The amazing capital city of England is on many peoples bucket lists to visit at least once in their lives. And for good reason. There is SO MUCH to see and do in the city, you could easily keep yourself entertained for weeks. Luckily there are a lot of the great activities in London for free. To stop you getting too overwhelmed by all the choice we have put together a list of our favourite free things to do in this wonderful city.

1. Southbank Walk
2. Markets
3. City and Covent Garden Walk
4. Vintage Shopping in Shoreditch
5. Visiting Richmond
6. Sky Garden
7. Parks and Gardens
8. Explore Harrods
9. Museums

For most of these activities, you’ll need to get to certain places in the city. We would highly recommend using the public transport system, as it’s the cheapest way to get around. We have a post here if you want to know how to get around London on public transport.

Cost: Free

When anyone asks us what to do in London for free, or what to see first, our answer will always be the southbank walk. In our opinion it is the best way to see a bunch of London landmarks without using any public transport. Every time we have done this walk we spend a whole day, and we always walk the same direction, however you could easily do the opposite direction or just do bits of it. Below is a map we’ve included of the walk we’re about to discuss:

Start by getting the tube to Tower Hill which is where the beautiful Tower of London is. While you can visit the inside of the Tower of London, it’s definitely not budget-friendly by our standards. We usually just have a look from the outside before continuing on. From here you also get a great view of Tower Bridge from the river bank.

The walk will take you across Tower Bridge, and then essentially just down Southbank along the Thames all the way down to Westminster Bridge. We also recommend crossing Westminster Bridge and seeing a few more landmarks. From bridge to bridge this walk is about 4.5 kilometres and will take about an hour if you’re just walking without stopping. However there are lots of wonderful things to see along the way.

Not too long after crossing over Tower Bridge you will walk near Borough Market, which is just a 5 minute detour off the Thames. This market makes a wonderful lunch or snack stop. You will then walk around Southwark Cathedral to get back to the water near Southwark Bridge. It’s pretty easy to find where you’re going.

Once you’re back on the riverside walk, you will pass a few more landmarks. Amonst these are the Globe Theatre, the Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge, famous for being destroyed in the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince movie (at least that’s what we know it from). Once at the Millennium Bridge, you will have a wonderful view across to St Paul’s Cathedral which is absolutely stunning. You could cross here to visit the cathedral if you wanted, although it does cost £20 to go in.

Continuing down Southbank, you will go past many cute shops and places to eat. You will eventually come across the Southbank Book Market which is an outdoor bookstore open every day of the week. Not far past the market, you’ll reach the London Eye. From here you can end the walk and head to nearby Waterloo Station, or cross Westminster bridge to get to Westminster station. But we will recommend that you keep walking! From here, you can cross Westminster bridge to get closer to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Just around the corner you can also see Westminster Abbey.

From there you are only a 15 minute walk to Buckingham Palace, which you can reach through St James Park. The park is a lovely place to sit and squirrel watch before you brave the crowds outside the Palace. If you manage to get this far after starting at Tower Bridge, you will have ticked off most of the big London landmarks, so congratulations! It’s a big day of walking and sightseeing but it is so worth it. We think it’s the easiest and best way to see all these amazing sites of London for free!

Cost: Free (Unless you buy something of course)

London has some of our favourite markets we’ve ever visited and they definitely all deserve to be checked out! Browsing markets is one of the best things to do in London for free. Here are our favourites:

This is probably one of the most famous, and for good reason. It’s undercover, absolutely huge, has so many delicious food options. It is open 6 days a week (closed on Mondays) and during December is open 7 days a week for Christmas shopping. Borough Market is located on Southbank just at the end of London Bridge on the south side of the Thames. This location makes it a wonderful food stop while doing the Southbank walk.

It’s home to the famous (and ridiculously expensive) chocolate covered strawberries (£8.50 per cup – way too expensive in our opinion), one of two Humble Crumbles in the city, so many cheese stalls, a huge bakery section, and so many other food options you’ll be overwhelmed. This is probably our favourite market in London so is definitely something you need to check out! It is worth noting though that Borough Market only sells food and nothing else, and does get VERY busy. It is housed in a slightly cramped warehouse, so prepared to wait and navigate some crowds.

This is located in, you guessed it, Camden, and is open 7 days a week. It is a 4 minute walk from Camden Town tube station so is very easy to get to. It offers a wide variety of food, clothing, antique items, art, and lots of other great stuff to buy. The food part of the market is quite compact so does get very busy, and again will have queues for popular items, such as the TikTok-famous Yorkshire Burrito! (We waited 15 minutes to get ours and it was delicious).

