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Museums in Southern England

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Museums

If you haven’t been to a museum in years for fear of drab venues and broken pots in glass cases, you may be interested to hear that museums in England are all change. Prepare yourself for a surprise as the South East has some of the best museums in England, with more than 300 great options across the region ready to welcome you.

In place of stuffy rooms and wardens shushing for quiet, you’ll find inspirational and interactive spaces with engaging and accessible exhibits from retro cars to animatronic dinosaurs. So, whether you’re into heritage, maritime, wildlife, or sport, you’re bound to find a museum that’s right up your street.

If you would like to learn more about museums in the South East, have a look at our interactive guide.

The South East is home to two fantastic Dockyards; Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in Hampshire and The Historic Dockyard Chatham in Kent. Discover maritime history onboard some of the most famous war ships in British Naval history and find out what life was like for sailors in the past.

Car enthusiasts won’t want to miss the world-famous National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in Hampshire’s New Forest. See one of the largest car collections held by any of the museums in England with 250 cars of every age, including land speed record-breakers Golden Arrow and Bluebird. 

Many of Britain’s best-loved authors lived in the South East and found the region inspirational for their work. Explore the Jane Austen House Museum in Hampshire, the  house where Jane Austen wrote some of her most famous books, and visit the many locations in Kent that tell of the life and works of Charles Dickens, such as the Guildhall Museum in Rochester and the Dickens House Museum.

Other museums in the South East that will help expand your curiosity include the Ashmolean Museum and the River & Rowing Museum, both in Oxfordshire, Mercedes-Benz World in Surrey, Dinosaur Isle on the Isle of Wight as well as The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Buckinghamshire and The Look Out Discovery Centre in Berkshire.

If you’re looking to explore Hampshire and the Isle of Wight’s fascinating past and how it touches our lives today, visit our History Revealed section that highlights a multitude of places to visit that tell the exciting story.