The best views in London are free, and most of the lists you will find are sorted by ticket price instead, which puts them in roughly the wrong order.
Two of the three highest public viewpoints in this city cost nothing. The single most famous sightline in London is on a hill in a deer park and is protected by law. And the cheapest paid view of the lot has just risen from four pounds fifty to seven, and has quietly dropped the cash only rule it was famous for.
Here is the honest order, with what each one actually costs and what each one publishes about getting in.
The free ones at height
Horizon 22, the City
Level 58 of the tallest building in the Square Mile, free, and with no time limit on your visit, where a free Sky Garden ticket is valid for an hour.
Horizon 22
- Address
- 22 Bishopsgate, EC2N 4BQ
- Nearest
- Liverpool Street or Bank
- Hours
- Weekdays 10am to 6pm, Saturday 10am to 5pm, Sunday 10am to 4pm
- Booking
- Free timed ticket, maximum nine per booking. A QR code outside the entrance lets you book on the spot if there is capacity
- Price
- Free
- Standing
- Level 58, with 300 degree views rather than a full circle
How to get in
No time limit once you are up, which is the difference that matters: the time on the ticket is an arrival time and you can stay until closing. Their own stated view is 300 degrees rather than 360, so there is a side you cannot see from. Sunday is the short day at four in the afternoon. No lockers and nothing larger than 58 by 45 by 25 centimetres gets through security.
Our full Horizon 22 guide covers the walk in route, the bag rules and why most advice about booking weeks ahead is wrong.
Sky Garden, Fenchurch Street
Thirty five floors up, free with a ticket, and with bars open far later than anything else on this page.
Sky Garden
- Address
- 1 Sky Garden Walk, EC3M 8AF
- Nearest
- Monument or Fenchurch Street
- Hours
- Free tickets cover 10am to 6pm on weekdays and 11am to 9pm at weekends. The bars stay open to midnight, or 1am on Friday and Saturday
- Booking
- Free timed tickets released weekly, up to three weeks ahead. Walk ins depend entirely on spare capacity
- Price
- Free with a booked ticket
- Standing
- Three floors of planted terrace at the top of 20 Fenchurch Street
How to get in
The late bars are the reason to choose this over Horizon 22: midnight on a weeknight and one in the morning on Friday and Saturday, against six in the evening across the road. The free ticket itself covers the daytime, 10am to 6pm on weekdays and 11am to 9pm at weekends, and after that you are there as a bar customer. It is a planted terrace with bars rather than a viewing gallery, so it is somewhere to spend an evening rather than somewhere to look and leave. The weekly ticket release is the hardest free booking in London.
The free ones with no ticket at all
This is the part the ranked lists miss. The two towers above both need a booking. These do not need anything.
King Henry’s Mound, Richmond Park
A Bronze Age burial mound in Pembroke Lodge Gardens with the most extraordinary view in London framed through a gap in the trees.
King Henry’s Mound
- Address
- Pembroke Lodge Gardens, Richmond Park
- Nearest
- Richmond, then a walk or a bus up the hill
- Price
- Free, and no ticket of any kind
- Standing
- A prehistoric Bronze Age burial chamber later used as a viewpoint for hunting and falconry
How to get in
Look west and you get the Thames Valley. Look east through the tree framed gap and you get the dome of St Paul’s, ten miles away. The Royal Parks state that generations of landscapers have preserved that sightline and that the view is now protected, with no new building allowed to impede it. There is no ticket, no queue and no closing time beyond the park gates. It is also thought that Henry VIII stood here to hunt.
Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath
Our own parks guide calls this the best free view in London and nothing found since has changed that.
Parliament Hill
- Address
- Hampstead Heath, north London
- Nearest
- Gospel Oak or Hampstead Heath
- Price
- Free, with no ticket and no gate
- Standing
- The high point of Hampstead Heath, managed by the City of London Corporation
How to get in
The whole skyline laid out at once from a bench, with the City cluster on the left and the West End spread in front. No booking, no queue, no closing. The Heath is also the only place on this page where the swimming is open every day of the year, Christmas Day included, which is a separate reason to come.
