Things to do in London during the day

By Ian Packham
Published: July 18, 2024
A view of the Thames including Tower Bridge and The Shard

There are so many potential things to do in London during the day that it can actually be quite difficult to know where to start. What’s hot, and what’s not? What’s worth your time – and money – and what isn’t?

If you’re feeling dazed by the sheer array of days out in London you can fill with exciting attractions, you’ll want to take note of our suggestions for the perfect day in and around the River Thames.

Top tips for enjoying London during the day

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Before we delve into the delights of all the things to do in London during the day, here are a few top tips that will help you make the most of your time in the capital.

  • Have a lie in

If you’re anything like us, the temptation after arriving into a new city is to wake up as early as possible to squeeze in as many attractions as you can. But for all London’s hustle and bustle, many popular attractions don’t open their doors until 10AM. Arrive any earlier than this, and you’ll not only be left hanging around outside, but you’ll also end up traveling during the morning rush hour.

Lasting from 7:30 – 9AM, it's not many people’s idea of a fun way to start the day. Public transportation is often uncomfortably crowded as people head to work, and you’ll be paying more for the privilege. Instead, enjoy a relaxed breakfast and kick off your day the right way.

  • Maps aren’t just for atlases

It can seem like you only have to walk a few steps before stumbling upon a noteworthy feature on the London skyline. Whilst many attractions are within walking distance of one another, many are much further apart. Don’t forget that London is one of Europe’s biggest cities. It’s therefore a good idea to have a vague understanding of where attractions are located. Dividing them between west, central and east London will suffice.

  • Bring a reusable water bottle

Concerns about single-use plastics are resulting in free water fountains popping up all over London. Many cafés will also refill a bottle for free, so save your cash for what really matters by bringing a reusable water bottle with you. They can also be a godsend when using the Tube in the summer.

The best things to do in London during the day

If you’re thinking about what to do with your time in London, you’re in for a treat! Although you can tackle the capital in any way you fancy, we’ve come up with what we think might be the very best day the capital has to offer.

Spend the morning in east London

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Start your exploration of the capital with your head in the clouds at the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower, standing at the southern end of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Relive the iconic moments from the 2012 Summer Olympics at the park’s famed venues, before rising to the top of the twisting structure – Britain’s largest artwork. Designed by sculptor Sir Anish Kapoor, not only are the views extraordinary, but it offers a very different tube experience, boasting the world’s longest slide at 178m long.

The various attractions of Greenwich, including the Royal Observatory and National Maritime Museum, lie to the south. Head roughly westward instead, through Jack the Ripper’s Whitechapel, and you’ll soon arrive at the Tower of London, which has guarded the banks of the Thames since 1066.

Palace, armory and prison in turn, the Tower can easily fill the rest of your morning. Take a tour led by one of the team of beefeaters to learn the stories behind highlights including Traitor’s Gate, the Crown Jewels and the building’s all-important ravens.

Enjoy lunchtime at St Paul’s

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Step aboard a Hop-on Hop-off sightseeing bus from outside the Tower of London for the short but culturally-rich journey to St Paul’s Cathedral. Along the way you’ll pass by the Monument to the Great Fire of London, standing just meters from its ignition point in a baker’s shop on Pudding Lane, as well as Mansion House – the impressive residence of the Lord Mayor of London.

A symbol of London for centuries, the views towards the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral are considered so important they are protected by law. Built by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire destroyed Old St Paul’s, it was – maybe ironically – paid for by a tax on coal.

From the crypt containing the mortal remains of Admiral Nelson, victor of the Battle of Trafalgar, to the Whispering Gallery, St Paul’s is one of London’s most ornate religious spaces. The location for a multitude of events of international importance, it has hosted the funeral of wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer and even a speech by Martin Luther King Jr on route to collecting his Nobel Peace Prize from the committee in Oslo, Norway.

Marrying new with old is the pedestrian Millennium Bridge, crossing the Thames from outside the cathedral steps. A landmark in its own right, it leads to Shakespeare’s Globe and the galleries of the Tate Modern.

