Things to do in London
London, United Kingdom
103 hand-picked places in London, United Kingdom: 57 landmarks, 29 museums, 1 mosque, 14 parks, 1 shopping mall and 1 place. Each has an editor's guide to what it is, when to go and what to know before you visit, with licensed photos. Start with the 3-day plan below, one area a day so you spend your time seeing rather than crossing town, or let the AI planner build a plan for your own dates, with restaurants, opening hours and live prices.
Plan my trip to London
3-day plan for London: one area a day
The best-known places, grouped by how close they are to each other. Distances are straight lines; the walk is a little longer.
Day 1: around Buckingham Palace
- 1.Buckingham Palace · Museum
- 2.Westminster Abbey · Attraction · 1.0 km away
- 3.Palace of Westminster · Attraction · 200 m away
- 4.National Gallery · Museum · 1.1 km away
Day 2: around British Museum
- 1.British Museum · Museum
- 2.University College London · Attraction · 800 m away
- 3.Trafalgar Square · Attraction · 1.9 km away
- 4.Downing Street · 500 m away
Day 3: around Tower of London
- 1.Tower of London · Museum
- 2.Tower Bridge · Attraction · 300 m away
- 3.Tate Modern · Museum · 1.7 km away
- 4.St Paul's Cathedral · Attraction · 700 m away
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Landmarks and sights
Westminster AbbeyWestminster Abbey, formally the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is a great Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, immediately west of the Palace of Westminster (the Houses of Parliament).
Palace of WestminsterThe Palace of Westminster, colloquially known as the Houses of Parliament, is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the elected House of Commons and the House of Lords, standing on the north bank…
Tower BridgeTower Bridge is London's most famous bridge and one of its most recognisable landmarks, crossing the Thames beside the Tower of London from which it takes its name.
St Paul's CathedralSt Paul's Cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of London, the seat of its bishop and the most famous dome in Britain.
University College LondonUniversity College London (UCL) is a public research university in Bloomsbury, central London, and the first university institution founded in the British capital.
Trafalgar SquareTrafalgar Square is the main square of central London and its symbolic centre, laid out in the City of Westminster around the area long known as Charing Cross, from which distances to London have been measured since…
London EyeThe London Eye, originally the Millennium Wheel, is a giant cantilevered observation wheel on the South Bank of the Thames, the world's tallest cantilevered observation wheel and the most popular paid tourist…
The ShardThe Shard is a glass, pyramid-shaped supertall skyscraper in Southwark on the south bank of the Thames, rising directly beside London Bridge station.
Madame TussaudsMadame Tussauds in London is the most famous wax museum in the world and the original of a chain that now has branches in cities across four continents.
St James's PalaceSt James's Palace is the oldest and most senior royal palace in London, standing in the City of Westminster on Pall Mall north of St James's Park, and it gives its name to the Court of St James's, the monarch's royal…
London Stock ExchangeThe London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a global stock exchange based in Paternoster Square in the City of London beside St Paul's Cathedral.
Canary WharfCanary Wharf is a privately owned central business district on the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in east London, which with the City of London and the West End forms one of the main financial…
Hampton Court PalaceHampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace on the River Thames in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, 12 miles (19 km) south-west and upstream of central London.
The Gherkin30 St Mary Axe, formerly the Swiss Re Building and universally nicknamed The Gherkin for its tapering shape, is an office skyscraper in the heart of the City of London, the capital's main financial district.
Piccadilly CircusPiccadilly Circus is one of London's most famous public spaces, a road junction in the West End in the City of Westminster; a "circus", from the Latin for circle, is a round open space at a street junction.
British LibraryThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the largest libraries in the world, holding an estimated 200 million items from many countries in many languages and formats: books…
St. Pancras International railway stationSt Pancras International is one of the largest and most beautiful railway termini in central London, on Euston Road in Camden between the British Library and neighbouring King's Cross station, with King's Cross St…
WhitehallWhitehall is a street and district in the City of Westminster, central London, running south from Trafalgar Square to Parliament Square and recognised as the centre of the Government of the United Kingdom.
