Lesser-known places in London
London's small museums and odd corners: a ruined church garden, an architect's crammed house, a wall of tiles for ordinary heroes and a surgery room in a church roof.
8 of 8 places
St Dunstan-in-the-East
- Park or garden
- Daytime
A Wren church tower and the bombed walls of its nave, now a garden with climbing plants through the window arches.
- Getting there
- St Dunstan's Hill, near Monument station.
- Best time
- Weekday mornings, before the lunch crowd.
- Cost
- Free
- Visit with respect
- Photo shoots need permission; casual photos are fine.
DirectionsAdd your hotel to get directions from it. · stays in this browser; shared with the pocket card.
Approximate position 51.5096, -0.0826 · United Kingdom
Sir John Soane's Museum
- Museum
- Daytime
An architect's house left as he arranged it in 1837: antique fragments floor to ceiling, an Egyptian sarcophagus and paintings on folding walls.
- Getting there
- Lincoln's Inn Fields; Holborn station.
- Best time
- Weekday opening; closed Mondays and Tuesdayscheck.
- Cost
- Free; booking recommendedcheck
- Visit with respect
- Bags go in the cloakroom; spaces are tight.
DirectionsAdd your hotel to get directions from it. · stays in this browser; shared with the pocket card.
Approximate position 51.5170, -0.1175 · United Kingdom
Postman's Park and the Watts Memorial
- History
- Daytime
A small City garden with a wall of glazed tablets honouring ordinary people who died saving others, each with a line about how.
- Getting there
- King Edward Street; St Paul's station.
- Best time
- Weekdays.
- Cost
- Free
- Visit with respect
- Office workers eat lunch here; share the benches.
DirectionsAdd your hotel to get directions from it. · stays in this browser; shared with the pocket card.
Approximate position 51.5170, -0.0980 · United Kingdom
Old Operating Theatre Museum
- Odd one
- Daytime
- Not for everyone
Europe's oldest surviving operating theatre, from 1822, found in the roof of a church, with a herb garret of remedies next to it.
- Getting there
- St Thomas Street; London Bridge station.
- Best time
- Afternoons; days varycheck.
- Cost
- About £8–10check
- Visit with respect
- Small rooms; let others through.
- Not for everyone
- Reached by a narrow spiral staircase of about 50 steps; surgical history in detail.
DirectionsAdd your hotel to get directions from it. · stays in this browser; shared with the pocket card.
Approximate position 51.5050, -0.0885 · United Kingdom
Leighton House
- Museum
- Daytime
A Victorian painter's house with an Arab Hall of Iznik and Damascus tiles, a fountain and a gold mosaic frieze.
- Getting there
- Holland Park Road; High Street Kensington station.
- Best time
- Weekday mornings; closed Tuesdayscheck.
- Cost
- About £12–15check
- Visit with respect
- No flash.
DirectionsAdd your hotel to get directions from it. · stays in this browser; shared with the pocket card.
Approximate position 51.4985, -0.2035 · United Kingdom
God's Own Junkyard
- Art
- Daytime
A warehouse packed with neon signs from films, shops and fairgrounds, with a café inside.
- Getting there
- Ravenswood industrial estate, Walthamstow; Walthamstow Central station.
- Best time
- Open Friday to Sunday onlycheck.
- Cost
- Free
- Visit with respect
- Photography rules are posted; commercial shoots need permission.
DirectionsAdd your hotel to get directions from it. · stays in this browser; shared with the pocket card.
Approximate position 51.5905, -0.0240 · United Kingdom
Highgate Cemetery
- History
- Daytime
A Victorian cemetery gone to woodland, with catacombs and an Egyptian avenue on the West side and Karl Marx's tomb on the East.
- Getting there
- Swain's Lane; Archway station, then a walk through Waterlow Park.
- Best time
- Daytime; the West side is by guided tourcheck.
- Cost
- About £10–25 depending on tourcheck
- Visit with respect
- Burials still take place; step aside for funerals.
DirectionsAdd your hotel to get directions from it. · stays in this browser; shared with the pocket card.
Approximate position 51.5670, -0.1470 · United Kingdom
Regent's Canal towpath, Little Venice to Camden
- Walk
- Early morning
- Daytime
About 4 km beside painted narrowboats, through a tunnel under the zoo's aviary and past villa gardens.
- Getting there
- Start at Warwick Avenue station.
- Best time
- Morning.
- Cost
- Free
- Visit with respect
- Cyclists share the path: keep left and let them pass.
DirectionsAdd your hotel to get directions from it. · stays in this browser; shared with the pocket card.
Approximate position 51.5220, -0.1830 · United Kingdom
How places get on this list
- Fewer visitors than the city's top sights: no place on the usual first-day list.
- Open to the public: a street, park, market, museum or place of worship anyone can walk into, or a tour anyone can book.
- Legal and safe to visit as described. We leave out private property, closed or fenced sites, abandoned buildings, active rail lines, rooftops and rock pools known for drownings.
- Where access is limited (Hanoi's Train Street, Berlin's Spreepark, Barcelona's bunkers), we say what the rules are and how to see it without breaking them.
- Prices, hours and access rules change: anything marked check was right when written but should be confirmed on the day.
Checked 2026-09. Coordinates are approximate; use the map links to find the entrance.