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The Wallace Collection: Opening Hours, Free Entry, the Masterpieces to See and the Churchill Exhibition

The Wallace Collection is the best free museum in W1 that many Londoners have never been inside. It fills Hertford House, a grand townhouse on Manchester Square a few minutes north of Oxford Street, with old master paintings, French furniture, porcelain and armour, displayed as they would have been in a private home rather than a gallery. This page covers opening hours, getting there, the works worth seeking out, what is on this autumn, and where to eat inside.

Opening hours and tickets

The museum is open every day from 10am to 5pm and closes on 24, 25 and 26 December each year. Entry to the permanent collection is free, with no booking needed. The museum warns that parts of the building can close at short notice; the 16th-Century Gallery, for example, is closed from 10am to 1pm on 25 November 2026. Check the museum's visit page on the day if you are going for one particular room.

Exhibitions are paid, and booked through the museum's website. Membership, from £30 a year, includes free entry to all exhibitions. There is a free digital guide you can use on your phone, so bring headphones.

Getting there

Bond Street has step-free access via lifts at the Marylebone Lane entrance. Buses 2, 10, 12, 13, 30, 74, 82, 94, 113, 137 and 274 stop nearby, and Marylebone rail station is 10 to 15 minutes on foot. There is no visitor parking; street parking around Manchester Square is metered until 6.30pm, and there are Blue Badge bays on the square. Our getting around W1 page covers the wider area.

Ten things to see

1. The Laughing Cavalier, Frans Hals. The collection's most famous painting. The sitter is not actually laughing; it is the swagger and the embroidered sleeve that make it.
2. The Swing, Jean-Honoré Fragonard. The frothy, flirtatious image of 18th-century French painting, with a slipper flying through the air.
3. Perseus and Andromeda, Titian. One of the great Venetian mythologies painted for Philip II of Spain.
4. Lady with a Fan, Diego Velázquez. A rare portrait of a woman by the Spanish court painter.
5. A Dance to the Music of Time, Nicolas Poussin. The painting that gave Anthony Powell the title for his novel sequence.
6. Rembrandt's portrait of his son Titus. A small, tender picture worth seeking out among the Dutch works.
7. Canaletto's views of Venice. Crisp, sunny views painted largely for the British visitors of the Grand Tour.
8. The Boucher rooms. Large pastel mythologies by François Boucher, painter to Madame de Pompadour.
9. The furniture and porcelain. Marquetry by Riesener and Boulle, and one of the world's great holdings of Sèvres porcelain, much of it made for the French court.
10. The armouries. European armour and weapons alongside arms from India and the Middle East, including objects from the Sikh Empire.

The museum's own collection pages on painting, sculpture, arms and armour and decorative arts are a good way to plan a route before you go.

What is on in autumn 2026

• Winston Churchill: The Painter, until Sunday 29 November 2026. The first major retrospective of Churchill's paintings since his death, with more than 50 works, over half from private collections. There is an audio guide narrated in part by Sir Gary Oldman. Admission charge; members free.
• Metamorphoses: Porcelain Sculpture by Rachel Kneebone, 23 September 2026 to 25 April 2027. Nine white porcelain sculptures placed through the galleries, two made for the display. Free.
• Cosimo I de' Medici: Art and Dynasty, a free display the museum lists as coming next.

The museum also runs talks, tours and Friday Lates; see its What's On page.

Eating at the Wallace

The restaurant sits in the glazed courtyard at the centre of the house and is one of the more pleasant lunch rooms in Marylebone. It is open from 10am to 5pm, with last orders at 4.30pm. Walk-ins are seated subject to space, and you can book for the à la carte or set lunch between noon and 2.30pm (last sitting 2pm). During the Churchill exhibition there is a themed afternoon tea, bookable from noon to 5pm with a last sitting at 4pm. For alternatives, see our best afternoon tea in W1 list.

The story of the collection

The collection was built up over the 18th and 19th centuries by four Marquesses of Hertford and by Sir Richard Wallace, the son of the 4th Marquess, who inherited it and brought much of it to Hertford House. His widow, Lady Wallace, left it to the nation in 1897 on condition that it be kept together, unmixed with other objects of art, and it opened as a national museum in 1900. That is why the rooms still feel like a private house: very little has been added, and the furniture, paintings and porcelain are shown together as a collector arranged them.

Making a day of it

The museum sits between Oxford Street and Marylebone High Street, so it pairs well with a morning's shopping or a walk up to Marylebone Farmers' Market on a Sunday. It is also a sound choice for a wet day; our things to do in W1 in the rain and free things to do in W1 pages have more ideas, and our museums near Oxford Circus page covers the others nearby. Back to the W1 London homepage.

Hours, prices and exhibition dates from the Wallace Collection website, checked 3 November 2026.