I just spent two days in London for work but managed to get half a day at the V&A;
http://www.vam.ac.uk/
I know London and the V&A well, but hadn’t been for some time. This time I was viewing it from the perspective of inspiration for fantasy roleplaying. It’s jam packed with some of the World’s best examples of treasures and period mundane items that are perfect for populating your dungeons, cities, etc.
From precious stones, gold and silver jewelry, illuminated tomes, massive tapestries, paintings and sketches, through to amazing locks, treasure chests, furniture, etc. There’s now even a medieval three story high spiral staircase with carved balconies. It’s a vast collection and mainly jaw-dropping stuff. Unfortunately, the collection of arms and armour they used to have has been moved on to other museums, but there are still a few swords, shields, crossbows, spears, etc. scattered around.
If you are ever visiting London, do yourself a favour and spend a day (easy to spend an entire day there) at the V&A.
Likewise I can thoroughly recommend the British Museum. I work close enough that I can get there and back in my lunchbreak and spend a little bit of time wandering around it. It contains some fantastic pieces of Classical sculpture and other ancient art, plus loads of artefacts from throughout history.
I absolutely adore the place.
In theory, if anyone wanted me to go look for something in particular, I could… No firm promises, but it’s feasible. There’s also www.bmimages.com which is an interesting site.