When will London museums and galleries reopen and what safety measures will they take post-lockdown?

London's smaller museums and galleries have begun cautiously to open their doors again, and larger venues are expected to do the same next month.

Like all other sectors of the creative industries, cultural institutions have been hit hard by the pandemic, and there’s only so much satisfaction you can get from looking online at an exhibition you’ve been waiting months to see in the flesh.

So much still depends on how effectively the coronavirus pandemic’s hold on the UK is brought under control, and the successful reopening of these venues will come down to how well we can enact social distancing measures.

Here's what we know so far about when London's museum and gallery closures could end.

When will London museums reopen?

According to plans laid out by the government for easing the lockdown, larger arts venues, including museums and galleries, are expected to start reopening from July 4. The venues reopening will be conditional on the progression of the virus and how well social distancing measures are implemented.

Smaller commercial spaces and auction houses are open as of June 15. Commercial galleries are up and running again (you can have a look at what exhibitions they will be displaying here), but most will operate under shorter opening hours, fewer staff and fewer visitors admitted at one time. It is also required for many of them that you book in advance.

The opening of larger venues depends on their ability to implement safety measures. That said, Elaine Bedell, CEO of the Southbank Centre – which houses the Hayward Gallery – has said that the building could remain closed until April 2021.

There is a risk that smaller, independent, non-commercial galleries and museums will not be able to survive such extended periods of closure and will not be able to operate with the reduced number of visitors required to enact social distancing properly – venues such as the Florence Nightingale Museum and Dr Johnson’s House have said they are in need of support.

There was good news for larger galleries when Maria Balshaw, director of Tate, said in an interview that the Tate galleries were currently planning to reopen in early August. She said London's museums and galleries are working together on a staggered approach to reopening across mid-July to the end of August.

How will the museums ensure safety?

Museums in Europe are adopting safety measures as they begin to open. The essential use of masks, hand sanitiser and reminders of keeping well apart from other visitors are necessary.

Some museums are also taking the temperatures of visitors before they enter the building and putting up markers for how far away people should be from one another.

The reopening of London museums and galleries will depend on the venues’ capacity to bring in these measures.

The commercial galleries that are now reopening in London are bringing in hand sanitiser stations at the entrance and compulsory wearing of masks, with some handing out their own. Visitors are expected to respect the 2m rule, and some galleries are admitting just a few people at once to make sure this is upheld.

For most, they will operate on a "by appointment only" model, or require guests to book ahead of time, for the first few weeks of opening at least. They all have their safety measures laid out on their respective websites. You should check these before you go, as they could change depending on how the situation progresses.

Which exhibitions have postponed opening?

The National Gallery’s major exhibition on the work of 17th century painter Artemisia Gentileschi was the first to be postponed, with an assurance it would be back in the future. It’s other display Titian: Love, Desire, Death, which had just three days before the gallery shut and was planned to close in June, has been announced to reopen “when the gallery does”. However, to accommodate this, the Raphael exhibition, due to run from October-January 2021, will now be delayed until 2022.

The Royal Academy made major changes to its programming, moving the annual Summer Exhibition to the autumn for the first time ever and postponing Marina Abramović’s highly anticipated exhibition to 2021. Gauguin and the Impressionists, which will feature 60 works from the Ordrupgaard Collection, will open in October, while Tracey Emin/Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul will now open in early November. Two exhibitions – Angelica Kauffman and Cezanne: The Rock and Quarry Paintings – have sadly been cancelled entirely.

In the meantime, you can visit these galleries virtually, and venues such as the British Museum and V&A Museum have released new videos to act as curator tours of their exhibitions.