Big three London museums to reopen in August

The V&A, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum have announced plans to have a staggered reopening in which they anticipate 80% fewer visitors.

The three museums, all neighbours in South Kensington, will reopen on different days in August to avoid pressure on public transport. Visitors will have to book time slots.

Sir Michael Dixon, the director of the Natural History Museum, said he expected visitor numbers would be limited to 2,800 a day, around a fifth of the usual average attendance.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to experience all three of our museums without crowds,” he said at a joint announcement of the reopenings on Tuesday.

Face coverings would be “strongly recommended” but not yet mandatory, the museums said.

The V&A was setting up recommended routes and trails but visitors would still be able to freely explore whichever part of the museum was open, its director, Tristram Hunt, said.

“The ability to linger on something that catches your eye and not be forced in a certain direction” was important, he said.

The Natural History Museum will reopen first on 5 August and be open Wednesday-Sunday, 11am-6pm; the V&A on 6 August, initially Thursday-Sunday, 11am-3pm; the Science Museum on 19 August, seven days a week, 10am-6pm. The Science Museum group’s first reopening will be at Locomotion in Shildon on 28 July.

It costs the museums far more to reopen than to stay closed but Sir Ian Blatchford, the director of the Science Museum, said the government’s recently announced £1.57bn emergency arts and heritage package would allow them to get through the current financial year.

He said the settlement was, “let’s give them credit, resoundingly good. It is the kind of thing you’d expect the German or the French government to spend, we were very impressed that they listened.”

Blatchford said he did not expect the nation’s museums to return to normal until the spring of 2022, and the only way to get there was to be open for visitors.

Imposing admissions charges at national museums could help cover costs but Blatchford said that would be “the worst possible policy”.

“There is no support for entrance fees from any major political party. As far as I’m concerned, that debate is dead, buried and covered in concrete. If the government introduced it, I would resign.”