London venues, A to Z - The Late Edition

13 listed St Martin-in-the-Fields
The church on Trafalgar Square, with free lunchtime recitals most weekdays and candlelit concerts in the evening. The free ones take a retiring collection and need…

10 listed Tate Modern
The former power station on Bankside, free to enter, with a late opening on the last Friday of the month that turns the Turbine Hall over…

8 listed Ronnie Scott's
Frith Street since 1959. The main sitting is the famous one; the late show, from about a quarter past eleven and running to three at weekends,…

8 listed Jazz Cafe
Parkway in Camden, a small room with a balcony that puts you close to whoever is on. The club night after the gig runs to three…

8 listed Alexandra Palace
The people's palace on the hill, with the whole city below it. A 10,000-capacity hall for the big gigs, a theatre, an ice rink from November…

7 listed Blackheath
The heath above Greenwich, and the site of the November firework display that returned after a six-year gap. Free to stand on it, which makes it…

6 listed Brick Lane
The East End street with the curry houses at the south end and the vintage shops and Sunday market at the north. Beigel Bake at the…

5 listed Columbia Road
The flower market runs Sundays from about eight to three. Go at eight for the choice or after two for the two-for-a-tenner shouting; there is no…

5 listed Broadway Market
A Saturday street market in London Fields that has been running since the 1890s, food stalls down the middle and the good bookshop at the top…

5 listed Maltby Street
The Ropewalk under the railway arches in Bermondsey, food stalls and small bars at weekends. Smaller than Borough and a good deal less crowded.

5 listed The National Gallery
Free, on Trafalgar Square, and open until nine every Friday, which is when to come: the rooms are close to empty after seven. Paid exhibitions are…

4 listed Strand on the Green
A Georgian riverside terrace at Chiswick with three pubs on it and a towpath that floods at spring tides, which is part of the charm and…

4 listed Greenwich Market
The covered market in the middle of old Greenwich, crafts and food under a glass roof. Two minutes from the Cutty Sark and the foot of…

4 listed Strawberry Hill House
Horace Walpole's gothic villa in Twickenham, which fills with floral installations for four days each September. Numbers are capped to protect the building, so book rather…

4 listed Science Museum
Exhibition Road, free, with adults-only Lates on the last Wednesday of the month: bars on every floor, a silent disco and a pub quiz. Free but…

4 listed Sir John Soane's Museum
Lincoln's Inn Fields, free, and the candlelit evenings on the first Tuesday of the month are the most atmospheric thing in London. Ticketed, and gone within…

4 listed V&A
The V and A in South Kensington, free, with Friday Late on the last Friday of most months: performance, film and DJs through the galleries until…

4 listed Regent's Park
Four hundred acres holding the Open Air Theatre in summer, Frieze in October and Frieze Sculpture free in the English Gardens for six weeks around it.…

3 listed Exmouth Market
A pedestrian street in Clerkenwell lined with restaurants, with stalls out at lunchtime on weekdays.

3 listed Electric Cinema
One of the oldest working cinemas in the country, on Portobello Road, with armchairs and footstools instead of seats.

3 listed Museum of Brands
A museum of packaging and advertising in Notting Hill, arranged as a tunnel running from the Victorians to the present day.

3 listed Elephant Park
The new quarter at Elephant and Castle, a public park with a row of restaurants along one side.

3 listed Mercato Metropolitano
A food market in a former paper factory near Elephant and Castle, with a bar and a small cinema alongside the kitchens.

3 listed Marble Hill
A Palladian villa in its own park by the Thames at Twickenham. The park is free and open daily; the house is ticketed.

3 listed Fashion and Textile Museum
Zandra Rhodes's orange and pink building on Bermondsey Street, with changing exhibitions about clothes and textiles.

3 listed Granary Square
The square behind King's Cross with fountains set into the paving. Free, and full of children the moment the weather turns.

3 listed Eventim Apollo
The art deco theatre in Hammersmith, around five thousand people, mostly touring bands and stand up.

3 listed Kings Place
A concert hall behind King's Cross with two auditoriums and a gallery, programming classical, jazz and spoken word.

3 listed Lyric Hammersmith
A Victorian auditorium inside a modern building, strong on new work and on a Christmas show that is not a pantomime.

3 listed Handel Hendrix House
Two adjoining Mayfair houses where Handel lived and, two centuries later, Jimi Hendrix. Both have been restored to their own periods.

3 listed Museum of the Order of St John
A Tudor gatehouse in Clerkenwell holding the history of the Knights Hospitaller and of St John Ambulance. Free to visit.

3 listed New Wimbledon Theatre
The Edwardian touring house on The Broadway, taking musicals and drama on tour and a large pantomime at Christmas.

3 listed White Cube Bermondsey
A large commercial gallery on Bermondsey Street with rooms big enough for anything. Free to walk into.

