The Guards Museum
Photo: Own work — CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
The Guards Museum, located near Buckingham Palace, showcases over 380 years of history of the five regiments of the British Foot Guards through uniforms, artefacts, and personal stories.
Planning your visit
The Guards Museum sits underneath Wellington Barracks on Birdcage Walk, a two-minute walk from Buckingham Palace, and it covers the five regiments of Foot Guards — Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh — across more than 380 years. These are the soldiers in bearskins outside the palace, and the museum's useful function is explaining that the ceremonial role sits on top of a continuous operational history: Waterloo, the Crimea, both world wars, and every recent British deployment.
Uniforms, weapons, medals, campaign relics and personal accounts fill the galleries, arranged broadly chronologically. The regimental distinctions — button spacing, plume colour and side, collar badges — are set out clearly, which turns the guardsmen outside from an undifferentiated spectacle into something readable.
The location makes it a natural complement to watching the Changing of the Guard, and understanding what you have just seen improves it considerably. The parade forms up on the barracks square adjacent.
Allow an hour. The main booking is an entry ticket. Current availability is shown below.
Before you book
Where is The Guards Museum?
The Guards Museum is in London, United Kingdom. The map on this page marks its exact location.
How long should I allow for The Guards Museum?
Allow an hour. That is the time the collection itself takes at an unhurried pace, before any queue.
Do I need to book The Guards Museum in advance?
Tickets can be bought on the door at quiet times, but booking ahead fixes the date and avoids the queue at busy ones. Live availability is shown on this page.