Devote the afternoon to tea and cake

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Whilst it’s no longer entirely true that the capital grinds to a halt at around 3PM for tea, it is true that a traditional afternoon tea remains an excellent way to celebrate the city’s culinary history.

The Piccadilly area has some of the best choices, with the capital’s grand hotels like The Ritz welcoming those keen to sample the best snack you’ll probably ever have. Consisting of sandwiches and cakes, it was invented by Anna, Duchess of Bedford. A lady in waiting to Queen Victoria, she simply couldn’t endure the middle hours between lunch and dinner.

If jumping’s still possible after such a feast, jumping onto the Victoria or Piccadilly Line of the Underground from Green Park will have muggles at King’s Cross Station before they can mutter expelliarmus. As any Harry Potter fan will know, the Hogwarts’ Express departs from the station’s Platform 9 3⁄4, where you can get your photograph snapped beside a disappearing luggage trolley.

Similarly magical are the 1080 jets together making up the pavement fountains of nearby Granary Square. Dancing in time and displaying a range of colors, they make for a great place to relax during the summer months. At this time of year they take on the air of an urban beach and glow even brighter as dusk settles over another day in London.

Save on the top things to do in London

If you’re keen to follow our pick of the best things to do in London during the day there’s just one thing to do first, and that’s grab the London Explorer Pass. Doing away with the need for paper tickets, you’ll save at many of the city’s main attractions without having to do away with flexibility.

For a sneak peak of all you can experience be sure to check out @GoCity on Instagram and Facebook, where you can also share your vacation snaps. Don’t forget to smile!

Ian Packham
Go City Travel Expert

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London in September – top things to do

