London Sightseeing: Free Comes First
No other city on a shortlist of world capitals gives away this much, for free, permanently: the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, V&A, Tate Modern, Tate Britain and the National Portrait Gallery all skip general admission entirely. Most visitors still plan London around the paid tickets and treat the free museums as filler, which is backward.
The catch is that “free” doesn’t mean the same booking rule everywhere. The Science Museum is the one genuine exception: it requires a pre-booked free timed ticket, no walk-in option at all, so check sciencemuseum.org.uk before you show up expecting to queue your way in. The British Museum strongly pushes booking and effectively requires it at peak times, especially once the Bayeux Tapestry’s first loan outside France opens there in autumn 2026, so book ahead through britishmuseum.org if that exhibition matters to you. The other five (National Gallery, Natural History Museum, V&A, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, National Portrait Gallery) recommend a free online slot for convenience but generally still take walk-ins outside the busiest weekends and school holidays.
The paid sights layer on top of that free tier rather than replacing it. The Tower of London runs £37 adult and £18.50 child (5-15), covering the Crown Jewels and the White Tower, and tickets book through GetYourGuide for a skip-the-line slot or directly via hrp.org.uk . Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral both charge in the high £20s to low £30s, with a VAT-driven “summer savings” discount running 25 June to 1 September 2026 at both; Viator lists guided St Paul’s Cathedral tickets if you’d rather have a guide narrate the Whispering Gallery than read the audio guide script yourself.
Get the clock tower right while you’re planning: Big Ben is the bell, not the building, the tower itself is the Elizabeth Tower, and its public tours (from 1 August 2026, £55 adult, £35 for ages 11-17) release in small monthly batches through parliament.uk rather than staying open on demand. Buckingham Palace’s State Rooms follow their own separate calendar: they’re a summer-only opening, 9 July to 27 September 2026, not a year-round interior visit, and the free Changing of the Guard ceremony outside is a different thing entirely, provisionally Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 11:00 plus a Sunday Parade at 10:00, cancelled at short notice for bad weather.
Verdict: spend your first day on the free museums that require no advance planning (the National Gallery and Tate Modern among them), book the Science Museum’s timed slot and the Tower of London before you land, and treat the Elizabeth Tower tour and the Palace’s summer rooms as bonuses to chase only if the dates line up. For the paid attractions with their own guided or bundled tickets, see the attraction tours guide .