Museums, galleries, history
Culture & Heritage
British MuseumFree permanent collection (Rosetta Stone, Egyptian mummies, Parthenon sculptures). A timed entry ticket is now recommended to guarantee entry; some walk-up available. £5 suggested donation. Paid special exhibitions.
Natural History MuseumFree; dinosaurs, blue whale, gems. Book a free timed ticket online to skip queues. Paid special exhibitions; winter ice rink (paid).Science MuseumFree permanent galleries. Wonderlab and IMAX are ticketed. Free timed entry ticket recommended at busy times.
Victoria & Albert (V&A)Free; world's largest decorative-arts/design/fashion collection + John Madejski Garden. Paid special exhibitions can sell out. Quieter on weekday mornings.
V&A Museum of Childhood (Young V&A)Free; brilliant for kids
Wellcome CollectionFree; medicine, art & being human + free reading room. Closed Mondays. Free events.
Sir John Soane's MuseumFree; the architect's house left as in 1837. Open Wed-Sun 10:00-17:00 (last entry 16:30). 90-person cap, no advance booking for general entry - arrive at 10:00 to avoid queues. Narrow, no lifts. Free Private Apartment tours Wed/Fri/Sun 2pm (first-come). Paid Highlights Tour ~£25.
Horniman Museum & GardensFree; famous over-stuffed walrus, natural history & world cultures + big gardens. Aquarium and Butterfly House ticketed.Museum of London DocklandsFree; London's port, river & transatlantic-slavery history in a Georgian warehouse.
Imperial War MuseumFree; conflict galleries + powerful Holocaust Galleries. Some special exhibitions ticketed.Design MuseumFree permanent 'Designer Maker User' gallery in Kensington; paid temporary exhibitions.
Grant Museum of ZoologyFree; UCL's tiny, atmospheric museum of specimen jars & skeletons. Check current opening days.
Hunterian / surgical museumFree; not for the squeamish
Cartoon MuseumSmall Fitzrovia museum of British cartoons, comics & caricature. Paid entry.
Postal Museum + Mail RailPaid; ticket includes one ride on Mail Rail (the miniature underground postal train) + a year's museum access. Sorted! play area for under-8s. Book online for a small discount.Florence Nightingale MuseumSmall museum on nursing history at St Thomas' Hospital. Paid entry; check current opening days.
Museum of BrandsNostalgia-packed walk through 200 years of packaging & advertising, Notting Hill. Paid entry.London Transport MuseumPaid; old tubes, buses & posters in Covent Garden. Ticket gives a year's unlimited entry. Runs the separate Hidden London tours.
Bell ringing taster (local towers)Local bands welcome learners, usually free
Uber Boat by Thames ClippersCommuter boat as cheap sightseeingHeritage bus route as a 'tour' (11, 24)Ride a normal red bus past the sights
Emirates cable car (IFS Cloud)Cross the Thames by cable car
ArcelorMittal Orbit + slideKapoor sculpture + tallest tunnel slide
Sky Garden (free)Free rooftop garden atop 20 Fenchurch St ('Walkie Talkie'). Book a free timed slot ~3 weeks ahead online; limited walk-up. Great City views.
Greenwich foot tunnel + ObservatoryWalk under the Thames; stand on the MeridianHidden London abandoned tube tourLTM guided tours of disused Tube stations, secret tunnels & wartime shelters (e.g. Aldwych). Age 10+. Tickets sell fast - released in batches (currently to Sept 2026). New family tour of Aldwych.
Alternative London street-art bike tourHidden gems, Ripper tales, Tower Bridge. Walking tours meet at the 'I Goat' statue, Brushfield Street E1; the studio on Hessel Street E1 is not a meeting point.Free walking tour (tips-based)Pay-what-you-want guided walks
Ghost / Jack the Ripper walkEvening guided spooky history walks
Highgate Cemetery tourVictorian garden cemetery on Swain's Lane; Marx, George Michael, Douglas Adams, Christina Rossetti. Advance tickets needed; guided tours access areas you can't see alone.
Eltham Palace (English Heritage)English Heritage; spectacular art-deco mansion grafted onto a medieval great hall, with gardens. Book ahead; check seasonal opening days. Free for EH members.
London Mithraeum (free Roman temple)Free; reconstructed Roman temple of Mithras in an immersive space beneath Bloomberg HQ (Bank). Book a free timed slot online.
Leighton House / artist studio-housesOpulent Victorian artist's studio-house with the famous Arab Hall, Kensington. Paid entry; closed some days - check.
