The RAF Museum London is a free museum of aircraft in six large hangars at Colindale, at the northern end of the Northern line. Entry costs nothing, it opens daily from 10am to 5pm, and the one thing that decides whether the trip is worth it is simple: do you want to stand underneath real aeroplanes?
The site is the old Hendon aerodrome, where the aviation pioneer Claude Grahame-White had his works before the First World War; his office has been rebuilt inside one of the hangars. The aircraft run from a fabric-covered Fokker biplane to a Eurofighter Typhoon, and most of them stand at floor level behind low barriers rather than roped off at a distance.
It is a long way out. From central London, allow about 45 minutes each way. That is the trade-off: our guide to London's free museums lists a dozen you can reach in fifteen minutes, and none of them has a Vulcan bomber. If aircraft are the reason for the trip, this is the best collection in the city by a wide margin.
RAF Museum London essentials
- Admission
- Free to all areas; donations welcome; the museum asks you to book a free ticket in advance
- Opening hours
- Daily 10am–5pm, last entry 4.30pm
- Address
- Grahame Park Way, London NW9 5LL (sat nav NW9 5QW)
- Nearest station
- Colindale, Northern line (Edgware branch), Zone 4, about a 10-minute walk
- Paid extras
- Spitfire Experience £30; flight simulator and 4D theatre £5 each, family ticket £16 (September 2026)
- Parking
- £8.50 up to three hours, £11.00 for three to six hours
- Food
- Hendon Kitchen café, open daily from 10am; outdoor picnic areas
Getting to Colindale without ending up in Edgware
Take the Northern line northbound towards Edgware. This is the mistake visitors make: the Northern line splits, and at Camden Town you must be on a train showing Edgware rather than High Barnet or Mill Hill East. The platform displays say which. Our guide to the Underground explains how the branches work.
Get off at Colindale, not Hendon Central. There is only one exit. Turn left outside the station and walk straight along the road for about ten minutes; the museum is behind Colindale police station, next to Beaufort Park. If you would rather not walk, bus 303 stops directly outside the main entrance, and the nearest stop to the station is opposite Colindale Library on Bristol Avenue.
Colindale is in Zone 4, so a return trip from the centre counts against the Zones 1–4 daily cap of £12.80 on contactless or Oyster. Accompanied children under 11 pay nothing on the Tube, with a limit of four per adult, so the fares for a family day out here come to very little. See how the travel zones work if you are not sure which zone your hotel is in.
By train, Mill Hill Broadway on the Thameslink line is about a 20-minute walk, or a seven-minute ride on the 303 from Stop B outside the station, heading towards Kingsbury Circle.
Parking is charged even for Blue Badge holders at Hendon. Cars pay £8.50 for up to three hours and £11.00 for three to six hours, and the charge applies to every vehicle. Coaches park free if booked in advance. Vehicles cannot come on site before 10am unless they are part of a pre-booked group.
Photo: Ad Meskens · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · resized
Hangar 1: Spitfire, Sunderland and the search-and-rescue helicopter
Start here, because this is where the check-in desk, shop, lockers and quiet room are. The hangar holds a Supermarine Spitfire Mk Vb and a Short Sunderland flying boat, which you can walk through, along with a Westland Sea King HAR 3, the search-and-rescue helicopter type flown by the Prince of Wales. There are miniature replicas of several aircraft for small children to sit in and be photographed.
Free manual wheelchairs and, weather permitting, mobility scooters can be borrowed at the check-in desk on a first-come basis. Aisles throughout the hangars are wide, and the barriers are kept low, so the sightlines are good from a seated position. This is one of the more comfortable large museums in London for anyone who tires easily, once you have made the journey.
Hangar 2: the First World War in the Air
The second hangar is the one that surprises people. It contains Claude Grahame-White's original office, moved and rebuilt, along with a German Fokker D.VII and a Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a. Seeing the two opposing fighters in one room, both essentially wooden frames covered in fabric, does more to explain the First World War in the air than any label.
This hangar also has the site's Changing Places toilet, which matters if anyone in your party needs one; the nearest alternatives are a long way off.
Hangars 3, 4 and 5: the Lancaster, the Vulcan and the paid rides
The three connected hangars covering 1919 to 1980 hold the heavy metal. The Avro Lancaster here is "S for Sugar", which survived 137 operations. The Avro Vulcan B2 is parked so that you can walk underneath the delta wing, which is the single most impressive thing on the site. There is also the fuselage of a Supermarine Southampton flying boat and the Battle of Britain Fighter Four.