Charing Cross and Charing Cross StationCharing Cross is a junction in Westminster, central London, where six routes meet just south of Trafalgar Square: the east side of the square leading to Charing Cross Road, the Strand leading to the City…
Millennium BridgeThe Millennium Bridge, officially the London Millennium Footbridge, is a steel suspension bridge for pedestrians crossing the Thames and linking Bankside on the south bank with the City of London, owned and maintained…
Battersea Power StationBattersea Power Station is one of London's great industrial icons, a preserved coal-fired power station on the south bank of the Thames in Nine Elms, Battersea, in the Borough of Wandsworth.
Marble ArchMarble Arch is a 19th-century white marble-faced triumphal arch standing at the junction of Oxford Street, Edgware Road and Park Lane at the north-east corner of Hyde Park in London.
London WallThe London Wall is a defensive wall first built by the Romans around AD 200 around the strategically important port town of Londinium on the Thames, and also the name of a modern street in the City of London that…
Lambeth PalaceLambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England, since the 13th century, situated in north Lambeth on the south bank of the River Thames about 370 metres…
National TheatreThe National Theatre, officially the Royal National Theatre since 1988 and known internationally as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is one of the three most prominent publicly funded performing-arts institutions…
Royal Geographical SocietyThe Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in London.
Somerset HouseSomerset House is a large neoclassical building complex on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames just east of Waterloo Bridge.
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's InnLincoln's Inn, formally the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London, alongside Inner Temple, Middle Temple and Gray's Inn: the professional societies to which every barrister and…
Albert MemorialThe Albert Memorial is one of Britain's most famous monuments, standing in Kensington Gardens in London directly north of the Royal Albert Hall.
British Telecom TowerThe BT Tower is a famous communications tower in Fitzrovia in central London, begun in 1961 and completed in 1964.
Old BaileyThe Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly called the Old Bailey after the street on which it stands, is probably the most famous criminal court in the world and has been London's principal criminal…
MonumentThe Monument to the Great Fire of London, commonly known simply as the Monument, is a fluted Doric column of stone 202 feet (61.
Royal College of ArtThe Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom…
BBC Broadcasting HouseBroadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, standing in Portland Place and Langham Place in central London at the head of Regent Street.
The National ArchivesThe National Archives is the official archive of the UK Government and of England and Wales, holding documents that span more than a thousand years; it is open to the public and free to visit.
London Metal ExchangeThe London Metal Exchange (LME) is a futures and forwards exchange in the City of London with the world's largest market in standardised forward contracts, futures contracts and options on base metals such as copper…
Former City HallThe former City Hall, officially 110 The Queen's Walk, is a striking glass building on the south bank of the Thames in Bermondsey near Tower Bridge that served as the headquarters of the Greater London Authority, the…
Grosvenor SquareGrosvenor Square is a large garden square in the Mayfair district of Westminster, London, the centrepiece of the Duke of Westminster's Mayfair estate and named after the duke's family surname, Grosvenor.
Wellington ArchWellington Arch is a neoclassical triumphal arch at the centre of Hyde Park Corner, the great road junction at the south-eastern corner of Hyde Park in central London, standing on a broad green traffic island reached…
Red HouseRed House is a significant building in the history of the Arts and Crafts movement and of 19th-century British architecture, located in Bexleyheath in south-east London and Grade I listed.
The SerpentineThe Serpentine is a 16-hectare recreational lake at the heart of Hyde Park in London, created in 1730 for Queen Caroline, wife of George II, by damming the little River Westbourne.
Cleopatra's NeedleCleopatra's Needle in London is an ancient Egyptian obelisk standing on the Victoria Embankment beside the Thames in the City of Westminster, one of a pair known together as Cleopatra's Needles that were moved from the…
BAPS Shri Swaminarayan MandiThe BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, commonly known as the Neasden Temple, is a Hindu temple in Neasden in north-west London and Europe's first traditional Hindu stone temple, built entirely using traditional methods and…
Senate House BuildingSenate House is the administrative and ceremonial centre of the University of London, situated in the heart of Bloomsbury immediately north of the British Museum.
The Honourable Society of Gray's InnGray's Inn, formally the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London, the ancient professional bodies to which anyone wishing to practise as a barrister or sit as a judge in England and…
Richmond PalaceRichmond Palace was a Tudor royal residence on the River Thames at Richmond that stood in the 16th and 17th centuries, in what was then rural Surrey, upstream and on the opposite bank from the Palace of Westminster…
Royal College of MusicThe Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882 on a suggestion by Prince Albert, located in South Kensington, London, directly opposite the Royal Albert Hall on Prince Consort…
Soho SquareSoho Square is a centuries-old small garden square in the heart of Soho, London, which since 1954 has served as a de facto public park let by the Soho Square Garden Committee to Westminster City Council.