Ask a Londoner and they’ll probably tell you it’s September that’s their favorite month in the capital. The kids are back at school, clearing away the crowds in the major museums, yet there’s still a crop of different things to do and the weather is generally as good as it gets in the British capital too. Wondering if London in September is right for you? Check out our selection of the very best attractions and events right here. Make a date with royalty One of several late summer highlights is the chance to visit the state rooms of Buckingham Palace, official residence of the British monarch since 1837. Closed to all but invited guests for most of the year, its doors are thrown open during the summer so visitors can take in sights including the Ballroom, Throne Room and White Drawing Room, a reception room for official occasions. On top of that, each year’s opening is accompanied by a new temporary exhibition, ensuring there’s always a second reason to visit. But for your chance to catch sight of a member of the royal family, you’re better off heading to Windsor Castle – the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world. It’s one of several stops on Hop-on Hop-Off sightseeing tours alongside Eton College, which schooled Princes William and Harry as well as 20 British Prime Ministers. If one location in London can outdo Windsor Castle on age, it’s the Tower of London. Also intricately linked with the British monarchy, some of its walls date back to 1066. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, beefeaters in their summer uniforms of red and gold protect the Crown Jewels, whilst the Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula (St Peter in Chains) contains the graves of several noteworthy people executed within the tower grounds including Henry VIII’s second wife Anne Boleyn. Soak up the sun Thanks to Open House London, it’s not only possible to snoop around royal residences in London in September. This free event sees parts of the capital usually marked ‘private’ opening up to the public, including the Mayor of London’s offices and Drapers’ Hall, belonging to one of London’s ancient guilds. But with the September weather on side – average highs hit 20°C and there’s usually plenty of sun to go around – it would be a shame not to explore some of London’s outdoor spaces too. Chiswick House and Kitchen Garden is a little-known gem containing plenty of secluded spots for a romantic lakeside picnic. Meanwhile, Hyde Park contains everything from Speakers Corner and a boating lake to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain. Her home of Kensington Palace is located on the park’s western edge. Another way of making the most of the summer weather is by saying goodbye to dry land altogether for a Thames River cruise. Slip beneath Tower Bridge as you make your way towards the Prime Meridian at Greenwich, having already passed landmarks including the Houses of Parliament and St Paul’s Cathedral. Appreciate the capital’s magical ways For similar views to those enjoyed by London’s pigeons there’s The View from The Shard. Soaring to heights nearly twice as high as any other building in the city, you can be sure of the uninterrupted nature of the panoramic views at these observation decks on the 68th and 69th floors. A short distance from the Thames, London will unravel beneath you, showing off the British capital in all its glory. The way to get any higher is with a little computer trickery as you hop onto a broomstick at The Making of Harry Potter exhibition at Warner Bros Studios – TripAdvisor’s highest rated attraction in the world. If you’ve ever wanted to stand in the Great Hall at Hogwarts or wander down Diagon Alley, now’s your chance. Other Potter related attractions include the gateway to the Hogwarts’ Express at King’s Cross station’s platform 9 3⁄4 although the muggles amongst us can still have fun on the train network at the Mail Ride at the Postal Museum. A miniature underground network once used to transport London’s mail, it now welcomes visitors on 20 minute rides included with museum entrance. Enjoy a show With over 2000 performances a year – and that’s not including the buskers on the street – spanning music, dance and literature, the Brutalist South Bank Center is one of the largest cultural spaces in Europe. Even when there’s no performances scheduled, there’s still plenty to see and do, whether you intend to explore the rolling series of art exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery, watch the skateboarders ollie and railslide their way around the Undercroft or peruse the secondhand book market which uses the spans of Waterloo Bridge as protection against sun and rain. Performances are never hard to find, but London in September is a particularly good time to visit for lovers of the stage. Not only do the West End theaters continue their run of often sold-out shows, but the promenade concert series run by the BBC is also nearing its zenith. Better known as the ‘proms’, concerts are broadcast from the Royal Albert Hall and culminate in the Last Night of the Proms. It’s a blend of tradition dating back 150 years, bonkers Britishness and some of the best voices you’ll ever have the opportunity to listen to. Celebrate London in September with Go City! Let’s be honest, shall we? London is a great city to explore whatever the month (and the weather). But for many there’s something a little bit special about visiting London in September. Maybe it’s the – usually lovely – weather, or the reduction in crowd numbers or maybe just the huge array of things to do in London in September. We don’t know. But whatever it is, we think it's something you’re going to want to experience for yourself. To make it even better, travel with Go City and you’ll get incredible savings on the cost of entering many of London’s top attractions, from the one thousand years of history on display at the Tower of London to the plush seats of the Royal Albert Hall!
Ian Packham
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The top free things to do in London

