Collins' Illustrated Guide to London and Neighbourhood / Being a Concise Description of the Chief Places of Interest in the Metropolis, and the Best Modes of Obtaining Access to Them: with Information Relating to Railways, Omnibuses, Steamers, &c.

by Anonymous

MODES OF ADMISSION TO VARIOUS INTERESTING PLACES.

Free.

British Museum.—Chelsea Hospital.—Courts of Law and Justice (at the Criminal Court and the Police Courts a fee is often needed.)—Docks, (but not the vaults and warehouses without an introduction.)—Dulwich Gallery.—East India Museum, Fife House, Whitehall.—Greenwich Hospital, (a small fee for some parts.)—Hampton Court Palace, (Sundays as well as week-days).—Houses of Parliament, (some portions every day; more on Saturdays.)—Kew Botanic Garden and Pleasure Grounds, (Sundays as well as week-days.)—Museum of Economic Geology, Jermyn Street.—National Gallery.—National Portrait Gallery.—Patent Museum, (adjoining the South Kensington Museum.)—Soane’s Museum, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.—Society of Arts Exhibition of Inventions, (in the spring of each year.)—St. Paul’s Cathedral, (fees for Crypt and all above stairs.)—Westminster Abbey, (a fee for some of the Chapels.)—Westminster Hall.—Windsor Castle, (at periods notified from time to time.)—Woolwich Repository, (the Dockyard was closed in October, 1869, and a letter of introduction is needed for the Arsenal.) Private Picture Galleries are sometimes opened free; of which notice is given in the newspapers.

Shilling Admissions.

The number of Shilling Exhibitions open in London is at all times very large, but more especially in the summer months. The first page of the Times contains advertisements relating to the whole of them; while the penny papers contain a considerable number. As the list varies from time to time, we cannot print it here; but the following are the chief places where the exhibitions or entertainments are held. (Theatres and Music Halls are not included; because the terms of admission vary to different parts of those buildings. We may here add that Burford’s and the Colosseum have long been closed.)—Cremorne Gardens, Chelsea.—Crystal Palace, Sydenham, (2s. 6d. on Saturday, 1s. on other days.)—Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, (sometimes two or three exhibitions at once, in different parts of the building.)—Gallery of Illustration, Regent Street.—Various temporary exhibitions in large rooms situated in the Haymarket, Pall Mall, Regent Street, Piccadilly, and Bond Street.—Picture Exhibitions, (such as the Royal Academy, the British Institution, the Society of British Artists, two Water Colour Societies, &c.)—Polytechnic Institution, Regent Street.—Polygraphic Hall, Strand.—Tussaud’s Waxwork, Baker Street Bazaar.—Zoological Gardens, (sixpence on Mondays.)

Admit by Introduction.

Among the places to which admission may be obtained by personal introduction, or by letter, the following may be named:—Antiquarian Society’s Museum, Somerset House.—Armourer’s Museum, (ancient armour,) 81 Coleman Street.—Asiatic Society’s Museum, 5 New Burlington Street.—Bank of England Museum, (collection of coins.)—Botanical Society’s Gardens and Museum, Regent’s Park.—College of Surgeons’ Museum, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.—Guildhall Museum, (old London antiquities.)—Linnæan Society’s Museum, Burlington House.—Mint, (process of coining,) Tower Hill.—Missionary Museum, (idols, rude implements, &c.,) Bloomfield Street, Finsbury.—Naval Museum, (formerly, now at South Kensington.)—Private Picture Galleries, (several.)—Royal Institution Museum, Albemarle Street.—Trinity House Museum, (models of lighthouses, &c.,) Tower Hill.—United Service Museum, Scotland Yard.—Woolwich Arsenal.

N.B.—These lists are subject to constant change.