National Army Museum

The National Army Museum in Chelsea is the central military museum of the British Army and has been telling the story of the army from 1066 to the present since 1960. The current Royal Hospital Road building opened in 1971 and reopened in 2017 after a twenty-three-million-pound redevelopment. Five thematic galleries display Waterloo uniforms, Somme machine guns, trophies from the Second Anglo-Ashanti War and the skeleton of Marengo, Napoleon's Arabian stallion captured at Waterloo in 1815. A dedicated section examines the army's role in Northern Ireland, the Falklands and the recent campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, refusing easy heroism. Admission is free; families find an interactive Play Base for under-eights, plus rotating exhibitions, cafe and shop. The Royal Hospital Chelsea with its scarlet-coated pensioners sits next door.