1. The British Museum
London

3. The British Museum is a museum dedicated to human history and culture, located in the Bloomsbury area of London.

5. The British Museum, established in 1753, was largely based on the collections of the physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. The museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759 in Montagu House in Bloomsbury, on the site of the current museum building.

6. The British Museum was founded as a "universal museum"
The British Museum was founded as a "universal museum". Its foundations lie in the will of the physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753).

8. At that time, Sloane's collection consisted of around 71,000 objects of all kinds including some 40,000 printed books, 7,000 manuscripts, extensive natural history specimens including 337 volumes of dried plants, prints and drawings including those by Albrecht Dürer and antiquities from Sudan, Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Ancient Near and Far East and the Americas.

9. The British Museum was the first of a new kind of museum – national, belonging to neither church nor king, freely open to the public and aiming to collect everything. Sloane's collection, while including a vast miscellany of objects, tended to reflect his scientific interests. The addition of the Cotton and Harley manuscripts introduced a literary and antiquarian element and meant that the British Museum now became both national museum and library.

11. In the early 19th century the foundations for the extensive collection of sculpture began to be laid and Greek, Roman and Egyptian artefacts dominated the antiquities displays.

12. The natural history collections were an integral part of the British Museum until their removal to the new British Museum (Natural History), now the Natural History Museum, in 1887.

14. By the last years of the 19th century, The British Museum's collections had increased so much that the Museum building was no longer big enough for them. The first stage was the construction of the northern wing beginning 1906.

15. In 1895 the trustees purchased the 69 houses surrounding the Museum with the intention of demolishing them and building around the West, North and East sides of the Museum.

16. In 1895 the trustees purchased the 69 houses surrounding the Museum with the intention of demolishing them and building around the West, North and East sides of the Museum.

17. In 1895 the trustees purchased the 69 houses surrounding the Museum with the intention of demolishing them and building around the West, North and East sides of the Museum.

19. Today the museum is no longer houses collections of natural history, and the books and manuscripts it once held now it forms a part of the independent British Library.

20. The Museum nevertheless preserves its universality in its collections of artefacts representing the cultures of the world, ancient and modern.

21. The original 1753 collection has grown to over thirteen million objects at the British Museum, 70 million at the Natural History Museum and 150 million at the British Library.

23. Admission and opening times: Free, open daily 10.00–17.30
The Museum is open every day except for 1 January and 24, 25 and 26 December
Admission and opening times: Free, open daily 10.00–17.30

26. Facilities opening times Cafés and restaurant Court Restaurant
Lunch Afternoon tea Dinner, Fridays only
11.30– – –20.30
Court Café
Saturday – Thursday Friday
09.00– –20.00
Gallery Café
Daily
11.00–17.00

30. Museum shops Bookshop Family shop Collections shop Culture shop
Monday–Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
10.00– – – –17.30
Family shop
09.30– – – –17.30
Collections shop
Monday–Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
09.30– – – –17.30
Culture shop

34. Museum facilities
Libraries and study rooms
For opening times and further information see relevant department 
Africa, Oceania and the Americas  Including the Anthropology Library and Research Centre
Ancient Egypt and Sudan 
Asia 
Coins and Medals 
Conservation and Scientific Research 
Greece and Rome 
Middle East 
Prehistory and Europe 
Prints and Drawings