3 listed Wellcome Collection
A free museum and library on Euston Road about health, medicine and what it is to be human, with a reading room worth an afternoon.

3 listed Union Chapel
A working Victorian chapel in Islington that doubles as a concert hall. Pews, stained glass and acoustics nothing was designed for.

3 listed Southwark Playhouse Elephant
The second Southwark Playhouse, near Elephant and Castle, putting on new plays and small musicals.

3 listed Sadler's Wells East
The company's theatre in the East Bank quarter at Stratford, its first new house in years.

3 listed Sadler's Wells
The Rosebery Avenue theatre that is the main stage for contemporary dance in Britain.

3 listed Saatchi Gallery
A large contemporary gallery in the Duke of York's headquarters off the King's Road. Most shows are free.

3 listed Royal Observatory
On the hill in Greenwich Park, the prime meridian and the planetarium, and the finest view back over the river in London.

3 listed Royal Court Theatre
The Sloane Square theatre built around new writing, with a main stage and a smaller one upstairs.

3 listed Royal Academy of Arts
Burlington House on Piccadilly, home of the big loan exhibitions and of the Summer Exhibition. The courtyard is free to walk through.

3 listed Ritzy Picturehouse
The Brixton cinema on Windrush Square, open since 1911, now five screens with a bar upstairs.

3 listed Rio Cinema
A single screen art deco cinema in Dalston, independently run, with late showings at weekends.

3 listed Ridley Road Market
The Dalston street market, Caribbean, African and Turkish groceries down its whole length, open most days.

3 listed Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
The park left behind by the 2012 games at Stratford, with the aquatics centre, the stadium and the Orbit tower in it.

3 listed Portobello Road
The Notting Hill street market: antiques on Saturday, a general market the rest of the week, and the Electric Cinema halfway down.

3 listed Peckham Levels
A multi storey car park on Rye Lane turned into studios, kitchens and a bar, with the rooftops of south London out of the windows.

3 listed Wimbledon Common
Over a thousand acres of common and woodland with a windmill in the middle of it, open at any hour.

3 listed Coal Drops Yard
Victorian coal sheds at King's Cross rebuilt as two curved arcades of shops and restaurants, with the canal below.

3 listed Chiswick House
A Palladian villa in west London with gardens that are free to walk. The camellias in the conservatory flower in late winter, which is the time…

3 listed Hyde Park
Three hundred and fifty acres holding Winter Wonderland from mid-November to early January and the BST concerts in July, where gates open at two and the…

3 listed Kew Gardens
The botanic gardens at Richmond, and a different place after dark: the Halloween trail through late October, Christmas at Kew from mid-November. Both are timed-entry and…

3 listed Trafalgar Square
The square hosts most of London's free public celebrations: Diwali in late October, Lunar New Year in winter, the Norwegian tree in December and the carol…

3 listed Hampton Court Palace
Henry VIII's palace on the river at East Molesey, with an ice rink in front of the west front from late November, Halloween trails through the…

3 listed Battersea Park
The riverside park with the Peace Pagoda, and the long-running November firework display, which runs across two nights and does not sell on the gate.

3 listed Chelsea Physic Garden
A walled botanic garden by the river, founded in the seventeenth century to grow plants for apothecaries. Small, ticketed and unusually quiet.

3 listed Brixton Village
The covered arcade off Coldharbour Lane, small kitchens and independent shops packed tight. Liveliest in the evening.

3 listed Almeida Theatre
A small Islington theatre with an outsized reputation, known for new writing and for revivals that go on to the West End.

3 listed Battersea Power Station
The power station reopened as shops and restaurants, with a lift up one of the chimneys. Walking in costs nothing; the chimney is ticketed.

3 listed Battersea Arts Centre
The old Battersea town hall on Lavender Hill, now a theatre for work that would not fit anywhere else. The Grand Hall was rebuilt after the…

2 listed Southwark Cathedral
The cathedral beside Borough Market, parts of it medieval, free to walk into and quiet in the middle of a loud corner of London.

2 listed Highgate Cemetery
Swain's Lane. The West side is guided access only, twelve to a group, and the guides are the reason to go rather than an inconvenience. Weekend…

2 listed Somerset House
The courtyard on the Strand, with the ice rink from November to January and a programme of exhibitions and outdoor cinema the rest of the year.…

2 listed London Palladium
A 1910 variety house on Argyll Street, two thousand seats under a barrel roof, and still the theatre most performers say they wanted to play. The…

2 listed St James's Park
The oldest of the royal parks, with the lake, the pelicans, and the view to Buckingham Palace from the bridge.

2 listed Carnaby Street
The pedestrian street behind Regent Street, famous for the sixties and, every winter, for lights that are never snowflakes.

