London is a city you never finish discovering. Political, financial and cultural capital of the United Kingdom, a metropolis of about nine million people, nearly fifteen counting the wider metropolitan area, it has for centuries been one of the most cosmopolitan places on the planet: more than three hundred languages are spoken and over a third of Londoners were born abroad. It is the city of Westminster and the Tower, of Shakespeare and the Beatles, of great free museums and neighbourhood markets, royal parks and City skyscrapers, Victorian pubs and food from every corner of the world. This guide, divided into themed pages, gathers everything you need to visit it, from your first trip to your tenth return.
London in brief
The city began as a Roman settlement, Londinium, around AD 47, at the point where the Thames could be bridged. It has never stopped growing since: it survived plague and the Great Fire of 1666, became in the 19th century the capital of an empire covering a quarter of the globe and the largest city in the world, withstood the bombing of the Second World War and has reinvented itself many times, from the Swinging London of the 1960s to the 2012 Olympics. Today it is governed by the Greater London Authority and an elected mayor, Sadiq Khan, now in his third term, and is divided into 32 boroughs plus the City of London, the ancient core with its own administration dating back to the Middle Ages.
For visitors London is surprisingly easy: it is safe, well connected, full of free attractions and used to welcoming more than twenty million foreign tourists a year. It is also expensive, especially for sleeping and eating out, but with a few tricks it can be visited without breaking the bank (see London on a budget).
What to see: the icons
The unmissable sights for a first visit are concentrated along the Thames, between Westminster and the Tower. The Palace of Westminster, seat of Parliament, with the clock tower everyone calls Big Ben; Westminster Abbey, where monarchs have been crowned since 1066; Buckingham Palace with the Changing of the Guard and the other royal palaces; St Paul's Cathedral, Christopher Wren's masterpiece; the Tower of London with the Crown Jewels; Tower Bridge, the city's Victorian symbol; and on the South Bank the London Eye, the observation wheel from which you can see the whole city. The full selection, with tips on times and tickets, is on the page what to see in London.
Museums: the great free heritage
London has some of the most important museums in the world, and the main ones are free, a tradition dating back to 2001 for the national collections. The British Museum holds two million years of human history, from the Rosetta Stone to the Parthenon sculptures; the National Gallery, on Trafalgar Square, is one of Europe's great picture galleries, with masterpieces from Giotto to Van Gogh; Tate Modern, in a power station on the Thames, is the most visited modern art museum in the world. South Kensington is home to the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, the largest museum of decorative arts and design. Everything on the page London's museums.
The neighbourhoods
London is a city of villages, each with its own character. The West End, between Soho, Covent Garden and Mayfair, is the heart of shopping, theatres and nightlife. The City and Canary Wharf are the business districts, with the tallest skyscrapers in Western Europe. Westminster and St James's are the centre of power; Kensington, Chelsea and Notting Hill the elegant residential districts; Camden, Shoreditch, Hackney and Brixton the alternative, multi-ethnic and creative ones; Greenwich, on the river, is maritime London, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A guide to each is on the page London's neighbourhoods.
Parks, markets and shopping
Almost half of London is green. The eight royal parks, from Hyde Park to Regent's Park, from St James's Park to Richmond Park with its free-roaming deer, are the city's lungs; Hampstead Heath offers hills and swimming ponds a few minutes from the centre (see parks and gardens). Markets are an institution: Borough Market for food, Portobello Road for antiques, Camden for alternative fashion, Columbia Road for flowers, Spitalfields and Brick Lane for crafts and street food. For classic shopping there are Oxford Street, Regent Street, Carnaby Street, Covent Garden and department stores such as Harrods, Liberty and Selfridges (see markets and shopping).
Eating, drinking and going out
The reputation of London's food has changed radically in the past thirty years: today the city is one of the world's culinary capitals, with dozens of Michelin-starred restaurants and above all an unrivalled range of international cuisines, from the curry houses of Brick Lane to Chinatown, from the Lebanese restaurants of Edgware Road to the Caribbean food of Brixton. Try the full English breakfast, the Sunday roast in a pub, fish and chips and afternoon tea with scones and cream (see where to eat in London). In the evening people go to the pub, the social institution par excellence, to the cocktail bars of Soho and Shoreditch or to world-famous clubs (see pubs and nightlife). And then there is theatre: the West End is, with Broadway, the world capital of musicals and drama, and the reconstructed Globe on the Thames lets you see Shakespeare as his contemporaries did (see theatres and musicals).
Getting there and getting around
London is served by six airports: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City and Southend, all linked to the centre by fast trains or the Underground. Direct flights arrive from almost every major European airport, and from Paris and Brussels you can arrive by Eurostar at St Pancras. Details in London's airports.
To get around, the Underground, the Tube, is the oldest in the world (1863) and has eleven lines, plus the Elizabeth line, opened in 2022, the Overground, the DLR and trams. Red double-decker buses cover the whole city. The simplest way to pay is to tap a contactless card or phone on the readers: you pay the lowest fare with a daily and weekly cap. Everything in getting around London.
