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.
Read moreRead less
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.
Windsor Castle: Sign Your Ticket and It Lasts a Year
Any ticket becomes a free 1-Year Pass if you sign it before leaving, and a 1 pound ticket covers six people on benefits. Prices, security and what shuts at four.
Notting Hill Carnival: The Saturday Is Ticketed
Panorama is tickets only and in a park, J'ouvert starts at 6am, Dutty Mas will cover you in paint, and the grandstand is paid even on the free days.
Royal Albert Hall: 20 Pound Tickets If You Are Under 30
A ticket scheme almost nobody knows about, open to anyone aged 30 or under and reachable only through a mailing list. Plus the six tours and the one that leaves the building.
The London Dungeon: The Anytime Ticket Costs What the Door Does
All four ticket prices, the combined London Eye deal at under 25 pounds an attraction, and opening hours shorter than any of its neighbours.
Madame Tussauds London: 27 Online, 39 at the Door
Twelve pounds more for turning up, last entry two hours before closing, and the combo ticket step that gets people turned away at the second attraction.
Somerset House: Open Till 11, But the Fountains Stop at Six
The courtyard is free for fifteen hours a day and the fountains run for eight of them. Courtauld hours, and why the ice rink's advertised 11 pounds is a child ticket.
IWM London: Free, and Still No Booking Required
One of the few free national museums you can simply walk into, with no timed ticket. Hours, what is in it, and how it compares with the 34 pound Churchill War Rooms.
Churchill War Rooms: 34 Pounds, and the Free One Next Door
It costs more than Hampton Court Palace. What the ticket buys, the 5pm last entry, and the free museum the same organisation runs on Lambeth Road.
Science Museum: Free to Enter, 13.50 for the Bit Children Want
Entry is free but still needs a booked timed ticket, Wonderlab is separate from 13.50 pounds, and a 5 pound ticket on Universal Credit must be booked a day ahead.
Hampton Court Palace: The 1 Pound Ticket, and the Two Days It Shuts
Closed Mondays and Tuesdays, and a day ticket costs 1 pound for anyone on benefits, up to four per household. Full prices, the Maze, and the train times home.
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.