Most of the museums in the British capital are free, but there are plenty of other options if you want to save money. Here are a few that we’ve personally tested.
1 Garden at 120
“Where are you going today?” – my London acquaintances ask me in the morning, and when I tell them it’s to the new free lookout, they just look, and when I add that it’s called the “Garden at 120”, they shrug that they’ve never heard of it.
The “Garden at 120” has been welcoming visitors for years, but it’s still not really well known. For now, you don’t even need to register to visit, you just walk to 120 Fenchurch Street. It was so crowded at the entrance that we almost turned back, but after half an hour of queuing, we were at the lift. The lookout is actually a large flat roof with a garden, rest area, cafe and toilets a mezzanine below. It’s not actually very high up (15th floor), but the panoramic view all around is worth the queue.
All around you are the skyscrapers of the financial district (City), the Thames can be seen between the buildings and you can recognise emblematic buildings such as Tower Bridge or St Paul’s Cathedral. If you’re in a hurry, half an hour is plenty of time to wander around and take the obligatory photo, but I can imagine someone being sucked in by the truly extraordinary scenery and spending much more time here.
You can find the opening hours and other visitor information here, but you can see how many people are on the roof here.
2 Sky Garden
You can also visit this skyscraper lookout in the business district, not far from the Garden at 120, for free. It’s an older attraction and many people know it. You need to register yourself on the Sky Garden website, the sooner the better. Down at the entrance this is checked, then after a security check the lift takes you up to the roof, which is a mixture of a lookout, a botanical garden, a rest area and a restaurant. As for the latter, you can sit in the café or restaurant for a rather steep price, but there’s no pressure.
A few years ago, you could look at London’s breathtaking panorama for as long as you wanted, but now the time limit is an hour. You won’t be bored, because you’ll not only see the familiar London sights, but you’ll be amazed at the size of London once again. If we’re lucky and there’s no rain or wind, they’ll even open the terrace.
3 Picnic at Hampstead Heath
Much less well known than the downtown parks (James, Green, St. James, etc.), but when the weather is good, locals travel by the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, to Hampstead Heath, north of the city, which is much larger in size than the parks mentioned above. It’s not a park, really, but a sort of wild, rolling woodland meadow with lakes, some of which are even open for swimming in summer.
Most people arrive with picnic hampers, typically families or large groups who spread out their blankets and chat while eating and drinking. By the end of the day the atmosphere is quite uplifted. From Parliament Hill, you get an unusual view of the city centre, about 10 kilometres away. The picnic can be topped off with cultural venues (Keats’ house, Kenwood House, etc.).
4 A replica of 10 Downing Street
If you want to impress your friends, take a selfie on Adam Street. The humorous owner of Number 10 has created an exact replica of the entrance to the Prime Minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street. But while the barred entrance to Downing Street is guarded by machine-gunners, anyone can visit. And it’s just a pleasant walk from Trafalgar Square. If you’re lucky, there aren’t many tourists.
5 Botanic Garden at the Barbican
It’s similar to the Sky Garden in that it has plants, but this is a real botanical garden. It has the second largest collection of plants in London after Kew Gardens. It is mainly professionally run, but is open to visitors for a few hours on certain days. And then it’s free to visit. You don’t need to register, just to join the English people sipping tea and cake under the plants, who in this form are almost as spectacular as the garden.
Be prepared that it won’t be easy to find the entrance to the vast complex. The Barbican itself is a walled housing estate on the edge of the City, with six thousand people living in 21 concrete blocks. Perhaps the most striking example of Brutalist architecture, it’s worth a visit. At first sight you’re intimidated by it, but then you calm down and can even imagine living here.
