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 “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life,“ wrote Dr Samuel Johnson. I totally agree with Sam’s sentiment. London has an extraordinary ability to keep surprising you - especially when you step away from the bigger attractions and into its smaller, more personal museums. These are places you might walk past a dozen times without noticing. Former homes. Quiet townhouses. Buildings that still feel more like someone has just popped out for a stroll than formal museums. Here are five small London museums I love – and that you may not have visited yet, starting with the aforementioned Dr Johnson’s former home. Dr Johnson’s House Dr Samuel Johnson is considered one the greatest literary figures of the eighteenth century and is perhaps best known for his monumental A Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755. He worked on the Dictionary while living at 17 Gough Square - a beautifully preserved 17th-century townhouse tucked away in the courts and alleys off Fleet Street. It’s the only surviving part of the original Gough Square development, and stepping inside feels like slipping through a crack in time. This incredible four-storey townhouse has retained many of its original features, including historic panelling, an open staircase, wooden floorboards, coal holes and even the original eighteenth-century front-door security system, complete with a heavy chain, corkscrew latch and spiked iron bar. Burglars consider yourselves warned! What I particularly love about Dr Johnson’s House is how immersive it feels. You’re encouraged to sit on the chairs and window seats, to pause, to linger – and to imagine Johnson pacing the rooms, wrestling with definitions and deadlines.  Handel Hendrix House Apart from being famous musical marvels, what have George Frideric Handel and Jimi Hendrix got in common? By a remarkable coincidence, they lived next door to each other on Brook Street in central London, albeit two centuries apart. Handel moved into 25 Brook Street in 1723, at the height of his fame. A couple of centuries later in 1966, Hendrix came to London and he lived in a flat at 23 Brook Street for couple of years with his then girlfriend, Kathy Etchingham, while the Jimi Hendrix Experience took the UK by storm. The Handel Hendrix House is now a museum, combining both residences and carefully recreated to reflect life in their respective centuries. You can wander from baroque London to swinging sixties London in the space of a staircase, with plenty of music to accompany you along the way.  Benjamin Franklin House Benjamin Franklin could never be accused of underachieving. Despite only having two years of formal education, he not only went on to become a founder of the United States, but he is considered to have helped advance the Age of Enlightenment through his experiments with electricity, his inventions, writings, and his extensive activities as a printer and philosopher.  At 36 Craven Street, just off Trafalgar Square, is the world's only remaining home of Benjamin Franklin. He lived here for 16 years between 1757 and 1775, and during that time the house effectively became the first unofficial US embassy in London. It opened as a museum in 2006. Today, the house is a museum and uses live interpretation, sound, lighting and visual projections to bring Franklin’s London years to life. One small warning: it’s a tall, narrow, five-storey house with uneven floors and stairs. You may be stepping back into the eighteenth century, but mind your footing while you do. Sir John Soane’s Museum Sir John Soane’s Museum may be the smallest of the National Museums, but it’s an absolute treasure trove. Soane is considered one of England’s greatest architects, and he built and lived in the house, until his death in 1837.  The house is preserved exactly as Sir John left it, offering visitors a wonderful opportunity to journey through the rooms, learning about his life and his vast curated collection of over 30,000 architectural drawings, models, sculptures and paintings. It feels like a brilliant, eccentric mind made physical – a place you could visit ten times and still notice something new on each visit. 2 Willow Road If modernist architecture is more your thing, 2 Willow Road in Hampstead is well worth seeking out. Designed and lived in by architect Ernő Goldfinger and his family, the house was built in 1939 and is one of only two modernist houses in the UK open to the public. Now a National Trust property, it offers a rare chance to see modernist design principles applied to everyday family life. Knowledgeable guides are on hand to explain how a philosophical and artistic movement became a way of living.  The house is due to reopen on 5 March 2026, and visits must be booked in advance – so a little forward planning is required. These small museums are reminders that some of London’s richest stories are tucked away behind unassuming front doors.
And if a few of them sound familiar, that’s no accident. Many of these places, and plenty more like them, crop up in my book, Why is Downing Street Painted Black?: and 364 Other Fun London Facts, where I explore the quieter corners of the capital and the stories they tell. After all, as Dr Johnson knew, London rewards curiosity - and there’s always another door worth pushing open. My book can be ordered here.
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 Tucked away on a quiet, leafy residential street just off the busy Finchley Road in north London, 20 Maresfield Gardens looks like any other attractive London townhouse. Which is exactly what makes it so good. This was the final home of Sigmund Freud (1859 – 1939), the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud fled here in 1938 after the Nazis annexed Austria, bringing with him his family, his library, and enormous collection of ancient artefacts.  When Freud came to London, he was suffering from heart problems and mouth cancer. He died a year later in 1939 and the house continued to be a family home for 44 years. Anna Freud (1895 – 1982), the youngest of Sigmund and Martha Freud’s six children, continued to live in the house after her father’s death up until her own death in 1982. After that, she left instructions in her will for 20 Maresfield Gardens to become a museum dedicated to the life and work of her father, which opened in 1986. The house has been preserved in a way that feels intimate rather than shrine-like. You’re not stepping into a grand museum; you’re stepping into someone’s living room.  Freud’s study is arranged to resemble, as closely as possible, the rooms he practiced in during in his lifetime. His famous couch is here, sitting quietly in the study like it’s waiting for you to lie down and start talking. It’s covered in rugs and throws and surrounding it are shelves crammed with hundreds of books and objects Freud collected throughout his life – Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Asian – all of which he believed helped him think. These really are a set of bookshelves that make you feel you need to up your game.  One of the joys of the Freud Museum is that it’s small. It’s not overwhelming. Instead, you poke around rooms, read a few labels, and gradually realise you’re learning things without being lectured at. It is full of intriguing snippets. From Freud’s fascination with the Biblical figure of Moses, despite the fact he rejected religion, to his begonia still very much alive and thriving at the museum, years after his death. The museum regularly hosts talks, tours, events and presents exhibitions of work by contemporary artists which resonate with Freud’s life and work. The current exhibition Cathie Pilkington: Housekeeper is enthralling. Cathie Pilkington’s work explores domestic spaces and female identity and she combines sculpture with immersive installations using diverse materials and studio furniture. At the Freud Museum she sheds light on the care and work of Paula Fichtl, the Freud family’s live-in housekeeper. “She knows this place better than all of us” Freud said of her. Placing Pilkington’s sculptures inside Freud’s former home is inspired and slightly unsettling – in the best possible way.   Her uncanny figures appear in corners, on furniture, half-blending into the house itself. They feel like they belong there, whilst also disrupting the spaces in a mischievous way – as if they’re whispering to each other as soon as you turn away. The exhibition plays with ideas of care, control, and the roles people occupy within domestic spaces – themes that breathe new life into Freud’s own home.  The Freud Museum is one of those places that rewards curiosity. You don’t need to know your id from your ego to enjoy it. Just turn up, have a wander, and let the house and gardens do their thing. You’ll leave having learned something – about Freud, about art, about houses, or possibly about yourself.
Things to know: The museum is open Wednesday to Sunday. Cathie Pilkington: Housekeeper exhibition dates: 29 October 2025 – 1 March 2026 Other places of interest near the Freud Museum: Hampstead Heath, Fenton House and Garden, Camden Art Centre, Kenwood, 2 Willow Road. This coming Sunday (10th July at 4pm) I'll be running my first ever 'Hampstead' walk.If you're unfamiliar with the area, Hampstead was once a small country village, which although only 4 miles from central London stands about 440ft (134 metres) above sea level. It remained largely undeveloped until well in to the 18th century when people were drawn there by the clean air, large open spaces and abundance of springs. It became known as the 'Vale of Health'. It has managed to retain its village feel and stands next to 800 acres of heathland which is open to the public and enjoyed by Londoners, especially the fantastic views of the capital from Parliament Hill. Hampstead attracted a huge amount of writers, artists and well known historical characters, and as such has about 75 commemorative plaques on their former homes. We'll pass by quite a number, including the houses of H.G Wells, Peter Cook, John Constable, Daphne du Maurier, Marie Stopes, Robert Louis Stevenson and John Keats to name but a few. Today's residents of Hampstead include the likes of Ricky Gervais, Liam Gallagher, Helena Bonham Carter and Jonathan Ross.    As well as a fine array of 18th century houses, winding streets and also the impressive Fenton House built in the late 17th century, Hampstead also has quite a number of modernist houses built in the 1930s, including 66 Frognal, the 'sun house' (the first modernist concrete house to be built in London) and No.2 Willow Road which is now a National Trust property. We'll also pass Admiral's House, which was not only painted by local artist John Constable but is said to have been P.L Traver's inspiration for 'Admiral Boom' in her Mary Poppins stories. You'll have to come on the walk to find out the whole story.    Although we won't be breaking out on to Hampstead Heath itself, we will have the opportunity to glimpse a small part of the Heath as we walk up 'Judges Walk' to Whitestone Pond, the highest point in Hampstead. If you would like to join one of my Hampstead walks, please check the schedule on the Home Page for upcoming dates. I'll be running them on Sunday afternoons so you can combine it with a visit and perhaps Sunday Roast in one of Hampstead's many gorgeous pubs, or perhaps a visit to the nearby Kenwood House or maybe just a stroll around Hampstead Heath. If you're brave enough, you could go for an outdoor dip in one of the Hampstead Ponds.      I'm running new regular 'pay what you want' weekend walks around London including 'Holborn, Smithfield & Clerkenwell', 'The Great Fire', 'King's Cross' and many others. You'll find them all listed on my Weekend Walks page. If you'd like to join one, please send me a message using the Contact Form.
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