Guides July 2027 Updated 4 Sep 2026
London in July: what is on
Wimbledon, the Proms, and the city at full volume.
July is peak season. Everything is on, everything is busy, and the evenings are long enough that a night out can start at eight and still feel early.
Wimbledon runs into the second week. The BBC Proms open in the middle of the month and run nightly to September, with standing tickets on the day for under a tenner. The big park concerts fill Hyde Park and Finsbury Park most weekends. The schools break up at the end of the month and the family programmes start.
The practical part. This is the most expensive month to eat and drink out and the hardest to book. It is also the best month for the free things: the parks, the river, the foyer concerts, the outdoor screens. If the forecast is above thirty, the Underground is the thing to avoid and the Thames Clippers the thing to use.
What is on in July
Thu 1 to Sat 31 JulyThursday
1 July-
Free
Crossrail Place Roof Garden
Until 4 Sep
A garden under a timber lattice roof on top of the station, planted either side of the meridian with species from the hemisphere they belong to. Free, open early, and covered.
-
Sport Free
Dogs on Hampstead Heath
Until 4 Sep
Eight hundred acres, off lead almost everywhere, and the one swimming pond dogs are allowed in is not one of the bathing ponds. Busiest at the Parliament Hill end on a weekend morning.
-
Exhibitions Free
Free entry: Westminster Cathedral
Until 4 Sep
Neo Byzantine, still unfinished above the arches, and free to walk into. The campanile lift is ticketed and gives one of the least crowded views in central London.
-
Food and drink Free
Leadenhall Market
Until 4 Sep
A Victorian covered market in cream and burgundy, free to walk through and open to the street. Busy with the City at lunch and almost empty at the weekend, which is when to photograph it.
-
Free
Parliament Hill viewpoint
Until 4 Sep
A protected view all the way to the City, which is why nothing is allowed to be built in front of it. Ten minutes up from Gospel Oak and worth doing an hour before sunset.
-
Sport Free
Dogs in Richmond Park
Until 4 Sep
The largest of the royal parks and the one with the deer, which is why dogs must be on a lead in May and June and in September and October. The gates open and close with the light.
-
Sport Free
Dogs in Battersea Park
Until 4 Sep
Flat, walled, and small enough to do a full circuit in half an hour, with the river along one side and a cafe at each end. The one park on this list you can reach on foot from a station.
-
Exhibitions Free
Free entry: Southwark Cathedral
Until 4 Sep
Free, next door to the market, and almost always empty by comparison. Shakespeare's brother is buried here and there is a memorial to the man himself along the south aisle.
-
Free
St Dunstan in the East
Until 4 Sep
A Wren church bombed in 1941 and left as a ruin with a garden planted inside it. Free, open from eight, and quietest before the City arrives. The tower is still standing.
-
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.
-
Free
The Italian Gardens, Kensington Gardens
Until 4 Sep
Four basins and a pump house Albert built for Victoria, at the Lancaster Gate corner of the park. Best in the hour before the fountains go off for the night, when the light comes across the water.
-
Free
The Kyoto Garden, Holland Park
Until 4 Sep
A Japanese garden given to the borough in 1991, with koi, a waterfall and peacocks that have no fear of anyone. Free, and quietest before the school run ends.
-
Sport Free
Towpath walk: Paddington Basin to Little Venice
Until 4 Sep
Twenty minutes of canal that most people who work here never walk. Comes out at the pool where three waterways meet, with the narrowboats and the puppet theatre barge.
-
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.
-
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
Carnaby Street and the courts
Until 4 Sep
The street itself takes five minutes; Kingly Court behind it takes an afternoon. Three floors of a courtyard with the roof open in summer and closed in winter.
-
Exhibitions From £24
Frameless
Until 4 Sep
Four rooms of projected painting, floor to ceiling, under Marble Arch. Permanent rather than a touring show, so there is no rush, and quietest in the first hour of the day.
-
Exhibitions Free
Free entry: Kenwood House
Until 4 Sep
A Robert Adam house at the top of the Heath with a Rembrandt self portrait and a Vermeer in it, and no admission charge. The library is the room people stand in longest.
-
Exhibitions Free
Free entry: the Design Museum
Until 4 Sep
The permanent collection upstairs costs nothing and takes about an hour. The building is the old Commonwealth Institute, and the roof is worth standing under before you look at anything.
-
Exhibitions Free
Free entry: the Natural History Museum
Until 4 Sep
Free, permanent, and busiest between eleven and three. Go at opening or after four and Hintze Hall is almost yours. Timed tickets are free but worth booking at the weekend.