2 listed Natural History Museum
The South Kensington museum, free, with the dinosaurs, the blue whale hanging in Hintze Hall and the earthquake room.

2 listed Parliament Hill
The north end of Hampstead Heath, open grass with a legally protected view across the whole city. Free and never closed.

2 listed Regent Street
Nash's curve between Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus, and the street with the angels at Christmas.

2 listed Richmond Park
The largest of the royal parks, two and a half thousand acres with red and fallow deer roaming loose, and the protected view of St Paul's…

2 listed Leadenhall Market
The Victorian covered market in the City, painted ironwork and cobbles, with pubs under the arcade. Empty at weekends.

2 listed Oxford Street
London's main shopping street, a mile and a half of it, and the first of the Christmas lights to be switched on each year.

2 listed Bussey Building
A Victorian cricket-bat factory on Rye Lane holding a club, a cinema, a theatre and a rooftop bar in the same building. The rooftop cinema runs…

2 listed Wimbledon Park
The park behind the tennis, and the site of one of the few London firework displays actually held on 5 November rather than the weekend after.

2 listed Hampstead Heath
Eight hundred acres, three swimming ponds open all year, and the view from Parliament Hill. September is the good month for the ponds: the water is…

2 listed Merchant Square
The canalside square at Paddington Basin, with the rolling bridge and events out on the water.

1 listed Italian Gardens

1 listed Hackney Empire

1 listed Lower Marsh

1 listed Kensington Gardens

1 listed Peter Harrison Planetarium

1 listed Kensington Palace

1 listed Kenwood House

1 listed Outernet

1 listed Leicester Square

1 listed Netil360

1 listed Leighton House

1 listed London Bridge City Pier

1 listed London Oratory

1 listed Paddington Basin

1 listed Southbank Centre

1 listed Victoria Park

1 listed Victoria Palace Theatre

1 listed Tower Bridge

1 listed The Spaniards Inn

1 listed The London Dungeon

1 listed The George Inn

1 listed The Crystal Maze LIVE Experience

1 listed The Cenotaph

1 listed St Dunstan in the East Church Garden

1 listed Westminster Cathedral

1 listed Sky Garden

1 listed Royal Albert Hall

1 listed Westminster Abbey

1 listed Frameless

1 listed Royal Opera House
Bow Street, Covent Garden. Day seats and standing places go on sale online in the morning at a fraction of the stalls price, which is the…

1 listed British Museum
Great Russell Street, free, and open late on Fridays. The Bayeux Tapestry is here from September 2026 to July 2027 on a separate timed ticket.

1 listed Wilton's Music Hall
Graces Alley, down a lane behind Cable Street, and the oldest surviving grand music hall in the world. Go for the room as much as the…

1 listed Beigel Bake
Brick Lane, open every hour of every day, and the salt beef at three in the morning is the correct order. Cash is quicker than card…

1 listed The Old Vic
The Cut, Waterloo, since 1818. Day seats go on sale online at ten each morning and returns turn up at the box office an hour before…

1 listed London Museum Docklands
A Georgian warehouse on West India Quay holding the best account of the docks and the slave trade in the city. Always free and rarely busy…

1 listed Royal Festival Hall
The Southbank Centre's main hall, with free live music in the Clore Ballroom most evenings and no ticket needed. The bar upstairs has the river view…

1 listed The Strand
The street between Trafalgar Square and Aldwych, which hosts the London Design Festival's landmark installation each September and is best seen after the crowds have gone.

1 listed Soho Theatre
Dean Street, three rooms, and the place most of the country's stand-ups work through before anyone has heard of them. Comedy from about fifteen pounds, shows…

1 listed Nunhead Cemetery
One of the Magnificent Seven, half reclaimed by woodland, free and open daily. The chapel opens on the volunteer open days and the view of St…

1 listed Barbican Conservatory
Two thousand species under glass above the theatre, open only on selected Sundays and free, but you book a slot and they go on the Wednesday…

1 listed Lloyd's of London
Richard Rogers' inside-out building on Lime Street, normally closed to the public and opening for Open House, where it is the most sought-after slot in the…

1 listed All Star Lanes

1 listed Apollo Victoria Theatre

1 listed Flight Club

1 listed Fitzrovia Chapel

1 listed Design Museum

1 listed Crossrail Place

1 listed Covent Garden Piazza

1 listed Churchill War Rooms

1 listed Canada Square Park

1 listed Buckingham Palace

1 listed Bounce

1 listed Borough Market

1 listed BFI IMAX

1 listed Tower of London
A thousand years of it by the river, with Halloween interpretation included in admission in late October and the poppy installations most autumns. Tower Hill, and…

0 listed Corsica Studios
Closed. The two arches at Elephant and Castle shut at the end of March 2026 after twenty years, and the club was clear that it was…

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