Answers34 answered
London answers: the questions people actually ask
Short answers to the London questions worth asking, each one checked and each one carrying the listings it refers to.
Every other page on this site is a list of what is on. These are the questions that come before the list: what time a thing starts, where to stand, whether the tube is running, which museums cost nothing.
Each answer is at the top of its own page in two or three sentences, and the listings we hold on the subject sit underneath it, so the answer and the things it describes come from the same place and cannot drift apart.
Where a date follows the usual annual pattern rather than an announcement, the answer says so.
The questions
Getting around
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Do London buses take cash?
No. London buses stopped taking cash in 2014. You need contactless, a phone or watch, an Oyster card or a Travelcard, and there is no way to buy a ticket on board.
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Is contactless cheaper than Oyster in London?
Neither is cheaper. Contactless and Oyster charge the same pay as you go fares and both cap your daily spend at the same level. Contactless also caps weekly, Monday to Sunday, which Oyster does not.
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Is the tube running on Christmas Day?
No. There is no Underground, no Overground, no Elizabeth line, no DLR and no National Rail on Christmas Day, and almost no buses. Boxing Day runs a reduced service on most lines.
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Which tube lines run all night in London?
Five, on Friday and Saturday nights only: the Victoria, Jubilee, Central, Northern and Piccadilly. Everything else stops around half past midnight, and night buses cover the rest of the city every night of the week.
Free London
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Is any of Frieze London free?
Yes. Frieze Sculpture in the English Gardens in Regent's Park is free, needs no ticket and is up from 16 September to 1 November, which is six weeks longer than the fair itself. Frieze London and Frieze Masters run 14 to 18 October in the same park and are ticketed and expensive.
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What can you do in London with children for free?
The big museums are free and most have a dedicated children’s floor. So are all eight royal parks, the city farms, the Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens and the fountains at Granary Square. You pay for very little of what is worth doing.
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Where can you see free comedy in London?
Angel Comedy at the Camden Head runs free stand up seven nights a week at half seven, with no ticket. Top Secret off Drury Lane starts at a pound. Between them they cover most nights of the year, which is why London comedy is a good deal cheaper than its reputation suggests.
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Which London museums are free?
Almost all the big ones. The British Museum, the National Gallery, Tate Modern and Tate Britain, the V and A, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum all cost nothing to walk into. You pay only for their temporary exhibitions.
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Which London rooftops can you go up for free?
The Sky Garden at 20 Fenchurch Street, Horizon 22 at 22 Bishopsgate and Crossrail Place Roof Garden in Canary Wharf all cost nothing. The first two need a free ticket booked in advance; the third needs nothing. Horizon 22 is the highest free view in Europe.
Events and fixtures
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Do you need tickets for Open House London?
Most buildings are free and need no ticket at all: you queue on the day and walk in. A minority of the popular ones use advance booking or a ballot that opens several weeks before, in August, and those go within hours of opening.
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What time does Notting Hill Carnival start?
Both days run from about ten in the morning to seven in the evening, and the sound systems must switch off at seven sharp. The parade proper gets going around half ten. Sunday is Children's Day and Monday is the main parade.
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When is Pride in London and is it free to watch?
Pride in London is on a Saturday in late June or the first days of July, and watching the parade is free from anywhere on the route. You only need to register if you want to march in it, and that closes months ahead.
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When is the London Marathon and where should you watch it?
It is run on a Sunday in late April and it is free to watch anywhere on the twenty six miles. Tower Bridge at mile twelve is the best half mile of the course; Cutty Sark at mile six is the loudest.
Christmas and winter
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Are London's Christmas markets free to get into?
Yes, all of the street markets are free to walk into, including Southbank Centre, Leicester Square and Greenwich. Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park is also free to enter but asks for a free timed ticket at peak times, and everything inside it is paid separately.
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How much is Christmas at Kew?
Tickets start at £25.50 and it is a separate ticket from general Kew admission, which catches out members who assume they are covered. It runs on selected dates from 13 November to 3 January, 4.20pm to 10pm, and last entry depends on which gate you booked rather than on the event.
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What is there to do in London at Christmas?
Winter Wonderland from 19 November, the Christmas at Kew light trail from the 13th, and the markets and the ice rinks through the second half of the month. The lights go on first on Oxford Street in the first week of November. The lights, the markets and the windows are free; the rest is ticketed and books up.
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When do the Christmas lights go on in London?
Oxford Street switches on first, in the first week of November, with Regent Street and Carnaby within days of it. All of them stay lit until the first week of January, and all of them are free to walk under.
