Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey is the coronation church of the British monarchy, where every English and British sovereign since 1066 has been crowned, and one of London’s defining sights. It is also a burial church on an extraordinary scale: 17 monarchs lie here, and Poets’ Corner alone holds more literary history per square metre than any other room in Britain, with the graves and memorials of Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, and others. Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin are buried in the nave, a reminder that the abbey honours science as readily as poetry and kings. The building is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, paired with the Houses of Parliament next door.

Sightseeing entry is paid, and the ticket covers the nave, the royal tombs, Poets’ Corner, and the soaring Lady Chapel. For budget travelers the smart move is to skip the admission ticket. The exterior is free to admire from Parliament Square, where the abbey, Westminster and Big Ben, and the Parliament facades line up together. To see the inside without paying, attend a service: the daily sung Evensong fills the abbey with the choir in the late afternoon and carries no admission charge, the same free workaround that works at St Paul’s Cathedral across the city. Travelers who can only afford one paid church in London weigh Westminster Abbey against St Paul’s, then attend Evensong at the other for free.

Pair a free walk past the abbey with the rest of central London’s no-cost sights: St James’s Park is a short stroll north, the riverside path runs east toward the Tower of London (free to circle from the outside), the rooftop Sky Garden gives a free City panorama, and Tate Modern across the Thames is free to enter. For the full free-and-cheap picture of the area, see the London guide.