Science Museum

On Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London, there is a significant museum called the Science Museum. It was established in 1857 and is a popular tourist destination in the city, bringing in 3.3 million tourists a year as of 2019.

The Science Museum does not charge admission, like other publicly supported national museums in the United Kingdom, although visitors are asked to make a donation if they are able to. Admission to temporary
exhibitions could be charged. It belongs to the Science Museum Group, which consists of five museums.

Bennet Woodcroft, the founder of South Kensington Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, built the museum in 1857 with the help of the Royal Society of Arts' collection and leftovers from the Great Exhibition. It contained a collection of tools that was later transformed into the Patent Office Museum in 1863 and the Museum of Patents in 1858. Many of the most well-known exhibits from what is now the Science Museum were part of this collection.

The Patent Office Museum's collection was moved to the South Kensington Museum in 1883. The Science Collections was renamed the Science Museum in 1885, and a separate director was appointed the following year (1893). The Art Museum was changed from The Art Collections to The Victoria & Albert Museum.

Established: 1857; 165 years ago (separate status formalised 1909)
Location: Exhibition Road, Kensington & Chelsea London, SW7 2DD, United Kingdom

Visitors: 955,873 (2021)

Website: sciencemuseum.org.uk