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.
God’s Own Junkyard: Open Three Days a Week, and No Real Cameras
The neon warehouse in Walthamstow opens Friday to Sunday only, bans DSLRs while allowing phone cameras, and changes its entrance after 6pm. Plus the rest of a Walthamstow day.
Strawberry Hill House: Register Your Car in the Gift Shop
Parking is free but you have to log it inside, and spaces run out. Book online or pay more and risk the door, and note the hot food stops two hours before closing.
Dennis Severs’ House Has No Lavatory, and Says So
Use Liverpool Street first. Latecomers are refused and the ticket is lost, children need one adult each, and stilettos are banned because they damage the floor.
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Is Designed to Flood
The riverside paths go under after heavy rain because the park is a flood basin for Lea Valley housing. Plus the algae warning, and the five national institutions now on East Bank.
Old Royal Naval College: Your 19 Pound Ticket Becomes a Year Pass for Free
Convert it at no extra cost, but you have to ask. A 2 pound Universal Credit ticket, four children free per adult, and the closure dates they publish months ahead.
Neasden Temple: The Camera Stays in the Car Park
Cameras and anything bigger than a wallet go in a baggage cabin outside. Free entry, a strict dress code, and the shrine that closes from 12.15 to 4 while the building stays open.
Crossrail Place Roof Garden: The Planting Is Split by the Meridian
Bamboo to the east, ferns to the west, because the building sits on the line. Free, no booking, open to 9pm or sunset, with a free 80 seat amphitheatre on the roof.
London Cable Car: Free With a Bike Before Half Past Ten
TfL's own rule, on weekdays outside bank holidays. The 20 pound ticket for ten crossings, why it does not count towards your cap, and the IFS Cloud name that has gone.
Osterley Park: Eight Opening Times, and Only Saturday Has Them All
The house runs four and a half hours a day and shuts Monday and Tuesday, the park runs eight hours daily, and cycle hire is Saturdays only.
Syon Park: You Cannot Visit on a Saturday
Open Sunday, Monday and Tuesday only, March to October. Sunday is the one day you can walk round unguided, and the gardens alone cost 7 pounds against 16.50.
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.