London’s least visited hidden gems for arts & culture revealed

• London ranked first in research on top UK cities for arts and culture
• Experts recommend the least visited ‘hidden gems’ in London for arts and culture

With London home to the top ten most visited attractions of 2023¹, it’s no surprise that the capital has been revealed as the UK city with the most to offer its arts and culture tourists.

It’s recently been revealed that visitor levels to museums and galleries are at a four-year high², indicating that arts tourism is on the rise. To encourage this growing interest, the National Gallery London has worked with local art organisations nationwide to create the Art Road Trip – a mobile arts programme travelling the UK – to provide events for those with the least access to the arts.

The UK’s leading online metal supplier, metals4U, has recently been supporting arts-based projects across the UK, highlighting the need for helping the community, bringing people together, whilst learning about culture and history. To support their work, they have conducted research to develop its own arts and culture guide to the UK, with a focus on lesser visited ‘hidden gems’ in London.

The initial research looked at 30 cities to find the top 10 with the most to offer for arts and culture tourists. Factors include the number of sculptures, historical landmarks, and museums in each location and the number of arts organisations that received funding from the National Arts Council over the previous five years.

The top ten cities for arts and culture tourists are: 

Ranking	City	Number of sculptures	Number of historical landmarks	Number of museums	Number of arts orgs. that received funding in the last 5 years	Total
1	London	349	469	489	268	1575
2	Liverpool	198	285	36	22	541
3	Edinburgh	87	118	100	11	316
4	Glasgow	101	37	73	17	228
5	Birmingham	52	80	39	37	208
6	Belfast	14	50	46	63	173
7	Manchester	18	24	39	43	124
8	York	31	43	43	6	123
9	Bath	34	46	40	1	121
10	Bristol	16	36	43	20	115

Unsurprisingly, London took the top spot with a score of 1575 – 191% higher than Liverpool in second place. Known for its rich, diverse cultural heritage, the capital is home to 349 permanent sculptures and is expected to receive a total of £143.7million of arts funding between 2023 and 2026.³

The Instagram account @secret.london, dedicated to showing lesser-visited spots in the capital, has 2.4million followers, indicating that many tourists in London are looking for arts and culture without the crowds.

Any Disney fans that are visiting must make a visit to see the Peter Pan Statue. Despite its prime location in Kensington Gardens, the statue has only 172 reviews on TripAdvisor, showing that it’s regularly missed or ignored by tourists in favour of the well-known sculptures.

Just four miles away from Kensington Gardens, located near Hampstead Heath, tourists can find the Isokon Gallery in Belsize Park. The Isokon Gallery, with just 18 reviews, is a lesser-known exhibition in London dedicated to the story and the architecture of the pioneering Isokon building.

Travelling to East London, Canary Wharf is typically known of as a financial district, but the area is also home to a bustling arts scene.  Amongst the high-rise buildings you’ll find the Traffic Light Tree. With just 24 reviews on TripAdvisor, the innovative sculpture is another less frequently visited installation in London. Installed in 1998, the Traffic Light Tree is 8 metres tall and contains 75 sets of lights.

If you hop over the Thames to the Greenwich Peninsula, you’ll find Head in the Wind, a red steel sculpture by Pop artist Allen Jones with a single review on TripAdvisor. The sculpture was unveiled in 2019 and was designed to be seen from above ground.

Commenting on the results Paul McFadyen, Chairman of metals4U said: “With a total of 857 art galleries in London and three of the top ten museums and galleries in the world located here⁴, it’s no surprise that London is the UK’s leading arts and culture hub. 

“In London, we have a rich cultural heritage that’s often overlooked by tourists in favour of cities such as Rome or Paris that are more well known for it. By visiting some of our ‘hidden gems’ in the capital, tourists from both home and abroad can experience arts and culture in a way that few others have.” 

Whilst it’s tempting to visit the typical tourist spots, why not head off the beaten track and discover some of London’s hidden gems? The UK is known to be quirky and by taking the side street, you might find something truly remarkable.