Having spent several days this week trying to survive London’s great heatwave with my feet elevated and a wet flannel balanced on my forehead, I decided enough was enough. Today was the day to brave the elements and answer an important question.
Can you still enjoy an afternoon in London in 2026 for just £5?
Not a miserable afternoon counting out your small change, but a swish experience with nice surroundings, a small indulgence like a drink or a snack and some memorable discoveries.
It’s been a few years since I did my last great £5 on-a-day experiments, and I can tell you it was more difficult than I expected.
I started my career in sauntering about town on a budget back in 2015. Find out more about the great London on £5-a-day experiment.
My Original Plan Went Spectacularly Wrong
My first idea was to rely on a Too Good To Go Magic Bag.
If you haven’t discovered Too Good To Go yet, cafés, restaurants and museums sell their unsold food at the end of the day for a fraction of the normal price (typically £3 – £6). A few years ago I collected one from Tate Modern and staggered around the Southbank with steaming soup, Christmas sandwiches, vegetarian wraps and fruit flapjacks. There was so much food I ended up giving some away to a bus driver and a homeless person.
But Too Good To Go has become something of a lottery. One day you win the culinary jackpot. The next you’ve got a collection of limp sandwiches and sad salads.
After browsing the app, I decided to take a punt on the Natural History Museum because its catering company participates in the scheme.
Well…I won’t be rushing back. There was plenty of food – a vegetarian salad, two wraps, two children’s cheese sandwiches and a melted, stripy, iced bumble-bee doughnut. I didn’t fancy it, and my Harley Street dietician would be going ballistic, so I gave the whole lot to a hungry group of students. They were delighted, and I was equally delighted to be rid of it.
Oddly enough, though, the experience taught me something important. Luxury on Less isn’t about buying the cheapest version of everything. It’s about spending a tiny amount of money in just the right place while surrounding yourself in divine architecture.
So let me show you how my day panned out.
Want more? Here is another great list of free or almost free activities in London.
Stop One: A £4.90 Miami Vice Matcha at Blank Street Coffee
Budget spent: £4.90
Coffee in London now seems to cost somewhere between £4 and £5. Want oat milk? That’ll cost extra. Decaf?Another surcharge. Before long you’ve spent your entire afternoon budget on a dull cappuccino.
As I hadn’t brought a water bottle for the tube journey, I wandered into Blank Street Coffee near South Kensington Underground Station. I believe Blank Street Coffee has a cult following with its matcha and espresso offerings and cool, understated eau-de-nil interiors.
I studied the menu carefully and decided on something with vanilla, caramel and espresso, but when they came to take my order, my brain malfunctioned, and I asked for the
“The Miami Vice Matcha.”
Madness. I don’t even like matcha!
Bizarrely, this was the drink of the gods. Imagine a Strawberry Daiquiri meeting a Piña Colada, then inviting an earthy green matcha to the party. It was Pop Art in a cup. Strawberry reds, creamy coconut whites, pineapple sweetness and deep green swirls poured over ice in the large-sized cup.
At £4.90 it was the entire day’s budget and absolutely worth it. I drank it on one of their pavement benches. Make sure you ask for it as a take-out, or you’ll be over your £5 budget.
Stop Two: Discover One of South Kensington’s Best Picnic Spots
From Blank Street, it is a three-minute walk to the Natural History Museum.
I wasn’t pleased to discover that the Natural History Museum has moved its main entrance to Exhibition Road. This was an unnecessary detour in unseasonally hot weather. However, my irritation disappeared the moment I discovered the museum gardens.
Ferns, reeds and rocky pathways surround enormous prehistoric creatures, creating one of central London’s most peaceful green spaces. This isn’t somewhere to arrive carrying a tartan rug and a Fortnum & Mason hamper. But if you bring a discreet packed lunch and a bottle of water, you’ve got one of London’s loveliest free picnic spots with plenty of bench seating. This is the cornerstone of your £5 budget day out as the hardest part is always finding somewhere to eat.
My advice?
Visit during spring or early autumn if you can. Remember that dinosaurs occupy much the same position in childhood as Taylor Swift occupies for adolescents. You don’t want to be trampled over by school kids or doting parents with out-of-control buggies.
Stop Three: Choose One Gallery Instead of Trying to See Everything
I’m never going to be one of those museum visitors who thinks it is fun to visit every gallery and read every exhibit label. I live in London, and I can always come back to a museum to make another discovery.
