What to do for free in London

What to do for free in London

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Although the British capital is one of the most expensive cities in the world, we have good news: there is a very long list of things you can do for free in London.

And the truth is that the selection of things that can be done for free in London is very wide, from visiting one of the best museums in the world, strolling through one of the most beautiful parks in England or attending a classical music concert without paying a penny is possible.

Index:

What will you find in this article?

Visit one of the fantastic free admission museums in London

London has many spectacular museums that you can enter without paying admission, and the truth is that some of them are gigantic and it is easy to spend a whole day visiting some of them. Below we list some of the muses that you can visit for free in London, but if you want to see more take a look at our article that talks about the 10 best museums in London.

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum of London is one of our favorite places to visit for free in London, and without a doubt it is the first museum that I would recommend visiting if you are going to be in London for a few days. The building in which it is housed is simply spectacular, and as a friend of ours said, the museum itself is a museum! Inside we find numerous exhibitions in different rooms, but above all the dinosaur section stands out, without a doubt one of the most popular parts of the London Natural History Museum to visit with children.

Hours: Monday to Sunday from 10:00 am to 5:50 pm Location: Cromwell Rd, Kensington, London SW7 5BD

Science Museum

The Science Museum in London is located next to the Natural History Museum, and is another fascinating museum that you can visit in London for free. Here you will find an exhibition of old cars that fascinates everyone, as well as a room dedicated to the latest technology and an exhibition dedicated to aviation, with planes and small planes and a flight simulator. It is also one of the most recommended places to visit in London with children, as it is very entertaining.

Hours: Monday to Sunday 10.00 am to 5.50 pm Location: Exhibition Rd, Kensington, London SW7 2DD

Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum specializes in design and decoration, and we can see a wide collection of different objects and sculptures from different eras. Here we also find a room dedicated to fashion, where we can find everything from Victorian dresses to the latest catwalk trends, as well as an exhibition of the evolution of women’s underwear. It is also located in South Kensington, next to the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum.

Hours: Monday to Sunday 10.00 am to 5.50 pm Location: Cromwell Rd, Knightsbridge, London SW7 2R

British Museum

The British Museum in London receives more than 5 million visitors a year, and it is surely one of the most famous places that you can visit for free in London. It offers a stimulating journey through the cultures of the world, including galleries dedicated to Egypt, Greece, Africa, Italy, the Etruscans, the Romans, medieval antiquities… The Rossetta stone and the Egyptian galleries stand out above all.

Hours: Monday to Sunday from 10:00 am to 5:30 pm and Friday open until 8:30 pm. Location: Great Russell St, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3DG

The National Gallery is a gallery located in the heart of London, in Trafalgar Square. Here we can find paintings by Caravaggio, Van Gogh, Bellini, Claude, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Gossaert, Velásquez, Monet, Van Dyck, Canaleto, Gainsborough, Rubens, Drouais, Ingres, Turner, Stubbs, Constable, Cézanne, Seurat, Leonardo da Vinci , Holbein, Michaelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Botticelli, Uccello… The Chandos portrait of Shakespeare and the portrait of the queen by Andy Warhol stand out.

Hours: Monday to Sunday from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm and Thursday and Friday open until 9:00 pm.
Location: Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN

Stroll through one of London’s wonderful parks

Without a doubt, one of the best things to do for free in London when the weather is good is to stroll through one of its wonderful parks, or rent a bike to ride around one of them. In addition to those listed below, you can see our article on the best London Parks if you want to explore some of the lesser known London parks.

Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens

Who has not heard of Hyde Park, the largest park in the center of the British capital. It’s very easy to spend a whole day leisurely strolling through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, but you can also go in search of some of the park’s key sites, such as the Peter Pan statue or Kensington Palace. For this we have designed a route with the most important points that can be seen in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.

Regent’s Park

Regent’s Park is located in north central London, and is where the London Zoo is located. This is another spectacular park, with very special corners, such as the Open Air Theater where plays are performed during the summer months. Near Regent’s Park we find the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum and the Sherlock Holmes museum.

St James’s Park

St James’s Park is the most charming park in central London. It is small but has a lot of charm, and it is not surprising since it is located right in front of Buckingham Palace. Several pelicans reside in this park during the spring and summer months, as well as a great variety of waterfowl. In St James’s Park you’ll also come across some of London’s famous friendly squirrels.

