John Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History

The John Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History stands in Onikan on Lagos Island, across J.K. Randle Road from the National Museum and close to the MUSON Centre and Tafawa Balewa Square. The site has a story of its own. In 1928 Dr John K. Randle, a Sierra Leone-born physician who also served as a Lagos city councillor, led the building of a swimming pool where Lagosians could learn to swim, after the colonial authorities declined to provide one. The J.K. Randle Memorial Hall and Swimming Pool became the first public pool in Nigeria, but it fell into decay during the late twentieth century.

The Lagos State Government restored the pool and commissioned a new museum beside it. The building, designed by the Lagos studio SI.SA led by Seun Oduwole, has a sloping green roof that seems to rise out of the ground, recalling the prayer hills of Yorubaland, and red and gold lattices that arch over planted courtyards. Inside, floors of sand-coloured aggregate echo village compounds and reclaimed timber hangs from the ceiling. The centre was inaugurated in January 2023 and opened to the public in October 2024. Its design was longlisted in the Dezeen Awards in 2025.

The exhibition, created with the New York firm Ralph Appelbaum Associates, is organised into areas that move from myths and legends through modern customs to an imagined Yoruba future. Labels appear first in Yoruba with English below. Rather than rows of objects, much of the space is interactive: a radiogram plays children's stories told by the late Jimi Solanke, a digital projection turns visitors into Egungun masquerades, and other displays let you step into the role of orisa such as Sango or explore an Ile ori shrine. There are costumes, textiles and items lent by figures such as Wole Soyinka and Ebenezer Obey and by the families of Obafemi Awolowo and Fela Kuti, and some loans from the British Museum.

The centre is a good first stop for visitors who want context for what they will see elsewhere in Lagos and south-west Nigeria, and the interactive rooms work well for children and teenagers. Allow around two hours. The grounds also host concerts, festivals and cultural events, so it is worth checking what is on before you go. Opening times and ticket arrangements are not widely published, so confirm them locally or through the centre's social media before you travel.

Onikan is at the eastern end of Lagos Island and is easy to reach by car or ride-hailing app from Ikoyi and Victoria Island. Combine a visit with the National Museum opposite, a walk across Tafawa Balewa Square and a concert or recital at the MUSON Centre if your dates allow.