Mid-range · 12-hour walk · London
London in a day: the Tower to the Eye
The Tower at opening, Tower Bridge, lunch at Borough, Tate Modern and St Paul's, Covent Garden, the National Gallery, Parliament and the London Eye at dusk.
London is too big for a day, and this route does not pretend otherwise: it follows the river west from the Tower to Westminster and keeps to what lies within a walk of the water. The Tower goes first because it fills fast, and St Paul's is the last big ticket because it closes to sightseers in the late afternoon. Everything else is a free museum or free to look at, and the Eye is for the last light.
The route, stop by stop
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Tower of London
Go straight to the Crown Jewels when the gates open, before the queue at the Jewel House builds, then join a Yeoman Warder's tour for the rest. Nine and a half centuries of fortress, palace, prison and treasury.
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Tower Bridge
Walk across it. The high walkways with the glass floor are ticketed, and only worth it if a bridge lift is scheduled while you are up there.
20 min here Walk here → -
Borough Market
Along the south bank for lunch at London's oldest food market. The hot food is round the edges; queue for whichever line is longest.
60 min here Walk here → -
Tate Modern
The old Bankside power station, free. Walk the Turbine Hall and go up to the viewing level of the Blavatnik building for the river and St Paul's across it.
45 min here Walk here → -
St Paul's Cathedral
Over the Millennium Bridge to Wren's dome. Climb the 257 steps to the Whispering Gallery, then keep going to the Golden Gallery at the top for the best view in the City.
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Covent Garden
Along Fleet Street and the Strand to the old flower-market piazza, with street performers outside St Paul's — the actors' church, a different St Paul's.
30 min here Walk here → -
National Gallery
Free and open until six. Van Gogh's Sunflowers, the Arnolfini Portrait and Turner's Fighting Temeraire are the three to find if you find nothing else.
75 min here Walk here → -
Houses of Parliament and Big Ben
Down Whitehall past the gates of Downing Street to the river. The clock tower is the Elizabeth Tower; Big Ben is the bell inside it.
15 min here Walk here → -
London Eye
Across Westminster Bridge for a half-hour turn in the last light, with Parliament directly below you as the capsule rises.
More in London
Every walking route in London, or the full London guide for where to stay and what a day costs.