13 Free things to do in London
Every visitor to London is quickly aware that the city can be an expensive place to enjoy. But you can balance some of those costs by taking advantage of some of the great free things to do in London. Here’s our list of favorites, in no particular order.
An evening walk along the River Thames, is both fantastic and free. All photos by John O’Boyle / The Empty Nest Explorers
Take in a free view of the city
Nothing makes you feel like you’ve arrived in London like a sweeping view of the iconic skyline. Whether you want to take photos or just take it in, many of the ways to view it are free.
Our favorite free view of London is from the Sky Garden, located on the 43rd floor of the famous “Walkie-Talkie” building at 20 Fenchurch Street, where you can enjoy world-class views from inside the giant atrium or the outside glass-enclosed observation deck. This indoor-outdoor plaza features three levels of beautiful terraced gardens under a rounded glass dome. It’s an amazing bird’s eye view right in the center of London.
Although it is free to visit the garden, their website suggests you reserve a ticket, especially during the busy tourist seasons, to avoid having to wait on line to get in.
For more free views, see our blog post about the Best Free Views of the London Skyline.
The view of Parliament and the River Thames is stunning at any time of day.
Stroll along the Thames
You can walk along the north and south banks of the River Thames along the Thames Path. Created in 1996, the Thames Path National Trail is a high-quality, traffic-free walking and cycling route that is actually the longest river walk in Europe. It would take two weeks to walk the whole trail!!
But let’s not get crazy - all you really need is the section from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge for a classic sightseeing walk through Central London.
This easy riverside walk includes the bustling South Bank neighborhood and passes contemporary structures like the London Eye, the Shard, the Tate Modern, the Millennium Footbridge and the historic landmarks Southwark Cathedral, County Hall and Shakespeare’s Globe. And let's not forget those iconic views of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.
Tower Bridge photographed from the area by the Tower of London.
Walk across Tower Bridge (and other well known London bridges!)
Spanning the Thames River, the iconic Tower Bridge is a well known landmark of the city of London. Did you know you could walk across it for free?
I love the Tower Bridge! To me, it’s a symbol of London and makes me happy to see it all lit up like a monument. And who doesn’t love the classic image of a double decker red bus humming across the Tower Bridge?
Here’s a little tip - Most people enter the bridge by the Tower of London and stop to take their selfies as soon as they get onto the bridge. So it gets crowded right at the beginning. Your best bet for taking your own photos is to walk a little further down to a less crowded area of the walkway. It quickly clears out as you move away from the entrance.
For a small fee, you can opt to walk up inside the bridge, where there is an interesting museum display as you walk up. Once on top, you can take in the breathtaking skyline from above and walk across the glass bottom walkway, peering down onto the busy bridge (and those iconic buses!)
There is also a great view of the bridge from the patio of the Vault Bar, which is built right into the base of the bridge. They serve beer, wine, and traditional pub food.
For more details, we have a blog post for that! - Visiting London’s Tower Bridge
Although everyone, of course, recognizes the iconic shape of Tower Bridge, there are a few other bridges spanning the Thames that make for a great walk as well:
The Millennium Bridge is a pedestrian-only walkway that was opened in 2000 - for the new millennium! - that links St Paul's Cathedral on the north bank of the Thames with Tate Modern and Shakespeare's Globe in Southwark.
This bridge is a great place to take photos of the river, especially for its magnificent views of St Paul’s Cathedral.
Westminster Bridge is the place for an iconic view of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament on the north bank. This is the oldest road bridge across the Thames in central London, and is an artwork in itself, featuring Gothic revival styling and cast iron details.
Interestingly, the green color of the bridge is said to be the same color as the leather seats in the House of Commons which is on the side of the Palace of Westminster nearest to the bridge. The People’s Bridge!
You can walk across the bridge to the London Eye and look back at those great views of Parliament and Big Ben.
London Bridge is definitely not falling down but it's kind of a drab concrete structure and not as interesting in itself as the other bridges mentioned above, However, you can walk across it, as there are footpaths which are open 24 hours a day, and you can still get great views of the river, though perhaps not as iconic as the view from Westminster
If walking across either London Bridge or Tower Bridge, why not add on a trip to Borough Market? It’s not a far walk from either bridge and it’s also on our list of free things to do!
Wander around Borough Market
Extend your walk to Borough Market, a lively food market that is great for grazing after all that walking. It’s only a few minutes walk from London Bridge or about 15 minutes from Tower Bridge.
