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Victoria & Albert Museum
When you come to see the V&A, give yourself plenty of time, because we can guarantee that you'll spend much longer than planned in this brilliant museum. The Museum of Manufactures, as the V&A was originally known when it started in 1852, specialises in decorative art and design, with four million objects collected over the years from Britain and around the globe.
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Wallace Collection
Arguably London's finest small gallery (relatively unknown even to Londoners), the Wallace Collection is an enthralling glimpse into 18th-century aristocratic life. The sumptuously restored Italianate mansion houses a treasure-trove of 17th- and 18th-century paintings, porcelain, artefacts and furniture bequeathed to the nation by the widow of Sir Richard Wallace (1818-90) on condition it should always be on display in the centre of London.
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Wellington Arch
Opposite Apsley House in the little bit of green space being strangled by the Hyde Park Corner roundabout is England's answer to the Arc de Triomphe (except this one commemorates France's defeat - specifically, Napoleon's at the hands of Wellington).
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White Cube Gallery
Alongside Charles Saatchi, owner of the erstwhile Saatchi Gallery, the White Cube's Jay Jopling was the man responsible for bringing 'Britart' to the public's attention in the 1990s. White Cube is now firmly part of Britain's 'new establishment' but shows by Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and other less well-known artists mean it's always worth coming just to have a look. There's another White Cube in St James's.
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Whitechapel Art Gallery
It's all change at the Whitechapel Art Gallery as it doubles its size by expanding into a disused library next door. During that time, one of the capital's more interesting contemporary art galleries becomes the Whitechapel Laboratory, with changing exhibitions, live music, poetry, talks and film. The new space will contain three new galleries, an Education and Research Tower and a street-facing café.
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Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum
This museum is of specialist interest, dwelling as it does on the minutiae of the history of tennis playing, traced back here to the invention of the all-important lawnmower in 1830 and of the India-rubber ball in the 1850s. It's a state-of-the-art presentation, with plenty of video clips to let fans of the game relive their favourite moments. The museum houses a tearoom and a shop selling all kinds of tennis memorabilia.
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Women's Library
Just round the corner from the Whitechapel Art Gallery, the Women's Library, part of the London Metropolitan University, is a unique repository for all manner of books and documents related to women's history. It contains a reading room open to the public, as well as archive and museum collections, and organises talks and special exhibitions (last seen: Prostitution: What's Going On?).
