The Wallace Collection

What to expect

The Wallace Collection is displayed in Hertford House on Manchester Square, once the London townhouse of the Seymour family, the Marquesses of Hertford. Lady Wallace left the collection to the nation in 1897, and the house opened as a museum in 1900. Entry is free.

It is a house museum, so you move from room to room through grand interiors, not galleries. The collection is strong in 18th-century French art, with furniture, Sèvres porcelain and paintings by Boucher, Watteau and Fragonard, plus a very large collection of European and Oriental arms and armour, about 2,370 pieces. A glass-roofed courtyard holds a restaurant. It is calm and rarely crowded, and most people spend about an hour and a half.

Don't miss

• Fragonard's The Swing
• Frans Hals's The Laughing Cavalier
• Arms and armour galleries
• Sèvres porcelain and French furniture
• The glass-roofed courtyard

Tips for your visit

• It is free and rarely crowded, so it works well as a calm break from Oxford Street.
• Bond Street is the nearest Tube station.
• Look at The Swing early in your visit, then take the rest of the rooms slowly.
• The courtyard restaurant is a pleasant place to stop.