ListingsUpdated Sat 5 Sep
Westminster: what's on and things to do
The set pieces, and the free things next to them. The Abbey and the War Rooms are ticketed, the park, the guard and the bridge at night are not.
Saturday
5 September-
Exhibitions From £32
Churchill War Rooms
Until 4 Sep
The bunker left as it was on the day it closed in 1945, down to the pins in the map. Book a slot: it sells out, and the queue on the day is outdoors.
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Exhibitions From £30
Westminster Abbey
Until 4 Sep
Ticketed for sightseeing, free if you come to a service, and Evensong is sung most weekday afternoons in term. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries are up in the triforium, which most visitors miss.
-
Free
St James’s Park, free all day
Until 4 Sep
The oldest of the royal parks and the one with the pelicans, fed near Duck Island in the afternoon. The bridge gives the view down the lake to Horse Guards that ends up on the postcards.
Monday
7 September-
Free
Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace
Until 4 Sep
Free, and busier than anything else on this list. It does not run every day and it is called off in bad weather, so check the Household Division calendar the morning you go.
Sunday
8 November-
Seasonal Free
Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph
Whitehall closes and the service is at eleven. Free to watch from the pavement if you are there by nine thirty; after that you will hear it rather than see it.
Thursday
3 December-
Seasonal Free
The Trafalgar Square Christmas tree
Until 6 Jan
Given by Norway every year since 1947 in thanks for the war, lit with vertical strings of plain white bulbs in the Norwegian way. Carols are sung under it most evenings in December.
Friday
25 December-
Seasonal Free
Christmas Day walk in St James’s Park
There are no trains and no buses on Christmas Day, so the centre belongs to whoever walked. The park is open, the pelicans are in, and Horse Guards is empty enough to photograph.
Sunday
14 February-
Seasonal Free
Chinese New Year parade and stage, Trafalgar Square
The parade leaves Charing Cross Road around midday and the square runs performances into the afternoon. Best watched from the north terrace rather than in the crowd.
