At Imperial War Museums, we take the security of our visitors, staff, volunteers, and our buildings and collections seriously.

We have a number of security measures in place, some of which are highly visible, and some which are less evident. And whether our buildings are open or closed to the public, we have security and surveillance measures in place 24 hours a day, seven days a week at all five of our branches.

As well as our on site trained security officers, we also work closely with a range of partners and have strong relationships with the Police, as well as other local safety and security partners. You may see some of these on your visit.

Entering our museums

We conduct enhanced bag checks at all of our branches so there may be a short queue on entry. Please allow yourself enough time to go through security when you visit.

As well as physical bag checks, scanning or detectors may also be used.

Our bag searches look for restricted items and to protect the collection, we do not allow the following inside our branches:

  • Knives, or other sharp or potentially dangerous items. Knives which are carried for religious or cultural observance (such as the Kirpan) are exempt from this policy
  • Paints and sprays
  • Potentially dangerous items such as fireworks, smoke bombs, pyros
  • Animals, with the exception of working guide and assistance animals
  • Balloons, as these can interfere with our alarm systems if they float away 

Additionally, we do not allow the following:

  • Loudspeakers, voice amplifiers or microphones
  • Clothing with offensive messages or logos
  • Flags, banners, leaflets, posters and similar items
  • The distribution of campaign or printed materials
  • Skateboards, scooters etc.

These lists are not exhaustive and supplementary items are at the discretion of the museum.

Not all our museums have cloakroom facilities – please check individual branch pages to see what is available. As visitors on site, we encourage you to stay alert and notify our security staff of anything suspicious.

As outlined in our ticket terms and conditions, we reserve the right to refuse admission or ask visitors to leave the premises at any time.