London: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Half a square kilometre in which kings are crowned, laws are made and a country is run. Everything here was built twice: Parliament burned to the ground in 1834 and was rebuilt in Gothic on purpose, so it would look older than it is. An hour and a half, mostly outdoors — take a coat.
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A short history of London
Around AD 47 the Romans founded Londinium on the River Thames, and less than twenty years later Queen Boudica burnt it. In 1290 Edward I expelled the Jews from England, and in 1656, under Oliver Cromwell, they were allowed to return. The plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666 changed the face of the city, and St Paul's Cathedral was later built on the ruins of the old one. In 1863 the world's first underground railway opened in London. In 1940 and 1941 the city was bombed for months in the German Blitz. It has hosted the Olympic Games three times, most recently in 2012.
The ten best sights in London
1Tower of LondonNine hundred years old, and the crown jewels are inside
2Tower BridgeIt still lifts about eight hundred times a year
3St Paul’s Cathedral528 steps to the top, and a whispering gallery on the way
4Westminster AbbeyEvery coronation since 1066 happened here
5Houses of ParliamentBig Ben is the bell, not the tower
6Buckingham PalaceOpen to visitors only in summer, when the king is away
7British MuseumFree, enormous, and you will not finish it
8National GalleryFree, and all of European painting in one building
9Tate ModernA dead power station, free, and the view from the tenth floor
10Victoria and Albert MuseumFree. Everything people ever made beautifully
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in London →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in London:
Free walking tours in London
The Seat of Power
Half a square kilometre in which kings are crowned, laws are made and a country is run. Everything here was built twice: Parliament burned to the ground in 1834 and was rebuilt in Gothic on purpose, so it would look older than it is. An hour and a half, mostly outdoors — take a coat.
- Westminster Abbey · Every English coronation since 1066 has happened on the same spot, on a chair built in 1300. Three thousand people are buried in the floor, and visitors walk over all of them except one — the Unknown Warrior, the single grave in the abbey nobody is allowed to step on.
- Houses of Parliament · Big Ben is not the tower and not the clock; it is the bell inside, thirteen and a half tonnes of it, and it cracked two months after it was hung. They turned it a little, hit it with a lighter hammer, and the crack is why it sounds the way it does.
- Churchill War Rooms · The basement from which the war was run was locked in August 1945 and simply left: the maps still on the walls with pin holes in the Atlantic, the sugar cubes in a drawer. Churchill himself slept down here only three nights — he preferred to watch the raids from the roof.
- St James’s Park · There have been pelicans on this lake since 1664, when a Russian ambassador gave a pair to Charles the Second. Their descendants are still fed at half past two every afternoon, and one of them was once filmed swallowing a pigeon whole.
- Buckingham Palace · Seven hundred and seventy-five rooms, and the flag tells you whether anyone is home. The guard changes at eleven, but the crowd arrives at ten — stand by the gates of the park instead and watch the band march past at arm’s length.
- Trafalgar Square · Every distance from London is measured from a point just behind the square, and in the lamp post at its south-east corner is the smallest police station in Britain — one room, for one officer, with a direct line to Scotland Yard.
The Mile That Burned
In September 1666 a fire began in a bakery on Pudding Lane and in four days erased eighty per cent of London. What you see here was built afterwards — the same square mile the Romans laid out, still a separate authority today with a mayor of its own. Two hours, and at the weekend the streets are completely empty.
- St Paul’s Cathedral · Christopher Wren spent thirty-five years on it and was carried up in a basket to inspect the work when he grew too old to climb. On the night of 29 December 1940 the City burned around it and the dome stood — the photograph of that night did more for British morale than any speech.
- Millennium Bridge · It opened in June 2000, swayed so alarmingly under the crowd that it shut after two days, and stayed shut for two years. The cause turned out to be people instinctively walking in step with the sway — a phenomenon nobody had modelled before.
- The Monument · Sixty-one metres high, and it stands exactly sixty-one metres from the spot where the fire started — if it fell eastward it would land on the bakery. Three hundred and eleven steps inside, and the cage at the top was added in 1842 after six people jumped.
- Leadenhall Market · The painted iron arcade is from 1881, but it stands on the Roman forum — the administrative centre of Londinium is directly under the floor. On a Sunday it is yours alone, which is why the first Harry Potter film used it for Diagon Alley.
- Tower of London · Six ravens are kept here because a legend says the kingdom falls if they leave, so one wing of each is trimmed and there is always a spare. It has been a palace, a prison, a zoo and a mint, and the crown jewels have been inside since 1661.
- Tower Bridge · It is not old — 1894 — and the stone is a skin over a steel frame, put there so it would not insult the fortress beside it. The high walkways were closed in 1910 because almost nobody used them except pickpockets and prostitutes.
The East End
The same streets took in three waves: Huguenot silk weavers fleeing France in the 1680s, Jews from eastern Europe in the nineteenth century, and Bengalis in the 1970s. You can see all three in one building on the corner of Brick Lane, which was a chapel, then a synagogue, and is now a mosque. Two hours, and best on a Sunday.
- Old Spitalfields Market · A market has traded on this ground since 1638, and the Georgian houses around it were built by Huguenot silk weavers — the wide windows on the top floors are not for the view, they are to light a loom.