-
Exhibitions Free
Free entry: the Science Museum
Until 4 Sep
The permanent galleries cost nothing. Making the Modern World runs the whole length of the ground floor and is the one to see if you only have an hour.
-
Exhibitions Free
Free entry: the V and A
Until 4 Sep
Seven miles of gallery, free, and nobody sees it all. The cast courts and the John Madejski Garden are the two most people remember, and the garden is a good place to stop rather than leave.
-
Exhibitions From £25
Kensington Palace and the sunken garden
Until 4 Sep
The state apartments are ticketed, but the sunken garden outside them is free and is the bit most people photograph. Go on a weekday morning and the King's Staircase is almost empty.
-
Free
Leake Street Arches, the legal graffiti tunnel
Until 4 Sep
A road tunnel under the station where painting the walls is allowed, so it looks different every week. Bring a torch for the far end and expect the smell of aerosol.
-
Exhibitions From £11
Leighton House, the Arab Hall
Until 4 Sep
A Victorian painter built himself a house with a domed hall of Damascus tiles in it, and it is still there. Small, so an hour does it, and rarely busy.
-
Exhibitions Free
Outernet London
Until 4 Sep
Four storeys of screen wrapped around a public hall by Tottenham Court Road station, free to walk into. What is on changes constantly; five minutes is usually enough.
-
Free
Sky Garden
Until 4 Sep
Three floors of planted terrace at the top of the Walkie Talkie, free but booked in advance and the slots go about three weeks out. Sunset slots go first. Photo identification on the door.
-
Free
Street art on Brick Lane
Until 4 Sep
The walls change every few weeks, so the walk is different from the one anybody photographed last year. Start at the Truman Brewery and work north up the side streets.
-
Free
The floating pocket park, Merchant Square
Until 4 Sep
A garden built on a pontoon in the basin, open to anyone. Small, and that is rather the point: it is a place to sit on the water in the middle of a building site of a neighbourhood.
-
Sport From £34
Turkish baths at Porchester Spa
Until 4 Sep
A 1929 Turkish and Russian bath house run by the council, so it costs a fraction of the spa hotels. Check which days are mixed and which are single sex before you go, because it changes through the week.
-
Exhibitions From £45
The Crystal Maze LIVE Experience
Until 4 Sep
The television set rebuilt under Shaftesbury Avenue, played in teams of up to eight with a maze master shouting at you. Ninety minutes, and you do need to book.
-
Food and drink From £14
Crazy golf at Swingers, West End
Until 4 Sep
Two nine hole courses under a glass roof with street food traders around the edge. Over 18s in the evening, and booking is effectively required at the weekend.
-
Talks From £12
Planetarium show at the Royal Observatory
Until 4 Sep
The only planetarium in London, in a cone of bronze angled at the pole star, with a live astronomer rather than a recording. Shows run through the day and last about half an hour.
-
Food and drink From £6
The Spaniards Inn
Until 4 Sep
A 1585 coaching inn at the top of the Heath with a walled garden, a dog wash at the door and a long history of letting them in. Low beams, so mind your head rather than the dog.
-
Food and drink From £6
Netil360 rooftop, Hackney
Until 4 Sep
A roof above a car park in London Fields with the whole City skyline lined up in front of it. Small, so it fills on a warm evening; the view is the reason rather than the drinks list.
-
Food and drink From £12
Darts at Flight Club, Shoreditch
Until 4 Sep
Darts with the scoring done for you and a camera on the board, booked by the oche rather than the person. Cheaper before six and on a weekday, and it does run late.
-
Clubs From £6
Rooftop at the Bussey Building
Until 4 Sep
Peckham's roof bar, up several flights above the old cricket bat factory, looking back at the city from the south. Runs late at the weekend and the yard below keeps going after it shuts.
-
Food and drink From £6
The George Inn, the last galleried coaching inn
Until 4 Sep
The only galleried coaching inn left in London, owned by the National Trust and still working as a pub. The yard fills early on a warm evening.
-
Free
Evening at the Brompton Oratory
Until 4 Sep
An enormous Italianate interior a minute from the museums, free to walk into, and almost always quiet. Sung services are listed on the door.
-
Sport From £12
Public skating at Queens Ice and Bowl
Until 4 Sep
A full size rink under Queensway, open sessions most of the day and into the evening. Skate hire is included in the session price. Book ahead at weekends, because it fills with birthday parties.
