The British Museum
Step through the row of Greek Revival columns on Great Russell Street and you enter the world's first national museum open to the public. Established by Act of Parliament in 1753 and opened in Montagu House in 1759—belonging to neither church nor crown—it was free and open to all. Two and a half centuries of expansion have built up a collection of eight million objects, tracing the story of human civilisation from the Nile Valley to Mesopotamia, from the Athenian Acropolis to Asia. Beyond names like the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles, what truly rewards a closer look are the corners in each gallery that visitors walk past without stopping to hear about.
United Kingdom · 15 The overlooked corners inside
The overlooked corners inside
Reading Room of the British Museum
At the heart of the Great Court stands the Reading Room of the British Museum, designed by the architect Sydney Smirke and opened in 1857. It served as the main reading room of the British Library until the library moved to a new site in 1997. The room closed temporarily for refurbishment in 1997 and reopened in 2000. Between 2007 and 2017 it hosted temporary exhibitions. It closed to the public again in 2013 to become the museum's archive. Guided tours resumed in 2023, and it reopened to general visitors in July 2024.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Secretum
The "Secretum" was a special section of the British Museum that, from the 19th into the early 20th century, held artefacts and images deemed to be sexually explicit. The collection — whose Latin name means "hidden away" — was formally established in 1865, by which point the museum had amassed around 700 such objects. Modern scholars see the museum's segregation of these items as a paternalistic gesture, meant to keep material judged morally dangerous away from anyone other than scholars and clergy. The holdings were finally removed entirely in 2005.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
British Museum Staff War Memorial
Inside the museum hangs a war memorial panel commemorating the service and sacrifice of staff from both the British Museum and the Natural History Museum in the First World War. Of the 205 names inscribed, 183 returned safely; 22 did not. It is a quiet reminder that the museum as an institution sent its own people into the war.
Sources: iwm.org.uk
Elgin Marbles
At the centre of this gallery stand creamy marble sculptures from the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis, carved in the 5th century BC under the sculptor Phidias. Between 1801 and 1812, agents of the British diplomat Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, removed roughly half the surviving Parthenon sculptures — along with pieces from the Erechtheion, the Temple of Athena Nike, and the Propylaea — from Ottoman-controlled Greece and shipped them to Britain. Parliament purchased the collection for £35,000 in 1816 and transferred it to the museum. The stone is Pentelic marble (from Mount Pentelikon), the same quarry that supplied the Parthenon itself. Elgin claimed the removal was authorised by Ottoman authorities, but the legal force of that authorisation remains disputed.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Asia Collection
The British Museum's Asia collection is one of the largest of its kind in the world, holding more than 75,000 objects from East, South, Central, and Southeast Asia, spanning from the Neolithic period to the present. Its origins lie in the 1753 bequest of Sir Hans Sloane, which included Japanese objects from the collection of the German physician and traveller Engelbert Kaempfer. Holdings expanded substantially in the second half of the 19th century: a gilded bronze figure of Tara from Sri Lanka was acquired in 1830, Indian sculptures from the Bridge Collection arrived in 1872, and the Amaravati Collection followed in 1880. The result is the most comprehensive collection of pre-20th-century Japanese decorative arts in the Western world.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
King Edward VII Gallery
The King Edward VII Gallery is the museum's north wing, designed by the Glasgow-born, Pari… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: c20society.org.uk · en.wikipedia.org
Department of Coins and Medals
Room 68, the Citi Money Gallery, is the most direct entry point into this department's hol… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Department of Egypt and Sudan
The Department of Egypt and Sudan holds more than 110,000 objects representing the Nile Va… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Department of the Middle East
The Department of the Middle East (formerly the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Marble Statue of a Youth on Horseback
This marble equestrian figure (museum number 1864,1021.2), standing around 2.05 metres tal… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: artsandculture.google.com
Lion of Knidos
One of the first large-scale sculptures you encounter under the roof of the Queen Elizabet… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Quartzite Head of Amenhotep III
This brown quartzite head (EA 7) is a fragment from a colossal standing statue of the 18th… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
Stone Guardian Figure
Standing quietly in the museum's courtyard is a stone guardian figure from northeastern Ch… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: overpass-api.de · alamy.com · chinasage.info
Memorial Pole (pts'aan) of Chief Luuya'as
This memorial pole (*pts'aan*), carved from red cedar around 1870, was made to honour Chie… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: donsmaps.com · britishmuseum.org
World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre
The World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre is the museum's most recent major building a… 🔒 Unlock the full guide
Sources: en.wikipedia.org
FAQ
What overlooked corners are worth seeing inside The British Museum?
Reading Room of the British Museum, Secretum, British Museum Staff War Memorial and more — 15 spots in all, each with sources and a guide in your language to read or listen to on the spot.
Is the The British Museum guide free?
The first 5 spots are free to read; the other 10 unlock with a one-time purchase (not a subscription).