While the museums and galleries have locked their doors there’s a chance to wander their empty halls alone, virtually.
Ever wanted to see that object up close, without the crowds getting in your way, or wander empty rooms without the hassle of squeezing past people?
Virtual wanderings never quite replace the real sensation of being in the room surrounded by the decoration, the noise, and the smell — but for a while it may well be the best we can have.
10 Downing Street
While entry past the famous black door is limited to guest and staff, there is a full tour of most of the rooms inside 10 Downing Street, including the legendary basement areas.
A map of the layout would help though – at times it feels like you’re playing a posh version of Attic Attack.
British Museum
There’s a number of online tours and services being offered by the museum, from online tours around the museum, behind the scenes podcasts, and their recently revamped photo library.
Buckingham Palace
While the Queen’s in lockdown, take a solitary wander through three of the state rooms in her Palace.
Cabinet War Rooms
A full video tour of the cabinet war rooms, and the 3D map is amazing. For completeness, they include the lecture rooms, and you can navigate to stand behind the podium and pretend to be a speaker, and the shop, should you need some virtual window shopping.
Courtauld Gallery
This is a curiosity as the gallery closed over a year ago for refurbishment, so the 360 degree video tour is also a step back in time to how the gallery used to look.
English Heritage
They have put a load of their venues online with 360 degree tours, including for London, Eltham Palace and Kenwood House. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the full list of video tours.
London Bridges at night
Most of us can’t for a walk in the centre of London, so the Illuminated Bridges project has put up some 360 degree videos of the bridges lit up at night. It’s not totally obvious that these are videos – so when you see a bridge, drag the mouse and it will move.
National Gallery
Three virtual tours allow you to step inside the Gallery and explore one of the greatest collections of paintings, from the comfort of your home.
Natural History Museum
A variant of Google Street view lets you wander around the main hall of the museum choose from when Dippy was there, or the flying whale.
Old Royal Naval College
Take in a very detailed tour of the famous painted hall, with a lot of informative side panels and map of the layout.
Parliament
While the tours are closed and MPs work remotely, there’s a series of 360 degree tours of the grand building interior
Royal Academy
A single exhibition – and a 40 minute curator’s tour of the Picasso and Paper exhibition.
Science Museum
Another of the google hosted “street view” style tours around the Science Museum, and also a selection of curator tours of individual galleries.
Tate Britain
A curator’s tour of the Aubrey Beardsley exhibition, an artist who shocked and delighted late-Victorian London with his sinuous black and white drawings.
Tate Modern
Join curators Gregor Muir and Fiontán Moran as they discuss Warhol through the lens of the immigrant story, his LGBTQI identity and concerns with death and religion.
Westminster Abbey
Get the Abbey all to yourself, with this partial tour of the ground floor’s key spaces. Is it just me, or does the fact that the video lets you jump over the tomb of the Unknown Warrior seem just a bit off?
Article last updated on May 25th, 2020 at 03:55 pm
