Sunset views in London: the free ones, ranked by effort

London faces west along the river, which means the good sunsets are the ones with the Thames in them, and most of the best places to watch from cost nothing at all.

Sorted by how much effort each one takes, because on a clear evening you have about forty minutes to get somewhere.

No effort at all

Waterloo Bridge. The best free view in London and it is a public pavement. West gives you the Houses of Parliament and the sunset itself, east gives you St Paul’s and the City catching the last light. It is the only bridge with both, and it is why people who live here rate it above every paid viewpoint.

The Millennium Bridge and the South Bank between Waterloo and Blackfriars do a similar job with more people on them.

A short walk uphill

Primrose Hill. The postcard: the whole skyline laid out with the park in front of it, about ten minutes up from Chalk Farm. Busy on a good evening and worth it anyway. The park gates close after dusk, so check the seasonal closing time.

Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath is higher, wilder and slightly further from the tube, and the view is broader. The better of the two if you want space.

Greenwich Park, at the General Wolfe statue by the Observatory, gives you Canary Wharf and the river with the Queen’s House in the foreground. It is the most photographed view in south London for good reason.

Alexandra Palace has the biggest view of all of them, the whole city from a terrace on a hill, and it is completely free.

The one protected by law

Richmond Hill looks over the Thames as it bends through the meadows, and it is the only view in England protected by its own Act of Parliament, the Richmond, Petersham and Ham Open Spaces Act of 1902. Turner painted it. It is a long way out and it is worth the trip once.

Rooftops that cost nothing

One New Change has a public roof terrace facing the dome of St Paul’s, free, no booking, and open into the evening. Crossrail Place Roof Garden at Canary Wharf is free and covered. Sky Garden is free but needs a slot booked weeks ahead, and sunset slots are the first to go.

Our rooftop guide covers the paid ones and what they charge for the privilege.

The underrated ones

Point Hill in Greenwich, a small patch of grass most Londoners have never heard of, with a view straight down the river to the City. Horniman Gardens in Forest Hill, free, with south London spread out below. Severndroog Castle on Shooter’s Hill, an eighteenth-century folly in the woods with a viewing platform.

Getting the timing right

Arrive forty minutes before sunset, not at it. The best light is the twenty minutes before the sun goes down and the twenty after, and the second half, when the city lights come on against a blue sky, is better than the first.

Midwinter sunset in London is shortly before four in the afternoon and midsummer is after nine, which is a five-hour swing and the reason a plan that worked in June fails in December.

Clear is not best. A completely cloudless sky gives a plain orange. Scattered high cloud is what produces the sunsets people photograph, so a partly cloudy forecast is the one to go out on.