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London museums take podium for England’s most popular attractions

British Museum sees 42% climb in visits between 2022 and 2023, according to Visit England data

The three most popular visitor attractions in England in the past year are all museums in London, according to new data from Visit England.

The organisation’s annual list of the Top 20 free and paid attractions puts the British Museum, Natural History Museum and Tate Modern in first, second and third place respectively in 2023.

The free museums have all reported significant increases in visitor numbers since 2022; most notably British Museum figures suggest its visitors grew from 4.09m in 2022 to 5.82m in 2023, an annual increase of 42%.

The fourth most visited attraction, and the first which is not a museum, is Brighton Pier. It saw 4.2m visits in 2023.

The most popular paid attraction last year was the Tower of London, which welcomed 2.79m visitors, and reported a 38% increase from 2022.

VisitEngland said that attractions in England reported an 11% increase in the volume of total visits from 2022 to 2023, however this is still 28% below 2019 pre-pandemic levels.

Museums and Art Galleries and Places of Worship received the highest increase in visits year on year (20%) and (19%) respectively.

In 2023, the sector grew due to an increase in overseas visits to attractions ( up 80% on 2022) and an increase in school trips in 2022, but sites reported a 2% decline in domestic visits.

Across England’s regions, the most popular attractions were:

North West

Top free attraction in 2023: World Museum Liverpool (697,115 visitors)

Top paid attraction in 2023: Chester Zoo (1,941,754 visitors)

North East

Top free attraction in 2023: BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art (411,200)

Top paid attraction in 2023: Beamish,: The Living Museum of the North (801,756)

Yorkshire & The Humber

Top free attraction in 2023: Cannon Hall Museum, Park and Gardens (983,108 estimated)

Top paid attraction in 2023: Yorkshire Wildlife Park (921,008)

West Midlands

Top free attraction in 2023: Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) (853,355 visitors)

Top paid attraction in 2023: Attingham Park (591,794 visitors)

East Midlands

Top free attraction in 2023: Wollaton Hall and Park (697,908 visitors)

Top paid attraction in 2023: Chatsworth (604,624 visitors)

East of England

Top free attraction in 2023: The Abbey Gardens & Abbey Ruins Gardens (1,345,058 visitors)

Top paid attraction in 2023: Colchester Zoo (1,003,817 visitors)

London

Top free attraction in 2023: British Museum (5,820,860 visitors)

Top paid attraction in 2023: Tower of London (2,791,834 visitors)

South East

Top free attraction in 2023: Brighton Pier (4,235,165 visitors)

Top paid attraction in 2023: Windsor Castle (1,374,607 visitors)

South West

Top free attraction in 2023: Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust (505,162 visitors )

Top paid attraction in 2023: Stonehenge (1,327,423 visitors)

 

The full list of data is available on the Visit Britain website.