Where to stay
London hotels are among the most expensive in Europe, but the choice is huge: from grand historic hotels in the West End to modern hostels, from Victorian B&Bs in Bloomsbury and Paddington to rented apartments. The most convenient areas for a first visit are Westminster, the South Bank, Covent Garden, Bloomsbury and Kensington; to spend less, choose well-connected districts such as King's Cross, Shoreditch, Earl's Court or Greenwich. The guide by area and budget is in where to stay in London.
When to go and how many days
London can be visited all year round. Spring (April-June) and early autumn are the best times, with mild temperatures and parks in bloom; summer is the busiest and most expensive season, but also that of open-air concerts, the Notting Hill Carnival and long evenings; winter is cold and rainy but brings Christmas markets, the lights of Oxford Street and the sales. For a first visit you need at least three or four full days. See when to go and the 2, 3, 5 and 7-day itineraries.
History
Two thousand years of history can be read in London's streets: the Roman walls in the City, the Norman Tower, Wren's churches rebuilt after the fire, Georgian squares, Victorian monuments, the scars of the Blitz and the skyscrapers of the 21st century. We trace the main stages on the page history of London and tell the stories of its most famous residents, from Shakespeare to Dickens, from Churchill to Freddie Mercury, in famous Londoners.
Day trips
Within an hour by train from London you can reach some of England's finest places: Windsor Castle, home of monarchs for a thousand years; the university cities of Oxford and Cambridge; Canterbury Cathedral; the seaside and bohemian atmosphere of Brighton; and a little further away Stonehenge, Bath and the Cotswolds. Ideas on the page day trips from London.
Living in London
For those who want to study or work there, London offers unrivalled opportunities but at a very high cost: average rent exceeds £2,300 a month, twice the national average. We have gathered data and advice on the page living in London and in the section living in the UK; to learn English see English courses in London.
Everyone's city
London has been a refuge for centuries: it was home to French Huguenots in the 17th century, Jews fleeing pogroms and Nazism, Risorgimento exiles such as Mazzini and Foscolo, Caribbeans of the Windrush generation arriving from 1948, Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, and more recently Poles, Romanians, Italians, Nigerians and Brazilians. Each wave left its mark on a neighbourhood: Brick Lane, with its mosques and Bangladeshi restaurants, was first French and then Jewish; Brixton is the heart of African-Caribbean culture; Southall is called "Little India"; Clerkenwell was the Little Italy of the 19th century (see Italians in the UK). This mix is the city's greatest wealth and the reason London feels, more than any other European capital, like a global city.
Events through the year
London's calendar is packed all year. In January New Year's fireworks on the Thames and Chinese New Year in Chinatown; in spring the Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge on the Thames, the London Marathon and the Chelsea Flower Show; in June Trooping the Colour, the parade for the sovereign's official birthday, and Wimbledon between June and July; in summer the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, concerts in Hyde Park and, on the last weekend of August, the Notting Hill Carnival, Europe's largest street festival; in November the Bonfire Night fireworks and the Lord Mayor's Show; in December Christmas lights, markets and the ice rink at Somerset House.
London with children
Few places in the world are so family-friendly. The South Kensington museums, with the dinosaurs of the Natural History Museum and the interactive galleries of the Science Museum, are free; London Zoo in Regent's Park, the aquarium on the Thames, the Golden Hinde, Francis Drake's ship, and the Harry Potter studios at Leavesden, a short trip away, are among children's favourites. The parks have wonderful playgrounds, such as the one dedicated to Diana in Kensington Gardens, and children under eleven travel free on public transport with an adult.
Ten things to do for free
- The British Museum and the National Gallery.
- The Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace.
- A walk along the South Bank, from Westminster to Tower Bridge.
- Tate Modern and the view from its tenth floor.
- The Sky Garden, the panoramic garden at the top of a City skyscraper (booking required).
- Borough Market and Portobello Road market on Saturdays.
- Hyde Park, Speakers' Corner and the deer of Richmond Park.
- The Greenwich meridian and the view from the Observatory park.
- Evening choral services (Evensong) at St Paul's or Westminster Abbey.
- Primrose Hill at sunset, with the whole city at your feet.
Practical tips in brief
- Documents: you need a passport and, since 2025, an ETA applied for online before travelling (see travelling after Brexit).
- Money: contactless cards are accepted everywhere; many places do not take cash.
- Safety: London is a safe city, but watch out for pickpockets in crowded areas and on the Tube.
- Etiquette: on escalators stand on the right and leave the left side clear; never jump a queue; in pubs you order at the bar.
- Tipping: in restaurants a 12.5% service charge is often already included in the bill; you do not tip in pubs.
- Plugs: sockets are type G, with three rectangular pins; you will need an adaptor.
Enjoy London, and get ready to come back: as Samuel Johnson put it in the 18th century, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.