British Museum, London: What's On

The British Museum sits on Great Russell Street in Bloomsbury, five minutes from Tottenham Court Road or Russell Square. It's one of those places Londoners keep meaning to go back to and then don't, mostly because the permanent collection is so vast it stops feeling urgent. The way in is usually a temporary exhibition or a specific object you want to see, not the whole building at once.

The Great Court is worth building time around on its own. Glass roof, the old Reading Room in the middle, benches where you can sit and regroup before picking a wing. Term-time weekday mornings are calmer than weekends and school holidays, when the queue for the main entrance can stretch down the steps. If you want quiet time with the Rosetta Stone or the Parthenon sculptures, go early.

Beyond the free permanent galleries, the museum runs ticketed exhibitions in the Sainsbury Galleries, plus a running programme of curator talks, lectures and guided tours that go deeper into specific rooms or themes than you'd manage alone. These change through the year and often sell out ahead of the day, so it's worth checking what's actually scheduled before you turn up expecting to walk straight in.

Bloomsbury around the museum rewards a slow afternoon. Coffee on Museum Street, secondhand bookshops nearby, Russell Square gardens if the weather holds. Pair a visit with one of those rather than trying to see the whole museum in one go. Most people who love the place go back for one gallery at a time, not the lot.