Kew BridgeKew Bridge is a wide-span stone bridge over the Tideway, the tidal upper estuary of the Thames, linking the London Boroughs of Richmond upon Thames and Hounslow in west London and connecting Brentford and Chiswick on…
St George's Hanover SquareSt George's, Hanover Square, is an Anglican church and the parish church of the upmarket Mayfair district in the City of Westminster, London, built in the early 18th century as part of the project to build fifty new…
Richmond BridgeRichmond Bridge is an 18th-century stone arch bridge crossing the River Thames at Richmond, connecting the two halves of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south-west London; it is the oldest surviving…
The Jewel TowerThe Jewel Tower is a small 14th-century stone tower facing the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, one of the very few survivors of the medieval Palace of Westminster that burned in 1834.
Twickenham StoopTwickenham Stoop, usually just 'the Stoop', is a rugby stadium in the suburb of Twickenham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, south-west London, a short walk from the great national Twickenham Stadium…
Battle of Britain BunkerThe Battle of Britain Bunker is an underground operations room at RAF Uxbridge in west London, the headquarters of No. 11 Group Fighter Command during the Second World War.
St Lawrence JewrySt Lawrence Jewry is a historic Anglican church in the heart of the City of London, the capital's ancient financial district.
The Tower HouseThe Tower House, 29 Melbury Road, is a late-Victorian townhouse in the Holland Park district of Kensington and Chelsea, west London, built by the architect and designer William Burges as his own home.
Boston Manor HouseBoston Manor House is an English Jacobean manor house built in 1622 in Brentford, west London, with later internal alterations and intensive restoration in subsequent centuries.
Museums
- Buckingham PalaceBuckingham Palace is the official residence and administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom in London, standing in the City of Westminster at the end of The Mall between St James's Park and Green…
British MuseumThe British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture in the Bloomsbury area of London, whose permanent collection of some eight million artefacts is the largest in the world, documenting…
Tower of LondonThe Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, is a historic castle on the north bank of the Thames in the heart of London, one of the world's most famous fortresses and a UNESCO World…
Kensington PalaceKensington Palace is a royal residence set within Kensington Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London.
Victoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, with a permanent collection of more than 2. 8 million objects.
The Royal ObservatoryThe Royal Observatory, Greenwich stands on a hill in Greenwich Park in south-east London overlooking the Thames, and is one of the most important historic scientific sites in the world.
Natural History MuseumThe Natural History Museum in London is one of the world's most famous museums and a favourite with families, located in South Kensington as one of the three great museums on Exhibition Road together with the Science…
Tate ModernTate Modern holds the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art from 1900 onwards and is one of the largest museums of its kind in the world.
National GalleryThe National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster in central London, founded in 1824 and housing more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900, the British…
Barbican CentreThe Barbican Centre is the largest performing arts centre in Europe, set in the heart of the Barbican Estate in the City of London.
National Portrait GalleryThe National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people; when it opened in 1856 it was arguably the first national public gallery…
The Royal Academy of ArtsThe Royal Academy of Arts is an independent art institution housed in Burlington House, the grand courtyard mansion on Piccadilly in the heart of London.
Alexander Fleming Laboratory MuseumThe Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum is a small museum inside St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, City of Westminster, London, preserving the laboratory in which the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming discovered…
Tate BritainTate Britain is the national museum of British art, standing on the Thames at Millbank in the City of Westminster, a short walk south of the Houses of Parliament.
Science MuseumThe Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London, founded in 1857 and one of the city's major tourist attractions, with more than 2.
The National Maritime MuseumThe National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, south-east London, is the United Kingdom's leading maritime museum and one of the largest of its kind in the world.
Apsley HouseApsley House, historically known as Number One, London, is the London townhouse of the Dukes of Wellington, standing alone at Hyde Park Corner on the south-east corner of Hyde Park, facing the large roundabout in whose…
Queen's HouseQueen's House is a former royal residence in the London borough of Greenwich that now serves as a public art gallery.
