The Cartoon Museum on Wells Street in Fitzrovia holds British editorial cartoons, caricatures and comic strips from the 18th century to the present. An adult ticket is £12 and doubles as an annual pass, under-18s go free, and the whole building is step-free. It is the only museum in London devoted to the form.
The museum is run by the Cartoon Art Trust, a charity that exists to preserve British cartoon, caricature, comic and animation art, and it works as a small gallery with a permanent collection rather than a large permanent display. What is on the walls changes several times a year, so two visits twelve months apart show you different things, which is the point of the annual ticket.
It also sits in an awkward spot for guidebooks. Wells Street runs north from Oxford Street, so the museum is described as being just off London's busiest shopping street; in practice number 63 is a few minutes' walk up, and the street is quiet.
The Cartoon Museum at a glance
- Address
- 63 Wells Street, Fitzrovia, London W1A 3AE
- Open
- Tuesday to Saturday 10:30–17:30; Sunday 12:00–16:00. Closed Mondays
- Late opening
- Last Thursday of the month, 10:30–20:00
- Adult ticket
- £12, valid as an annual pass (September 2026)
- Free entry
- Under-18s, Museum Friends, Art Fund members, London Pass holders and carers
- Access
- Fully wheelchair accessible, with a lift from street level
£12 that lasts a year
All admission here is sold as an annual pass. An adult pays £12, a concession (over-60s and disabled visitors) £8, and students, Museums Association members and people receiving Universal Credit £5. Anyone under 18 goes free, as do the museum's own Friends, Art Fund members, London Pass holders and a carer accompanying another visitor.
Friends and Art Fund members do not need to book: they show proof of membership at the desk. Everyone else can book online in advance or buy on the day. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
Groups of ten or more paying visitors get 10% off, booked by email or on 020 7580 8155. Two add-ons are worth knowing about: a 45-minute gallery tour at £5 a head, and tea, coffee and biscuits at £5 a head. For a group with an interest in the subject, the tour is the best £5 in this article.
Under-18s pay nothing, and the adult ticket is a year-long pass. Two parents and three teenagers cost £24 in total, and all five can come back as often as they like for twelve months. Very few paid museums in central London price a family this way.
Photo: Philafrenzy · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
What is in the collection
The permanent holdings run from the great age of British caricature in the 18th century through to contemporary newspaper cartooning and comics. That covers a lot of ground: political satire aimed at prime ministers and monarchs, the newspaper strip, children's comics, and the artists whose originals almost never appear in public anywhere else.
Much of the Georgian material survives as printed satires rather than drawings, which is why caricature tends to appear in temporary exhibitions rather than in permanent galleries across London. Here it is the house subject, and the displays are hung so that you can read the jokes, which sounds obvious and is rarer than you would think.
The other pleasure is seeing original artwork. A newspaper cartoon exists in most people's memory as a smudged reproduction a few centimetres wide; the drawing behind it is often twice the size, in ink and correction fluid, with the lettering pencilled in and the artist's second thoughts still visible. That gap between the original and the printed version is a large part of what this museum is for.
Two exhibitions were running in September 2026. Does my head look BIG in this? The art of portrait caricature traced caricature from its origins in Renaissance Italy through its 18th-century golden age in England to the present, and ran from 23 May to 1 November 2026, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Well Actually: An Accurate Enough Collection ran from 7 July to 4 October 2026. Check the museum's exhibitions page before you go; the programme turns over several times a year.
The last Thursday, and when it is quiet
On the last Thursday of every month the museum stays open until 8pm. That is the only London museum late opening in this immediate area and it is the best time to come: the galleries are small, and an evening visit avoids the school groups and the shoppers sheltering from Oxford Street. Our guide to museum late openings lists the others across the city.
Sunday is the shortest day, 12:00 to 16:00. Four hours is enough for this museum, but it leaves no room for a late arrival. Mondays are closed altogether.
Access, and the quiet way in
This is one of the most accessible small museums in London. A lift gives step-free access from street level, and wheelchairs are permitted everywhere in the building, including both galleries and the toilet.
The museum also publishes something few others bother with: a description of the quietest walking route to its door, avoiding the crush of Oxford Street. If noise or crowds are difficult, look at that before you set out. Our guide to accessible London covers the wider picture.
Getting to Wells Street
Oxford Circus, Tottenham Court Road and Goodge Street are all less than a mile away, and the museum recommends using Exit 1 at the nearest one, because the entrance it means is under 500 metres from the door. Our Underground guide explains which lines serve each.
