The Natural History Museum in London was named the United Kingdom’s most popular attraction in 2025 after drawing a record 7.1 million visitors. That was a 13% year-on-year rise and an all-time high for any UK museum or gallery. Entry to the main museum is free, and more than five million people visited its transformed Gardens during the year. The museum’s director, Dr. Doug Gurr, said the figures demonstrate “the enormous public appetite to engage with the wonders of the natural world” and added that staff are “thrilled to be the UK’s most popular visitor attraction, smashing all previous records for the sector!” according to BBC News.
The shake-up at the top followed two years in which the British Museum had led the rankings. It placed second with 6.4 million visits in 2025 and remained among the country’s five most popular attractions. Windsor Great Park ranked third with nearly five million visits and also featured in the top five. Across the sector, a total of 165.2 million visits were made to 409 of the UK’s most popular tourist attractions in 2025, an increase of 2% on the previous year that still left numbers below pre-pandemic levels, based on figures compiled by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions.
“Astonishingly fun”
The National Gallery in London registered 4,147,544 visits to its Trafalgar Square site, a 29% increase from 2024. Its digital and social media platforms recorded over 107 million views as audiences engaged online alongside in-person visits. Its total attendance included 872,662 visits to flagship exhibitions such as “Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers” and “Siena: The Rise of Painting.” There were 81,299 visits to the new Roden Centre for Creative Learning, including facilitated school groups. The gallery also reported 6.9 million engagements on social media and 14.3 million visits to its website over the year.
The Natural Museum’s “Fixing Our Broken Planet” exhibition, focused on solutions to the climate crisis, opened in April 2025 and drew more than two million visitors. It became the free museum’s second most visited space after its dinosaur exhibits.
While the overall recovery continued, visitor totals across the UK have yet to fully return to 2019 levels. Bernard Donoghue, director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, attributed the shortfall in part to a decline in Chinese tourists, with arrivals recovering to only about 80% of pre-coronavirus levels. He described the Conservative government’s 2020 decision to end tax‑free shopping for inbound visitors as “an act of economic self-harm,” urged ministers to reduce VAT on visitor attractions, reintroduce tax‑free shopping, and ensure any “tourism tax” is ringfenced for investment in culture and tourism. He said the Natural History Museum’s success reflected its renovated outdoor spaces and free entry — “an astonishingly fun, joyful day out and it’s free” — adding: “Even in a cost of living crisis, it’s clear that the last thing that people are prepared to sacrifice are day visits and spending special time with special people in special places,” according to The Guardian.