There’s no charge to enter the market, but you’ll need some cash if you want a snack or two! It’s a pretty inexpensive way to eat though, with lots of choices from noodles to coffee & doughnuts, and casual seating at picnic tables.
The only rub is that it closes surprisingly early - 5 pm daily and 3 pm on Sunday. So it’s a good place for lunch or teatime treats but not for dinner.
Shoppers walk through Borough Market.
Our favorite travel resources
Hotels - Booking.com. Lots of search options and information. Link
Activities - Viator. We love food tours and historical guides from Viator. Link
Airfare - FareDrop. Custom notifications of airfare sales. Link
Phone connection - Airalo. E-Sim for your phone, it’s easy and available for every country. Link
Europe train travel - Trainline - We use it to book all our train reservations. Link
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Visit London’s City Hall
That striking bubble-shaped building perched along the Thames is London City Hall. The eye-catching glass facade and spiral staircase make it one of the capital’s most distinctive modern buildings. And the public is encouraged to visit!
London City Hall is home to the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The building also hosts temporary exhibitions throughout the year. The public can visit select areas of City Hall on Mondays to Thursdays, 8:30am to 6pm, and on Fridays, 8:30am to 5:30pm.
There is a cafe on the ground floor with views overlooking the Royal Docks. Through the cafe, visitors can access the Chamber where debates and Assembly meetings take place. If there is a public meeting taking place, you can stay and attend the meeting in the seating gallery. If no meeting is taking place you cannot enter the Chamber.
All visitors to London City Hall must pass through security at the entrance to the building. This includes going through a metal detector and having all bags scanned.
Some of the many shops at Camden Market.
Explore Camden Markets
Let’s add another market to our list - although calling any market a “free attraction” is rather relative, depending on whether you are someone who is likely to “pick up a few bargains” or not! ;)
Nonetheless, there is no cost to enter the ever popular Camden Markets, and the window shopping and people watching is an entertainment in itself. So technically a free attraction.
The interesting setting makes for an engaging visit - located in the former Pickfords stables of the Camden Lock, a historic wharf on the Regent's Canal, and spread out along Camden High Street and Chalk Farm Road.
Consisting of six distinct markets which collectively form the Camden Markets, there are lots of eclectic finds to suit any cosmopolitan taste.
I was particularly taken by the assortment of vintage wares! Unique shops that sell clothing, accessories, handicrafts, vintage jewelry, antiques, plus a varied collection of bars, and cafes, make this iconic market a fun way to spend an afternoon.
For lots more information on Camden Markets, including how to get there, check out our post about it, Camden Market: Exploring the Unique Charm.
Experience London’s Free Museums
London offers an incredible array of impressive museums and galleries. And many are free!
There is certainly enough variety to find something that interests you, including:
Victoria & Albert; Science Museum; National Gallery; Natural History Museum; Imperial War Museum; The British Museum; The Tate Modern.
Certain special exhibitions may have a cost, but general admission to these museums are free.
A full list of free London Museums can be found here.
The Changing of the Guard begins at St. James Palace and heads to Buckingham Palace.
Watch the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace
Whether you are interested in all things royal or not, watching the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace is a classic London experience. It’s lively, it’s grand, the music is smashing, there are horses, and best of all - it’s free!
The Changing of the Guard is a popular event that draws crowds, so it requires a little planning. You can watch different parts of the ceremony at several locations - including St. James Palace, Wellington Barracks and of course Buckingham Palace where the main ceremony takes place at 11am on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.
Plan to get there early for a good spot. We have a very extensive blog post with advice on the best way to experience it (and everything you ever wanted to know about it, lol) - Experiencing the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, St. James’ Palace and Wellington Barracks.
The Household Division bands are exceptionally good - I’m always amazed how great they sound. So even if you don’t have the best view, you should still be able enjoy the music and the buzzy atmosphere. A great place to see the band up close and often catch a playful “pre-game” serenade is at St James Palace at about 10:30, before they begin their march to Buckingham Palace.
For an alternative, more intimate, if less elaborate Changing of the Guard ceremony, check out Horse Guards Parade, where the Household Cavalry is based. Here, a more low-key changing ceremony is performed by the King’s Life Guard - those imposing soldiers on horseback with the flashy helmets that have the personal charge of guarding the sovereign. Just as the foot soldiers have a changing ceremony at the Palaces, so do the mounted guard at Horse Guards. It’s definitely less crowded so you can get a much closer view of the action.