Greenwich Park

Greenwich Park is located in the southern part of the city, and stands out for the wonderful views of the London Skyline that we can obtain. In addition to the park, in Greenwich we can visit the Greenwich Observatory, where the Meridian Zero, the Cutty Sark and a small market are located in the center of the Greenwich neighborhood.

Richmond Park

Richmond Park is another of the most impressive parks in London, and here it is not uncommon to come face to face with the wild deer that live in this London park. It is the perfect place to visit for free in London if you want to spend a day surrounded by nature, but in addition to the park we recommend visiting the Richmond neighborhood, since in our opinion, it is one of the most beautiful places in London that few tourists they visit.

Stroll through the most famous squares and streets of London

One of the things that you can obviously do for free in London is to walk through its streets and squares, including the streets and squares that are visited by millions of tourists every year. Having lived in London since 2010, walking the streets of London still fascinates me, whether they are the most famous tourist streets of the city or the hidden corners of the city that no one visits.

Covent Garden

Covent Garden Square is without a doubt one of the most magical places you will find in London, and strolling through Covent Garden is one of the free things to do in London that I would recommend. Here it is very easy to entertain yourself for a while listening to live music from the square or simply walking around to watch the time go by.

Carnaby Street and Soho London

London’s Soho is another of the places in the center of the city that can entertain us for a long time, since strolling through its many streets is undoubtedly something you cannot miss on a visit to London. Here we also find the Carnaby Street area, where the Liberty department stores are located as well as numerous boutiques, cafes and restaurants. In London’s Soho we also find Chinatown, where Asian restaurants and Asian product stores are the main protagonists.

Leicester Square

Leicester Square is located about 10 minutes walk from the magical square of Covent Garden, and is the place where movie premieres take place. For this reason, one of the best plans that can be done for free in London is to wait in Leicester Square to see your favorite actor or actress during the presentation of a film premiere.

Visit one of London’s famous flea markets

The Portobello Road flea market in Notting Hill is undoubtedly one of the most famous in the world, but in addition to this flea market, London has numerous markets that you cannot miss if you have time, such as the Camden Town flea market, Spitalfields, or the impressive Borough Market located next to London Bridge. Here you can see our article with detailed information about the best markets in London

Camden Market

Camden Stables Market, the Camden Town market, is one of the most diverse and famous markets in London, and it is a place that I can guarantee you will never forget! Here we find a market located inside an old horse hospital as well as other markets housed on the banks of the canal, and we can find everything. It is a good place to go to try food from different cultures, or to buy alternative clothes.

Portobello Road, Notting Hill

Portobello Road Flea Market in Notting Hill takes place on Saturdays and is famous for its many antique and collector’s items stalls. We also find clothing stalls and a section of the market is dedicated to takeaway food, so you can easily spend several hours visiting this London market. It is a perfect plan if you want to visit something free in London on a Saturday.

Borough Market

Borough Market is located on London Bridge in the center of London, and it is one of the places that you must include in your visit to London. The market is open from Wednesday to Saturday, and it is a place with a unique atmosphere, where you can buy food to take away, being able to save at lunchtime, and admire the wide range of products that it offers.

Brick Lane Market

The Brick Lane flea market is surely the most curious flea market that you will visit in London, since it has numerous hidden areas where we find stalls where we can find everything from clothes to handicrafts and antiques. Brick Lane Market is located next to Petticoat Lane Market and Spitalfields Market, so we recommend visiting all three markets on the same day.

Maltby Street Market

Maltby Street Market is a market that does not usually appear in London guides, but it is one of the lesser-known markets in London that we like the most. Here we find a mixture of stalls with all kinds of items and food products with numerous antique shops where we can sit down and have a coffee.

Join a free tour in London

Somerset House Free Tour

On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays the iconic building of Somerset House in London offers free tours, totally recommended to discover the secrets and unknown corners of one of the most fascinating places in London!

Free tour of the Royal Opera House

The royal opera house in Covent Garden offers free tours several days of the week, and by joining one of these tours you will be able to discover how one of the most important theaters in the British capital works and what it is like inside. There are several free tours that we can choose from and it is necessary to book on their official website.

Go shopping in London

Although going to the shops usually means that we take out our wallet sooner or later, going to look is always going to be free… And in London there are shops that we have to see, even if we go with the intention of not spending a penny.

