250 Years of The British Museum

The courtyard and front of the British Museum as it was during the 1860s and still is today
Hulton Archive / Getty

Early Days
The Museum was first housed in a seventeenth-century mansion, Montagu House, on the site of today's building, opening to the public on 15 January, 1759. Today, the courtyard and front of the British Museum look much as they did during the 1860s, above.