National Gallery Attendance Rises in 2025, but London Museums Show Uneven Recovery After Covid
London’s museum landscape is sending mixed signals about the post-pandemic rebound: while the Natural History Museum has set a new national benchmark for footfall, several of the capital’s best-known art institutions are still climbing back toward their pre-2020 norms.
The National Gallery welcomed 4.2 million visitors in 2025, up from 3.2 million in 2024, according to an annual survey of art museum attendance. Even with that increase, the Trafalgar Square institution remains well below its 2019 total of 6 million.
A key driver of the 2025 uptick was the reopening of the Sainsbury Wing in May, which brought practical changes aimed at smoothing the visitor experience, including upgrades to the entrance, security checks, and queue management. Monthly attendance rose after the reopening, but it still did not reach 2019 levels. If the post-May pace holds, the gallery would land at roughly 4.9 million visitors annually, about 800,000 fewer than the average across the decade before Covid.
The attendance picture arrives alongside financial pressure. In February, the National Gallery said it would need to reduce staffing as it confronts an £8.2 million deficit.
A spokesperson for the museum said the 2025 figures matched internal expectations, adding that the gallery does not anticipate an immediate return to pre-Covid numbers following the Sainsbury Wing’s reopening. The spokesperson pointed to a pronounced drop in international tourism as the largest factor in the shortfall: international visitors were around 1.7 million lower than in 2019.
To offset that decline, the National Gallery is planning initiatives intended to “make itself more welcoming and relevant to the British public,” with the goal of increasing domestic attendance. The institution is also looking ahead to a planned £750 million extension, which it expects will help draw visitors by allowing the museum to “tell a broader, more contemporary story of painting.”
Elsewhere in London, the Tate’s two flagship sites also remain soft. Tate Modern recorded 4.5 million visitors in 2025, a slight dip from the year before and roughly a quarter below its 2019 level. The figure marks Tate Modern’s lowest non-Covid-impacted year since 2004. Tate Britain likewise slipped slightly year over year. Tate has previously attributed part of the decline to fewer young Europeans traveling to London after Brexit.
Not every institution is struggling. The Natural History Museum (NHM) drew a record 7.1 million visitors, overtaking the British Museum, which logged 6.4 million, to become the UK’s most visited museum. The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (Alva) said the NHM total is the highest ever achieved by a UK museum. The headline number includes visitors to the museum’s recently renovated garden; attendance for the building itself was 6.3 million.
New openings in East London are also showing early momentum. The V&A East Storehouse has performed above expectations, attracting nearly 60,000 visitors per month, comparable to the Wallace Collection and the Imperial War Museum London. The nearby V&A East museum is scheduled to open next month.
On the continent, major institutions largely held steady at or near pre-pandemic levels. The Musée du Louvre remained the world’s most visited art museum with 9 million visitors in 2025, followed by the Vatican Museums with 6.9 million. Madrid’s Museo Nacional del Prado set a record with more than 3.5 million visitors and has announced new measures to manage demand, including reducing group sizes.
One of the sharpest jumps worldwide came from the National Museum of Korea in Seoul, where attendance surged from 3.8 million to 6.5 million. The museum attributed the rise to strong domestic visitorship and global interest in Korean culture. In China, the Shanghai Museum East completed its first full year with 4.6 million visitors.
A fuller picture of global museum-going is expected soon, with a list of the 150 most visited art museums in the world slated for release at the beginning of April.
