{"id":97142,"date":"2026-08-04T12:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/97142\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T12:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T12:45:11","slug":"london-mayor-sadiq-khan-calls-for-citys-public-museums-to-remain-free-to-enter-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/97142\/","title":{"rendered":"London mayor Sadiq Khan calls for city’s public museums to remain free to enter – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has waded into the debate about introducing admission charges at national museums in London, saying that \u201cart and culture are for everyone\u2014no matter where they\u2019re from, or how much money they earn.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an op-ed piece written for LBC<\/a>, Khan makes the case for free entry, emphasising that \u201cfree museums and galleries are a fundamental part of London life\u201d. He highlights that, until 2001, many of the capital\u2019s cultural institutions required visitors to pay for entry. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until the [Labour] government at the time introduced free admission that everything changed,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The mayor notes that visits to formerly pay-to-enter museums in London increased by approximately 151% in the decade following the change, and that museums have become a \u201cthird space\u201d for Londoners. <\/p>\n

He also emphasises that, unlike museums in comparable cities like Paris, Rome and New York, \u201cthe British model is unique,\u201d writing that \u201cfree admission generates about \u00a31 billion every single year in overseas tourism revenue.\u201d <\/p>\n

Khan adds: \u201cThe economic case for free admission for all is self-evident, but there is so much that it leaves unsaid because the value of museums and galleries cannot be measured in pounds and pence alone. To me, the best argument is even more basic: Britain\u2019s national story is a global story. If that story is to belong to all of us, then so must the places where it is told.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khan\u2019s intervention is timely; earlier this year the UK government\u2019s decision to \u201cexplore options\u201d on introducing admission charges for overseas visitors at national museums in England sparked debate in the culture sector, with a number of museum leaders opposing the proposal.<\/p>\n

The UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) re-ignited the discussions around introducing charges for tourists in its response to a review of Arts Council England by the Labour peer Margaret Hodge, who published her recommendations<\/a> regarding the future of ACE last December.<\/p>\n

Some cultural commentators argue nonetheless that tourist fees would plug funding gaps. Mark Jones, the former director of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, told The Art Newspaper earlier this year: \u201cNational museums and galleries are a key part of our tourist infrastructure. But at the moment we struggle, and fail, to provide the funding that they need. Charging overseas visitors for entry\u2014not British residents who have already paid their share\u2014simply recognises that they, as relatively well-off beneficiaries, should contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has waded into the debate about introducing admission charges at national museums…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[27,663,473,20],"class_list":["post-97142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-london","tag-museums-heritage","tag-sadiq-khan","tag-uk-politics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117037310035935284","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}