Kenwood HouseKenwood House, also known as the Iveagh Bequest, is a stately home on the northern boundary of Hampstead Heath in north London.
Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill MuseumThe Churchill War Rooms is a museum in London and one of the five branches of the Imperial War Museum, comprising the Cabinet War Rooms, a historic underground complex that housed a British government command centre…
Mansion HouseThe Mansion House is the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London, the annually elected head of the City of London Corporation, standing in the heart of the financial district opposite the Bank of England and the…
Museum of LondonLondon Museum, known from 1976 to 2024 as the Museum of London, covers the history of the city from prehistoric to modern times with a particular focus on the social history of its inhabitants: the development of…
The Serpentine GalleryThe Serpentine Galleries are two contemporary art galleries set among the lawns of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park in central London, on either side of the Serpentine lake from which they take their name and five…
Sherlock Holmes MuseumThe Sherlock Holmes Museum is a privately run museum in London dedicated to the famous fictional detective of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories, the world's first museum devoted to this literary character.
Dulwich Picture GalleryDulwich Picture Gallery is the oldest public art gallery in England, set in the leafy suburb of Dulwich in south London.
Petrie Museum of Egyptian ArchaeologyThe Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology in London is part of University College London Museums and Collections and holds more than 80,000 objects, making it one of the world's largest collections of…
Bruce Castle & MuseumBruce Castle, formerly the Lordship House, is a Grade I listed 16th-century manor house in Lordship Lane, Tottenham, north London, named after the Scottish House of Bruce, who once owned the land on which it stands.
Foundling MuseumThe Foundling Museum in Brunswick Square, Bloomsbury, tells the story of the Foundling Hospital, founded by the sea captain and philanthropist Thomas Coram in 1739 as Britain's first home for children at risk of…
The Arsenal MuseumThe Arsenal Museum is a sports museum run by Arsenal Football Club in Holloway, north London, telling the club's story from its founding in 1886 to the present.
Parks and gardens
Royal Botanic GardensKew Gardens, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, is a botanic garden in south-west London formally founded in 1759 that houses "the largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world"; it has…
Regent's ParkThe Regent's Park is one of the largest and loveliest of London's Royal Parks, occupying 170 hectares (410 acres) in north-west Inner London between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden.
ZSL London ZooLondon Zoo is the world's oldest scientific zoo.
Richmond ParkRichmond Park is the largest of London's Royal Parks and the largest open space in the city, covering about 955 hectares (2,500 acres) in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in the south-west, and it is of…
Kensington GardensKensington Gardens are one of the Royal Parks of London, once part of the private gardens of Kensington Palace and now largely open to the public.
St. James's ParkSt James's Park is the oldest of London's Royal Parks, 23 hectares in the City of Westminster between Buckingham Palace to the west and Horse Guards and Whitehall to the east, bounded by the ceremonial Mall to the…
Holland ParkHolland Park is a public park and an exclusive residential area in Kensington on the western edge of central London, within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
Green ParkThe Green Park is one of the Royal Parks of London, in the City of Westminster in the centre of the capital, covering 19 hectares (47 acres) north of the gardens and semi-circular forecourt of Buckingham Palace across…
Greenwich ParkGreenwich Park is a former royal hunting park and one of the largest single green spaces in south-east London, one of the eight Royal Parks and the first to be enclosed, in 1433.
Bushy ParkBushy Park is the second largest of London's Royal Parks after Richmond Park, covering 445 hectares in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south-west London, immediately north of Hampton Court Palace and its…
Russell SquareRussell Square is a large garden square in Bloomsbury in the London Borough of Camden, the largest square in London according to Wikivoyage, established in 1806 by the 5th Duke of Bedford and built predominantly by the…
Queen Elizabeth Olympic ParkQueen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a sporting complex and large public park in east London spanning Stratford, Hackney Wick, Leyton and Bow across four boroughs, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest.
Ham House & GardenThis 17th-century aristocratic house, named after the riverside village in which it stands, is set in formal gardens on the bank of the River Thames south of Richmond in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, a…
Postman's ParkPostman's Park is a small, tranquil public garden in the heart of the City of London a short distance north of St Paul's Cathedral, bordered by Little Britain, Aldersgate Street, St Martin's Le Grand, King Edward…
