Things to Do
What to actually do in London when you have limited time and no interest in the tourist trail. Written for short stays, weighted toward the evening.
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The landmark pages carry the numbers the attractions themselves bury. The queue at the London Eye runs up to forty five minutes on top of your ticket time rather than inside it, and the Harry Potter Studio Tour sells a package with a hotel in it for less than the one with a bus. The Shard, Sky Garden and Horizon 22 cover the views from above, and two of the three cost nothing.
Then the free half of the city: the parks, the museums that charge nothing and the food markets, where the published closing times regularly contradict each other on the market’s own website.
Seasonal pages appear when they are useful and are rechecked rather than recycled. Rain, weekends and Christmas each have their own.
Bushy Park Is Not Open 24 Hours, Whatever the Sign Says
Twelve weeks a year the gates shut overnight for the deer culls, and one of those stretches is running now. Plus the park where D-Day was planned.
Kensington Gardens Shuts at Dusk While Hyde Park Runs to Midnight
One continuous park with no wall between, closing eight hours apart in December. Which way to walk it in winter, and where the Peter Pan statue is.
Dulwich Picture Gallery: The 10 Pound Ticket Dies If You Unsubscribe
Their own words: leaving the newsletter removes the Under 30s discount. Plus the Sculpture Garden that opens at 8am seven days, including the Monday the gallery is shut.
The Courtauld: Your Art Pass Covers Everything Except the Exhibition
No discount at all on the headline show, and ICOM cards are blacked out for the first and last fortnight of every run. Adding the exhibition to a ticket costs 2 pounds.
Crystal Palace Park: The Museum Burned Down and Reopened Two Days a Week
Fridays and Sundays only after the 2025 fire. The dinosaurs are free and were the first full-scale models of extinct animals ever made, and the Subway needs a booked timeslot.
The Postal Museum: A Year’s Entry, One Ride on Mail Rail
The train is included once and 7.50 every time after. Two pounds if you work for Royal Mail, half price on a National Art Pass, and why you go to the wrong building.
Eltham Palace: The Same Ticket Costs 20 Pounds or 12.30
Book ahead, decline the donation and show a travel ticket, and an adult pays 38 per cent less. Plus the lift that is out and the Monday their own site disagrees about.
The Wallace Collection: Free Museum, Free Lockers
The V&A charges 5 pounds to store the same bag. Fragonard's The Swing, Titian and Velazquez in a Marylebone townhouse, and the two-and-a-half-hour window when you can book lunch.
London Stadium: No Bag Bigger Than A4, and Nowhere to Leave One
There is no left luggage at all, so a rucksack cannot be fixed at the gate. The 1.90 pound fee on every ticket, and why the island shuts three hours before kick-off.
HMS Belfast: A 29.50 Pound Ticket Is 3 Pounds on Universal Credit
And 3 pounds covers five people, so a family of five pays 15 instead of 103. Plus the 10 per cent donation built into the headline price, and which decks a wheelchair can reach.
Elsewhere in the guide
Questions we get asked
What can you do in London for free?
The national museums, which includes the British Museum, the National Gallery, the Tate galleries, the V and A and the Natural History Museum. Permanent collections are free and always have been; only the temporary exhibitions charge.
How many days do you need in London?
Three gets you the centre without rushing it. Five lets you spend a day outside zone one, which is where London stops being a list of sights and starts being a city. Anything under two days is a transit stop rather than a visit.
What is worth doing in London in bad weather?
Most of the best of it is indoors anyway. The museums, the department stores, afternoon tea, the pubs that have been there for centuries, and the theatre. London is not a city whose case rests on the weather.