After getting some food, there’s heaps of stalls to browse, and this area spreads out a bit more so isn’t as crowded. The market also runs along Camden Lock so you could always have a stroll along the water if you need a break from the crowds. There are undercover sections but a lot of the food is outside. We would definitely recommend this market be visited on a day when it isnt raining.

The next market worth a visit is Spitalfields, which is located only a 6 minute walk from Liverpool Street station. It is fully undercover so can be visited in any weather and is open 7 days a week. This market is one of the smaller ones and sells food, art, crafts, clothing and other items like that.

It is home to the second location of Humble Crumble and is a lot quieter. If the Crumble queue at Borough is too long (it can often be more than 30 minutes long), you will have a much shorter wait at Spitalfields. There is a wide variety of food options here so you should find something delicious to try. It’s a great market to visit if you want to avoid some of the crazy crowds that visit the others.

Lastly is Portobello Road market which is located only a few minutes walk from Ladbroke Grove tube station and is open 6 days a week (shut on Sundays). It is a street market so really requires a day when it is not raining. Here, you’ll find street food, antiques, souvenirs, art and clothing. We found this one to be particularly interesting because while there are temporary stands with vendors, the market also encorporates the permanent shops on the street so you can walk in and out of them to browse while also visiting the stands.

This market is also in such a gorgeous area of London, famous for colourful buildings. Only a 15-minute walk from the end of the market is The Churchill Arms, a pub famous for the plant decorations on the outside which is definitely worth a visit after you’re done at the market. We hope you’re excited to visit these wonderful London markets! While they’re full of temping things to buy, you can also just wander around and browse without spending anything. It’s so lovely just taking in the environment of these wonderful bustling markets!

Cost: Free

When you go to London, I’m sure you’ll be wanting to tick off all the famous sights. Luckily all the city ones are within walking distance of each other and completely free to visit. This walk is a great addition to the Southbank Walk, as you’ll then see most of the famous landmarks in London for free.

We’d recommend starting off around Marble Arch, which is on the corner of Hyde Park, and walking down the famous Oxford Street which has some great shopping. After 15 minutes, you’ll reach Oxford Circus tube station. Turn left down Regent Street, another famous shopping street. On this street you’ll find Hamleys, a world famous seven-storey toy store that we’d definitely recommend going into. Even if you don’t want to buy anything, it’s quite fun to experience the chaos inside. Just behind Hamleys is Carnaby street, which you can walk down to reach Regent Street until you hit Piccadilly Circus. We like to think of Piccadilly Circus as London’s version of Times Square.

A very short walk away from here is China Town, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, and the great area of Soho, where heaps of the West End theatres are too! After exploring all those wonderful places, head on over to our favourite place, Covent Garden, just another short walk away. Covent Garden is an old undercover market which has now been turned into a permanent selection of shops and cafes, with regular street performers and the most amazing decorations at Christmas time. This is a long day of walking and shopping, but is a great and quick way to see a lot of the famous areas of London for free, without taking any transport in between!

Cost: Free (Depends if you buy anything!)

If you like vintage shopping, you will find a number of great shops in Shoreditch. Brick Lane has great vintage shopping, which can be easily access from Shoreditch High Street overground station or Liverpool Street tube station. Here you will find shops such as Hunky Dory Vintage, Vintage Paradise, Vintage Planet and the The Brick Lane Vintage Market which is a large indoor vintage market with heaps of different stalls selling beautifully vintage clothes.

Brick Lane is also famous for it’s incredible array of Indian food. Apart from the shopping and the Indian food, Brick Lane is also famous for its street art and hipster vibe. It is a great place to wander and can easily be coupled with a trip to the nearby Spitalfields Market.

Cost: Free

In our opinion Richmond is one of the nicest areas of London, and even though we’ve visited multiple times, I’m sure we will be visiting next time we’re in London too. It is well known for it’s beautiful green outdoor spaces and for Richmond Park which is over 700 years old, 6 times bigger than Hyde Park and has over 600 wild deer roaming around. Its a little outside of London, but easily accessible on both the district tube line and the overground train.

The actual town of Richmond is a cute little place and is worth a wander around as there’s heaps of cute little alleys to walk down and lots of cute shops and cafes to look through. You might also recognise some of the streets from the TV series Ted Lasso, which filmed in the town a lot.