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Where can you go ice skating in London?
Somerset House, Hampton Court Palace, Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park and Queens Skate Dine Bowl are the main ones. The outdoor rinks run from mid November to early January and all of them need booking ahead. Queens is indoors and open all year.
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Where can you watch fireworks on Bonfire Night in London?
Most London displays are on the Saturday nearest the fifth, not on the fifth itself, which is the single thing most people get wrong. Alexandra Palace, Battersea Park and Wimbledon Park are ticketed; Blackheath is free and enormous.
Nights out
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Where can you drink late in London?
Most pubs stop serving at eleven. Soho, Dalston and Shoreditch are where the late licences are, running to two or three in the morning and later at the clubs. The night tube runs on Friday and Saturday nights on five lines, and the night buses run every night.
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Which London museums are open late?
Most of the big museums run one late opening a month rather than late hours every day. The V and A opens on the last Friday, the Science Museum on the last Wednesday for adults only, and the Natural History Museum on the last Friday. Nearly all of them are free.
Outdoors
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Where can you swim outdoors in London?
Lidos and the Hampstead ponds. Most lidos open at weekends from May and daily from June to September, a few are heated and open all year, and the Oasis in Covent Garden is the only heated public outdoor pool in central London.
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Where can you take a dog in London?
Dogs are allowed in all eight royal parks off lead in most areas, on the canal towpaths and on the Heath. They travel free on the tube, bus and Overground, and a great many London pubs take them. They are not allowed in the big museums except as assistance dogs.
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Where can you watch the sunset in London?
Primrose Hill, Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath, Greenwich Park by the observatory and Richmond Park’s King Henry’s Mound are the four protected views, which means nothing can be built to block them. All four are free and open until dusk.
Planning a day
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What can you do in London when it rains?
The museums are free and most are open until at least six, the covered markets stay dry, and the big glasshouses are warmer and better in bad weather than in good. None of it needs booking on the day.
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When do the clocks change in the UK?
Forward one hour on the last Sunday in March, back one hour on the last Sunday in October, both at one in the morning. That makes it Sunday 25 October 2026 and Sunday 28 March 2027.
Everything else
8-
How do you get cheap London Film Festival tickets?
Anyone aged 16 to 25 pays six pounds a ticket with a free 25 and Under account, which is the cheapest way into a gala in London all year. General sale opens on 17 September at ten in the morning, and a second batch of tickets is released on 1 October at ten.
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How much does a karaoke room cost in London?
At Lucky Voice Soho it is eight pounds per person per hour off peak and eleven to fourteen at peak, and every private booking is a minimum of two hours, so eight is really sixteen before anyone buys a drink. Peak starts at seven on weekdays. Dragaoke at the Phoenix Arts Club is free to get into.
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How much does Winter Wonderland cost?
Entry is one pound off peak, five pounds fifty at standard times and eight pounds twenty five at peak, or nothing at all if you add twenty five pounds of rides, food or attractions to the same booking. Booking fees are inside those prices this year. Everything inside the park is charged on top.
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What is the best first date in London?
A museum late. Tate Modern every Friday and Saturday, the V and A's Friday Late and the National Gallery every Friday until nine are all free, there is something to talk about in every room, and leaving early is easy. Avoid a two hour minimum table, and avoid the cinema, which is two hours of not talking.
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What time does live jazz start in London?
Later than you would think. Across the jazz nights we carry the commonest start times are quarter past eleven, half ten and half nine. Ronnie Scott's Late Late Show begins at 23.15, after the billed act has finished, and is much cheaper than the early sitting. The Monday jam starts at 21.30.
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What time is the Lord Mayor's Show?
The procession sets off from Mansion House at eleven on Saturday 14 November and it is free to watch from anywhere on the route, with nothing to book. The useful thing is that it passes twice: it comes back along the Embankment about ninety minutes later, to a fraction of the crowd.
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When is Diwali in London 2026?
Diwali is Sunday 8 November 2026, with the five days of the festival running from the 6th to the 10th. London's public celebration is earlier: Diwali on the Square in Trafalgar Square on Sunday 25 October, one until seven, free and with nothing to book.
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Where can you go for a long walk in London?
The Capital Ring is about 78 miles in 15 signed sections through inner London, and the London Loop is about 150 miles in 24 sections round the outside. Every section starts and ends at a station, so one is an afternoon and a train home rather than an expedition. The canal towpaths are the flat option.
