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Be moved. Be inspired. Be transformed.
Founded while the First World War was still raging, Imperial War Museum London gives voice to the extraordinary experiences of ordinary people forced to live their lives in a world torn apart by conflict.
From the moment you step into the iconic atrium, to the countless discoveries awaiting you in the award-winning galleries, IWM London examines the continuing influence of war on our world.
Hear extraordinary true stories of ordinary people’s experiences of conflict across the museum’s six floors – stories that have the power to move, inspire and transform.
Beauty and Destruction: Wartime London in Art
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Artworks by Muirhead Bone, Lord Paul Ayshford Methuen, Leonard Rosoman and Matvyn Wright, on display in Beauty and Destruction.
20 March 2026 to 1 November 2026
Free entry
Beauty and Destruction: Wartime London in Art is a free exhibition that tells the story of London during the Second World War, as seen by artists.
As bombs rained down in 1940s London, artists responded. See art that presents a city both familiar and strange in over 45 paintings and drawings alongside photographs, film, objects and oral histories.