Tours and Talks

Discover how the Museum examines, conserves, preserves and prepares collections for display in the public galleries and exhibitions. This volunteer-led tour of the paper, books, sculpture and textiles conservation studios is an opportunity to see the fascinating work which goes on behind the scenes.

Located in Kensington Gardens, it is one of London's most ornate ornaments. Public tours are available between March and December.

Sign up for a course at Imperial where a wide variety languages are offered at different levels as well as an expanding range of Arts, Humanities and Science courses.

Come along to a unique programme of talks and debates to learn more about the intriguing Kensington Palace.

Serpentine Mobile Tours offer visitors an interactive gallery experience providing access to additional content, including artist interviews and curator tours, from the Serpentine’s internationally acclaimed Exhibition and Architecture Programmes.

Get out and about this summer with the Mayor’s new London Curriculum Family Explorer Trails which includes the 'Creative Quarter' in South Kensington. Taking you on a circular trail starting at the V&A, up Exhibition Road and through the Royal Parks.

Take a self-guided tour and explore how London’s quarter for the arts and sciences was created. Discover more about it's great institutions and magnificent buildings.

Guided tours offer the inside story of the Royal Albert Hall, taking you on a fascinating journey through its unique history, incredible architecture and legendary performances.

Get closer to the Museum and its incredible collections with our wide range of free or paid-for bespoke tours.

The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk takes visitors through four of the most beautiful parks in the world, including Hyde Park and Kensington Palace.

Join expert science educators for a behind the scenes look at the Museum's fascinating zoology spirit collection.

Are you big on museums, but short on time? NHM's knowledgeable visitor assistants have designed just the dinosaurs tour for you. It will introduce you to some of the Museum's most famous and imposing specimens. One hour

The trail will include creative looking, thinking and drawing activities as you explore the museum and exhibitions. The trail asks the user to consider what it's like to be a designer, maker and user of some of the wonderful objects in the collection. Takes 30 - 40 minutes.

V&A Secret Seekers is a new mobile game for families, launched to coincide with the opening of the V&A's Exhibition Road Quarter. Let eight characters from the V&A's history guide you on an exciting treasure hunt to uncover some of the secrets of the Museum.

Download the free Time Explorers app and try the new Digital Mission at Kensington Palace for children and their families.

Meet a mouse on a mission—a mission to the Moon! Find out all about rockets in this wonderful workshop. Make your very own rocket mouse and see how high you can blast them into space.

Orcas are notoriously formidable predators, which is probably what earned them the rather fierce name of 'killer whale'. But becoming such adept ocean hunters requires a certain level of complex behaviour. Join Museum scientist Ellen Coombs and find out more about the social side of orcas.

Join a unique preview of Smithsonian Channel's new series 'Apollo’s Moon Shot' with a live score from Teeth of the Sea. There will be screening an abridged feature-length cut of the documentary series, with a live score performed by London psychedelic rockers Teeth of the Sea.

Eight days, three hours, 18 minutes, 35 seconds. That’s the total duration of the most important and celebrated space mission ever flown. Join a special preview screening of a brand new BBC Two docu-drama to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission.

Astronomer Royal Martin Rees joins astrophysicist and legendary Queen guitarist and songwriter Dr Brian May to discuss the past, present and future of space travel.

Experience Queen Victoria's life as a teenager at Kensington Palace. Wander the rooms where she grew up as a princess and discover what life was like for her. Catch the puppet theatre performance, then create your own stories and perform them with your very own puppet theatre.

Isaac Newton never went to sea, but maritime affairs played an important role in his career, in studies ranging from resistance to the movement of hulls to the vexed problems of longitude determination. These techniques were mapped out by E.G.R. Taylor in her history of navigation, The Haven-Finding Art.

Artificial Intelligence has become the subject of widespread excitement as well as substantial investment by governments and industry. In this talk Professor Chris Bishop will explore key ideas behind modern machine learning and conclude by looking at ways this technology could influence our lives.

The Society’s ‘Pioneering Women’ project aims to shine a light on the lives, careers and legacies of some of our early female members. This first event focuses on sculptor Anne Crawford Acheson (1882-1962) who was one of our earliest female members.

Join this architectural tour by one the V&A's fantasticeVolunteer Guides, who will take you through the history of the building, in a tour that focuses on the setting for the collections, rather than the collections themselves.

Julius Bryant, Keeper of Word and Image at the V&A, has researched a new history of the museum’s collections that reveals the personal contribution of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, exploring how the young royal couple played key roles as public supporters and as large-scale lenders.

Join the guided walks around the exterior of the unique group of studio-houses built by Victorian artist and President of the Royal Academy, Frederic, Lord Leighton and his contemporaries. Discover the fascinating story of how this corner of Holland Park became synonymous with a group of the leading artists of the late Victorian period.

Are you determined to reduce the impact of your holidays on the planet? If so, join our panel of experts as they discuss the various approaches you can take and answer the question: what does it mean to travel well?

Stanley Kubrick moved to Hertfordshire during the filming of 2001: A Space Odyssey. He lived there for 28 years until his death in 1999. This talk explores Kubrick’s love affair with London and how he managed to morph the city into something entirely new in each film.

This two-day conference invites citizens, designers, academics, journalists and educators to consider what design ethics, and design as an ethical discipline, should look like in the 21st century. Focused on particular examples including migration; suicide; decolonization and the politics of the body.

John Akomfrah is a renowned artist and filmmaker, whose works are characterised by their investigations into memory, post-colonialism and often explores the experiences of migrant diasporas globally. The discussion will be on the architecture of memory, migration and multiculturalism.

This summer join us for a weekend of curiosity, discovery and exploration, bringing together science and the arts. From drones to design, and from symphony orchestras to brass bands, get stuck into a unique programme of creative workshops, talks, exhibitions and performances.

Join this volunteer-led tour which explores gender and sexual identities through a selection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer related objects in the V&A's rich collections.