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British Museum Tours
Group bookings can pay by cheque or bank transfer, once your invoice is received.
Individual bookings can pay by Bank transfer, cheque and cash on the day.
At this time we are able to provide tours (in-person and virtual) in English, French, Polish, Spanish and Italian.
Of course, there may be some restrictions depending on the time our guides are available and which tours they are able to provide.
Large Luggage: items over 40x40x50cm or 8kg are not allowed on British Museum premises for security reasons. Smaller bags, umbrellas and coats can be left in the cloakroom, but there will be a charge per item. They will not accept any wheeled bags/cases. The full rules can be found here.
In common with all Museums in the capital, visitors bags are routinely checked by British Museum security at both front and rear entrances. Please allow sufficient time to clear security to arrive in time for the start of your Tour.
Storage for large luggage is available at major rail stations, including Euston, King’s Cross and Charing Cross. There are also companies providing a left luggage service with locations very near the British Museum. We have used Bounce and found it very useful, but, of course, there are many other companies providing this service.
You may find it much easier to book you luggage storage on-line and in advance, rather than queuing for the Museum and then finding that they will not accept you cases/bags.
In the British Museum, the lifts make all tours accessible to wheelchair users.
Westminster Tour is accessible to wheelchair users.
Greenwich Observatory – disabled visitors will not have access to all the galleries.
All tours are available in English. Tours for groups of 5 or more may be conducted by arrangement at time of booking in Polish, French, Spanish and Italian.
The team consists of those mostly in full time service: elders and/or regular pioneers. Whoever your guide is, you will be shown the same exhibits, the same scriptures and receive the same information derived from God’s Word and God’s organization’s publications. All the Guides are happy to give their voluntary service to their brothers.
You are not allowed to eat inside the Galleries.
Packed lunches can be taken in designated areas.
There are two restaurants and two cafeterias inside the British Museum and many local cafes in the area.
You are allowed to take photographs providing this is for personal use only and not for commercial or distribution purposes. Please do not obstruct the guide or others in the group.Video or audio recordings of the tour commentary is not permitted.
Tripods are not permitted
Photography is not permitted inside the British Library or at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.
We tend to have more guides available on Saturdays, but midweek and Sunday tours are available for groups of 10 or more. If you have a smaller group and are only available on a weekday, please complete a request form and we will try to join with others requesting tours on that day.
A full range of tour are available on Bank-Holiday Mondays when the British Museum is open.
Tour Times are usually – 10:15am, 10:45am, 11:30am, 12:00pm, 1:30pm, 2:00pm, 2:45pm and 3:15pm subject to demand and guide availability.
Congregations or groups of over 14 persons can select the tours of their choice.
Individual visitors, if you have a Tour preference, please mention it to the organisers upon arrival at the BM. It may be possible to arrange.
We will be pleased to book you on a Tour for “Visitors”, brothers and sisters from any where in the world.
Two British Museum tours. One in the morning and one in the afternoon.
If travelling with your own coach, you can combine one British Museum tour with one of the London Tours (10,11,12).
We will endeavor to accommodate your preferred Tour combination wherever possible.
Each tour in the Museums lasts 1 hour.
For Groups the following are available:
- Tour 10 coach tour of London 2 hr 30 mins.
- Tour 12 Walking tour in Westminster is 1 hr 15mins.
We ask our brothers and sisters to kindly respect a dress code.
Please remind every one in the group to dress as they would when attending a meeting at the Kingdom Hall or when visiting Bethel.
We have become well known in the British Museum for having modest and respectful attire and this has provided a powerful witness.
Of course, all on the tours will need to bring a bible – paper or electronic.
London Weekend Tours
Complete the London Weekend Information form, which will provide us with most of the details we need. You could Email, telephone +44 20 8432 3423 or write providing any special information. Please provide details of the itinerary you have in mind on the form, but let us know of any alternatives you may require.
We will need to know if you require a hotel room and meals for your coach driver. We also usually arrange for a Magnify guide / organiser to be at the hotel with you to ensure things go smoothly.
As soon as we have your details and itinerary, we will obtain prices from the hotel and let you have an idea of costs per person.
After all has been costed and you decide to go ahead, a deposit of £200 is required to secure the hotel booking. The full cost will need to be paid about a month before the first night.
A minimum of 25 adults is needed.
Payment is by bank transfer. We will supply all account details.
Cancellation
All cancellations should be notified in writing and become effective ONLY when received in this office. Cancellation charges are as follows:-
| Period of Cancellation | Amount of loss in respect of total cost |
| Up to 30 days | Loss of deposit |
| 29 days or less | 100% |
We mainly use two hotels that have easy access to Chelmsford Bethel and to London. We will usually obtain very good rates for a dinner, bed and breakfast package for the group.
The Holiday Inn – Brentwood (Brentwood M25 Jct 28.) This is a very comfortable hotel with many amenities including a swimming pool, spa and fitness centre. Take the Virtual tour of the hotel here.
The Holiday Inn – Basildon. Also a very comfortable hotel, but as it does not have a swimming pool and spa it is often more reasonable in cost. It is a bigger hotel so can accommodate larger groups. Take the Virtual tour of this hotel.
Please note, for either hotel, our minimum group size is 25 Adults.
