I'll be going to Londin in May and am interested in some behind-the-scene tours of museums. Does anyone know if such tours are offered for The British Museum, The V&A, Tate, Tate Modern, etc?

Thank you!

Pretty much all museums offer some sort of tours - "highlights tour" or "X period tours". I'm not sure what you mean by "behind-the-scenes" though.

I've taken the docent-guided tours at National Gallery and V&A and I enjoyed those. They are usually free. The "highlights tour" basically take you through the museum and show you the best of the best pieces in one hour. They are particular useful for huge museums as it helps to orient you and after the tour you can go back and look at things at your leisure. I've also taken one of the English period tours at V&A.

The only "behind-the-scenes" tour I've taken in London, is the Backstage tour of the Royal Opera House. The tour takes you inside the auditorium, then to the dressing rooms, rehearsal rooms, costume dept etc.

YK, thanks once again for some good tips---the docents tour has potential. When I said "behind the scenes" I was thinking about tours at museums that show restoration work in progress, works that they are not currently displaying (in storage) or newly acquired works that are being prepared for display, etc.

I don't think any of the major museums routinely offer behind the scenes tours. The British Library offers one weekly tour of the operations in its conservation centre, and has a permanent exhibition about its conservation activities (www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/whatson/blcc/visit.html)

The higher tiers of their Friends organisations (the ones with subscriptions in the hundreds or thousands a year) usually offer a few invitation events a year where you get close to, and often handle, objects they're talking about - which might sometimes be objects not currently on display, or galleries not yet reopened. The Ashmolean in Oxford (and I imagine the Fitwilliam in Cambridge) will extract virtually any artefact from its stores for anyone to inspect on request and with enough notice.

All the major museums have very full programmes of other events, mostly consisting of outside experts talking about some aspect of their collections. The most interesting ones often need advance booking, but each of the museum websites has a lengthy list of events planned over the follwing few months.

PS:

The answer above applies to members of the general public. All the major museums have separate outreach programmes aimed at schools, and these MIGHT include behind the scene tours, or special access for other museum professionals. They're usually accessible on their websites under something like "teachers' resources"