Things to do in central London: within a mile of the middle

Central London is a small place pretending to be a large one. Almost everything people come for sits inside a mile of Charing Cross, and the walk between any two of them is usually shorter than the tube journey, once you have counted the escalators.

This guide is arranged by where you already are, because that is the real question when you have three hours between things.

Around Trafalgar Square and the Strand

The National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery are both free and both open late one night a week, which is when they are worth doing. St Martin in the Fields runs lunchtime concerts and has a cafe in the crypt. Covent Garden is five minutes east and the street performers there are auditioned, which is why they are better than they need to be.

Around Soho and the West End

West End show times covers what is on and when the curtain actually goes up, and pre-theatre dinner covers eating before it without paying West End prices. Carnaby Street and the streets around it are the shopping half.

Soho at night is the densest concentration of small rooms in the country: comedy, jazz, cabaret and karaoke within a few streets of each other.

Around the South Bank

Walkable from Waterloo and, more usefully, from the north bank across any of four bridges. Tate Modern is free, the Southbank Centre programmes free foyer music most days, and the river walk itself is the best free thing in central London after dark.

Outdoor cinema and the seasonal markets set up along here in summer and winter respectively.

Around the City

Empty at the weekend, which is the point. St Dunstan in the East, Leadenhall Market and the Guildhall Art Gallery with a Roman amphitheatre underneath it are all free and all quiet on a Saturday. Free viewpoints covers the roof terraces that do not charge.

Getting between them

Almost every pair of places above is a twenty minute walk. Where it is not, the bus beats the tube in central London for anything under two miles, and you can see where you are going. Our things to do near me page sorts the same listings by area, and tonight is the live version if you are already out.