ListingsUpdated Sat 24 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.
Showing this weekend. Clear
Saturday
24 October-
Exhibitions Free
Free entry: Kenwood House
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.
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Free
Parliament Hill viewpoint
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.
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Exhibitions Free
Free entry: the Design Museum
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.
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Free
The Kyoto Garden, Holland Park
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.
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Free
Evening walk: Kensington Gardens to the Round Pond
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.
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Food and drink Free
Leadenhall Market
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.
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Free
St Dunstan in the East
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.
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Free
Crossrail Place Roof Garden
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.
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Free
Street art on Brick Lane
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.
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Free
Carnaby Street and the courts
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.
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Free
Sky Garden
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.
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Exhibitions Free
Outernet London
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.
