ListingsUpdated Tue 13 Oct
Free events in London right now
Everything on this site that costs nothing, from museum late openings to cemetery open days and the free half of the big festivals. Free does not always mean unticketed: where a free event still needs a booked slot, the listing says so.
What to expect
111 listings filed under Free. The busiest rooms are Woolwich Works, Downstairs at the King's Head and Phoenix Arts Club. Concentrated in Woolwich, Covent Garden and Crouch End.
Nearby
Every listing here has been checked against the venue that is putting it on.
Showing next 7 days. Clear
Tuesday
13 October-
Free
The Italian Gardens, Kensington Gardens
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.
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Sport Free
Towpath walk: Paddington Basin to Little Venice
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.
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Free
The floating pocket park, Merchant Square
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.
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: the Natural History Museum
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.
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: the Science Museum
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.
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: the V and A
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.
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Free
Evening at the Brompton Oratory
An enormous Italianate interior a minute from the museums, free to walk into, and almost always quiet. Sung services are listed on the door.
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Free
St James’s Park, free all day
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.
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: Westminster Cathedral
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.
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Free
Leake Street Arches, the legal graffiti tunnel
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.
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Free
Waterloo Bridge at dusk
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.
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: Southwark Cathedral
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.
