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.
London City Airport: Closed for 21 Hours Every Weekend
Shut from 1pm Saturday to 10:30am Sunday, and you cannot stay overnight. Plus £8 for a five-minute drop-off, and why liquids stay in your bag but still have to be 100ml.
London Palladium: The Cheap Seats Are 72 Steps Above the Pavement
The theatre publishes its step counts for every level. Plus the step-free tube that is not the nearest one, and why a lottery ticket cannot be exchanged at all.
Outernet London: Free, and the Opening Hours Change Every Week
The UK's most visited cultural attraction publishes its hours on Instagram rather than a web page. Plus why the screens can be shut without warning, and the dog rule set by advertisers.
Foundling Museum: Your Ticket Lasts a Year, and Eight Groups Go Free
£14.50 buys twelve months of unlimited visits. Care-experienced people and benefits claimants go free, and a National Art Pass gets you in for nothing rather than half price.
Garden Museum: Check the Amended Hours, Because It Closes a Lot
Seven disrupted days in ten weeks, published by the museum itself. Plus weekends that run longer than weekdays, and a £9 unemployed rate that almost no London museum lists.
Ham House: The House Opens for Four Hours, Last Entry 3pm
The garden runs seven hours and the house only four. Plus free council parking, no booking system, and the RHS and Art Fund cards that get you in free.
Hunterian Museum: The Only London Museum That Asks You to Think Twice
Free, and closed Sunday, Monday and every bank holiday. The photography rule is a request rather than a ban, and the free Wednesday tour has either 10 or 12 places depending which page you read.
Ronnie Scott’s: £6 for Students After 11.15pm, Free for MU Members
The Late Late Show is the cheapest way into Britain's most famous jazz club. Plus the Tuesday that closes two hours early, and the four conditions on bringing a teenager.
Kenwood House: A Free Rembrandt, and the Grounds Open at 7am
Rembrandt, Vermeer, Gainsborough and Turner, free and without booking. Plus the 26 October step when the grounds start closing at 4pm, and the 4.6m parking bay limit.
Brixton Academy: Laptops and iPads Are Not Allowed In At All
The A4 bag limit to the millimetre, no re-admittance once you leave, and 50 steps to the circle with no lift. Plus why a blue badge is not accepted as access evidence.
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.