Greenwich Park
Greenwich Park
- Address
- Greenwich, south east London
- Nearest
- Cutty Sark DLR or Greenwich
- Hours
- Pedestrian gates 6am to 8pm, vehicle gates 7am to 8pm
- Price
- Free. Only the Royal Observatory building is ticketed
- Standing
- A seventeenth century landscape with a history running back to Roman times
How to get in
The classic view down over the Old Royal Naval College to Canary Wharf, and the one most people picture when they picture London from a hill. The meridian line runs through the park and you can stand on it outside without paying, because only the Observatory building itself is ticketed. One Tree Hill is the quieter vantage point when the main one is full.
The cheap paid one, and its catch
The Monument, City of London
Wren’s column to the Great Fire, seven pounds, and an hour in the middle of the day when it shuts.
The Monument
- Address
- Junction of Monument Street and Fish Street Hill, EC3R 8AH
- Nearest
- Monument on the District and Circle lines
- Hours
- Daily 9.30am to 1pm and 2pm to 6pm, last entry 12.30pm and 5.30pm. Closed 24 to 26 December, and opens at 10am on 1 January
- Booking
- No booking. Turn up and climb
- Price
- Adults 7 pounds, children aged 5 to 15 3.50, under 5s free. Students, over 60s and disabled adults 5.30, disabled children 2.60, one companion free. Their own note says these hold until 31 March 2027
- Standing
- Built 1671 to 1677 to commemorate the Great Fire, and it stands 61 metres from where the fire started in 1666
How to get in
The cash only rule is gone, and so is the four pounds fifty that made it famous: tickets are now bought at the door on the day at 7 pounds for an adult. The rule to plan around instead is the hour it shuts in the middle of the day, one o’clock to two, with last entry half an hour before each close. In term time, school groups can block admission between ten and half eleven from Monday to Thursday, which they say plainly on their own booking page. Every bag is searched, nothing larger than 40 by 25 by 15 centimetres goes up, and larger bags are left at the bottom at your own risk. It is 311 steps and no lift, so it is not suitable for wheelchair users or anyone with mobility difficulties. Children of 15 or under must be with an adult.
The honest ranking
For the view itself: King Henry’s Mound. Nothing else in London has a sightline that Parliament has bothered to protect, and standing in a Bronze Age burial mound looking at a cathedral ten miles away is a different experience from standing behind glass.
For height, free: Horizon 22. Level 58, no time limit, and you can often walk up.
For an evening: Sky Garden. It is lower and the ticket is harder, but its bars are the only thing here still open at midnight.
For no planning whatsoever: Parliament Hill. No ticket, no gate, no hours.
For seven pounds and a climb: the Monument. Mind the hour it closes at lunchtime.
Practical notes
Free does not mean walk in, and ticketed does not mean expensive. The two tower views cost nothing and both need a booking. The two hill views cost nothing and need no booking at all. Sort by what you have to arrange, not by what you have to pay.
Check the closing time rather than the opening time. Horizon 22 shuts at four on a Sunday. The Monument stops admitting half an hour before each of its two closes, because it shuts between one and two. The hills have no closing time beyond the park gates.
Carry cash for the Monument and carry nothing to Horizon 22. One takes no cards, the other takes no bags over 58 by 45 by 25 centimetres and has no lockers.
The best light is the last hour. Since Horizon 22 sets no time limit, arriving ninety minutes before it closes gets you the change from afternoon to evening without anyone moving you on. On the hills you can stay for the whole of it.
Everything here was taken from each venue’s own published information and rechecked on 28 September 2026, with King Henry’s Mound and Greenwich Park taken from the Royal Parks. Prices and opening hours change. Confirm before you travel.
Tower Bridge belongs on any list of London views for a reason nobody writes down: the bascules lift around 800 times a year, every one is published in advance, and watching costs nothing.