The changing ceremony at Horse Guards Parade takes place at 11:00 am daily and 10:00 am on Sundays. Just don’t get too close to those horses. You’ll be soundly reprimanded! ;)
For more info, read our post Why you should visit Horse Guards Parade on your next trip to London.
The Changing of the Guard proceeds from Buckingham Palace to Wellington Barracks.
Enjoy London’s excellent Parks and Green spaces
London does urban parks and green spaces particularly well - grassy sprawls interspersed with carefully cultured gardens, winding pathways, lakes, ponds and recreation areas. Most of the Royal Parks are easily reached by Tube, or on foot if you are strolling around central London.
If you have just watched the Changing on the Guard, you are already near three of the most well known royal parks:. St James Park, Green Park and Hyde Park form a chain through most of central London. So go and have a look and enjoy!
But this is only the beginning. London has an amazing amount of urban parks!
To give you a more detailed run-down, we have a descriptive guide to London’s great parks in a separate post: A Quick Guide to Exploring London Parks
Browse Harrods Department Store
Tired of the great outdoors? You might want to check out one of London’s most iconic department stores! You don’t have to actually buy anything to have fun at Harrods.
Harrods Department Store.
Harrods is immense and a signature image of London's luxury culture. With its upscale products and elegant displays, it feels more like an art gallery than a department store. Even riding the escalators is kind of dreamy - something of a bygone era of luxury experience. And I certainly to love the jewelry displays! Ain’t gonna lie!
It is one of the largest and most famous department stores in the world, occupying and jaw dropping 1.1 million square feet of retail space! Yowzer. And it looks pretty both inside and out.
I’ve read that they would close the store so the Queen could do her Christmas shopping there. Well, that may or may not be true, but it is certainly fun to imagine. Did she have royal credit card in that famous purse of hers, or pull out a few wrinkly bills with her own face on them? Kidding of course!
Our favorite part of Harrods is its famous Food Halls, where every tasty thing imaginable is for sale. Not cheap, but tons of fun, even just to browse. But why not pick up a few picnic items to enjoy in one of those free parks? ;)
Harrods is located in the fashionable Knightsbridge neighborhood, which is definitely an appealing place to have a look around. We particularly noticed how many luxury model cars were parked out on the streets - not something you normally see in the States.
The Tube station closest to Harrods is the Knightsbridge Station.
Explore the borough of Greenwich for Maritime History
If maritime history catches your fancy, consider spending a day in Greenwich, on the banks of the Thames in southeast London. The area is sometimes also referred to as “Royal Greenwich” and is a mix of the old and the new.
Greenwich is home to the huge National Maritime Museum, which is free to enter.
You can also admire the classical buildings of the Old Royal Naval College, which was originally established in 1692 as a hospital for wounded seamen. The architecture and the surrounding grounds are stunning, offering views of the river and the city beyond. Some of the complex is open for free tours, but not all of it.
It is also home to the Cutty Sark, a restored 19th-century ship that’s pretty impressive to look at, but you do have to buy a ticket if you would like to tour it.
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You can enjoy peaceful Greenwich Park, one of the oldest of the Royal Parks that boasts some very ancient trees. For an real escape into the woods, visit Croom's Hill or One Tree Hill.
Overlooking the park is the Royal Observatory, which is also home to the Prime Meridian Line - 0 degrees longitude - where the term “Greenwich Mean Time” comes from.
Admission to the Royal Observatory’s Astronomy Centre which houses three state-of-the-art modern astronomy galleries is free, but it must be noted that not all of the observatory is free. For planetarium shows, and the more extensive galleries, you’ll need to buy a ticket.
So if you really want to stand over the Prime Meridian, one foot in the west and one foot in the east, so to speak, for your Instagram feed or just your bucket list, you will need to purchase a ticket as it is also part of the “paid part” of the observatory experience. But if you are happy just seeing the fairly nondescript metal line through the fence, then no need to have a ticket!
Another free attraction is the Queen’s House Museum, located in the garden of the National Maritime Museum and considered a true hidden gem among the Greenwich museums. It is famous for its grand, spiraling “tulip staircase” as well as some very significant paintings in its elegant art galleries and its surprising, iconic architecture.
To get to Greenwich from Central London via Tube, you can take the Jubilee line to North Greenwich Station.