6 Visiting Canary Wharf
I suggest coming here in the driverless DLR train, and then it will be like suddenly arriving at a dimensional gateway to New York, a science fiction movie, or maybe another planet. Canary Wharf is very different from the image of London we have. For nearly two centuries it was home to perhaps the busiest docks in the world, only to fall into disrepair in the 1960s. The first new building was constructed in the early nineties, followed by others. Brexit or no Brexit, London’s second financial centre is still being built at full speed, with companies arriving one after the other, skyscrapers and office blocks rising out of the ground. As well as being a futuristic place to walk around – and get a few bad selfies with envious acquaintances – there are shops and restaurants. A special treat is to see the financiers who work here.
Once out, we recommend leaving on the Upper Boat service from the Pier, which takes you across the Thames at a moderate price to Rotherhithe opposite. You can take extraordinary photos of the middle of the river day and night.
7 The Bansky Tunnel
When I first found this place a few years ago, I was unsure. On the internet forums, many people warned to go during daylight and not alone. The “Bansky Tunnel” (officially known as the Leake Street Tunnel) is in a really spooky place. It’s an old disused postal tunnel at Waterloo station, it’s not part of the car or pedestrian traffic, but it’s not closed.
The tunnel, hundreds of metres long, is famous because Banksy, the world’s most famous graffiti artist, announced an art festival here in 2008. Since then, the place has been a flock of muralists, Banksy’s first work long since buried by time and other paint, but Leake Street has become a place of pilgrimage with an amazing visual spectacle. Painting is tolerated by the authorities, and when we were there, there were not only graffiti artists but also a film crew.
When I first visited a few years ago, there were already a number of tourists, and today it is a mainstream attraction where families make pilgrimages with young children, the tunnel has not only got a restaurant and bar but also an own website. Let’s say at night and alone it still might not be the best thing to do in London.
8 Markets
A visit to a London market is almost a must on a city break of more than a few days. Perhaps the most popular is still the Portobello Road not unrelated to the success of the film Notting Hill. But in recent years, the bohemian Camden Lock has also really taken off, with good food, but tourists have diluted the place a little. The Borough Market under London Bridge’s south end and the Broadway Market in South Hackney are still pretty authentic, but the former is a bit jungle-like and the latter is relatively small. Last summer I walked along Brick Lane, which is charming as a cozy, but there’s a sense of the tourist industry too.
My new favourite one is the Old Spitalfield Market, which is a very healthy blend of tradition and modernity, freedom and regulation, professionalism and individual creativity. Dozens of food and drink vendors, cafes, restaurants, artisan and traditional shops line the streets in a revitalised environment with an authentic East-End atmosphere.
9 God’s Own Junkyard
I looked at the website, the photo and the descriptions in vain, but I just couldn’t figure out exactly what the hell it was. And even after the visit, it’s not easy to summarise. So imagine a couple of suburban warehouses that have been squeezed. Imagine an untold amount of former street neon signs piled up on top of each other. Imagine that they are all working and switched on. Between them are tables and chairs where you can sit down and order coffee and beer from a counter. Can you imagine?
God’s Own Junkyard is so astounding that we forget to ask what it’s for. Certainly, scenes from several famous movies (Superman, Eyes Wide Shut, Judge Dredd, etc.) have been filmed here. You have to take into account that Walthamstow is quite a long way from the city centre.
10 A riverside walk with some pints
This is also a longer programme, but in return you get a unique London experience. It’s about ten kilometres out of the city on the tube, getting off at Turham Green station. We are in Chiswick, one of London’s suburban areas. From the tube station it’s a good mile walk to the River Thames, along which a romantic riverside promenade (Chiswick Mall) runs back towards the city. It is considered by many to be the most beautiful street in London.
The wide Thames on the right, pretty family houses on the left. At the start of the walk you can see the chimneys of the famous Fuller brewery, and later on you’ll find a succession of seated pubs with river views. In between is the iconic Dove, where Graham Green and Ernest Hemingway once drank. But there are plenty of riverside pubs too, so if you happen to catch a sunny day and find a seat on a terrace, you won’t regret it. Sorry to say but the beer is not free.