Open House London (free, September)Free annual September festival; get inside hundreds of buildings normally closed to the public. Some need advance ballot/booking.Winter ice rink (Somerset House etc.)Iconic winter skating pop-ups
Lord Mayor's ShowFree historic procession + fireworks
Bonfire night displaysBig organised firework displays
Open-air theatre (Regent's Park)Plays & musicals under the sky
Thames festival / Totally ThamesFree river-themed art & eventsLate-night museum latesAdults-only evening events w/ drinks
Leadenhall Market wanderFree; Harry Potter filming spot, gorgeous Victorian
Little Venice canal walkPretty free waterside stroll to Camden
Wilton's Music Hall (oldest in world)See a show in a magical crumbling hall
Postman's Park (heroes memorial)Free; moving tiny hidden garden
Brompton Cemetery / Magnificent SevenFree atmospheric Victorian cemetery walks. Brompton Cemetery SW10 is the most central of the Magnificent Seven; the others are Highgate N6, Kensal Green W10, Nunhead SE15, Abney Park N16, Tower Hamlets E3 and West Norwood SE27.
Neasden Temple (BAPS Mandir)Free; breathtaking hand-carved temple
Crossness Pumping Station'Cathedral on the marsh' Victorian engineering
Brunel Museum / Thames TunnelTiny museum at the first under-river tunnel
Severndroog Castle viewpointFolly tower with huge views; quirky
William Morris Gallery (free)Free; the designer's home, lovely cafe & parkRAF Museum London (free)Free; huge aircraft hangars, great for kids
Alexandra Palace (Ally Pally) groundsFree hilltop views, boating lake, ice rink, gigsRAF / de Havilland Aircraft MuseumVolunteer-run aviation museum north of London
Bruce Castle Museum (free)Free local history museum in a Tudor manor
Croydon Airport visitor centreWorld's first international airport; open select days
Kempton Park steam museumGiant working Victorian steam engines, in-steam days
Late museum opening (Lates)Adults-only evening events with drinks & talksAudio-described / touch museum toursMany museums offer access tours; book ahead
Mudlarking foreshore tour (Thames Explorer Trust)Guided foreshore session - no permit needed because you don't keep finds. Family-friendly. Foreshore steps - not step-free. ~2 hrs.
Thames foreshore permit (mudlarking)A PLA permit is required to search/dig/detect; new permits are now limited so check availability. Valid only Teddington-Thames Barrier; banned at Tower, Greenwich Palace & Westminster. Standard permit digs to 7.5cm.
Heritage railway volunteering / ridingEpping Ongar & others; ride or volunteerBlack Cultural ArchivesThe UK's only national heritage centre on African & Caribbean history in Britain. Exhibitions, archive, bookshop & events; some exhibits free, some ~£3-5. At 1 Windrush Square, Brixton SW2.
Black History WalksGuided walking tours of London's African & Caribbean history; book a public walk.
Africa Centre eventsPan-African cultural hub - talks, exhibitions, food & events. Check the calendar.
Black History Bus Tour3-hr coach tour of London's landmarks told from an African/Caribbean perspective; book via Eventbrite. Departs from Windrush Square, Brixton SW2; the exact meeting point is confirmed on booking.
Go behind the scenes of Wallace & GromitYoung V&A's Inside Aardman exhibition, with Wallace & Gromit and the rest of the Aardman cast, running through 2026. The museum itself is free; check whether this exhibition charges before you set off.
Step inside a children's Story WorldDiscover Children's Story Centre is built around storytelling rather than display cases: indoor Story Worlds to climb through, play spaces, changing exhibitions and a garden. Aimed at roughly 0–11, so it works for a toddler and an older sibling on the same trip.
Take a BSL gallery tourWhitechapel Gallery programmes BSL-interpreted tours and events alongside its exhibitions. Scheduled rather than on-demand, so check what's coming up before you travel.
Go behind the scenes at the EmiratesArsenal's self-guided audio tour takes you through the changing rooms, the tunnel and pitchside, and includes the Arsenal Museum. Works on a non-matchday, which is the point.
Tour Stamford BridgeDressing rooms, press room, players' tunnel, pitchside and the museum at Chelsea. Guided rather than self-led, so you get the stories that aren't on the signage.Go behind the scenes at Tottenham Hotspur StadiumOne of the newest stadiums in Europe, and the tour leans into the engineering — the dividing pitch, the tunnel club, the single-tier South Stand.
Go behind the scenes at WembleyThe national stadium, and the tour trades on it — the dressing rooms, the players' tunnel, and the steps up to the royal box where the trophy gets lifted.
Find the Roman amphitheatre under the CityIn the basement of Guildhall Art Gallery are the remains of London's Roman amphitheatre, found in 1988 when they dug the foundations. Free, and most people walking past above have no idea it's there.
See masterpieces inside Somerset HouseThe Courtauld holds an extraordinary Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection in a fraction of the space of the big nationals — Manet, Cézanne, Van Gogh's bandaged self-portrait. Small enough to do properly in an afternoon.
Walk into a Mayfair gallery without pretending you can afford anythingCommercial galleries are free, open to anyone and nobody will ask what you're doing there. Halcyon is one of the more approachable Mayfair rooms to start with.See art by living artists at Mall GalleriesHome to the artist societies, so the shows rotate constantly and everything is by someone still working. A good antidote to only ever seeing dead painters.
Browse original art you could actually buyBankside is the home of the Royal Watercolour Society and Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, and sells original prints and watercolours at prices that aren't theoretical.
Visit a small independent galleryA long-running independent gallery known for showing Aboriginal Australian art and outsider work alongside contemporary British artists — a programme you won't see replicated elsewhere.
Spend a free gallery afternoon in PeckhamFree contemporary art across two buildings, with a garden and a decent café. One of the reasons Peckham became Peckham, and still free after all of it.
See contemporary art from Africa and the Global SouthGoodman came from Johannesburg and has represented major African artists since the 1960s, through and past apartheid. The London room programmes the same artists. Free.Walk into a Covent Garden galleryA commercial gallery on the tourist route that's free to walk into and quieter than everything around it. Ten minutes of art in the middle of a day doing something else.
Pick a Barbican event you've never heard ofThe Barbican programmes theatre, film, music, dance and exhibitions in one brutalist warren. The quest is to book something you can't categorise from the listing and turn up anyway.
Take the gang to English National Ballet's Nutcracker at the ColiseumEnglish National Ballet's Nutcracker, the production that premiered in 2024, returns to the London Coliseum for its Christmas run, with matinee and evening performances through the holidays.
Shout along at Robin Hood, Queen's Theatre Hornchurch's Christmas pantoQueen's Theatre Hornchurch's own Christmas panto, Robin Hood, runs through the festive season with cheap tickets. Mixed groups of 50 or more from registered organisations get discounted seats at Blue and Green performances.
Get the 10th ticket free for your group at Stratford East's Robin Hood pantoTheatre Royal Stratford East's Christmas panto, Robin Hood and the Merry Mandem, is a local-spin Robin Hood set 'deep in the heart of E15'. Groups buying nine standard tickets get the tenth free, booked by phone or in person.
Take your own private after-work Jack the Ripper walk through WhitechapelBook a private guided Jack the Ripper walk for your friends or colleagues at a time that suits the group, starting at Aldgate East and exploring the East End streets of the 1888 murders. Popular as an after-hours office social.
Tour a museum of old cinemas in a former Lambeth workhouse, with short films at the endThe Cinema Museum keeps its collection of cinemagoing history in the old Lambeth Workhouse building, and you can only see it on a guided tour of about two hours that ends with half an hour of short films.Take a guided tour of the historic Marx Memorial Library on Clerkenwell GreenThe Marx Memorial Library runs guided tours of its historic Clerkenwell building on Monday lunchtimes and Thursday afternoons, and its reading room opens by appointment midweek.
Walk through Dennis Severs' candlelit Georgian house in silence at ChristmasAt Christmas the Spitalfields house is dressed for the season, and on Silent Night visits you walk through its candlelit 18th-century rooms without speaking, at your own pace, among ticking clocks, crackling fires and the smell of wood smoke and oranges.
Have a pint in London's last galleried inn, off Borough High StreetFind the 17th-century coaching yard off Borough High Street and drink in the last inn in London with its upper galleries still standing. Dickens knew it and mentions it in Little Dorrit.
Drink by the Thames in a riverside tavern dating from 1520 in WappingWalk the Wapping riverside to a tavern built in 1520 with river views from most of the pub, and settle in for a pint and pub food.Drink by the Thames in a Greenwich tavern full of naval historyWalk along from the Old Royal Naval College to a riverside tavern whose rooms are named for naval victories, and get a window seat with views over the Thames. It also runs quiz and comedy nights.
Find the hidden alley pub tucked behind Hatton GardenLook for the narrow passage off Ely Place that leads to a historic pub with real ales, a real fire and home-made bar snacks. It is closed on Sundays.