The paid experiences are all in Hangar 3, and they are cheap by London standards:
| Experience | Price | Age or height limit | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Spitfire Experience (sit in a Spitfire cockpit) | £30 per person | 8 years and over | 10 minutes |
| Flight simulator, Eurofighter Typhoon | £5 per ride, or £16 for up to four people | Minimum height 1.07 m | 10 minutes |
| 4D theatre (three films, including the Red Arrows) | £5 per film, or £16 for up to four people | 4 years and over | 5–10 minutes |
Carers go free on all three, and booking online takes 10% off. Prices were checked in September 2026; confirm them on the museum's own site, because the 4D theatre was listed as temporarily closed for refurbishment when we checked, and that is exactly the sort of thing that changes without notice.
Two adults and two children can do the simulator and the 4D film for £32. The family tickets cover up to four people travelling or riding together, at £16 each. Set against £30 a head for the Spitfire cockpit, the family tickets are where the value is, unless one person in particular has always wanted to sit in a Spitfire.
Hangar 6: 1980 to today
The final hangar covers 1980 to the present. The Eurofighter Typhoon DA2, a Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer S2B, a Harrier GR9A with its vertical take-off nozzles and the front fuselage of a Chinook are all here. Teenagers who lose interest in the earlier hangars usually wake up in this one, because the aircraft are ones they have seen in the news.
Doing it with children, and doing it without
The museum works differently depending on who you bring. With young children, the draw is AeroPlay soft play, the outdoor playground and the two £5 rides, and the aircraft are scenery between them. Children under 11 must be accompanied by an adult throughout. A morning is enough, and the playground is a good place to end.
Without children, the collection rewards a slow three hours and the hangars are quiet on weekday mornings during term time. If you are choosing between this and something more central on a wet day, there are closer options in our guide to wet weather in London, and rainy day activities for children covers the family angle.
For a family weighing up which free museums will actually hold attention, our piece on the museums that work for teenagers puts Hendon in context against the South Kensington giants.
Booking the free ticket, and what happens if you do not
Admission is free and donations are welcome, and the museum asks you to book a free entry ticket in advance through its own website. Booking takes a minute and guarantees you a place on a busy Saturday.
The paid experiences are booked separately, and this is where the 10% online discount applies. If you are bringing a car, book parking at the same time; vehicles cannot come on site before 10am unless they are with a pre-booked group, so arriving at 9.45am does not help.
One more piece of timing. Last entry is 4.30pm and the museum closes at 5pm, but the opening times page carries a standing warning that hours are subject to change. Because this is an hour's journey from central London, that is a page worth glancing at on the morning of your visit rather than the week before.
Eating, and whether to bring a picnic
Hendon Kitchen is a bright canteen-style café serving British ingredients, open daily from 10am, with a smaller café beside the soft play. There are also outdoor picnic areas and green space, so on a dry day bringing food is easy and there is nowhere nearby worth walking to instead. Colindale is a residential area with a handful of shops near the station and little else.
How it compares with London's other free museums
The obvious comparison is the Science Museum in South Kensington, which also displays aircraft but treats them as part of a much wider story and asks you to pre-book a free ticket. Hendon is narrower and deeper: more aircraft, more of them complete, and far fewer people.
For military history rather than machines, the Imperial War Museum is free, central and much stronger on people. For a single vessel you can climb through, HMS Belfast charges but delivers something Hendon cannot. And if you want the aviation without the journey, the British Museum it is not; nothing else in central London comes close on aircraft.
Frequently asked questions
Is the RAF Museum London free?
Yes. Admission to all areas of the museum is free and donations are welcome. The museum asks visitors to book a free ticket in advance. The flight simulator, 4D theatre and Spitfire Experience are paid extras, and car parking is charged separately.
Which Tube station is closest to the RAF Museum London?
Colindale, on the Edgware branch of the Northern line, in Zone 4. It is about a ten-minute walk: turn left out of the single station exit and follow the road. Do not get off at Hendon Central. Bus 303 stops directly outside the museum entrance.
How long do you need at the RAF Museum London?
Most visitors spend two to three hours across the six hangars. Add an hour if you are doing the paid experiences or letting children use the soft play and the outdoor playground. The museum closes at 5pm with last entry at 4.30pm, so arriving after 3pm is tight.
How much does parking cost at the RAF Museum London?
Cars pay £8.50 for up to three hours and £11.00 for three to six hours, and motorcycles pay £8.50 for the day. The charges apply to Blue Badge holders as well. Coaches park free if booked in advance. Prices checked September 2026.
Can you sit in a Spitfire at the RAF Museum?
Yes, through the paid Spitfire Experience in Hangar 3, which costs £30 per person, lasts about ten minutes and is open to ages eight and over. Access conditions apply, so read the details before booking. Booking online saves 10%.
Sources
- RAF Museum London - Plan your visit (checked September 2026)
- RAF Museum London - Getting here (checked September 2026)
- RAF Museum London - Explore the hangars (checked September 2026)
- RAF Museum London - Experiences and prices (checked September 2026)
- Transport for London - Daily and weekly capping (checked September 2026)