries charge their non-residents, do you immediately think derogatory thoughts about their attitude, M0nica? I know I don't. As a lot of the museums are funded by direct Government support (in conjunction with other sources), it makes sense to me whilst we are struggling to fund various critical services, that we make saving where we can.

Other countries do not let locals in free and charge foreigners, which is what has been suggested on this thread. Everyone pays the same fee, and their entry charges are generally far lower than charges in the UK.

We live in a world where peoples minds are getting narrower and narrower. We seem to know the price of everything and the value of nothing. What we need is a country of people with open minds who have grown up in society that encourages creativity. Where the love and apreciation of art, or of civilisation, past and present, classical music. Art, music, drama is being abolished from our schools.

Mr Gradgrind seems to be the hero of every Education Secretary and none of our politicians has any cultural hinterland, which is why they are so mediocre.

I agree with you M0nica when you say this 'make the foreigner pay' little Englander attitude [is] very depressing

Oh dear.
I grew up in a country where museums were free to all and because of that I developed a massive interest in history at an early age and went on to build my future career around it.
In foreign countries I have always paid to visit museums but never resented it, nor didn’t deter me. It’s ridiculous to imagine if people pay thousands to travel abroad that they are going to quibble over a museum entry charge.
We need to be realistic and try and recoup some of the money it costs to keep these amazing museums going. I can’t think off hand where I was able to go into a museum for free anywhere else.

nor did it deter me

I'm not a frequent traveller, but when we visit galleries & museums abroad, we pay but residents pay too (maybe a reduced fee in some).
If we had to pay a lot & residents paid nothing then yes, I would be a bit cross about their attitude to foreign visitors.

To be fair, Keir Starmer was keen to improve arts subjects in schools and give them equal status. I think he scheduled a reform of the curriculum for 2028, though whether that will ever materialise now is another matter.
We need to be careful not to lose the creativity this country excelled at in the past, so yes, I agree, anything that encourages an appreciation of art, culture and civilisation must be encouraged and supported.