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Museums and galleries

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24 Hour Museum
www.24hourmuseum.org.uk
Online information on over 2,500 museums and galleries across the UK.

Aberystwyth Electric Railway – Ceredigion
www.westwales.co.uk/cliffrwy.htm
Britain's longest cliff railway and one of the most spectacular built during Queen Victoria's reign. Travel at the sedate speed of 4mph to the summit to enjoy the views of the town and Cardigan Bay.

British Empire & Commonwealth Museum – Bristol
www.empiremuseum.co.uk
Presents a history seen from all sides and covers not only the maritime, military and technological triumphs of empire, but also examines such issues as racism, economic exploitation, cultural imperialism and slavery.

The Crystal Palace Museum – London
www.crystalpalacefoundation.org.uk
This small museum traces the history of the Crystal Palace from its inception and building at Hyde Park in 1851, through the move to Crystal Palace, to its fiery demise in 1936.

The Ironbridge Gorge Museums – Shropshire
www.ironbridge.org.uk
The Ironbridge Gorge, designated a World Heritage site, is the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. You can still see the original iron bridge of 1779, plus the Museum of Iron, Blists Hill Victorian Town, Coalport China Museum, Jackfield Tile Museum and much more.

Museum of London
www.museumoflondon.org.uk
The 'World City 1789-1914' galleries show how London became the world's first metropolis. Hundreds of artefacts, film-clips, sound archives and the 'Victorian Walk' of original shop fronts and interiors bring this fascinating period to life. Follow the stories of individuals – Lord Shaftesbury, Elizabeth Fry, Queen Victoria, Wellington, Mary Seacole – or study more general themes such as working life, education, rail travel, the Great Exhibition, music-hall entertainment or the Suffragette movement.

Museum of Science and Industry – Manchester
www.msim.org.uk
Partly situated in the oldest passenger railway station buildings in the world (1830-1), this museum tells the story of the history, science and industry of Manchester – the world's first industrial city.

National History Museum – London
www.nhm.ac.uk/
This fabulous building – designed by eminent Victorian architect Alfred Waterhouse (it was one of the first buildings to use structural cast iron and steel) and opened in 1881 – houses the Darwin Centre where you can tour the collections of 60 million specimens (many from the 19th century and earlier) and meet museum scientists.

National Museum of Scotland: Industry and Empire
www.nms.ac.uk/industryandempire.aspx
This gallery looks at life in Scotland as it was shaped by industrial development and affected by the British empire.

National Portrait Gallery – London
www.npg.org.uk
Home to a considerable amount of Victorian art, with works by Burne-Jones, Millais, Blake and the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.

National Railway Museum – York
www.nrm.org.uk/home/home.asp
One of Britain's major reference sources for the study of railway history, the museum houses over 100 locomotives and important collections of books, maps, photographs and archives, many from the 1800s.

The National Trust
www.nationaltrust.org.uk
Visit the houses of famous Victorians such as Thomas Carlyle in London, or see examples of Victorian institutional buildings, such as the workhouse in Southwell, Nottinghamshire.

Tate Britain – London
www.tate.org.uk/britain/default.htm
Houses the works of Turner, the Pre-Raphaelites and other Victorian painters.

Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) – London
www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/photography/
photographerframe.php?photographerid=ph014
With its vast collections of applied and decorative arts, this is one of the best museums in the world for learning about the Victorians. Among much else, it houses a collection of the work of the Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.

The Women's Library – London
www.thewomenslibrary.ac.uk
Previously known as The Fawcett Library, this cultural centre (part of London Metropolitan University) houses the most extensive collection of women's history in the UK. Among other things, it holds the Josephine Butler Society Library, which features works on prostitution, slavery, trafficking of women and attitudes to sexuality.

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