14 weird but wonderful museums in London

Nearly 200 years ago, Isambard Kingdom Brunel started work on the Thames Tunnel. It opened in 1843, gathered a crowd of 50,000 Londoners on its first day, and has been a hugely popular attraction ever since. At the Brunel Museum, on the Rotherhithe side of the river (that’s south), you can delve into the story behind this spectacular feat of Victorian engineering. The tunnel is now used, ironically, for the Overground, but guided tours will still take you into the humongous entrance chamber, and every once in a while it plays host to gigs and screenings.

This Kennington museum only opens its doors for guided tours if you book in advance. But believe us, it’s worth all the faff. There’s a gargantuan collection of posters, projectors, cinema carpets, fanzines and memorabilia, plus more than 17 million feet of celluloid film to peruse. 

Not strictly a museum, more of an immersive, living exhibit, the home of late American eccentric Dennis Severs tells the story of a fictional family of eighteenth-century silk-weavers in Spitalfields. Okay, some of the historical facts might be a tad (wh)iffy – but the ten rooms here send you on a wonderfully evocative journey, down to fresh fruit ‘left by the family’ on the kitchen table and a chamberpot full of authentic Huguenot wee. Quelle horreur!

In the quest to be considered the most fan-tastic of all London museums, Greenwich’s Fan Museum has an obvious head start. The collection here dates back to the tenth century and the displays change throughout the year. According to the Victorian ‘language of fans’, drawing a fan across the cheek means ‘I love you’. Practise it, because after a trip here it’ll be your preferred method of communication.

The famous Austrian shrink moved to London in 1938, fleeing the Nazis. His house has changed very little in the years since: a slice of Habsburg Vienna slap-bang in the middle of Hampstead, where you can see his collection of antiquities, and the world-famous couch upon which his patients shared their thoughts, dreams and neuroses. ‘Tell me about your muzzer…’

Be warned: UCL’s museum of zoology isn’t for the faint of heart. Elephant skulls, jars of moles (really), shark vertebrae and bisected heads are among the gruesome exhibits on display. Think of this as the Noah’s Ark equivalent of London’s numerous medical museums, including the Hunterian and the Old Operating Theatre. It’s macabre, yes, but you’ll learn some fascinating stuff here. 

In the 1860s, Lord Frederic Leighton commissioned his friend, architect George Aitcheson, to build him a house in Holland Park to house his extensive collection of antiquities and artworks. Here, he stashed all his classical acquisitions, as well as his own art and that of his contemporaries. Venture inside, and you’ll find the very model of nineteenth-century opulence. There are occasional events, including music recitals in Leighton’s gorgeous upper-floor studio.

And as if by magic… another unusual museum. If you’ve got a trick or two up your sleeve, this is the place to visit. Located at the Magic Circle Headquarters in Euston, its prized possessions include Harry Houdini’s handcuffs and the belongings of legendary magician Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin. Sadly, you can’t just abracadabra your way in whenever you please – it can only be visited as part of a public event. 

Originally a resource for medical students, this institute became a public museum in the 1930s. Its staggering collection of more than 45,000 objects tells the long story of pharmacy and medicine, from leeches and mummified hands to the discovery (in Paddington!) of penicillin.

Restored with original fixtures and surgical instruments, the UK’s oldest purpose-built operating theatre sits in an attic at the top of a Southwark church. Climb a vertiginous wooden staircase, and you’ll find yourself transported back to the world of nineteenth-century medicine, when surgery tended to involve things like brandy and hacksaws. Another one to avoid if you’re squeamish.

April 2023: The museum is currently closed and seeking new premises.

In a pair of gauntly unrestored Fitzrovia townhouses, you’ll find this quirky collection dedicated to the world of childhood and play. And no, it’s not all Barbies and Kens: there are downright creepy displays of board games, marbles, puppets, wax dolls, dolls’ houses. Oh, and the world’s oldest teddy bear, and an Ancient Egyptian toy mouse, made out of Nile clay.

Punch cartoonist and artist Edward Linley Sambourne lived in this house with his family in the late nineteenth century. It’s the very epitome of genteel, well-heeled Victorian middle-class living (ironic, given that Sambourne also took some pretty explicit nood photographs). Curiously, though, it’s the humdrum stuff here that’s really fascinating: things like Sambourne’s bills and correspondence.

Don’t expect anything you see here to make a lot of sense – instead, just let your jaw drop to the floor when you see all the bizarre things piled together in this weirdest of wunderkammers, including Happy Meal toys and celebrity stool samples. Its regular ‘menagerie nights’ give you the chance to pet some interesting creatures too, like lizards and tarantulas. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

In Lloyd Park, in oh-so-fancy-these-days Walthamstow, William Morris’s family home – where he lived as a frankly bratty little kid – is now a very fine museum dedicated to the Arts and Crafts maestro’s life and legacy. Aside from all the sumptuous fabrics, prints, furniture and wallpaper, you should keep an eye on the programme of late events, which includes workshops, poetry readings and even DJ sets.