Watch Julius Caesar by candlelight in the Globe's indoor playhouseShakespeare's political thriller staged for the first time in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the Globe's small wooden indoor theatre, which is lit by candles. Standing tickets are £5 to £10.See a 1929 silent comedy with live music at the Cinema Museum in KenningtonThe Kennington Bioscope screens a German silent comedy about a husband's last stag party, with live musical accompaniment, at the Cinema Museum.
Practise any language with 60-plus strangers in a Holborn cellar bar every TuesdayA weekly language exchange where hosts give you a sticker with the languages you speak and want to practise, then match you with people to talk to; most people come alone.
Hear Yinka Ilori and other designers talk at It's Nice That's creative night in DalstonNicer Tuesdays, It's Nice That's long-running evening of creative talks, comes to EartH Hackney with British-Nigerian artist Yinka Ilori, illustrator Daryn and Wonderhood Studios. Doors open early for drinks and snacks before the talks.
Play house in a mini playhouse and sensory den at Hoxton's free Museum of the HomeAlongside period rooms showing four centuries of home life, the museum has a Mini Playhouse co-designed with local children, a Reading Lounge with a play kitchen, mini market and dress-up, a sensory den, and two illustrated family trails. Entry is free.Fire cannons and haul ropes in a maritime play gallery for under-7s in GreenwichAHOY! at the National Maritime Museum is a children's play gallery for 0-7s: sensory areas and role play for babies and toddlers, and for older children cannons to fire, cabins to hide in, ropes to haul and boilers to stoke. Sessions are 45 minutes.
Celebrate Diwali with dancers and bhajans in Trafalgar SquareThe Mayor's free Diwali festival fills Trafalgar Square for an afternoon: an opening dance with 200 dancers, a bhajan marquee, food, yoga and family activities. No ticket needed.See in 2027 under the Mayor's fireworks on the ThamesThe official New Year's Eve fireworks over the Thames in central London, watched from ticketed riverside viewing areas. Tickets go on sale at noon on Friday 23 October and sell out fast.
Shop a makers' Christmas fair in Eltham Palace's medieval Great HallA weekend craft fair in Eltham Palace's medieval Great Hall, with local makers' jewellery, pottery and art, marshmallows over fire pits, mulled wine, and a community wreath trail in the gardens.
Follow a children's lantern parade to Greenwich Market's lights switch-onLocal schoolchildren carry handmade lanterns through the Old Royal Naval College and Cutty Sark Gardens to Greenwich Market, where the crowd counts down to the Christmas lights at 5pm.
Climb a church-tower spiral stair to London's oldest operating theatreUp a 52-step spiral staircase inside St Thomas' Church near London Bridge is a surviving hospital operating theatre and herb garret, with old surgical instruments, anatomical specimens and herbal remedies on show.
Squeeze into a tiny basement cabinet of curiosities under a Hackney absinthe barBelow the Absinthe Parlour on Mare Street, the Viktor Wynd Museum crams a very small basement with natural-history oddities and strange art; you book a 30-minute slot and can have a cocktail upstairs after.
Watch a giant Victorian testing machine in action on a weekend tour in SouthwarkA volunteer-led tour of the Kirkaldy Testing Museum on Southwark Street; the longer premium tours include a demonstration run of the huge Kirkaldy testing machine.
Tour a medieval monastery turned Tudor mansion that still houses pensioners in FarringdonAn hour with a professional guide around the Charterhouse: the remains of a 14th-century monastery, the Tudor courtyards, and the Great Hall where the resident Brothers still eat together.
Watch an 1886 sewage-pumping beam engine run under steam in TottenhamVolunteers fire up a restored Victorian beam engine in its riverside engine house in Markfield Park on open Sundays; the engine runs twice a day and entry is free.
Hear the stories of the Victorian dead on a guided walk through West Norwood CemeteryVolunteer guides from the Friends of West Norwood Cemetery lead monthly walks through one of London's Magnificent Seven cemeteries, covering who is buried there and what the monuments' symbols mean.
Go down into the 12th-century crypt of the Knights Hospitaller in ClerkenwellA 45-minute guided tour of the Lost Priory of the Order of St John: the priory church and the crypt underneath, and the story of the order from crusader-era Jerusalem to its dissolution under Henry VIII.Visit a free museum of mental-health history inside a working hospital in BeckenhamBethlem Museum of the Mind, on the grounds of Bethlem Royal Hospital (the original 'Bedlam'), tells the history of mental health care and shows art by people who have experienced mental illness. Free, no booking.
Explore the story of London's foundling children in a Bloomsbury museumThe Foundling Museum on Brunswick Square tells the story of the Foundling Hospital and the children it took in, through objects, art and rooms carried over from the original building.