- Dennis Severs’ House · Ten rooms lit only by candles, arranged as though a Huguenot family has just left each one — bread half eaten, a chamber pot under the bed, footsteps upstairs. You walk through in complete silence, and they will ask you to leave if you speak.
- Brick Lane · The building at the Fournier Street corner was built as a Huguenot chapel in 1743, became a synagogue in 1898 and a mosque in 1976 — the same walls, three communities, and a Latin sundial on the front that says "we are shadows".
- Columbia Road · One street, one morning a week — Sunday, eight to three — and the whole of it banked with flowers. The sellers shout the prices down as the hours pass, and anything still on the barrow at two goes for almost nothing.
- Broadway Market · A Saturday market on an old drovers’ road — the route along which cattle were walked into the City to be slaughtered. It died in the 1980s and was restarted in 2004 by the people who live on the street.
- Victoria Park · The first public park in the world built for the poor rather than opened to them: thirty thousand East Enders signed a petition in 1840 asking for green space, and the queen gave it. Two alcoves from the old London Bridge stand in it.
Getting to London and getting around
- Heathrow Airport · The Piccadilly line reaches the centre in 50 minutes
- Gatwick Airport · The express train is 30 minutes to Victoria
- St Pancras International · The Eurostar to Paris, under a Victorian iron roof
- King’s Cross · Trains north, and platform nine and three quarters
- Victoria Coach Station · Coaches to every city in Britain
Museums in London
- British Museum · Free. The Rosetta Stone is twenty steps from the door
- National Gallery · Free, and every painting you learned about is in it
- Tate Modern · Free. Take the lift to the viewing level on ten
- Victoria and Albert Museum · Free. The cast courts hold a full-size fake of Trajan’s column
- Sir John Soane’s Museum · Free, small, and nothing else in London is like it
- Wallace Collection · Free. A private palace of armour and Fragonard, half empty
- Imperial War Museum · Free. The Holocaust galleries are the best anywhere
- Churchill War Rooms · Sealed in 1945 and left exactly as it was
Parks and gardens in London
- Hampstead Heath · Wild, free, and you can swim in it in winter
- Hyde Park · Bigger than Monaco. Anyone may speak at the corner
- Regent’s Park · Twelve thousand roses in June, and all free
- Richmond Park · Wild deer, and three times the size of Central Park
- Greenwich Park · The best skyline view there is, and it costs nothing
- Kew Gardens · The largest plant collection on earth, and a treetop walk
- Primrose Hill · Sixty-three metres up, and the whole city laid out
- Little Venice · Walk the canal to Camden in fifty minutes
Things to do in London with kids
- Natural History Museum · Free. The whale, the dinosaurs, the earthquake room
- Science Museum · Free. Wonderlab costs extra and is worth it
- London Zoo · The oldest scientific zoo in the world, 1828
- Postal Museum and Mail Rail · A real underground mail train, and children love it
- London Transport Museum · Climb into the old buses and drive a tube train
- Horniman Museum · An over-stuffed walrus, an aquarium, and free
Cheap eats in London
Eight counters where London eats standing. A bagel shop that has not closed its door since the sixties, a pie and mash shop with sawdust on the floor from 1902, and a coffee bar in Soho that has run the same espresso machine since 1949.
- Beigel Bake, Brick Lane · Open all night, every night. Salt beef, £7
- M. Manze, Tower Bridge Road · Pie, mash and liquor, £6. Closed Sunday
- Bar Italia, Soho · Espresso standing at the bar, £2.50, until four
- Kappacasein, Borough Market · A toastie of three cheeses on sourdough, £7, huge queue
- Bread Ahead, Borough Market · Doughnuts filled to order with custard, £4
- Koya, Soho · Udon at a counter, no bookings, £12, queue at noon
- Regency Café, Westminster · A full English for £8. Closed from two to four
- Berwick Street Market · Soho’s lunch stalls since 1778. Everything under £10
Live music in London
- Ronnie Scott’s · Book weeks ahead, or take the late show at eleven
- The 100 Club · Tickets under £20, and the stage is at your knees
- Royal Albert Hall · The Proms in summer: standing tickets are £8 on the day
- O2 Academy Brixton · The floor is sloped towards the stage, and it matters
- Village Underground · A warehouse in Shoreditch with tube carriages on the roof
- Barbican · Concrete, concerts, and a conservatory nobody knows about
Nightlife in London
- Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese · No windows, no music, and three floors down
- The George Inn, Southwark · A seventeenth-century yard, and pints at normal prices
- The French House, Soho · Half pints only, no music, no phones. De Gaulle’s local
- Fabric · Under the old meat market. The floor itself vibrates
- Shoreditch · Where east London drinks, from eight until very late
- Sky Garden · A bar on the 35th floor, and entry is free if booked
Frequently asked questions about London
What is there to see in London?
The top sights in London are Tower of London, Tower Bridge and St Paul’s Cathedral. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in London?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of London without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in London?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in London, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The Seat of Power.
How do you get to London and get around?
The main ways are Heathrow Airport, Gatwick Airport and St Pancras International. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in London, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in London that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in London for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.