As Richmond is on the Thames River, there’s also some beautiful walks along the water and can be a great place to just sit and watch the swans after a long day of walking. We really would recommend at least a day to explore Richmond and Richmond Park, and could even be coupled with a trip to Kew Gardens as it’s quite close by!

We won’t go into much detail on Kew Gardens here, as it does cost, but we do have a post here about ways to save money on some activities in London which has a great tip for Kew Gardens for those of you under 29.

Cost: Free

One of the best things to do in London for free is the Sky Garden, a completely free place to get an amazing city view of London! You’ll need to book free tickets on their website with an entry time slot, and once you enter you will have an hour to look around (although they don’t really have a way to police this so if it’s not too busy you could stay as long as you want). Before you go to the top there is a security check like at the airport, so make sure you don’t have too much with you.

At the top there is an outdoor patio but when we visited this was shut for weather so don’t rely on this being open when you’re visiting. But not to worry, there is 360 degree glass so you’ll a good view from wherever you are. Upstairs there are 3 restaurants and a bar serving light snacks and lots of drinks so if you get hungry you’ve got some options, however we can’t imagine these are very cheap so probably best to wait until you’re down to eat.

This is definitely one of the coolest ways to get a view of London for free, especially with all the wonderful plants and without the costs of the London Eye!

Cost: Free

London is home to some of our favourite parks and gardens!

These are connected to each other and are absolutely worth a walk around, and are also good places to sit and people watch (or squirrel watch). In Kensington Gardens you can also walk past Kensington Palace, which is a royal residence. It also has the Serpentine Gallery which is a free art gallery on the edge of the park. Near Hyde Park is St James Park which is right next to Buckingham Palace and is another great place to squirrel watch. It’s a reasonably small park but has a nice lake through it which is nice to walk along as you walk up to the Palace.

This park is on the south side of the Thames next to Battersea Power Station and across the water from Chelsea, so is still very central London and is a lovely park to walk through. It also has a lake in the middle with a cafe on the water, and we’ve always thought it’s one of the more beautiful parks in London.

As well as a Rose Garden and a Tropical garden there is also a little children’s zoo and some nice easy paths that lead around the park and its just a very lovely place to escape the busy city for a while. We also found that it felt a little less touristy than some of the more famous parks, which was nice.

Regents Park is in the north of the city and is quite a large park that is also home to London Zoo and Regents Park Open Air Theatre. Like Battersea Park, this park is a nicer one with some easy walks around. Connected to Regents Park is Primrose Hill which has a great view of the city too! Regents park also has some playgrounds, some little gardens, and a cafe. It has some good paths around the park including one long path straight from the bottom to the top which is a nice way to get up to Primrose Hill as that’s at the north of the park.

Cost: Free

Harrods is another iconic London institution, but as you’re probably aware, it is famous for being absolutely ridiculously expensive. But the good news is, it’s free to enter! It is a huge department store in one of London’s richest neighbourhoods and is within walking distance from the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, The V&A museum (more on those shortly) and the south of Hyde Park so is a nice thing to combine with one or more of those.

It is 7 floors, 90,000 square meters and has over 330 different departments ranging from designer clothes, a food hall with every kind of cheese, pastry and vegetable you could ever want, a huge toy department, and some restaurants just incase you get hungry while browsing. While we never bought anything from Harrods, it is absolutely worth a visit to spend a couple of hours marvelling at the £400 giraffe toys (an actual thing we saw), so definitely add this to your list while in London!

One of our very favourite things about the city is that a lot of the museums you can visit in London for free! It’s the perfect thing to do on a rainy day (and there are a lot of those) and there’s so many museums you’ll be spoilt for choice! Some notable ones are:

• The Natural History Museum (when we visited in May 2023 you needed to book a free time slot on their website to enter)
• The British Museum (requires a free time slot ticket from their website)
• The Science Museum (requires a free time slot ticket from their website)
• The National Maratime Museum (requires a free time slot ticket from their website)
• National Portait Gallery (requires a free time slot ticket from their website)
• National Gallery (can book tickets in advance to save time but not compulsory)
• The V&A museum
• Tate Modern

All of these museums are so wonderful and there are so many more! If there’s another museum you’re interested in, we recommend finding their website because there’s a good chance it will be free too.

There you go! There are our favourite things to do in London for free. Let us know if you do any of them and if you have any others we may have missed.

If you want to see more about what we got up to in London, check out our vlogs below:

• Three Great Hacks To Save You Money In London
• The Ultimate Guide to Public Transport in London: The Best Way to See the City
• How to See The UK and Ireland Without a Car