Today I stayed near the entrance which opens out onto the iconic Hintze Hall. If you have ever seen any interior shots of the Natural History Museum, this is what you will have seen.
Towering skeletons stretch above your head, framed by the magnificent Victorian architecture.
Here you will find:
- Seaweed that looked more like a glass painting than marine life.
- Huge displays of slightly terrifying insects.
- Extraordinary rock formations explaining the geology of our planet.
- Beautiful creamy-white coral.
- Skeletons that seem almost tiny beneath the museum’s vast ceilings.
The Mammals Gallery also contains a machine that compares your weight with other (large) creatures…I didn’t need to discover that I weighed the same as an Arctic camel! Ignorance is bliss.
Stop Four: One of London’s Best Sightseeing Tours Costs Nothing
A day out needs more than a drink and a museum, and it was too hot to walk. So I was delighted to find that the number 14 bus stops nearby (outside the Victoria & Albert Museum). You can sit back and enjoy the ride. Along the way you’ll pass some of London’s greatest landmarks. You can use it as a Hop-on Hop-off bus and just return to the same bus stop to continue your journey. And this will be part of your capped daily Oyster spend, so for most people, it will cost them nothing extra.
The 38 bus route is another great sightseeing option, which we explain in the £2 London Red Bus Tour That Nobody Tells You About.
Harrods
Step inside Harrods to admire the spectacular Food Halls or wander through the lingerie department with its utterly impractical but endlessly entertaining undergarments.
Window shopping is free.
Hyde Park Corner
If the weather is good, you can take a gentle stroll through Hyde Park and feed the ducks your picnic remnants on the Serpentine.
Fortnum & Mason
Stop off at the Queen’s grocer, Fortnum & Mason on Piccadilly. Make sure you check out the improbable jam concoctions. Anyone for Lychee and Rose Petal Preserve? Or perhaps Banana jam is more your thing? There’s a newly opened Biscuitorium at the rear of the store, and you may be able to snaffle some free samples.
And yes…
They have some of London’s nicest loos.
Fortnum’s is a treasure trove of gourmet treats. Here is what I would put in my personal hamper.
Royal Academy of Arts
Pop in to the Royal Academy opposite to explore the free permanent art collections before admiring the beautiful Burlington House courtyard.
The Royal Academy of Arts is most famous for its Summer Exhibition, and here we give you some tips to make the most of this landmark exhibition.
Waterstones Piccadilly
Britain’s largest bookshop never disappoints. Waterstones has eight miles of books spread across eight floors. You can find a reading nook and take the weight off your feet.
Eros at Piccadilly Circus
I am no fan of the Eros statue on Piccadilly. Hasn’t it been featured in various computer games? So it is surrounded by gormless youths and street entertainers. However, a visit to London won’t be complete without a photograph.
Foyles
The 14 bus stops at Foyles book shop, and this is another paradise for book lovers. I often browse several titles before taking them upstairs to the 5th floor café. You can leave the books on the shelf provided for return to their respective departments if you don’t buy them.
The staff are chill here. Nobody has ever hurried me along.
Outernet
Now this, I admit, is my personal idea of hell. Enormous digital screens flashing advertisements, music videos and immersive art installations surround you.
It’s loud.
It’s bright.
It’s slightly overwhelming.
Yet you could do a two-minute walk through the Outernet as you walk to Tottenham Court Road station.
Or Swap the Matcha for One of London’s Best Buns
Perhaps tropical matcha isn’t your thing. In that case, spend your £5 somewhere else.
Buns From Home, close to Outernet, produces gloriously flaky pastries that cost between £3.90 and £5. My favourite is the banana and walnut bun. Yesterday they were selling a special topped with watermelon icing and an outrageously lurid, chewy sweet.
Buy your bun, pick up Pret’s £1 filter coffee and you’ve still stayed within budget. Then find a quiet corner, sit down and simply enjoy watching London rush past.
So…Can You Really Enjoy London for £5?
Surprisingly, yes.
By spending your money where it creates a sense of occasion, e.g. one extra special drink or a bun. Then lap up London’s free stuff…
- A beautiful hidden garden with dinosaurs
- A world-class museum
- A bus ride past some of London’s greatest landmarks
Sometimes all it takes is £5 and a bit of self-restraint.
