Historic ship · Southwark · London

HMS Belfast

HMS Belfast is a 1938 Edinburgh-class light cruiser. You will find it inside Southwark’s built-up area. Running it is Imperial War Museum.

Photo: HMS Belfast, Images George Rex from London, England (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Where

In Southwark

inside the built-up area

Run by

Imperial War Museum

the operator on record

Visitors a year

241K

Wikidata

How well known

Top 1%

#49 of 8,556 places we list

Warmest months

May–Sep

highs of 18–24°C

In brief

Historic ship in Southwark

One of the best-known places to visit in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

#49 of the 8,556 museums, castles, gardens and other attractions we list, by how widely it is covered (34 Wikipedias). About ↓

Inside Southwark

HMS Belfast is inside Southwark’s built-up area, with 344 more places to visit within 5 km. Towns near it ↓

Written from OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, the ONS built-up areas and Met Office 1991–2020 averages.

When to go

Seasons in Southwark

In Southwark, May to September bring the warmest days: highs of 18–24°C.

Jan9° / 3°57 mm

Feb9° / 3°44 mm

Mar12° / 5°38 mm

Apr15° / 6°44 mm

May18° / 9°47 mm

Jun21° / 12°51 mm

Jul24° / 14°48 mm

Aug23° / 14°59 mm

Sep20° / 12°51 mm

Oct16° / 9°67 mm

Nov12° / 6°65 mm

Dec9° / 3°60 mm

Green months are the warmest. Typical afternoon highs and night lows in Southwark, and rain in a month. Met Office HadUK-Grid 1991–2020 averages for Southwark. Opening times change through the year: check before you go. Southwark’s full climate →

About

HMS Belfast

About 241K people visit each year. It is written up in 34 Wikipedias. Our list has 594 more places within 15 km; first among them is Tower of London, at 300 m.

Type: Historic ship
Run by: Imperial War Museum
Visitors: 241K visitors a year
Wikipedias: Covered in 34 languages
Town: in Southwark
Official site: iwm.org.uk/visits/hms-belfast

Facts: Wikidata (CC0) and OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors).

Plan your visit

Entrance fees

EntryA fee is charged

Hours and entry: OpenStreetMap contributors. They change through the year: check its site before you go.

The map

Finding HMS Belfast

Orange shows HMS Belfast; numbers mark the places near it.

Towns near it

Towns a short way from HMS Belfast

Home to 317,108 people, Lambeth is the largest of these 8. All of these towns include it on their pages.

1 · It’s in town

Southwark

307,076 people · 471 places to visit

2 · 100 m east of it

Tower Hamlets

311,072 people · 430 places to visit

3 · 200 m northwest of it

City of London

7,820 people · 432 places to visit

4 · 1.4 km northwest of it

Islington

216,309 people · 425 places to visit

Compare the 8 towns

Town	Where HMS Belfast is	People	Places to visit
Southwark	It’s in town	307,076	471
Tower Hamlets	100 m east of it	311,072	430
City of London	200 m northwest of it	7,820	432
Islington	1.4 km northwest of it	216,309	425
Hackney	1.5 km north of it	258,464	407
Lambeth	1.8 km southwest of it	317,108	450
Camden	2 km northwest of it	209,342	458
Westminster	2.2 km west of it	203,571	461

Make a day of it

Worth adding to a visit

Of the 594 within 15 km, look for 2 cathedrals, 2 attractions and a castle.

Big drawCastleTower of London300 m away · 2.7M visitors a year (2016)2

Big drawMuseumBritish Museum3.5 km away · 5.8M visitors a year (2023)3

CathedralSt Paul's Cathedral1.4 km away 4

Big drawArt galleryTate Modern1.3 km away · 1.2M visitors a year (2021)5

Cathedral · English HeritageWestminster Abbey3.3 km away 6

AttractionElizabeth Tower3.1 km away 7

AttractionLondon Eye2.7 km away 8

Historic houseBuckingham Palace4.3 km away

Within 15 km, close and well known first. Numbers match the map.

What people ask about HMS Belfast

Where is HMS Belfast?

HMS Belfast is in Southwark, London, inside the town’s built-up area.

What is HMS Belfast?

1938 Edinburgh-class light cruiser.

Who runs HMS Belfast?

Imperial War Museum.

How many people visit HMS Belfast?

About 241K visitors a year.

When is the best time to visit HMS Belfast?

May to September are the warmest months in Southwark, with afternoon highs of 18–24°C (Met Office 1991–2020 averages).

What else is there to see near HMS Belfast?

Within 15 km: Tower of London (300 m), British Museum (3.5 km), St Paul's Cathedral (1.4 km) and Tate Modern (1.3 km).

Places: OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database Licence) and Wikidata (CC0), placed in the ONS 2022 built-up area (Open Government Licence v3.0). Visitor counts are the latest Wikidata gives, with their year.

Photos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).

Photo credits (9)

HMS Belfast: Images George Rex from London, England, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Tower of London: Bob Collowan, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
British Museum: Ham, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
St Paul's Cathedral: Mark Fosh, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Tate Modern: Christine Matthews, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Westminster Abbey: Σπάρτακος, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Elizabeth Tower: Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
London Eye: Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Buckingham Palace: Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.