Buses 55, 88, 98, 453 and the night routes N18, N25, N55, N98 and N207 all stop less than half a mile away. There are bike racks and a Santander Cycles dock on Wells Street itself, which is unusually convenient. Driving is not worth attempting: this is the Congestion Charge zone and parking is metered and scarce.
Walk up Wells Street rather than along Oxford Street. Turning north off Oxford Street at Wells Street takes you out of the crowds within thirty seconds, and the last three minutes of the walk are through ordinary Fitzrovia side streets rather than shopping traffic.
Where else to find comics and illustration in London
There is no second cartoon museum, and it is worth saying so plainly rather than padding a list. What London does have is a scattering of places that take the form seriously.
Gosh! Comics, 1 Berwick Street, Soho. The best comics shop in central London, ten minutes' walk south of the museum, strong on graphic novels, small-press work and British material. It holds signings and launches, and the staff know the field. Our guide to London's bookshops covers the wider shop scene, and Soho the surrounding streets.
Hogarth's House, Chiswick. British satirical printmaking effectively begins with William Hogarth, and his house is free, open Tuesday to Sunday and on bank holiday Mondays from 12 noon to 5pm. It is a forty-minute journey west but it is the deep root of everything in the Cartoon Museum's Georgian rooms. We cover it in our guide to Carlyle's House and London's smallest museums.
The national print collections. The great holdings of British caricature and illustration belong to institutions such as the British Museum and the V&A, but works on paper cannot be displayed permanently without fading, so they surface in temporary exhibitions and study rooms rather than in fixed galleries. If a caricature or illustration show is on while you are in London, that is the moment to see original material.
The Cartoon Museum's own programme. Beyond the galleries, the Trust runs a touring exhibition, competitions, and a Young Cartoonist-in-Residence scheme, and holds an archive and library that supports research. It is a small organisation doing the collecting work that nobody else in Britain does for this material.
How long to stay, and who it suits
Worth £12 if
- You read newspaper cartoons, comics or graphic novels and want to see originals
- You are visiting with teenagers, who go free and usually engage with it
- Step-free access matters and you are tired of Georgian staircases
- You will be in London again within a year and can use the annual pass
Not for you if
- You want scale: this is two galleries and about an hour
- British political history means nothing to you, because a lot of the satire needs context
- You are hoping for superhero comics and film material; the emphasis is British and print-based
- It is Monday
Most visitors spend an hour, or ninety minutes if both galleries have shows they care about. It is a good hour to build around lunch in Fitzrovia, and a reliable wet-weather stop. There are more ideas for a wet afternoon in our rainy-day guide.
What to pair it with
The immediate area is covered in our Fitzrovia guide, and Oxford Street is two minutes south if you have shopping to do. For another museum built on one person's collecting habit, the Museum of Brands in Notting Hill is a twenty-minute Tube ride and works on exactly the same principle: ordinary printed material, kept when nobody else thought to.
Record shops cluster in the same part of Soho as Gosh!, which makes an easy afternoon of it. For more in this vein, see our piece on London's overlooked small collections and our list of free museums for the no-cost alternatives. Families should also look at London with kids, and our list of museums that work for teenagers, where this one earns its place.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the Cartoon Museum cost?
An adult pays £12, a concession for over-60s and disabled visitors £8, and students, Museums Association members and Universal Credit recipients £5. Under-18s, Art Fund members, London Pass holders, museum Friends and carers go free. Every paid ticket is an annual pass.
Which days is the Cartoon Museum open?
Tuesday to Saturday from 10:30 to 17:30, and Sunday from 12:00 to 16:00. It is closed on Mondays. On the last Thursday of each month it stays open until 8pm, which is the quietest time to visit.
Where is the Cartoon Museum now?
At 63 Wells Street in Fitzrovia, W1A 3AE, north of Oxford Street. Oxford Circus, Tottenham Court Road and Goodge Street are all less than a mile away, and there is a Santander Cycles dock on Wells Street itself.
Is it suitable for children?
Under-18s go free and children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Teenagers who read comics tend to get a great deal out of it. Younger children will find some of the political satire opaque, though the comic strip material lands with almost everyone.
Is the museum wheelchair accessible?
Yes. There is a lift providing step-free access from street level, and wheelchairs are allowed everywhere in the building, including both galleries and the toilet. The museum also publishes a quieter walking route to its door for anyone who wants to avoid Oxford Street.
Sources
- The Cartoon Museum - Visit Us, opening times and admission (checked September 2026)
- The Cartoon Museum - Exhibitions (checked September 2026)
- The Cartoon Museum - Access (checked September 2026)
- The Cartoon Museum - About Us and the Cartoon Art Trust (checked September 2026)
- London Borough of Hounslow - Hogarth's House (checked September 2026)