The Cartoon Museum
The Cartoon Museum is a dedicated institution celebrating the art of cartoons, caricature, comic strips, and animation in all their forms. Situated in the heart of London's West End, it stands as one of the few museums in the world devoted entirely to this popular and often underappreciated art form. It attracts visitors ranging from casual enthusiasts to serious scholars of illustration and graphic art, offering a rare chance to see original artwork up close and to understand the craft and cultural weight behind what might initially seem like light entertainment. The museum is genuinely one of a kind in the UK and draws both domestic visitors and international tourists who might otherwise overlook it among London's more famous institutions.
The museum was founded in 2006 and originally opened in Bloomsbury, on Little Russell Street near the British Museum, where it occupied a modest but well-loved premises for many years. It built a loyal following during that time, staging rotating exhibitions alongside a permanent collection that spans British cartooning history from the eighteenth century to the present day. In 2019, the museum moved to its current location in Fitzrovia, on Wells Street, giving it more space and a slightly higher profile in a busier part of central London. The move allowed for expanded gallery space and the ability to host more ambitious temporary exhibitions alongside its core holdings.
The collection held by the museum is remarkable for its breadth and historical depth. It includes original artwork by some of the most celebrated names in British cartooning, from William Hogarth and James Gillray — pioneers of satirical printmaking in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries — through to beloved twentieth-century newspaper cartoonists and contemporary comic book artists. Visitors can encounter original drawings that appeared in publications like Punch magazine, as well as strips from comics such as The Beano and The Dandy, which have been cultural touchstones for generations of British children. The museum also holds significant collections relating to political cartooning, a tradition with particular resonance in British public life.
In person, the museum has the feel of a genuinely enthusiast-run space — knowledgeable, passionate, and pleasingly intimate in scale. The galleries are well lit to show off pencil lines, ink work, and colour in original artworks, and wall texts are informative without being dry. There is often a sense of discovery in exploring the rooms, particularly when recognising a familiar published image and then realising you are standing before the actual piece of paper on which it was drawn. The atmosphere is welcoming and unhurried, quite different from the sometimes overwhelming scale of London's great national museums just a short walk away.
The surrounding area of Fitzrovia is an interesting and lively part of central London. The neighbourhood sits between Oxford Street to the south and Euston Road to the north, bounded by Tottenham Court Road to the east and Great Portland Street to the west. It is home to a mix of media companies, independent restaurants, and creative businesses, and retains a slightly bohemian character despite the encroachment of corporate development. Wells Street itself is a short, pleasant road with a mix of commercial premises, and the museum's current premises offer a more prominent shopfront presence than its previous Bloomsbury home. Nearby landmarks include the BT Tower visible to the north, and Oxford Street is only a few minutes' walk to the south.
Getting to the museum is straightforward by public transport. The nearest Underground stations are Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road, both on the Elizabeth, Central, or Victoria lines depending on which you choose, and both are within comfortable walking distance. Numerous bus routes serve Oxford Street and the surrounding streets. The museum is not ideally suited to those arriving by car given central London's congestion charges and limited parking. Admission has historically been charged for adults, with concessions and free entry for children, though it is always worth checking the museum's own website for current pricing and opening hours as these have varied over time, particularly following the disruptions of the pandemic years.
One of the more delightful and slightly unexpected aspects of the museum is the way it demands reconsideration of cartooning as a serious art form. Exhibitions here regularly highlight the political and social commentary embedded in caricature throughout history — reminding visitors that Gillray's savage prints of Napoleon or George III were the editorial cartoons of their age, every bit as pointed and influential as anything appearing in newspapers today. The museum also runs education programmes and events aimed at aspiring cartoonists and illustrators, maintaining a connection to living practice rather than treating the art form as something safely historical. For anyone with even a passing interest in illustration, satire, or the history of British popular culture, it is a genuinely rewarding place to spend a couple of hours.