Museums and galleries are recovering from the pandemic, with visitor numbers jumping last year, but still down by nearly a quarter on pre-pandemic numbers.
According to numbers from members of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA), the UK’s most visited attraction is outside London – as Windsor Great Park retained its outdoor appeal, but the rest of the top venues are all London based indoor museums and galleries.
The cost-of-living crisis was also reflected in the annual figures for 2022 with attractions that offer free entry to the main galleries reporting the strongest year-on-year growth in visits with a 183% increase. In comparison, those who charged admission just to walk through the doors experienced a 101% rise in visitors.
The most-visited indoor attraction and second most visited attraction overall was the Natural History Museum which saw its visitors nearly double over the previous year.
While moving to 3rd place (from 6th) was the British Museum which more than doubled its visitor numbers. In 4th place was Tate Modern which also doubled its visitors and moved from 7th place, while the Southbank Centre moved up 8 places to 5th with a 275% increase. The National Gallery saw a 274% increase and returned as one of the top 10 most-visited attractions and the Tower of London moved from 33rd place to 10th.
Among the largest percentage increases was new ALVA member, the Design Museum which saw a 515% increase to 511,863 visitors. Also in London, Westminster Abbey saw a 551% increase to 1.06 million visitors and rose 105 places to 21st and The Monument to The Great Fire of London had a 729% increase with 81,291 visitors.
Although the report doesn’t go into detail about why museums and galleries are suffering their own form of “long covid” in visitor numbers, it’s coincidental maybe that the strongest growth seems to be the venues that don’t insist on booking visitor tickets before visiting.
Although most encourage it still, and that may be a deterrent factor in people just casually popping in when passing by.
The top London venues
| Rank | Site | Total Visits in 2022 | Annual change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2021 | |||
| 1 | 4 | Natural History Museum | 4,654,608 | 196% |
| 2 | 6 | The British Museum | 4,097,253 | 209% |
| 3 | 7 | Tate Modern | 3,883,160 | 202% |
| 4 | 13 | Southbank Centre | 2,947,155 | 275% |
| 5 | 15 | The National Gallery | 2,727,119 | 274% |
| 6 | 11 | V&A South Kensington | 2,370,261 | 176% |
| 7 | 8 | Somerset House | 2,346,580 | 138% |
| 8 | 9 | Science Museum | 2,334,930 | 144% |
| 9 | 33 | Tower of London | 2,020,121 | 284% |
| 10 | 2 | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | 1,963,885 | 0% |
| 11 | 18 | Royal Museums Greenwich | 1,628,580 | 137% |
| 12 | 32 | Royal Albert Hall | 1,449,486 | 177% |
| 13 | 73 | St Paul’s Cathedral | 1,193,888 | 329% |
| 14 | 45 | British Library | 1,149,070 | 179% |
| 15 | 126 | Westminster Abbey | 1,063,063 | 551% |
| 16 | 17 | ZSL London Zoo | 1,045,289 | 51% |
| 17 | 35 | Tate Britain | 913,395 | 74% |
| 18 | 21 | Horniman Museum and Gardens | 790,067 | 21% |
| 19 | 74 | The Royal Opera House | 697,001 | 151% |
| 20 | 37 | Royal Academy of Arts | 695,968 | 48% |
| 21 | 59 | IWM London | 684,909 | 114% |
| 22 | 119 | Tower Bridge | 648,001 | 255% |
| 23 | 82 | Shakespeare’s Globe | 629,330 | 148% |
| 24 | 72 | Old Royal Naval College | 617,843 | 130% |
| 25 | 49 | Hampton Court Palace | 527,899 | 40% |
| 26 | n/a | the Design Museum | 511,863 | 515% |
| 27 | 163 | Churchill War Rooms | 438,092 | 360% |
| 28 | 102 | RAF Museum London | 400,643 | 84% |
| 29 | 138 | Museum of London | 381,211 | 161% |
| 30 | 123 | London Transport Museum | 338,249 | 115% |
| 31 | n/a | Wellcome Collection | 300,213 | 208% |
| 32 | 111 | Kensington Palace | 294,043 | 50% |
| 33 | 179 | Museum of London (Docklands) | 206,337 | 180% |
| 34 | 188 | HMS Belfast | 167,933 | 180% |
| 35 | 166 | Eltham Palace and Gardens | 128,986 | 39% |
| 36 | 155 | WWT London | 128,739 | 9% |
| 37 | 255 | The Monument to The Great Fire of London | 81,291 | 729% |
| 38 | n/a | Kenwood | 71,877 | 234% |
| 39 | 213 | Guildhall Art Gallery and London’s Roman Ampitheatre | 46,423 | 30% |
The Science Museum stands out for insisting that visitors work far too hard with irritating and needless fiddle’n’faff on their phones just to get in. Last time I went I saw bunches of people dealing with their screens so walked unhindered into the V&A instead.
As someone who works for one of those museums, I’d just like to offer a thank you for your support in advertising galleries, exhibitions and events that have been taking place. Sites like this one have been an invaluable part of getting visitor numbers back on track!
I was brought up going to museums several times a year, because entry was free and parking was also not charged in the surrounding streets after 1pm on Sunday. It made a trip to a museum an interesting and very cheap day out. Museums still offer terrific value for money in themselves, but the add-on costs of parking or train fares, the congestion charge if you go on a weekday, and the limited facilities for eating a packed lunch from home instead of buying a lunch there, have put that beyond many people’s current means. When we did our first school trip to a museum since before Covid, just a month ago, I was dismayed to see how many of our 10 year olds couldn’t remember ever going to a museum before.
I certainly agree that museums should no longer be requiring advance booking, except for special exhibitions where this policy has always been the case. It is a real deterrent, as one never knows given the relatively awful British Weather, when a planned day will go bust due to rain and one really wants a good drop-in alternative.
Thanks for the interesting figures. Let’s keep supporting our Museums — we really need them!