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.
The Barbican Centre: The Conservatory Is Closed, and Everything Else Is Free Until 11pm
The Barbican says the Conservatory has no public dates. The foyers are free every day until eleven, and here are the hours of everything inside.
Christmas at Kew 2026: Two Evenings Are Adults Only, and It Is Not Included in a Garden Ticket
The light trail runs 13 November to 3 January from 25.50 pounds, with adult only evenings on 3 and 9 December. Last entry is by gate.
Natural History Museum Tickets: The Galleries Are Free, Two Exhibitions Are Not
Entry is free. What is sold is a 15 pound dinosaur show, a 17 pound photography one, and the Friday the museum closes for a gala.
Tower of London Tickets: The Price on Screen Is Not the Price, and Go After Midday
38 pounds, or 41.80 with a donation switched on by default. The one pound routes, the membership sum, and why after midday is the plan.
London Zoo Tickets: The Gate Is the Dearest Way In, and the Day Shortens on 24 October
An adult ticket runs from 27.70 to 40 pounds for the same visit. The zoo's own prices, and the winter change that moves last entry to three o'clock.
A Board Game Cafe Charges You Twice, and Nobody Prints the Second One
Every list quotes the admission fee. None of them mentions the minimum spend on top of it, or the three hour cap, or that the one ranking first is shut four days a week. What each London board game cafe actually costs for an afternoon.
A 1994 Licensing Law Decides Where You Can Shop on a Sunday
A shop over 280 square metres may open for six hours on a Sunday. A shop under it may open all day. That single rule sorts London's shopping streets into the ones worth your Sunday and the ones that will be opening at half past eleven.
By area
3 neighbourhoodsThe neighbourhood guides that cover this, with the number of venues each one checks. Every address, price and opening time in them was taken from the venue's own published information.
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.