Formerly the plain old Tate, Tate Britain rivals the National Gallery for prestige art on a grand scale. Housed at Millbank, overlooking the Thames, an unusual neighbourhood in that it's so easy to miss, despite being on the periphery of the major tourist zones at Westminster and Victoria.
What separates Tate Britain significantly from the National is that the focus here is on British Art. From 1500 to the present day, including Turner Prize candidates (but don't let that put you off). Stubbs, Gainsborough, Turner, Blake, Constable and Reynolds are represented as well as significant artists from the nineteenth century Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, including Rossetti and Millais. If you're a fan of this period and many are - take a look at the Guildhall Gallery (free on Fridays) in the City of London - as a few select and rare pieces are on display there too.

Head north, via the Tube (Victoria Line) to Oxford Circus and walk towards Manchester Square.

The Wallace Collection is situated in Hertford House, Manchester Square, a few hundred yards away from the hectic bustle of Oxford Street. It displays a world-renowned range of fine and decorative arts from the 15th to the 19th centuries, arranged within 25 galleries. Curiously overlooked by many visitors, possibly because it's so rarely flagged for attention. Friendly and approachable staff greet you warmly at the entrance and you are rarely afforded such close contact with masterpieces. Well worth taking the time to investigate, its intimacy could well propel it into your own personal-favourites list.

The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated to the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects. Its collection spans 5000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day, in virtually every medium, from the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa.

The holdings of ceramics, glass, textiles, costumes, silver, ironwork, jewellery, furniture, medieval objects, sculpture, prints and printmaking, drawings and photographs are among the largest and most comprehensive in the world. The Victoria and Albert Museum possesses the world's largest collection of post-classical sculpture, the holdings of Italian Renaissance items are the largest outside Italy. The departments of Asia include art from South Asia, China, Japan, Korea and the Islamic world. The East Asian collections are among the best in Europe, with particular strengths in ceramics and metalwork, while the Islamic collection, alongside the Musée du Louvre and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is amongst the largest in the world.

Nineteenth century British artists are well represented at the museum. John Constable and J.M.W. Turner have oil paintings, water colours and drawings within the collection. One of the most unusual objects on display is Thomas Gainsborough's experimental showbox with its back-lit landscapes. They were painted on glass, which could be changed like slides.