Budget · 12-hour walk · London
London in a day: free museums to Camden
The British Museum, lunch in Chinatown, the V&A and the Natural History Museum, the Albert Hall, the Serpentine, sunset on Primrose Hill and dinner in Camden.
London's greatest museums are free and have been for decades, which makes the second day here one of the cheapest good days in any European capital. The morning is the British Museum, the afternoon the two great South Kensington museums side by side, and the evening goes north to Primrose Hill for the protected view of the whole city and down into Camden for street food. The Tube does the long legs; use a contactless card and it caps the day's fares for you.
The route, stop by stop
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British Museum
Free, and two million years of human history. The Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon sculptures and the Assyrian lion hunts are the three to find; the Great Court's glass roof is the lobby.
120 min here Walk here → -
Chinatown
Lunch under the red lanterns on Gerrard Street. Roast duck over rice or a dim sum lunch is still one of the cheapest good meals in the West End.
60 min here Walk here → -
Victoria and Albert Museum
Arrive by metro from the previous stop
The world's greatest museum of design, free, from Raphael's cartoons to the fashion galleries. The café in the original Victorian refreshment rooms is the most beautiful place to sit down in London.
90 min here Walk here → -
Natural History Museum
Next door, in a cathedral of terracotta. The blue whale skeleton hangs over the central hall and the dinosaur galleries are to the left; free, and busiest on wet afternoons.
60 min here Walk here → -
Royal Albert Hall
The great round hall of 1871, home of the Proms each summer, with the gilded Albert Memorial facing it across the road in Kensington Gardens.
30 min here Walk here → -
Serpentine
Through Kensington Gardens to the lake that divides them from Hyde Park, with the Serpentine gallery's free exhibition on the way.
40 min here Walk here → -
Primrose Hill
Arrive by bus from the previous stop
North by bus to the hill whose view across London to St Paul's is protected by law. Sunset here is a neighbourhood ritual, with a bottle and a blanket.
45 min here Walk here → -
Camden Market
Down through the village to the markets along the lock for dinner from the street-food stalls, and the canal towpath if you want to walk it off.
75 min here Walk here →
More in London
Every walking route in London, or the full London guide for where to stay and what a day costs.