In the 1980s, “the UK’s nationalmuseums faced political pressurefrom the Conservative governmentto charge for admission, to makethem less dependent ongovernment funding".
In 1997, the new Labour government made a commitment to reinstate free entry for national museums in order to have a more diverse range of visitors. “Following a campaign led by the museums themselves,
The national museums which dropped charges all saw substantial increases to their visitor numbers, an average of 70 percent. In the first year after free admission was introduced visitor figures.
