The Best Arts Memberships To Have In London
Royal Academy
As a Friend of the RA, you don’t just get beat-the-crowds access to world-class art (Picasso, Gauguin and Cézanne all have dedicated exhibitions in 2020). You get a pass into The Keeper’s House, where the ground floor is members-only until 4pm every day. As well as a bright café, relaxed Green Room restaurant and velvety lounge, there’s the Shenkman Bar. Manned by expert bartenders, it opens onto the lush Keeper’s Garden and offers all the seclusion you’ll need for a daytime martini. And you don’t have to drink alone: standard membership allows you to bring a guest.
From £131 a year.
52 Piccadilly, West End, W1J 0BD
Visit RoyalAcademy.org.uk
Natural History Museum
Around the same time that the Natural History Museum was replacing the dinosaur in its entrance hall with a blue whale, it was also overhauling its offer to members. Since late 2018, members have had exclusive use of the Anning Rooms. Deep in the museum’s Grade I-listed Waterhouse Building, across two floors, the suite encompasses an all-day restaurant, lounge and study areas, and a rather impressive cabinet of curiosities. Basic membership entitles you to hang out there with a guest.
From £62 a year.
Cromwell Road, South Kensington, SW7 2RL
Visit NHM.ac.uk
Tate
At its riverside museum sites near Pimlico and London Bridge, the Tate sets aside three spaces exclusively for its members. Within the classical-looking Tate Britain, the Members Room is a handsome refuge in what used to be the museum director’s office. Over at the old power station that is Tate Modern, the Members Room is way up on the eighth floor of 2016’s Blavatnik Building extension. In clear skies, the views are remarkable. The wi-fi’s good too, if you’ve got to work. In the Modern’s original Natalie Bell Building, there’s a sixth-floor Members Bar with similarly appealing vistas.
From £78 a year.
Millbank, Westminster, SW1P 4RG; Bankside, SE1 9TG
Visit Tate.org.uk
Southbank Centre
Join the cluster of arty venues that comprise the Southbank Centre and you don’t only get priority booking to big shows at the Royal Festival Hall. Entry to Hayward Gallery exhibitions becomes free, plus you and a guest can hang out in the Members Café-Bar. On the sixth floor of the Festival Hall, this is another one with views to write home about. Low slung and modernist, it’s an easy place to pass time pre-show, post-show or just because. Two-hour happy hours help encourage feelings of creativity and community.
From £69 a year.
Belvedere Road, Waterloo, SE1 8XX
Visit SouthbankCentre.co.uk
British Museum
Opening its doors in 1753, the British Museum was the first in the land to cover all areas of human knowledge. Its range is still vast: this year’s blockbusting exhibitions span Troy to Thomas Becket and members get unlimited free entry to all of them. They also have their own exclusive space, overlooking the museum’s Great Court, whose two acres are famously covered by Norman Foster’s glass roof. As well as coffee and lunch options on the ground floor, the members space has got wi-fi and an upper-level study area for more diligent visitors. If you want to bring a +1, just beware that’s an extra £30 a year.
From £64 a year.
Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, WC1B 3DG
Visit BritishMuseum.org
British Library
Not content with being the nation’s finest book depository, the British Library lays on regular exhibitions across an array of subjects. Members – plus a guest – are fast-tracked into all of them for free. They can also kick-back in their own exclusive space. As well as fine views onto the King’s Library, you’ll find useful charging points and, more excitingly, a table-service bar.
From £80 a year.
96 Euston Road, King’s Cross, NW1 2DB
Visit BL.uk
Barbican
Vying with the Southbank Centre for the title of London’s favourite brutalist arts hub, the Barbican undercuts its rival on membership prices. Sign up and you’ll be looped into a world of exclusive events and discounted tickets. You and a guest will also have the run of the Members Lounge. Overlooking the complex’s busy main foyer, with catering in the safe hands of Searcys, this is the place to call a timeout.
From £59 a year.
Silk Street, Barbican, EC2Y 8DS
Visit Barbican.org.uk
Victoria & Albert Museum
As well as being able to access exhibitions such as the current Cars: Accelerating The Modern World for free, repeatedly and before the masses descend, members of the V&A have an elegant space they call their own. Opened in 2017 on the top floor of the museum’s listed 1909 wing, the Members Room is a bright, modern space with a serious history. Food is served all day and it stays open later for Friday-evening cocktails.
From £79 a year.
Cromwell Road, South Kensington, SW7 2RL
Visit VAM.ac.uk
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