Royal Armouries - Leeds

Face to face with history. We are home to the UK’s national collection of arms and armour.

At our museum in Leeds there are over 8,500 objects on display in five galleries: War, Tournament, Oriental, Self-defence, and Hunting.

General Collection

The overall Royal Armouries collection consists of some 70,000 examples of arms, armour and artillery dating from antiquity to the present day. It includes royal armours of the Tudor and Stuart kings; arms and armour of the English Civil Wars, including the Armoury from Littlecote House; British and foreign military weapons from the Board of Ordnance and MOD Pattern Room collections; hunting and sporting weapons, as well as an exceptional collection of oriental arms and armour.

The Royal Armouries library contains material relating to the history, development and use of arms, armour, artillery and fortifications, and to the Tower of London.

It has special collections of original military manuals, drill books, and fencing manuals. The collection amounts to some 30,000 books and pamphlets, 10,000 journals and magazines, and 6,000 auction sales catalogues.

There is a large Image Library containing some 70,000 images of objects in the collection, which are available for purchase and reproduction.

Now you can view our oil, acrylic and tempera paintings online at Your Paintings. Your Paintings is a joint initiative between the BBC, the Public Catalogue Foundation (a registered charity) and participating collections and museums from across the UK.