Natural History Museum Tours
You are allowed to take photographs providing this is for personal use only and not for commercial or distribution purposes. Please do not obstruct the guide or others in the group.Video or audio recordings of the tour commentary is not permitted.
Tripods are not permitted
Photography is not permitted inside the British Library or at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.
At this time we can not cater for individual visitors (that is, group less than five individuals) at the Natural History Museum. Of course, we are fully equipped to look after individuals and small family or other groups at the British Museum.
Our minimum group size for the Natural History Museum is 5 persons (including children), so if you are based in the UK you may be able to find others in your congregation or nearby who would be happy to join you to make up a group for one or two Natural History Museum tours.
Please complete the In-Person booking request form advising us of all your details including the number in your party and the date you wish to come, we can then arrange a time for your tours. Please note that the group sizes in the NHM are strictly limited to a maximum of 15 persons (including children). Of course, if you are organising a larger visit, then your party can be divided into a number of groups. The minimum group size is 10 persons (including children).
Once the tour(s) has(have) been arranged, we will send confirmation, including details of cost and how to pay.
Please note that once your tour is confirmed, we will book your group with the Natural History Museum, and then send you the tickets to allow your group to enter without being held in the queue.
At this time we are able to provide tours (in-person and virtual) in English, French, Polish, Spanish and Italian.
Of course, there may be some restrictions depending on the time our guides are available and which tours they are able to provide.
There a number of entrances to the Natural History Museum, but the one we use is on Exhibition Road (not the main Cromwell Road entrance), as we find the queues are much shorter at busy times. Please always allow at least 30 minutes to get into the Museum – more time may be needed in the summer months and especially during school holidays.
Once inside the Natural History Museum (Exhibition Road entrance) you will find the cloakroom. Toilets are up the stairs and directly above the entrance way. The group(s) can meet their guides in the area to the left of the entrance up the short flight of stairs – next to the ‘Human Evolution’ section as shown below. (We do not actually go into the ‘Human Evolution’ areas on our tours!)
We ask our brothers and sisters to kindly respect a dress code.
Please remind every one in the group to dress as they would when attending a meeting at the Kingdom Hall or when visiting Bethel.
We have become well known in the British Museum for having modest and respectful attire and this has provided a powerful witness.
Of course, all on the tours will need to bring a bible – paper or electronic.
Virtual Tours
We do not insist on any particular dress code for the ‘Virtual Tours’, but we would very much appreciate your dressing modestly and respectfully and bearing in mind that their could be individuals you do not know in the same Zoom group
Many have enjoyed the virtual tours. However, the volume of booking request forms we have received has been so great that we have not been able to fulfil all booking requests, and certainly not on the dates and times requested. Please continue to be patient and we will strive to reply as soon as we can.
We regret, but the short answer is probably not.
The volume of booking requests has been over-whelming, and for many days the number of tours requested can be five or more times the number of guides we have available to fulfill the tours. We are working very hard to train and add more guides, but for the foreseeable future it will be unlikely you will get a tour on a date you requested if it is not a few months ahead. It is still useful to complete the booking request form date and time preferences for your group as we will strive use the same day of the week and time slot, even if it will be a later week.
We very much appreciate your making a booking request for the number of individuals you realistically expect on the tour. Some have booked for a very large amount and then not be able to fill the group, others book for a very low number and then greatly increase. Both of these cause issues in the scheduling and can mean we will have to cancel your tour and re-book for a later date.
If you have your own confirmed group booking – You may adjust your number by up to 10 individuals. Please inform us of the revised number as soon as possible, remembering to provide the numbers split between adults and children. If you need an alteration of more than 10 individuals, please contact us first for confirmation as a re-booking may be required.
You may pay for extras the same way you paid for the whole group, but please ensure you include your Booking ID on the transfer.
Once you receive an email from us confirming your tour date and time, we shall include the payment instructions.
The payment methods available are online payments or bank transfer.
At this time we are able to provide tours (in-person and virtual) in English, French, Polish, Spanish and Italian.
Of course, there may be some restrictions depending on the time our guides are available and which tours they are able to provide.
Your Zoom link will be emailed to you 2 – 3 days before your tour is due to be conducted.
Individuals and groups less then 15 adults – you may book a tour for yourself and we will join you with other brothers and sisters from all over the world. The tour theme will be selected by us, however you may still request your preference on the booking form, but this is not a guarantee.
Groups – groups are a minimum of 12 adults and a maximum of 80 individuals. You may select the tour of your choice, however due to availability we cannot always guarantee this.
Due to the high volume of bookings, it is not unusual for groups to be joined up with other groups. For example our brothers in Ireland enjoyed a tour with brothers in Zimbabwe!
Connections – please note we do not count the number of connections, the booking is counted by the number of individual adults and children.
As the Virtual Tours are interactive, not recorded, the length can vary to some degree. They will be about 1 hour to 1 hours and 30 minutes. In addition, it is usually possible to allow some time after the tour for association on Zoom.
Yes, we are happy for the tours to be translated, but obviously we can not book the translated group in with others who need it only in English. Therefore we would need the group size to be more than 40 and it is essential to let us know on the booking request that the tour will be translated.
We do not provide translators.