Apsley House (Wellington Museum)

London's most most sadly situated museum is sandwiched between Hyde Park and traffic-aggressive Hyde Park Corner, isolated like an island. But don't let that put you off visiting this tampered-with 18th-century Robert Adam mansion which houses not only the Duke of Wellington of the moment (on occasion) but a collection of paintings worth dodging traffic for, including works by Velázquez, Brueghel the Elder, Rubens, Goya, van Dyck, Teniers the Younger, Claude Lorrain, von Aachen, Elsheimer, Correggio, Guercino, Reni, de Ribera and Copley. The museum closed during the winter of 2015 for a project of works commemorating of the Battle of Waterloo; re-opened 18 April 2015. Tube station: Hyde Park Corner. Plus countless bus routes. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Open weekends only January to March.