Free Things to Do in Westminster (2026)

There are more free things to do in Westminster than paid ones, and most visitors never find out. The Guard change, a ceremonial avenue, three green spaces, two historic churches, a national gallery and a national art collection all cost nothing, and none of them are secret. This guide covers fourteen of them, grouped by what you actually feel like doing: watching a ceremony, sitting in green space, or stepping into something built to be looked at. Every entry has an exact standing position or entry route, not just a name on a map.

Start with the free things to do in Westminster that draw a crowd for a reason: the ceremonies and the landmarks you can see without paying a penny.

1. The Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace

The Guard change happens outside Buckingham Palace on select days, and it is free to watch from the forecourt railings or the Victoria Memorial steps. Turn up on your own and you have two options: arrive at least 45 minutes early and hope for a gap in the railings, or accept that you will spend the whole ceremony squeezed against a crowd of phone screens with a partial view at best. Neither is a great way to spend a free morning in Westminster.

The alternative is knowing exactly where to be and when. The Changing of the Guard Guide lays out all five ceremony locations with timings down to the minute, so instead of standing in one spot hoping something happens, you move with the guards as the ceremony unfolds, ending at the two viewing spots almost no visitor ever finds. You watch the whole thing rather than waiting for a few seconds of it.

2. Horse Guards Parade

If the Buckingham Palace crowds put you off, Horse Guards Parade runs a smaller version of the same ceremony daily, with mounted troopers on duty from 10am to 4pm and a formal Guard change at 11am (10am on Sundays). You can stand three feet from the horses without a queue forming an hour early, because most visitors do not know this happens. It is the better choice if you want the photograph without the crowd management, or if you are short on time and cannot commit a whole morning to the Palace version.

3. The Mall

Running dead straight from Admiralty Arch to the Victoria Memorial, The Mall is the red-surfaced ceremonial avenue every state procession uses, and it costs nothing to walk it yourself. The reddish tarmac was laid to evoke a rolled-out carpet, and the road closes to traffic on Sundays and public holidays, which is the best time to walk its full half-mile without dodging buses. St James's Park runs along one side the whole way, so it doubles as the pleasantest route between Trafalgar Square and the Palace.

4. Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

The Palace of Westminster and its clock tower need no ticket if you are viewing from outside, and the best free vantage point is Westminster Bridge, where the full facade lines up against the river. Houses of Parliament is at its best photographed just after sunset, when the interior lights come on behind the Gothic stonework and the clock face glows against a dark sky. Paid tours inside run only on non-sitting days and cost from around £30, so unless you specifically want to see the chamber, the free exterior view is genuinely the better use of your time. For the building's full story, our Houses of Parliament guide covers the history behind the facade.

5. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom

Almost nobody stops at The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, directly opposite Parliament, which is exactly why it is worth five minutes. The building itself, the former Middlesex Guildhall, dates to 1913, and you can walk into the basement exhibition free of charge on weekdays, 9.30am to 4.30pm. If a case is sitting, you can watch it from the public gallery at no cost at all, which is not something you can say about the building across the square.

6. Westminster Bridge Views

The single best free photograph in Westminster is not from a landmark at all. Westminster Bridge gives you Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament dead ahead from its south side, and most visitors stop halfway across and never go further. Keep walking to the underpass beneath the bridge on the South Bank side; it frames the same view through the archway with the crowd thinned out, and it is the shot locals actually recommend over the bridge itself.

These four sit close enough together to walk between in an afternoon, and our self-guided Westminster route strings them together with the rest of Whitehall in between, if you would rather follow a set path than plan your own.

7. St James's Park

St James's Park is the most photographed royal park in London, and for good reason: the lake bridge gives you a straight sightline to Buckingham Palace on one side and the Shard skyline on the other. Pelicans have lived here since 1664, when the Russian ambassador gifted the first pair to Charles II, and they are usually fed by park staff near Duck Island around 2.30pm. The deckchairs cost a small hire fee, but the grass, the paths and the wildlife do not.

