Free exhibitions in London this month

The British Museum ties a free exhibition to the USA's 250th anniversary, and it closes on 29 November 2026, so November is the last chance to see it. Visitors walk in without a ticket during normal hours, 10.00 to 17.00 every day and until 20.30 on Fridays. Korea, the special exhibition in the same building, is ticketed, and the Bayeux Tapestry loan does not appear on the museum's list of free shows either, so anyone coming for the free room can bypass the ticket desk. The Friday late opening suits an after-work visit, and the free woodcut show Multiplied wonders (row 21) runs on until March.

Photo: "London - Great Russell Street - British Museum - Great Court - View East" by Txllxt TxllxT (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Zineb Sedira holds the 2026 Tate Britain Commission, titled When Words Fall Silent, Cinema Speaks, and she has filled the Duveen Galleries, the long neoclassical spine of the building. Her installation draws on family archives, film history and the Algerian diaspora, and it stays free and unticketed until 17 January 2027. The paid show in the building is The 90s: Art and Fashion, and Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant: Inside Bloomsbury opens as a second ticketed exhibition on 12 November. Tate Britain opens 10.00 to 18.00 every day. Anyone visiting before 8 November can add the free Art Now room of new paintings by Mohammed Z Rahman (row 1).

Photo: "London - Tate Britain 1897 - Central Sculpture Galleries by John Russell Pope - Neoclassical architecture 04" by Txllxt TxllxT (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Freddie Mercury: Splendid Things spreads eight of the singer's stage and video outfits along a trail through V&A South Kensington in the year he would have turned 80. Nobody needs a ticket or a booking, and the trail stays in place until 17 January 2027. Schiaparelli (until 15 November), Rising Voices and Constantinople to Istanbul (from 7 November) are the paid exhibitions in the same building, so visitors following the trail can ignore the exhibition desks. The museum opens 10.00 to 17.45 daily and keeps its doors open until 22.00 on Fridays, which suits an after-work loop of the eight looks.

Photo: "Victoria and Albert Museum (4 August 2023) 15" by DiscoA340 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Japanese artist Yuko Mohri has taken over The Curve, the Barbican's long bending gallery, with a commission called In Concert that uses light, sound and moving sculptures built partly from objects found around the Barbican. Entry is free with no ticket to collect, and the installation runs until 24 January 2027, Tuesday to Sunday from 11.00 to 19.00, with The Curve closed on Mondays. Robert Ryman: The Real Thing, in the main Art Gallery, is the ticketed show, so the two have separate entrances and only Ryman needs a booking. A second free display, on the history of the Barbican buildings, fills part of the foyers.

Photo: "London- Barbican Centre" by Jorge Franganillo (CC BY 2.0).

Serpentine North, the old gunpowder store in Kensington Gardens with its Zaha Hadid extension, shows a trilogy of films and installations by New Delhi artist Amar Kanwar until 31 January 2027. His work keeps returning to the 1947 Partition and its legacy, and the rooms are kept very dark, so give eyes a minute to adjust. Entry is free, though the Serpentine advises booking a ticket on its visitor information page, and both galleries open Tuesday to Sunday from 10.00 to 18.00. A short walk away, Serpentine South shows Justin Caguiat's heat-sensitive paintings and ringing bronze bells (row 8) until 10 January.

Photo: "London - Serpentine Sackler Gallery" by Fred Romero (CC BY 2.0).

The free part of the Royal Academy this season starts in the Annenberg Courtyard, before the front door. There, Nicole Eisenman's sculpture, over eight metres tall, stacks a bronze artist, a wine barrel, a potato, her cat Edie and a seated figure with a vase of flowers on her head into one teetering self-portrait. It stays until 5 February 2027 and needs no booking. Inside, the John Madejski Fine Rooms remain free until 29 January, while Painting the French Riviera and, from 21 November, Peggy Guggenheim in London are ticketed. The RA closes on Mondays and stays open until 21.00 on Fridays and Saturdays.

Photo: "Burlington House Royal Academy of Arts London" by Bengt Oberger (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Room 1 at the National Gallery hangs Gainsborough's 'Mr and Mrs Andrews' of 1750 beside Yinka Shonibare's 1998 sculpture of the same couple, headless and dressed in West African textiles. The pairing marks 300 years since Gainsborough's birth and links the couple's land and wealth to the colonial trade of 18th-century Britain. It is free and runs until 7 February 2027. Renoir and Love and, from 21 November, Van Eyck: The Portraits are the ticketed exhibitions in the building, so visitors who only want the free room can walk straight in. The permanent collection around it is free every day as well.

Photo: "National Gallery, London (29 December 2023) 32" by DiscoA340 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

From 6 November, five rooms in the South Wing of Somerset House hold Through Our Eyes, the first group exhibition in the UK given over to Sámi art, with 19 artists working in sculpture, photography, video and performance. Look for Outi Pieski's new piece built from hundreds of shawl tassels and Tomas Colbengtson's altered road sign. Entry is free until 7 February 2027, and Somerset House issues free timed tickets online, which makes booking the safer choice at weekends. It opens 10.00 to 18.00 from Sunday to Wednesday and later from Thursday to Saturday. The ice rink in the courtyard, from 11 November, is a separate ticketed attraction.

Photo: "The courtyard of Somerset House, London, 2016" by Bjørn Erik Pedersen (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Whitechapel Gallery gives the Chilean artist and poet Cecilia Vicuña two shows this season, and only one of them is free. Foraging Quipu, in Gallery 4, costs nothing and runs until 14 February 2027, while Living Threads, the larger survey across Galleries 1 to 3, is the gallery's single ticketed exhibition of the season. Screen Portraits in Gallery 5 (row 9) and, from 17 November, the Jarman Award shortlist of artists' films (row 7) are free as well. The gallery closes on Mondays, and on Thursday evenings from 18.00 to 21.00 every exhibition, the paid one included, is pay what you can.

Photo: "Whitechapel Gallery 2020 (3) - Copy" by GrindtXX (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Sound artist Tarek Atoui has turned the Turbine Hall into one huge playable instrument for the 2026 Hyundai Commission. Wind runs through bamboo pipes into Asian mouth organs, mallets strike Korean drums, and textiles up to 30 metres long sway in the hall's air currents. Visitors can sit or lie on the stones along the floor and feel them vibrate, and musicians plug into the installation for regular performances. It is free until 11 April 2027, as is Gathering Ground on Level 3 of the Natalie Bell Building (row 20). Frida, Ana Mendieta and Julio Le Parc are the ticketed shows. Tate Modern opens 10.00 to 18.00, until 21.00 on Fridays and Saturdays.

Photo: "Tate Modern, Turbine Hall 2025-09-27" by kp-snaps (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Wellcome Collection charges nothing for any of its exhibitions, and Tenderness and Rage, in Gallery 3 on level 1, is one of the longest runs on this list. Through photographs, film, quilts and archive material, it follows HIV and AIDS from the protest and care networks of 1980s and 1990s Britain to the global picture now, and it ends in a room where visitors can make a placard or leave a message. It runs until 20 June 2027. The galleries open Tuesday to Sunday and close on Mondays, so check the Wellcome Collection opening times first. The Coming of Age (row 5) closes on 29 November.

Photo: "View down the spiral staircase in the Wellcome Collection" by Robert Lamb (CC BY-SA 2.0).