-
Free
Evening walk: Kensington Gardens to the Round Pond
Until 4 Sep
The pond sits on the axis of the palace, so the view back at it in low light is the one the garden was laid out to give you. Twenty minutes from the High Street.
-
Free
Waterloo Bridge at dusk
Until 4 Sep
The only crossing with both the City and Westminster in one turn of the head. Built largely by women during the war, which is why it is sometimes called the Ladies Bridge.
-
Free
Stargazing on Hampstead Heath
Until 4 Sep
As dark as central London gets, which is not very, but Parliament Hill has the horizon and the local society runs public evenings on the hill through the winter. Take a torch and a coat.
-
Food and drink From £25 return
A day in Brighton
Until 4 Sep
An hour from Victoria or London Bridge and the most reliable seaside day out from London. The Lanes when it rains, the pier when it does not, and the last train back is late.
-
Food and drink From £30 return
A day in Whitstable
Until 4 Sep
An hour and twenty from St Pancras or Victoria, oysters on the harbour and a shingle beach with the huts on it. Go on a weekday: the town is small and summer weekends fill it.
-
Free
A walk through Hampstead village
Until 4 Sep
Lanes that were a hill village before London reached them, and still read like one above the high street. Flask Walk and Holly Mount are the two to take if you only take two.
-
Food and drink From £35
Bottomless brunch in Soho
Until 4 Sep
More bottomless brunch per square yard than anywhere in London, and the offers change often enough that the street is the reliable part rather than any one room. Book: Saturdays go.
-
Food and drink From £28
Bottomless brunch in Brixton
Until 4 Sep
The market halls do it best and cheapest, and you can walk between three sittings in five minutes if the first is full. Two hours is the usual limit.
-
Food and drink From £10
Ping pong at Bounce, Old Street
Until 4 Sep
Tables by the hour in a basement that used to be a ping pong hall, which is a rare thing to be able to say. Loud after nine and quiet before seven.
-
Film From £14
A screening at the BFI IMAX
Until 4 Sep
The biggest screen in the country, in a glass drum in the middle of a roundabout. Worth it for something shot on film stock, less so for anything upscaled.
-
Exhibitions From £30 return
A day in Margate
Until 4 Sep
An hour and a half from St Pancras. Turner Contemporary is free, the sand is the best within reach of London, and the old town is a short walk from the station.
-
Food and drink From £30
Bottomless brunch in Shoreditch
Until 4 Sep
Cheaper than Soho and longer sittings, mostly around Redchurch Street and the Boundary. Sundays run into the evening here in a way they do not further west.
-
Food and drink From £11
Bowling at All Star Lanes, Brick Lane
Until 4 Sep
Four lanes in a basement done out as an American diner, which sounds worse than it is. Booked by the lane for up to eight, and the kitchen runs as late as the bowling.
-
Exhibitions From £28 return
A day in Oxford
Until 4 Sep
An hour from Paddington or Marylebone. The Ashmolean and the Pitt Rivers are both free, and most colleges let visitors in for a few pounds in the afternoon.
-
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.
-
Food and drink From £7
Lower Marsh Market
Until 4 Sep
A weekday street market that has been there since the 1850s, now mostly hot food at lunch. Quieter and cheaper than Borough, and five minutes from the same trains.
-
Food and drink From £8
Lunchtime in Leadenhall Market
Until 4 Sep
The traders under the roof are mostly food at midday, and the pubs put their tables out under the ironwork. Weekdays only: most of it shuts by early evening and all of it at the weekend.
-
Exhibitions From £26 return
A day in Cambridge
Until 4 Sep
Fifty minutes from King's Cross, which makes it the closest of the university towns. The Fitzwilliam is free and punting is the thing everyone does and nobody regrets.
-
Theatre From £25
Evening performance at the Victoria Palace Theatre
Until 4 Sep
A Matcham house from 1911, restored to the gilt and then some. Day seats and returns go at the box office in the morning, which is the cheapest way in.
-
Food and drink From £8
Borough Market, full market days
Until 4 Sep
The full market runs Wednesday to Saturday, and Wednesday is the one where you can actually reach a stall. Monday and Tuesday are limited, which catches people out.
-
Exhibitions Free
The Fitzrovia Chapel, open to visitors
Until 4 Sep
All that survives of the Middlesex Hospital: a gold mosaic chapel standing on its own in a new square. Free, and open on set days in the middle of the week rather than daily, so check before crossing town.
-
Free
The Rolling Bridge at Merchant Square
Until 4 Sep
Thomas Heatherwick's footbridge curls up into an octagon instead of lifting. It runs to a published timetable posted at the square, and the whole thing takes about three minutes.
