Discover the best Museums in Brighton
Discover Brighton’s rich history and vibrant culture by exploring one of the many museums in Brighton
Brighton has a particularly fascinating and well-documented history and an array of gorgeous museums to showcase it - from the unique blend of Regency grandeur and exotic Indo-Saracenic style of the Pavilion to Edward Booth's taxidermied British bird collection, the museums in Brighton will take you on a grand cultural journey through time.
Delve into incredible Saxon archaeological finds, illuminated by cutting edge technology, spark childhood wonder in an Aladdin’s cave of toy and model history, explore cultures from across the globe and get up-close-and-personal with magnificent creatures from delicate butterflies to fierce leopards.
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Discover Museums in Brighton
Here's a round-up of all the best Museums Brighton has to offer whether you're a day-tripper, seasoned culture vulture or dedicated historian.
The Booth Museum of Natural History
One of the more off-beat museums in Brighton The Booth Museum of Natural History was founded in 1874 by passionate ornithologist Edward Thomas Booth. The museum has a fabulous display of over 300 taxidermy dioramas - an invention of which Booth himself was a pioneer.
It's not just birds - the museum is home to a phenomenal collection of 525,000 insects, 50,000 minerals and rocks, 30,000 plant and 5,000 microscopic slides, as well as skeletons ranging from human to dinosaur!
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery has been delighting visitors since the late 19th century, making it one of the oldest public museums in the UK.
Nowadays, it's a vibrant cultural hub, celebrating not only Brighton and Hove's proud history from the Saxon's to contemporary sub-cultures, but communities and traditions from across the globe.
Brighton Toy and Model Museum
The Brighton Toy and Model Museum is a veritable treasure trove of British and European toymaking, nestled under Brighton station, home to a core collection of over twelve thousand items across four thousand square feet!
Besides a delightful day out, the museum has another key function: contributing to internationally important restoration work, research and digitisation and operating a ten thousand page online encyclopaedia and image library, proving invaluable to enthusiasts, historians and organisations across the globe.
Royal Pavilion
Royal Pavilion is unsurprisingly Brighton’s most popular tourist attraction and it certainly earns that reputation, it is stunning! What started as George IV’s modest seaside villa in the 1780s, became the Indo-Saracenic fantasy you see today under the architect John Nash. However, its unique features don’t end there – the interior, which has been restored and is still visible to this day, was influenced by features of Chinese and Indian fashion at the time, a remarkable vision of artistic and architectural inspiration.
The Old Police Cells Museum
Step back in time and discover the fascinating history of policing in Sussex and a taste of Brighton’s criminal past. Weave through the lanes to the Old Police Cells Museum in the dank and dark basement of Brighton Town Hall.
There peek into the bleak cells, relive the events leading to the death of the Chief Constable who was murdered in 1844, and learn about some of the mods and rockers who were briefly incarcerated here after violence on the beaches.
- Old Police Cells Museum is opening May 2026