London’s reputation for being expensive (just check out the house prices), doesn’t mean vacations in the British capital have to break the bank. Many major museums are free to enter, whilst parks, markets and even some concerts will cost you absolutely nothing, leaving you free to spend your cash on other things. The list of free things to do in London is a long one, so here are a select few that will leave you quids in. Explore London’s museum collections Starting out with just 38 paintings in 1834, The National Gallery on the northern side of Trafalgar Square now has close to 2,500 artworks hanging from its cloth-lined walls. Concentrating on a mere 700 years of European art roughly corresponding with the years 1250 to 1900, some of its most famous works include da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks, van Gogh’s Sunflowers and Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire. Cross the Thames at Hungerford and Golden Jubilee Bridges and you’ll be perfectly located to continue your tour of free things to do in London at Leake Street Arches, the capital’s foremost space for graffiti and street artists. The freedom to spray means it never looks the same for long, and now also plays host to a Polish kitchen and board game café. Food sadly isn’t welcome at the British Library’s Sir John Ritblat Gallery, whose free permanent exhibition space includes some of the most important documents in British history. These include Magna Carta, a symbol of liberty and law to this day, and handwritten manuscripts by everyone from author Charlotte Brontë to Beatle Paul McCartney. Picnic in the park Nearly as many trees as residents, 14,000 species of wildlife and 3,000 parks – it’s no wonder London became the world’s first National Park City in 2019. Its public green spaces have acted as shared backyards, in some cases, for centuries. Its largest is Epping Forest, an area of woodland untouched since the time of William the Conqueror in 1066. Mountain biking and walking are popular pastimes here, with multiple short walks allowing visitors to soak up the spirit of the place and catch sight of its wild deer. Hampstead Health’s Parliament Hill also has a small population of muntjac deer, although it’s far better known for its panoramic views of central London, spanning from The Shard to Canary Wharf. For a sense of what you might expect at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew without the entrance cost and tube journey, there’s the Barbican Conservatory. An oasis of greenery, it’s London’s second-largest indoor garden, containing some 2,000 plants erupting from every surface. Pull back the leaves and you’ll also find a hidden pond filled with koi carp and terrapins. Take part in ancient traditions Things to do in London for free aren’t limited to the capital’s static attractions. Head to Buckingham Palace for mid-morning and you’ll be able to admire the pageantry of the marching bands involved in the Changing of the Guard. The full ceremony lasts 45 minutes, with the changeover between guard battalions taking place at 11AM. The best viewing spots go early, but Hyde Park’s southern boundary offers a crowd-free space to watch the mounted troops arrive and depart from Wellington Barracks. Whilst it’s not possible to enter the palace during the ceremony, it is usually possible to enter the neogothic splendor of the Houses of Parliament a short distance away. Members of the public are able to see the goings-on of the House of Commons (the green-benched lower house) from the perch of the Strangers Gallery. Along the way you can grab a glimpse of Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the complex and where royals lie in state. No pre-booking is required to visit Pugin’s pre-Raphaelite artworks or parliament’s central halls, although the Strangers Gallery fills up quickly for Wednesday’s Prime Ministers Questions. Less confrontational in nature are the free concerts taking place in churches and auditoriums across the capital. Often used as rehearsals to later paid events, classical works can be heard at a number of locations, including the bright interior of St-Martins-in-the-Fields off Trafalgar Square, Morley College’s Waterloo Center and Regent Hall on Oxford Street. Visit London’s top markets All walks of London life buy and sell at its plethora of markets, with voices from all over the world demonstrating why London is known as a city where everyone is welcome. When it comes to color and Instagram posts, make a beeline for Sunday’s Columbia Road Flower Market, which is packed full of blooms. The shadow of Waterloo Bridge plays host to the Southbank Centre’s daily book market, whose row after row of secondhand tomes are sure to include that out-of-print classic you’ve been searching for, in addition to a select pick of artworks old and new. The nearby space behind Royal Festival Hall also hosts a Friday – Sunday pop-up street food market, with aromas that drift towards the Thames sightseeing cruises mooring up at Westminster Pier. Back in east London, the stalls of Old Spitalfields Market sit beneath Victorian ironwork dating to 1876, though its history stretches back to the 1600s. Once a fruit and vegetable wholesale market, today’s stalls are a trendy blend of soul food spots, homeware and boutique fashions, with antiques taking over each Thursday. Take a stroll Getting out into fresh air is relatively easy, and as well as its parks and green spaces, London has numerous walks. The obvious place to start is the Jubilee Walkway, unveiled to mark 25 years of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign in 1977. Connecting many of London’s major landmarks, it runs for 15 miles, with the most popular stretch lining the south bank of the Thames from Lambeth Palace to Tower Bridge. Meanwhile, Regent’s Canal provides a place to wander without the crowds, taking in Paddington Basin, Little Venice, the howls of ZSL London Zoo’s wolf pack and popular Victoria Park along the way to its terminus on the Thames at Limehouse. You certainly won’t be disturbed by the residents of Brompton Cemetery, a grade I listed space containing around 35,000 memorials dating back to the 1830s. Among them you’ll find the graves of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst and the scientist who discovered the cause of cholera, John Snow. Other ways to save in London There are a huge number of free things to do in London. But they’re not the only way to save when visiting the British capital. The Explorer Pass from Go City saves on admission at many of London’s top visitor attractions without you having to make any decisions on what to do beforehand. What’s more, all you need is your phone to get started!
Ian Packham

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