-
Theatre From £25
Evening performance at the Apollo Victoria
Until 4 Sep
An art deco cinema turned musical house, and one of the few West End auditoriums where the building is worth arriving early for. Straight across from the station.
-
Pick Exhibitions From £25 Sold out
The Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum
Until 11 Jul
Seventy metres of it, in Britain for the first time in nine hundred years, opening on the 10th and staying until July. The first release, to 31 December, has sold out; tickets for January to March go on sale on 21 October. The last weekday slot in term time is the cheap one at twenty-five pounds rather than thirty-three.
-
Theatre From £30
Evening performance at the Menier Chocolate Factory
Until 4 Sep
A small house in a Victorian factory that sends more work to the West End than its size suggests. The dinner and show ticket is decent value and the room seats under two hundred.
-
From £40 return
A weekend in the Cotswolds
Until 4 Sep
Moreton-in-Marsh is ninety minutes direct from Paddington and you can walk out of the station into the countryside, which is not true of most of them. Book beds well ahead in summer.
-
Exhibitions From £45 return
A weekend in Bath
Until 4 Sep
An hour and a half from Paddington. The whole city is a world heritage site, the baths are open until ten in summer, and everything is within twenty minutes on foot.
-
Exhibitions Free
Frieze Sculpture in the English Gardens
Until 4 Sep
Large scale sculpture through the English Gardens in Regent's Park, free, no ticket, and open for about six weeks around the fair itself.
-
From £50 return
A weekend on the Norfolk coast
Until 4 Sep
Two hours to Norwich then a bus, or drive. Holkham is the beach everyone means and it is big enough to absorb a bank holiday. Seals at Blakeney from a boat.
-
Sport From £4.50
Swimming in the Hampstead mixed pond
Until 4 Sep
Open all year, lifeguarded, and colder than you are expecting from about October. The men's and ladies' ponds keep their own hours and their own rules.
Friday
2 July-
Gigs From £70
BST Hyde Park
Until 11 Jul
Two weekends of headliners in the park with the Open House days free in between. Gates early afternoon, curfew is strict at half ten. Dates follow the usual July pattern.
-
Seasonal Free
Pride weekend in Soho
Until 4 Jul
Old Compton Street closes and the whole of Soho becomes the afterparty, which for many people is the actual event. Free, outdoors, and it goes very late on the Saturday.
Saturday
3 July-
Seasonal Free
Pride in London parade
A million people, from Hyde Park Corner down Piccadilly to Whitehall. Free from the pavement, and the stages in Soho and Trafalgar Square run into the evening after it passes.
Friday
9 July-
Gigs From £75
Wireless Festival
Until 11 Jul
Three days of hip hop and R and B in Finsbury Park, and the one where the queue for the station afterwards is the real event. Dates follow the usual second weekend of July.
Friday
16 July-
Gigs From £8
BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall
Until 11 Sep
Eight weeks of concerts and the cheapest classical music in the country: promming tickets are a few pounds on the day, standing in the arena or the gallery. Queue from late afternoon.
Guides for July
All guides-
Fri 10 July to Sun 30 August
London festival stage times: All Points East, Wireless and the rest
Gates, curfews, last entry and the walk to the station for London's big park festivals, plus where the official stage times appear and when. -
Sat 1 May to Thu 30 September
Outdoor cinema in London 2027: rooftops, parks and how to pick a night
The season runs May to September. Rooftop screens, the touring park and palace cinemas, the free ones, and the difference between a good night and a cold one. -
Sat 26 June to Sun 4 July
Pride in London 2027: parade route, times, stages and the night after
Expected Saturday 3 July 2027. Where the parade goes, where to stand, the free stages, the Soho street party and how to get home. -
Fri 16 July to Sat 11 September
BBC Proms 2027: dates, how to get in for under a tenner, and what is on tonight
Mid-July to the second Saturday in September at the Royal Albert Hall. How promming works, which nights to book and which to queue for, rebuilt daily in season.
London month by month
Twelve guides, one a monthJanuary: what is on February: what is on March: what is on April: what is on May: what is on June: what is on July: what is on August: what is on September: what is on October: what is on November: what is on December: what is on
What is on right now
All 395 listingsThis guide is rewritten each year before the dates come round. For what is actually happening this week rather than what happens every year, the listings below are dated, checked against the venue and carry the venue's own link.
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This page keeps its address every year and is rewritten each time the month comes round, with every listing checked before it goes in. How we choose what goes in.