Best Things to Do in London

We’ve been to London on day trips a handful of times during our stay in Oxford. We love the city and our favourite thing to do is to wander around all day, ideally ending up at an ethnic restaurant (or more than one!). We don’t visit a lot of traditionally touristy sights, but occasionally we find ourselves near one and can’t resist. Here are our new and old favourite things to do in London.

See a Show

Every time we go to the theater, we remember how much we love it! We often do a matinee, most recently Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap, the longest running play in the world. (But we have promised not to tell you whodunnit, so you’ll have to go see yourself.) It’s been appearing in the adorable St. Martin’s Theatre since 1952, with a brief pause during COVID. Depending on how particular you are about what you see and where you sit, you can get full-price tickets far in advance. But you can also go to one of many last-minute outlets (we used London Theatre Direct). Despite the name, you can buy tickets up to a week in advance, usually at substantial discounts. And that means you can use your savings at the bar during the interval.

Go To a Museum

We end up at the British Museum at least every third trip into London; it feels like home among the classical artifacts. We’ve also recently been to the Tate Britain and the Tate Modern, and to see the Raphael exhibit at the National Gallery. We are not typically fans of cute precious things, but nonetheless we are blown away by the Victoria and Albert Museum whenever we go. The British Library is not actually a museum but it feels like a pilgrimage site to us. Every one of these museums has an excellent café, many in great locations.

Visit Tourist Sites

Here are our top picks:

• Tower of London and Tower Bridge: the crown jewels on display, and they are spectacular.
• Buckingham Palace: the famed changing of the guard happens at 11:30, and you can visit when the Queen is not at home.
• Globe Theatre: excellent productions of not-just Shakespeare, but worth a visit even if you are not seeing anything there.
• King’s Cross: not only because of Harry Potter; it’s a beautiful place in its own right.
• St. Paul’s Cathedral: spectacularly beautiful, and you can’t beat the location.
• Harrod’s and/or Fortnum and Mason: two capitalist emporia, full of lovely things to covet.
• Portobello Market: a giant open-air flea market, with food, vintage clothes, and antiques.
• Houses of Parliament and Big Ben and London Bridge: where the magic happens.
• St Martin in the Fields, Trafalgar square and Picadilly Circus (so convenient to the National Gallery you can’t miss ’em).
• London Eye: we have never actually done this. But 3 million visitors a year can’t be wrong, can they?
• Westminster Abbey: all the dead your heart could desire, in a posh setting.
• Hyde Park: our favourite of the royal parks, lively day and night (especially at Marble Arch at the northeast corner, where people come to say their piece).
• Kew Gardens: we are suckers for a botanical garden, and this one is a gem!

Explore a Neighborhood

As we’ve said, we love picking a neighborhood at random and walking through it. The neighborhoods in London are relatively small, and often have their own distinct feels. We’ve spent happy hours exploring buildings and shops and restaurants in Knightsbridge, Kilburn, Fitzrovia, Camden, Greenwich and, most recently, Bermondsey, where we found ourselves in search of eel pie. Some of these remain working class, but many of them are up-and-coming. (We are not likely to own property soon, but we did spend a long time in a real estate window in Bermondsey.)

What are your favourite things to do in London?