Our Favorite Price: Free Things to do in London
There’s nothing better than notable attractions without a price tag. Unless your pockets are endless, traveling and tourism can put a hole in them. Finding those items on our bucket list that don’t charge is always a good feeling. Several big attractions in London are free to visit. Most are well known. The ones we visited include the British Museum, Harry Potter 9 3/4 platform, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery (a different place!), Victoria and Albert Museum, Trafalgar Square, the Thames River, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens.
The British Museum is notably free to visit (although donations are encouraged) and a well-known repository of world relics. Honestly, Brad is not big on “museumizing” but can usually appreciate the well-known ones enough to tolerate a short visit. Erin is generally more welcoming of museums. We decided to knock out the British Museum on the day we arrived in London from our transatlantic flight. This was a bold move, seeing as how our flight was overnight and arrived at 7:00 AM. We were determined to hit the ground running. This went ok…for a brief moment, as you shall see. We took the tube from our Hammersmith Station to King’s Cross station, located about 1.5 miles northeast of the British Museum via a walking route.
Yes, you are correct in thinking we conveniently set ourselves up to experience the also free Platform 9 3/4 on our way to the British Museum. Being huge Harry Potter fans as kids we felt the need to not only glimpse but take a picture at the famed location, located at King’s Cross station. However, what we found was different than our expectations. We had expected to find a nondescript area of the train station wall between platforms 9 3/4 with a luggage cart decorating its wall, perhaps a small placard labeled “Platform 9 3/4” and a Harry Potter reference, and probably at least a decent group of tourists informally taking their picture. Instead, we found a highly commercialized and formal tourist line waiting no where near the actual platforms 9 and 10 in order to take supervised pictures with a temporary luggage cart adjoining the wall placed by employees of an adjacent giant Harry Potter store. Later we learned that it was not always this monitored and commercialized and we wished for the days of yore. Regardless, we decided to wait in line, which was already 30 people deep at 8:30 AM with an opening time of 9 AM. The line began to move, but it did so slowly and eventually we could just not wait anymore. We wanted to be on the move. We promised to return at a less busy time, and we left for the British Museum (promises are tough- unfortunately we made it back 1-2x but there was always a line. It’s ok, we were never accepted to Hogwarts anyways, us being the biggest Muggles of all. Just kidding, we are sad on the inside!)
Anyways, with our post-flight energy tanks draining, we directed ourselves south on a walk toward the British Museum. Walking a mile after little sleep is tough. Fortunately, we made it without dropping dead. But it was close. The British Museum is gated and we had to enter through a security line. Once inside, the lobby layout stands out, with inspiring glass ceilings surrounding the central reading room pillar.
It reminded us of the Louvre pyramid. Multiple sections split off from this main lobby. The museum is big. We decided to find the relics we most desired and call it a day (the museum provides a handy dandy pamphlet indicating the more popular items). These included the Rosetta Stone, Elgin Marbles, and Egyptian mummies. As we walked through the exhibitions, we came to the conclusion that the British Museum is a collection of items “borrowed” from other countries including Greece and Egypt that used to be under British control. A large part of us felt like the museum should give these items back to their proper countries, such as the Elgin Marbles and the Egyptian sarcophaguses. This actually happens to be a point of debate we found out.
It was nice seeing these items, but with poor museum skills to start and a sleep debt developing we could only spend about 1-2 hours at the museum. Erin was nearly collapsing in the Elgin Marbles exhibit. This time was more than enough for Brad but Erin would like to return someday with more time and energy.
Both the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery are also free! We learned the hard way National Portrait Gallery is NOT the National Gallery. It is located around the corner though and this tricked us our first time. The Portrait Gallery includes only portraits of famed individuals, including English Royalty and Malala Yousafzai among others. While they are nice portraits, we were underwhelmed. Afterall, we had heard that the National Gallery contained some of the most famous works of individuals like Van Gogh, Van Eyck, and Holbein the Younger. We would recommend passing on this gallery if you don’t have extra time.
Another museum we visited was the Victoria and Albert museum. Like the British Museum, this is a big one. Lots of things to see, with interesting exhibits. This museum focuses on art and design. Due to limited time, our strategy was to pick a few specific rooms to see and then find them, while enjoying other displays on our way to and from our target locations.
Lastly, we did appreciate the National Gallery. This is the location of the London’s most famous paintings collection. Large in size as well, the museum is separated into wings each dedicated to a period and style of painting. Here we were able to appreciate paintings like Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait, Holbein’s The Ambassadors, and examples of Van Gogh’s Sunflower series in detail like we hadn’t before. This was enjoyable and we would recommend this for anyone with a general but not polished appreciation for the arts like us and experts as well.
That ends our artistic tour of London. Besides museums, we found plenty of other free activities to enjoy in London. Trafalgar square is a location bustling with entertainment right outside of the National Gallery. We found ourselves returning there several times during our visit.
We also enjoyed walking along the Thames where we witnessed many well-known sights including the House of Parliament, the Eye of London, and Big Ben (all free to look at from afar).
We walked along Abbey Road at no cost and knocked on the door to 221b Baker Street. Covent Gardens was a fun location with many restaurants and pubs (of course, it costs money to enjoy the food and drinks).
It’s also free to go up to the gate at Buckingham Palace whether or not you are there to watch the Changing of the Guard (make sure you check the schedule for this and try to get there early if you want to see anything!). And finally, there are beautiful parks to explore for free as well, such as Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.
We are sure that there are many other free things to do in London. Please feel free to share your favorites in the comments!