Harrods

Harrods department store in London is undoubtedly the most famous in the British capital, and of course entering is free! To see the best of Harrods you’ll need to explore the different food halls, which are all located on the ground floor and are connected so walking from one to another is a breeze. Another of the areas that we recommend visiting in Harrods in London are the toy area, especially if you are going to visit London with children , and the souvenir sales area in London.

Liberty

Liberty department stores are located next to Regent Street in London, and more specifically in the Carnaby Street area. The building is not only spectacular from the outside, but also from the inside, which is why we recommend it as a free place to visit in London.

Fortnum & Mason

The Fortnum & Mason department store is located on Piccadilly Street, the street that leads from Piccadilly Circus to Hyde Park Corner. These department stores are impressive, and although they are less known by name than Harrods, in my opinion they are worth a visit. Their windows are usually fabulous, and the selection of food and drink is spectacular, and it’s definitely one of the places I recommend to buy authentic British biscuits, sweets, teas and other items.

Oxford Street

Oxford Street is one of the most famous shopping streets in London, and this is where we find the Selfridges department store, as well as other famous fashion stores, such as Primark, Zara, Mango, TopShop, Oasis, Coast, Debenhams, Marks and Spencer, John Lewis… If you are looking for something specific, Oxford Street is definitely the place to look!

Regent Street

The Regent Street shopping street is also one of London’s major shopping streets, converging with Oxford Street at Oxford Circus. In this street we find the most famous toy store in London, Hamleys, as well as numerous fashion stores and one of the giant Apple stores in London.

Pollock’s Toy Museum

Benjamin Pollock’s toy store is located in the heart of Covent Garden in London, and it is one of the most authentic toy stores you can imagine.

Hamleys

Hamleys Toy Shop is the most famous toy shop in London, with 7 floors of pure entertainment for the little ones in the family. It is located on Regent Street, and if you bring children I can assure you that they will not leave empty handed!

M&M’s Store

In Leicester Square we find the M&M’s store, without a doubt a spectacular place to explore. Here we find life-size M&M’s with which we can take photos, and many of them with different scenes of London, highlighting four M&M’s crossing the famous Abbey Road pedestrian crossing in London.

Lego Store

The largest Lego store in the world is nothing more and nothing less than in London’s Leicester Square. More than a store, it could be said that it is practically a museum, since it is difficult not to stare with an open mouth at the numerous giant figures made with thousands of Lego pieces.

Visit some of London’s Free Attractions

Changing of the Guard

One of the most famous and important events in London is the changing of the guard that takes place at Buckingham Palace. The Changing of the Guard in London attracts millions of spectators every year, but it is important to bear in mind that sometimes it does not take place every day, so we recommend that you check the schedules with the exact dates.

Sky Garden

One of the most popular visits in London is to see London from above in the building known as the Walkie Talkie in London. This building has an interior garden on its 35th floor from which you can get impressive views of London, especially noteworthy is that we can see the Shard of London , the Tower Bridge of London and the Tower of London. To go up to the Sky Garden in London it is necessary to reserve a time on its official website.

Kenwood House

Kenwood House is a free-to-visit palace in London, located high above Hampstead Heath, in the beautiful Hampstead neighborhood of London. You can walk inside the palace but it also has fabulous gardens and a fabulous cafeteria-restaurant. It is a perfect plan for a sunny day in London.

Visit a London neighborhood you don’t know

London is much more than Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus, and you can even forget that you are in London, simply by taking the tube and visiting some of its most beautiful neighbourhoods. We’ve listed some of our favorite lesser-known London neighborhoods below, but you can find more in our discovering London section.

Hampstead

The Hampstead neighborhood is located north of London in zone 2. It is the most expensive neighborhood in London, where many famous people have homes. It is an absolutely beautiful neighborhood, where there are shops and restaurants as well as the gigantic Hampstead Heath park. Here we find Parliament Hill, its highest point from which we can get impressive views over London.

Richmond

Another of the most beautiful neighborhoods in London that make you forget that you are in the British capital. Stroll through the streets full of shops, boutiques, cafes and restaurants, explore the weekend food market, and stroll along the riverbank until your legs can’t walk anymore… Or you can even hop on a boat and get to Kingston, another of the most beautiful neighborhoods in London.

Angel

Located practically next to King’s Cross in London, the Angel neighborhood is another of the most charming neighborhoods in London. With its shopping center full of shops and restaurants and its alleys full of antique stalls, it is without a doubt one of the places I would recommend visiting for free in London.

