National Gallery London Stays Free After the UK Drops a Plan to Charge Foreign Visitors

For six months this year it looked like Britain's free national museums might start charging tourists. In March the Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, accepted a proposal from Margaret Hodge to look at a two-tier model, free for residents and paid for overseas visitors. The British Museum and the National Gallery were the names in every story, and a figure of £15 to £20 a ticket was floated.

At the end of September the government dropped it. The reasons given were that fees could put off domestic visitors too and would hit museums unevenly. Entry to the national collections has been free since 2001, and it stays that way.

The National Gallery's columned portico on Trafalgar Square with St Martin-in-the-Fields church spire to the right and visitors crossing the square

Trafalgar Square on a grey day, which is most days. The gallery's portico and dome across the top of the steps, St Martin-in-the-Fields on the right, people with suitcases and umbrellas cutting across the paving. You can walk straight in off the square and see Van Gogh's Sunflowers without paying a penny.

Why it came up

Money. Overseas visitors made up about 43% of visits to the national museums in 2023 and 2024, around 17 million people. Museum budgets have been squeezed for years. A tourist ticket looked like an easy way to raise cash without asking British taxpayers.

The National Gallery is the obvious test case. Parliament founded it in 1824. It celebrated its 200th year with a programme that ended on May 10 2025, when the Sainsbury Wing reopened after two years of work by Selldorf Architects with a new entrance and rehung collection. In 2025 the gallery counted 4,147,544 visits, up 29% on the year before and fifth among all UK attractions.

What it means for you

Nothing changes at the door. The permanent collection is free. Big exhibitions are ticketed, as they always were. The gallery's record ticketed show so far is the 2024 Van Gogh exhibition, with 334,589 visits.

The two costs that did go up are around the visit, not in it. The UK's electronic travel authorisation for visa-free visitors now costs £20, and England's mayors are getting powers to add an overnight visitor levy as a percentage of the room rate. London's mayor has already welcomed it.

So go to the gallery. Drop a coin in the donation box on the way out if you can. That's the deal the free system runs on.