United Kingdom
London
The greatest free collections on earth and the most expensive tickets in Europe
London gives away its greatest collections and charges accordingly for everything else. Learn the difference and the city becomes affordable.
The bargain at the heart of London is nearly two centuries old: the national collections are free, permanently and without conditions, because Parliament decided that a museum was a public good rather than a business. The British Museum, the National Gallery, Tate Britain and Modern, the V&A and the Natural History Museum together hold more than any visitor can absorb in a lifetime, and all of them will let you in for nothing on a wet Tuesday afternoon.
Everything with a curtain costs. The West End charges Broadway prices, the Royal Opera House charges more, and the good seats disappear months ahead. The counterweight is a return and day-seat culture that rewards anyone willing to stand in a queue at ten in the morning: almost every major house releases cheap seats on the day, and the Proms sell standing places at the Albert Hall for less than a sandwich.
London also programmes more per week than any other city here, which makes it the easiest place to see something remarkable with no planning at all and the hardest place to see the specific thing you flew in for.
The day
London hour by hour
When things open, when they fill and when the city changes shift.
- 10:00The national collections open and charge nothing. Special exhibitions inside them do charge.
- 13:00Lunchtime recitals in the City churches, most of them free, most of them excellent.
- 17:00Day seats and returns go on sale at the theatres. The cheapest good seats in London are bought in person.
- 19:30Curtain across the West End and the South Bank.
- 22:30Last curtain call, then the pubs get twenty minutes of chaos before they close.
The quarters
Where to walk
Four districts that between them cover most of what matters.
South Bank
A concrete kilometre of culture: Tate Modern, the National Theatre, the Southbank Centre and the Globe, all walkable along the river.
Bloomsbury
The British Museum, the university squares and enough second-hand bookshops to lose an afternoon.
West End
Forty theatres inside one square mile, the Royal Opera House among them, and the queue culture that comes with them.
East London
Whitechapel, Hackney and the studios that moved further east every time the rent moved with them.
The venues
7 rooms in London
Museums
Opera and Ballet
The calendar
Festivals in London
Jul to SepLondon · Music
BBC Proms
Eight weeks of classical music with standing places sold on the day for the price of a coffee
AugFreeLondon · Street
Notting Hill Carnival
Europe's largest street festival, Caribbean in origin and entirely free
OctLondon · Art
Frieze London
A tent in Regent's Park, a second tent for the old masters, and the whole London art world in one week
Plan it
Forty-eight hours in London
Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, built from the venues above.
Questions
Which London museums are free?
The British Museum, National Gallery, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, V&A, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, National Portrait Gallery and more. Temporary exhibitions inside them are ticketed.
How do I get cheap West End tickets?
Day seats at the box office in the morning, returns in the hour before curtain, and the official TKTS booth in Leicester Square. Ignore the touts on the street.
Is the Royal Opera House worth the price?
For the orchestra and the ballet, yes. Book the amphitheatre rather than the stalls: the sound is better up there and the price is a third.
Next
Other cities
86Germany
Berlin
Three opera houses, five museums on one island and a club that never asks the time
82France
Paris
The museum as a state religion, and an opera house built to be looked at
85United States
New York
Broadway, the Met and a downtown that reinvents the rules every decade
84Austria
Vienna
Standing room at the State Opera for the price of a coffee