Little Venice

And if what you want is a walk through the very center of London but forgetting that you are in London, then I recommend you visit Little Venice, the little Venice of London. To make the most of your time we have created a Regent’s Canal walking route that takes you from the area known as Little Venice to the Camden Town flea market.

Discover one of our Secret Corners of London

At QverLondres we love to discover the secret corners of London and share them with our readers, so we encourage you to go in search of the secret corners that we list below, but if you want more take a look at our section secret corners of London.

St_Katharines_Dock

St Katharine´s Dock is located next to the Tower of London, and goes unnoticed by 99% of the tourists who visit London. It is an oasis of tranquility in the bustle of London, where there are numerous restaurants and cafes to recharge your batteries.

St Christopher’s Place

Through a very narrow alley in the heart of Oxford Street, we unexpectedly arrive at St Christopher’s Place, a small square with numerous restaurants, fashion boutiques and cafes. It is one of our secret corners of London because although it is in the heart of London’s Oxford Street, it is very easy to pass in front of this alley without realizing it, and it is the perfect place to rest a bit if you are shopping in the center From london.

Noses and Ears in London’s Soho

Walking through London’s Soho it is very easy to walk past one of its famous noses without realizing it, because in Soho there are several life-size sculptures of noses and ears attached to the facades of buildings. Going in search of each of them is one of the things you can do for free in London.

Cross Bones graveyard

Next to London Bridge in London we find a somewhat curious cemetery, the Cross bones cemetery. Some 15,000 bodies were found here during excavations to improve one of the metro lines, and it is understood that it was a place where people who did not deserve a decent burial were buried in the past.

Neal’s Yard

Neal’s Yard is a very small square located next to Covent Garden in London, more specifically in the Seven Dials area of the British capital, and it is the most colorful corner of London.

Free Events in London

One of the best things about London is that it never stops, and throughout the year there are free events that take place in the most famous squares, parks and streets of the city center. We can attend an exhibition of vintage cars on Regent Street, the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Trafalgar Square, the Christmas markets that are set up during the winter months in different parts of London, or see one of the fireworks most impressive we have ever seen on the banks of the Thames to celebrate Lord Mayor´s Show… Below we list some of the free events in London, but do not forget to take a look at our Calendar of Events in London.

New Years Parade

The first free event held in London each year is the New Year Parade, which takes place every January 1 in central London. It is a spectacular parade in which many countries participate, and is one of the attractions of spending New Year’s Eve in London.

Chinese New Year Celebrations

Chinese New Year is celebrated in style in London, and specifically during a weekend in Trafalgar Square and Chinatown the celebrations are simply spectacular. It is usually one of the most famous free events in London and is usually attended by many people.

Pancake Day

Pancake day is one of Londoners’ favourites, as you have no excuse to eat pancakes all day! Pancake Day is celebrated in London with pancake races, and it’s free to go see these famous races.

Notting Hill Carnival

The last weekend of August, one of the most anticipated free events in London of the entire summer is celebrated each year, the Notting Hill Carnival. The carnival parade that is usually held on Sunday is undoubtedly the center of attention of this event in London, which is often attended by many people.

Go to a classical music concert for free

In the church of St Martins in the fields, which is located next to Trafalgar Square, free classical music concerts are held every week.

Lord Mayor’s Show

A day to celebrate the arrival of the new Mayor of the City of London, with a parade of boats on the Thames in the morning, a parade through the streets of London at noon, and a display of fireworks at night. A full day of free events in London that I recommend!

Little Venice Festival

A festival in the beautiful area of Little Venice, London’s Little Venice that takes place over an entire weekend. Little Venice’s boats are decorated down to the last detail for this festival, and there are numerous events throughout the weekend, with boat parades both day and night, boat competitions and numerous live music booths throughout the day. All weekend.

Winter Wonderland

And the last free event in London that I am going to name is the famous Winter Wonderland that is installed every Christmas in Hyde Park. It is the largest Christmas fair you can imagine, where we find all kinds of attractions, both for adults and children. Hundreds of fair attractions among which we find a giant Christmas market, as well as an ice skating rink, a circus, and much more… It is the ideal place to spend the day, since you can eat in one from the many restaurants or just grab some takeaway if you don’t want to waste a second! As well as Winter Wonderland there are plenty of things to see if you’re going to be in London for Christmas.

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