The high places, in detail
- The Shard The paid one, and the only platform that gives you a free return visit if the cloud comes down
- Sky Garden Free with a booked ticket in the daytime, with bars open until midnight, or 1am on Friday and Saturday
- Horizon 22 Free, the highest of the free ones, and shut by four on a Sunday
- Tower Bridge Lifts around 800 times a year and publishes every one, free to watch from the road
- St Paul’s Cathedral The Dome Galleries, and a one pound ticket hiding in the official price list
- The London Eye Your ticket time is when you join the queue, and one bundle costs more than buying both
- Restaurants with a view Where the window is the room, and you are paying for the table rather than the ticket
London’s lidos are the other way to spend a clear day outdoors, and four of them are heated and open all winter.
Where to go next
The Garden at 120 is the one free platform that needs no booking at all, though it shuts at 5pm at weekends.
The Shard is the paid one, and the only platform here that hands you a free return visit if the weather ruins it. You have to claim it from the Duty Manager before you leave the building.
Primrose Hill is the one with nothing to arrange at all: free, no ticket, no booking, and open around the clock on weekdays, with the gates shut from 10pm to 6am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights from April to November, while The Regent’s Park next door shuts its pedestrian gates at 7pm. Its view is one of six protected in London, and the trees are cut low by design to keep it.
Horizon 22 and Sky Garden have guides of their own covering the booking in detail. The parks guide covers Hampstead Heath and Greenwich properly, and Richmond Park covers the deer, the gates and how to reach Pembroke Lodge.
The rooftop restaurants are the ones where the kitchen is the reason to go up rather than the view, which is a much shorter list than the bars.
If you would rather look at London with a drink or a meal in front of you, the rooftop bars and restaurants with a view are the two pages for that, and free things to do in London holds the rest of the no ticket list.
Questions we get asked
What is the best view in London?
King Henry’s Mound in Richmond Park, for the view rather than the height. It is a Bronze Age burial mound in Pembroke Lodge Gardens with a tree framed sightline to the dome of St Paul’s ten miles east, and the Royal Parks state that the view is protected so that no new building may impede it. It is free, needs no ticket and has no queue.
What is the best free view in London?
At height, Horizon 22 on Level 58 of 22 Bishopsgate, which is free, sets no time limit on your visit and often admits walk ins. Without any booking at all, Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath, which has no ticket, no gate and no closing time. Sky Garden is the third and the only one with bars open to midnight.
Is Sky Garden or Horizon 22 better?
Horizon 22 is higher at Level 58 against thirty five floors, puts no time limit on your visit and often takes walk ins. Sky Garden’s bars stay open far later, to midnight most nights and one in the morning on Friday and Saturday, though its free tickets cover the daytime, and it is a planted terrace with bars rather than a viewing gallery. Horizon 22 for the daytime view, Sky Garden for the evening.
How much does it cost to go up the Monument in London?
Seven pounds for adults, 3.50 for children aged five to fifteen and 5.30 for students and over sixties. Neither the Monument nor Tower Bridge still publishes the old joint ticket, and the cash only rule has gone with it: you buy at the door on the day. The thing to plan around now is the hour it shuts at lunchtime, one o’clock to two.
Do you need to book London viewing platforms?
For the free towers yes, for the hills no. Horizon 22 issues free timed tickets and also provides a QR code outside the entrance for on the spot booking when there is capacity. Sky Garden releases free tickets weekly up to three weeks ahead and they go quickly. Parliament Hill, King Henry’s Mound and Greenwich Park need nothing at all.
Where can you see St Paul’s Cathedral from far away?
King Henry’s Mound in Richmond Park, roughly ten miles west of it. Generations of landscapers cut and maintained a tree framed gap pointing east at the dome, and that sightline is now legally protected against new building. It is one of the very few views in England that planning law exists to defend.
What time do London viewpoints close?
Earlier than people expect, and they vary. Horizon 22 closes at six on weekdays, five on Saturday and four on Sunday. The Monument closes at six in summer and half past five in winter, with last admission half an hour before. Sky Garden’s bars are the exception, at midnight or one in the morning on Friday and Saturday, though its free tickets end at 6pm on weekdays and 9pm at weekends. The hills do not close.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 96 in the guide.
Last checked 28 September 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
