Free entry
PlaceActivities
National Gallery
A free collection on Trafalgar Square. Choose a handful of paintings and give them the time a whole museum sometimes steals.
The London edit
Good things in London, for free
Free-entry collections, places and exhibitions. Check each listing for what is included.
Free-entry collections, places and exhibitions. Check each listing for what is included. Explore our growing London selection, with checked practical details and official sources.
Free entry
PlaceActivities
V&A South Kensington
Design, objects and small details worth a second look. The permanent collection is free; ticketed exhibitions have their own admission.
On the house
EventExhibitions
Yinka Shonibare and Thomas Gainsborough: A Conversation
A painting and its sculptural response meet in one room. This free National Gallery exhibition opens on 15 October.
Free entry
PlaceActivities
Borough Market
A place to browse, buy ingredients or build lunch one decision at a time. Entry is free; the food is a separate budget.
Free entry
PlaceActivities
Regent’s Park
An unhurried patch of London: gardens, open space and a walk that does not need a destination. Ordinary park entry is free.
Free entry
PlaceActivities
Tate Modern
Modern and contemporary art on Bankside. The collection is free; choose a paid exhibition only if it is the reason you want to go.
Free entry
PlaceCulture
Sir John Soane’s Museum
An architect’s house crowded with objects, pictures and unexpected views. Free entry, intimate rooms and plenty to notice in a small space.
Free entry
PlaceCulture
The Wallace Collection
Paintings, furniture, porcelain and armour in a Marylebone mansion. A free permanent collection for an afternoon of close looking.
Free entry
PlaceCulture
Wellcome Collection
Free exhibitions at the meeting point of health, art and lived experience, with a Reading Room that invites a less formal kind of visit.
Free entry
PlaceCulture
British Library, St Pancras
A free stop for the Treasures Gallery and a different kind of pause beside the bustle of Euston Road.
On the house
EventExhibitions
Cecilia Vicuña: Foraging Quipu
A free stop in Whitechapel Gallery’s autumn programme, showing Cecilia Vicuña’s Foraging Quipu in Gallery 4.
Free entry
PlaceCulture
Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology
Archaeological objects make this university museum a focused alternative within a Bloomsbury cultural day.
On the house
EventConcerts
Free Friday: Owen Lee plays Liszt, Ravel, León and Montsalvatge
A free lunchtime piano programme puts water-inspired Liszt and Ravel beside works by Tania León and Xavier Montsalvatge, with introductions from Rachel Leach.
On the house
EventConcerts
Free Friday: Gareth Davies plays Loggins-Hull, Liebermann and Reich
LSO principal flute Gareth Davies takes the lunchtime spotlight in music by Allison Loggins-Hull, Lowell Liebermann and Steve Reich.
Free entry
PlaceExhibitions
Serpentine North
Contemporary art and a café sit beside Kensington Gardens at Serpentine North, a free gallery visit that combines easily with a park walk.
Free entry
PlaceExhibitions
London Museum Docklands
A former dockside warehouse tells the story of London’s port, including trade, slavery, wartime Docklands and the transformation of Canary Wharf.
Free entry
PlaceExhibitions
Royal Air Force Museum London
Aircraft and aviation stories fill the RAF Museum’s north London site, with enough ground to cover for a longer museum outing.
Free entry
PlaceExhibitions
Queen’s House
Art, architecture and the Tulip Stairs make the Queen’s House a quieter Greenwich visit beside the larger maritime museums.
On the house
EventExhibitions
Yuko Mohri: In Concert
The Curve becomes a changing environment of light, sound and kinetic sculpture in Yuko Mohri’s free exhibition.
On the house
EventActivities
Why Is There Music? with Milton Mermikides
Professor Milton Mermikides brings neuroscience, philosophy, psychology and anthropology to a public lecture on why humans make music.
On the house
EventActivities
Musical Myths and Miracles with Milton Mermikides
A free Gresham College lecture examines claims about music’s power, from ancient healing stories to modern ideas about intelligence and sound.
Free entry
PlaceExhibitions
White Cube Bermondsey
Expansive rooms, a courtyard and a specialist bookshop give contemporary art space to breathe at White Cube’s Bermondsey gallery.
Free entry
PlaceExhibitions
White Cube Mason’s Yard
A compact St James’s courtyard leads to White Cube’s two-level gallery, a useful contemporary-art stop within a West End walk.
Free entry
PlaceExhibitions
Drawing Room
Drawing in its broadest sense is the subject of this Bermondsey gallery, from works on paper to installations and experiments with material.