8 Free Things to do in London

July 14, 2010 · 16 comments

London is expensive, and everyone loves a freebie, so I have made this list of things you can do for free in the UKs Capital.

Buckingham Palace exterior

A nice place to have tea

1. Buckingham Palace

The house belonging to the head of the Kingdom. Gated off forecourt means you can’t quite pop in for a cup of tea with the Queen, but turn up at 11:30 every day (in summer, every other day in winter) and you can see the traditional changing of the guards.

2. Parks and Gardens

Next to Buckingham Palace you’ll find Green Park. In addition to this in London you can walk though Hyde Park, St James Park, Kensington Gardens including the Princess Diana memorial walk which is very well decorated and stretches into 4 of these parks.

Princess Diana memorial walk

Part of the Diana memorial Walk

3. Art Galleries

Art gallery and London in the same sentence is usually followed by Tate Modern or Tate Britain; but don’t forget to check out the National Art Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Somerset House, Wallace Collection, and the Serpentine Gallery. There are other paid for ones and a few other small places you might be able to find too.

Tate Modern piece

Art in the Tate Modern

4. Museums

London has a few good museums, all offering free sections. The Natural History Museum and the Science Museum are especially good. Other ones include The British Museum, Bank of England Museum, Foundation of Chinese Arts and Imperial War Museum.

Inside of Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum

5. Trafalgar Square

Many features including Nelsons Column, this 1830s square is a famous attraction and also center of political demonstrations if there is one happening.

6. Street Performers

You can find a large variety of these in South Bank and the West Piazza of Convent Garden Market.

Charlie Chapman!

Who's this dude?

7. South Bank

As well as the street performers, South Bank has a great view of the London Eye, Houses of Parliament, Tate Modern and other London landmarks.

8. Tower Bridge Lifting

Due to the requirement for ships to pass through, Tower Bridge raises the road after stopping traffic to let tall ships pass, check out the schedule here.

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge

Anyone else have suggestions on freebies in London? Just walking around brings up many things I found.

Related Posts with Thumbnails

{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }

Alouise July 14, 2010 at 7:21 AM

I love the fact the so many things in London, like galleries and museums were free or by donation only. I think The British Museum might be the coolest museum I’ve ever visited, and I was only able to make through a couple sections.
Alouise´s latest blogpost – Autographs

Reply

Aurora July 14, 2010 at 2:52 PM

London is an amazing city I think, and just like you say there are plenty of things you can do there that don’t cost any money. I love the fact that so many of the museums have free entries! I think more countries should adopt that! One museum that I rather like is the Victoria & Albert museum, they have LOTS to see!
Then something else I personally like to do in London is visit Harrods. Of course, Harrods is NOT cheap, but just going there is a really nice experience in itself I think! :D

Reply

Rebecca July 14, 2010 at 10:10 PM

There is this book that I bought before my summer in the city called “London in a Lunchtime” which I think is currently out of print, but I loved it! It was filled with quick and cheap things to do in the capital.
Rebecca´s latest blogpost – Chunnel-Eurostar

Reply

AdventureRob July 15, 2010 at 6:41 PM

Alouise – I’ve not actually been to the British Museum, but a lot of people rate it, there is always next time I suppose!
AdventureRob´s latest blogpost – Sydney Olympic Park

Reply

AdventureRob July 15, 2010 at 6:56 PM

Aurora – Ah yes, Harrods is great to shop around (especially around Christmas time) Hamlets the toy shop is good also. No need to put your hand in your pocket to enjoy them.

Reply

AdventureRob July 15, 2010 at 6:57 PM

Rebecca – I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a big book, there is more things here for free then people realise.

Reply

ciki July 16, 2010 at 1:45 PM

strolling in hyde park! (hi rob! how r ya.. u owe me a guestpost ! LOL)

Reply

AdventureRob July 18, 2010 at 12:31 PM

Hi Ciki, yes I know I’ll get on it this week hopefully, I’ve not forgotten!
AdventureRob´s latest blogpost – Travel Story- Paul The Pimp

Reply

Best Travel Deals July 20, 2010 at 12:55 PM

Very good article! You might also be interested on something we wrote on our blogsite http://bookitnow.com/london-in-a-nutshell

And just in case if you’re all not busy here, might you join us at World Wide Travel Blog Party. Invite every one who travels, writes, blogs and all of that.

Kudos to you! :)

Reply

Ralph July 20, 2010 at 1:27 PM

Wonderful images… just subscribed to your RSS
Ralph´s latest blogpost – travel blog

Reply

AdventureRob July 27, 2010 at 6:08 PM

Best Travel Deals – Great, I’ll check it out :-)
AdventureRob´s latest blogpost – Photo Essay- Bikes of Phnom Penh

Reply

AdventureRob July 27, 2010 at 6:09 PM

Ralph – thanks very much :-)

Reply

Amiee August 2, 2010 at 9:49 PM

I love free! Just checking in on your travels since I have been MIA too long on my own travels :)

Reply

AdventureRob August 2, 2010 at 11:32 PM

Hi Amiee, long time no see, new website too I see ;-)
AdventureRob´s latest blogpost – Ancient Crete Joins The Digital Age

Reply

Leave a Comment

CommentLuv badge

{ 2 trackbacks }

Previous post:

Next post: