Borough Market
Borough Market is London's oldest food market, trading since the 13th century beneath the Victorian railway arches by London Bridge in London. Entry is free.
Museum in London
Victoria and Albert Museum
Also known as V&A
Partly free, partly paidSome of it costs nothing, some of it charges.
The Victoria and Albert Museum, known to everyone as the V&A, is the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design. The permanent collection is free, and that single fact turns it into one of London’s best budget days out. Across roughly 5,000 years of objects, the galleries run from ceramics and glass to fashion, jewellery, photography, and the world’s largest collection of post-classical sculpture. The Raphael Cartoons, the Asian galleries with their samurai armour, and the enormous Great Bed of Ware are the kind of pieces most cities would build an entire museum around.
Budget travelers can spend an entire day inside and still not see everything, so a plan helps: pick two or three departments rather than trying to walk every gallery. Only the temporary special exhibitions are ticketed, so it is easy to keep the visit free by sticking to the permanent collection. The John Madejski Garden, the open courtyard at the centre of the building, is a free place to sit, rest tired feet, and eat a packed lunch in summer.
Location makes the V&A even better value. It sits on Cromwell Road in South Kensington, a two to three minute walk from both the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum, so all three free museums fit into a single day on one Tube stop. For travelers building a no-cost London itinerary around free national collections, the V&A belongs in the same circuit as the British Museum, the National Gallery, and Tate Modern, all of which are also free to enter in London.
Practical
Before you go
- Address
- Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL London
- Good to know
- Official site
- vam.ac.uk
Nearby
More in London
Other places worth the walk, and what each one costs.
Brick Lane
Brick Lane is the heart of London's Bangladeshi community, a curry-house spine through Shoreditch and Spitalfields that doubles as the city's loudest open-air street-art gallery. Free to walk, and one of the best-value corners of East London for a budget traveler.
British Museum
The British Museum in Bloomsbury is one of the greatest museums in the world, and entry to the permanent collection is completely free. The Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon (Elgin) Marbles, the Egyptian mummies, and the Enlightenment Gallery are all here.
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace is the official London residence of the British monarch and one of the city's signature free sights. Nobody pays to stand at the gates, photograph the famous balcony, or watch the Changing of the Guard, which makes it a reliable anchor for a no-cost day in central London.
Camden Market
Camden Market is a sprawling complex of connected markets, stalls, and food vendors around Camden Lock in Camden Town, north London. Free to enter, and one of the city's most visited attractions. For a budget traveler it is a full afternoon that costs nothing until the moment a street-food box is bought.
Columbia Road Flower Market
Columbia Road Flower Market is a Sunday-only street market in Shoreditch, East London, where vendors pack a narrow Victorian street with flowers, plants, bulbs, and garden supplies. Free to walk and browse, and one of the cheaper ways to spend a Sunday morning in the East End, especially when paired with Brick Lane a short walk south.
Working out what London costs?
The whole of London