London's Top 10 Attractions

The press recently carried numerous reports about the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (who would have thought such an organisation existed?) research into the number of visits to London's top attractions. The list is as follows:

1 British Museum 5.4m
2 Tate Modern 5.1m
3 The National Gallery 4.1m
4 Natural History Museum 3.6m
5 Science Museum 2.7m
6 Victoria and Albert Museum 2.4m
7 Tower of London 2.0m
8 National Maritime Museum 1.6m
9 St Pauls Cathedral 1.6m
10 National Portrait Gallery 1.6m

Now, as a born and bred Londoner I felt reasonably relieved that I had - within the last year - been to visit three of these in the last year and the rest within the last three years. Although I have to admit that I have NEVER been to the National Maritime Museum - although it is now on my "to do" list.

Considering the population of Greater London is around 7m and that there are 27m overnight visitors to London every year, perhaps you would expect to see visitor numbers a little higher?

Don't you think it's interesting that the museums dominate? I guess that they can only measure those attractions where you have to pay to enter or pass through a turnstile. I wonder what number of people stop to look at Big Ben, walk around Buckingham Palace, cross Tower Bridge or the Millennium Bridge or wander down Oxford Street? And I wonder what Londoners themselves would vote as their most popular attraction?