8. Parliament Square Garden

Open around the clock and free to enter, Parliament Square Garden holds twelve statues of statesmen, including Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, arranged around a formal lawn opposite the Houses of Parliament. Most visitors treat it as a photo backdrop and walk straight through without reading a single plinth, which is a shame, since the statues are a genuine open-air history lesson. Early morning is quietest, before the tour groups and any scheduled demonstrations arrive.

9. Victoria Tower Gardens

Tucked beside Parliament and largely skipped by the crowds heading to Westminster Abbey, Victoria Tower Gardens runs along the river with a clear view across to the London Eye. Rodin's cast of The Burghers of Calais stands here, one of only twelve authorised casts worldwide, and the Buxton Memorial Fountain nearby commemorates the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Ten minutes here after Parliament gives you a river view without the Westminster Bridge crowds. It is exactly the kind of spot we cover in our Hidden Gems near Westminster guide, for readers who want more of this and less of the postcard shots.

10. Westminster Abbey (free evensong entry)

Full daytime entry to Westminster Abbey is ticketed, but choral evensong is free and open to the public most weekdays at 5pm, with Sundays typically at 3pm. You sit in the quire, feet from where coronations have taken place since 1066, and hear the same choral tradition that has run here for centuries. Arrive 20 minutes early; seating is first-come and the service does fill, particularly when a visiting choir is singing. Check the Abbey's published worship schedule before you go, since evensong is occasionally moved or cancelled around state events.

11. Church of St Margaret

Standing in the Abbey's own grounds and overlooked by almost everyone queuing next door, Church of St Margaret has been the parish church of the House of Commons since 1614, and entry is free every day it is open, Monday to Saturday, 11am to 3.30pm. The east window, made of Flemish glass from 1509, was commissioned to mark the betrothal of Catherine of Aragon to Henry VIII, and Winston Churchill was married here. It takes ten minutes to see properly and most Westminster Abbey visitors never learn it exists.

12. Westminster Cathedral

A five-minute walk from the Abbey and often confused with it, Westminster Cathedral is Catholic rather than Anglican, and its nave is free to enter every day. The Byzantine-style brickwork inside is unfinished by design in places, left bare so future generations can complete the mosaics, and the building feels nothing like the Gothic abbey down the road. The only paid element is the lift to the campanile viewing gallery; walking in and sitting in the nave costs nothing.

13. Tate Britain

Twenty minutes on foot from the Abbey along the river, Tate Britain holds the world's largest collection of J.M.W. Turner's work, and entry to the permanent galleries is free every day, no booking required. The Millbank entrance is closed for building work until 2027, so use the Manton Entrance on Atterbury Street instead, as confirmed on Tate's own visitor page. Weekday mornings, Tuesday to Thursday, are consistently the quietest time to see the Turner rooms without a crowd forming around each canvas.

14. The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square

The permanent collection at The National Gallery has been free to enter since the gallery opened in 1824, and it still holds to that policy for every visitor, every day. Van Gogh's Sunflowers, Turner's The Fighting Temeraire and Holbein's The Ambassadors all hang here without a ticket required. According to the gallery's own visitor information, only special ticketed exhibitions carry a charge. Give yourself at least 90 minutes if you want to see the rooms that matter rather than skim the whole building.

Insider Tips

For evensong at the Abbey, sit on the north side of the quire if you are offered a choice. The acoustics carry the choir more directly, and it is usually the side with a few empty seats even when the south side has filled.

The photography underpass beneath Westminster Bridge is easy to miss from street level. Look for the stairs down on the South Bank side, near St Thomas' Hospital, rather than staying up on the bridge deck with everyone else.

Final London Insiders Tip

Fourteen ways to spend a day here without spending a penny, and every one of them rewards the same thing: knowing exactly where to stand and when to turn up. That is the whole job of a good local guide, and it is the reason the walking tour exists in the first place. Our Westminster Free Walking Tour takes you from St Martin-in-the-Fields to Buckingham Palace, weaving in several of the stops above along the way, with your guide timing the route so you land at the Palace gates as the Guard change is about to start. It is genuinely free; you tip your guide at the end, whatever the walk was worth to you. If your Westminster day includes the ceremony itself, our Changing of the Guard Self-Guided Experience is worth a look too, built around the exact viewing spots and timings this guide only has room to summarise.