You can also take a direct train via Southeastern and Thameslink from London Bridge or London Cannon Street to Greenwich or Maze Hill station.
Alternatively, for a more scenic trip, and to get into the maritime spirit, why not take an Uber boat to Greenwich Pier? It is about a 25 minute sail from London Bridge Pier.
Of course, none of these modes of transportation are free, so in keeping with the theme of this post, it's worth mentioning that Greenwich is on the Thames River Path, so you could bike or walk as well. It’s roughly about 6 miles from London Bridge Station to Greenwich, but the path is a flat, easy walk or bike ride.
Check out St. Pancras International train station
The iconic exterior of St. Pancras International.
Even if you aren’t taking the Eurostar, St Pancras station is fun just to see. You don’t have to be traveling through to appreciate it.
This huge railway hub in the heart of London is considered one of the most elegantly designed railway stations in the world. The immense building with its 19th-century Victorian Gothic facade is truly a stunner. Inside the station, the comfortable space is of a very modern design - bright, open and airy.
There are plenty of cafes and food shops for a quick bite at St Pancras - many open late - as well as free public toilets (which aren’t always the easiest things to find in London!)
There is also ample room for public arts installations which is rather a nice touch. One of the more interesting bits is, rather famously, Sir Elton John's piano, which was gifted to the station (and signed) by the man himself, and invites you to pause and have a go at it yourself, or simply enjoy someone else’s music.
I also like that there are small versions of many of London’s prestige shops such as Fortnum & Mason - where you might just want to pick up a jar of their signature orange marmalade. (It’s delicious and I don’t even generally like marmalade!)
A lot of people new to London get a little mixed up about St Pancras and Kings Cross Stations. They are NOT the same station, but they are right next to each other.
St Pancras is mostly an international train station, (with a few regional trains thrown in). It is the home of the Eurostar - offering high-speed trains to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.
King’s Cross serves a vast array of regional and intercity trains which serve UK destinations to the north of London.
What makes it confusing is that they are both served by one London Underground station: King's Cross St Pancras.
But no worries! If arriving by Underground at Kings Cross St Pancras to catch a train, just follow the signs to the station you need from there.
(BTW, if you need more information on taking trains in Britain, we have a whole post about that: Traveling by train in Britain: a guide for beginners)
Visit Battersea Power Station
Old and new architecture at Battersea Power Station.
Ok, it might be “cheating” in a post about “free things to do in London” to add what is basically a glorified shopping mall - and an expensive one at that - but hear me out.
There is something just enchanting about this place to me. And while you could definitely spend some cash there, you don’t have to.
It is literally an old power station - once a very major power station, that supplied power to most of the city of London. It was built in the 1920s, and much care has been taken to retain its historic charm.
The behemoth building sports four looming chimney towers (one of which you can take an elevator ride up, for a price.) Like many iconic structures around the world, colored lights enhance the towers at night, for different celebrations and remembrances.
And for those “of a certain age” (ahem) you might recognize it from the iconic Pink Floyd album cover, Animals. It’s also been used as an authentic setting in several movies, including The King’s Speech.
All that is cool, but that’s not the real reason I like it. I think I just love the careful preservation of the 1920s period structures, keeping details like engine control rooms and power turbines intact. Of course, they are now boujie bars, restaurants, and entertainment spaces, but they are still fun to see. So have a walk-through and admire it all, even if you are not inclined to shop in the upscale shops.
As you probably realize by now, admiring historic and modern architecture is kind of a thing in London. And what better place for it? So much history…
But don’t forget to enjoy the outside space as well. You can take a break in Power Station Park, a comfortable area outside the station in a lovely spot along the Thames. John actually fell asleep in one of those giant chairs!
Lots of other details around the power station are interesting as well. Restaurants, shops, and various entertainment spots are literally built right into the arches of an old railway line adjacent to the station, which is a rather pleasing architectural detail. The Coaling Jetty, which was once an industrial pier, today serves as a popular picnic area for river views and as a staging area for public events, bringing in food vendors and entertainment.
If you want to learn more about Battersea Power Station, the newly revived neighborhood around it, how to get there, and all the other deets, we have a full post on it: What to do in Battersea, South London.
So get your walking shoes on and get out there! Enjoy some great experiences in London for free!
This post was researched and written by Debbie of the Empty Nest Explorers. You can learn more about the Empty Nest Explorers here
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