kimberlyb

My family and I will be in London early July. We've never been during the summer (last trip was 15 years ago) so I'm getting tickets online in advance of our arrival to most of the things we plan to see/visit (e.g., Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, etc). My question is for the museums that we plan to visit that offer free admission (V&A and National Gallery). While we plan to start one of our days at the V&A when they open, I'm not sure yet what day we will visit the Nat'l Gallery since we have some openings on a few days in our itinerary that would work. Ideally, I was hoping to wait to see how we feel and what the weather will be (in case we prefer to do something outside when it's nice and save the museum for when it's not or on a Friday evening) before we secure a day/timeframe for the Nat'l Gallery. Hope that makes sense. Do you suggest that I get advanced reservations to either of these before we go? Any pro or cons?

KathNZ

I went to both the V&A and National Gallery in May and just walked in, after a quick security check of a bag. I think the timed tickets that are sometimes available on their website may be a remainder of when social distancing was required.

emmamackenzie

I would book in advance for the National Art Gallery, especially if you're there over a weekend. It can get really busy and you wouldn't want to waste time standing in a queue! I thought V&A was free? Therefore you can just show up whenever you like!

janisj

The Sainsbury Wing entrance is closed - the whole wing is closed and because of that a LOT of the regular highlights are not on display - Like really major pieces like the Leonardo Da Vinci Cartoon. Visitors numbers have been seriously affected -- attendance is way down - probably because relatively so little of the collection is on view. But there can still be queues because the Sainsbury entrance is sealed off and the other doors can bottleneck. I wouldn't bother pre-booking and might even consider not going if it doesn't easily fit in your schedule. .

Yes the V&A is free as is the National Gallery. Everyone has to go through a security queue. Timed tickets don't eliminate that.

kimberlyb

Thank you! I so appreciate it.

kimberlyb

Thank you!