Every picture may indeed tell a story, but sometimes that story needs some explanation. The National Gallery has over 2400 masterpieces on display, and our Blue Badge Tourist Guides will make sure you not only see the most important artworks but also tell you all about the subject, the artist, the significance and the technique involved.

Ever wondered how the Tudors measured up? Come try Henry VIII or Elizabeth I on for size or stare down a celebrity like Lily Allen or Blur. Established over 150 years ago to understand through images the men and women who were and are shaping British life and institutions, the National Portrait Gallery holds over 175,000 portraits dating back to the 1500s.

Five million people a year can't be wrong. Tate Modern has now surpassed even the British Museum in terms of popularity. What was once a power station now houses the most successful modern art gallery in the world,  and its collection of 60,000 works inspires, bewilders and amuses in equal measure.

Come here to see British art - both old and new. The Tate, founded and originally funded by a sugar baron of that name, is the home of a massive collection of paintings and sculpture produced in this country from the 16th to the late 20th centuries. 

One of London's hidden jewels, the Wallace Collection is considered to be the city's finest small gallery. Once the private collection of the Marquesses of Hertford and housed in what was their London town house - itself a work of classic architecture - here are exquisite 17th- and 18th-century paintings, furniture and porcelain.