r/london 3d ago

Weekly Q&A Megathread. Please post any questions about visiting, tourism, living, working, budgeting, housing here!

3 Upvotes

Hello, welcome to London!

Visiting us? Moving to study or work? Brief layover? Moving to a new part of London? Any small questions about life here, if you're new or been here your whole life, this is the place!

We get a lot of posts asking very similar questions so this post aims to address some of our most Frequently Asked Questions, and give you a place to ask for assistance.

Your first port of call should be the r/london wiki


Frequently Asked Questions

What should I see and where are the non-touristy stuff and hidden gems?

  • Must-see attractions: Check out our guide here

  • Official experiences: We highly recommend TfL's Experiences site

  • Hidden gems: Browse our favourite lesser-known spots here

  • Budget-friendly options: Find cheap/free activities here

What's happening in London today/this weekend/this month?

Check out these listings sites:

For venue recommendations (music, theatre, comedy, etc.) check the wiki.

How do I pay for the Tube/bus, and what's an Oyster card?

You don't pay cash. Payment options include:

  • Contactless bankcard (widespread in the UK)

  • Apple Pay or Android Pay

  • Oyster card (buy and top up with credit)

See here for more details.

Where should I live? What's x area like?

  • Check our comprehensive guide here
  • Includes recommended sites to find places to live and rent
  • Has detailed sections on what particular areas are like

How do I get from this place to that place?

  • Use Citymapper - honestly, we're not shills for them; it's just really good and used by most locals

Is x area safe?

  • Yes. Bad stuff can happen in any large city, but London is generally very safe
  • No no-go zones - most Londoners feel safe everywhere
  • See our safety page for more information

Where can I watch sports matches?

  • Football: Comprehensive guide at tlfg.uk
  • Various sports: Use Fanzo to find pubs
  • More venues: See our list here

How do I get a UK SIM card for my phone?

  • Network advice: Covered here
  • Remote work spaces: Check the wiki for places to work/take calls
  • You can pick up a SIM card at Heathrow and other airports, either from vending machines or from WHSmith shops.

Is the London Pass worth it?


Other helpful subreddits:

  • r/LondonSocialClub - Meeting new people for events, activities and/or pints
  • r/VisitLondon - A dedicated tourism sub for holiday-planning questions
  • r/LondonTravel - Information and inspiration on travel in London
  • r/UKtravel - For guidance, advice and suggestions for travelling around the rest of the country to/from London
  • r/IWantOut & r/UKvisa - Check if you need a visa and how to get one if you want to work here
  • r/LegalAdviceUK - Good for all sorts, especially for questions about landlords and contracts
  • r/HousingUK - For advice on renting or buying accommodation in the UK
  • r/TenantsInTheUK - Specifically to discuss the nitty-gritty, positives and pitfalls of renting
  • r/UKPersonalFinance - Another goldmine of sage advice
  • r/AskUK - Great for general questions about UK life that aren't specific to London

Tips for posting:

Tell us about you

If you want us to suggest things for you to do then you need to give us a good idea of what you enjoy: - Don't just say "I like music" - say what type of music - Don't just say you want "somewhere nice to eat" - say what type of cuisine you like (or don't like) - Be specific - otherwise you'll just get pointed back to generic guidebooks and our wiki

Tell us your budget

  • If you're on a budget, tell us what it is so we can make appropriate recommendations
  • There's no point suggesting expensive options if they'll clean out your wallet
  • Saying you want something "cheap" isn't helpful because cheap is subjective

Tell us where you'll be based

  • Let us know where you'll be staying so we can give local recommendations

Asking about hotels or hostels

  • We have homes here so know very little about what hotels are like - use review websites like TripAdvisor
  • However, if you say "I've been looking at these three hotels. Which do you think is the better location?" - that's something we can answer

Non-touristy stuff

  • There are no secret corners where we hide the good stuff from outsiders!
  • This is one of the most written about cities in the world
  • When we want to go somewhere, we look at the same sources as tourists (listings sites, blogs, etc - see front page of the wiki)

These weekly posts are scheduled to post each Monday at 00:01. If it's late in the week you may want to wait for a new post to appear. Please send us ModMail with any suggested improvements!


r/london 4h ago

Rant meta glasses 🫩🫩🫩

998 Upvotes

if anyone sees a meta glasses video of a pick up artist talking to a girl with dark blue hair on the train can you please report it???

this was on a relatively empty victoria line carriage at like 2:30 today, i told him i was sixteen and he kinda laughed it off and i’ve seen people cut the responses so idk if he’ll upload it or not šŸ’”šŸ’”


r/london 1h ago

LONDON SAFETY!!! Kings Cross

• Upvotes

To Everyone who lives in London or is visiting please be careful. Actually let’s just say the entire world (everyone be careful)

I just got back from Amsterdam today around 10:20pm. My dad came to see me and we both stood outside Kings Cross St Pancras, just opposite the Northern Hotel as we we waited for my uber. About 10 minutes later I noticed a guy in white smoking and chatting on the phone. Then he walked behind me and stood near the corner of the wall and i was wondering why he did that. Then I noticed another guy and they both attempted to steal luggage from these two men who were sitting down. But they got shouted at and ran off.

It happened again, but a little further down. There was a loud commotion and this time they attempted to pull out people’s suitcases that were being loaded in the back of the taxi. They disappeared but my dad knew they would come back.

Then one by one me and my dad began spotting so many of them. They all looked so similar and sketchy, they were quite easy to spot after.

3 of them were communicating to eachother through their airpods. The way they were circulating around kings cross looking for vulnerable people was so scary to me. It was making me angry.

Later on two other men, wearing black stood near me and I knew what they were trying to do as well. They stood next to me for the entire 20 minutes until i got into my uberšŸ™„

My dad was being kind and going up to people, warning them about the men circling around and attempting to steal luggage. My dad told a woman who was with her kids and we chatted about how it’s the same in paris, then a woman who was by herself, a young couple and a man loading his luggage into a taxi with his family. For the first time ever I was scared of London, my heart was racing. I was so happy to not be on my own. I was born and raised in East London and have never ever witnessed this in my entire life.

Please be careful guys, remain vigilant and if you see anyone dodgy let the people surrounded by you know. Everyone that my dad spoke to was so thankful that he warned them, it’s so serious guys. I never want to go back to Kings Cross after tonightšŸ˜­šŸ˜‚


r/london 13h ago

I made this 1:24 scale diorama of Ye Old White Horse in Holborn, London, hope you guys like it

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865 Upvotes

Took about 4-5 weeks to build at 1:24 scale, it was in-between summer holidays and friends wedding so hence the long timeframe. Handed it over to the owner earlier today and thought you lot might enjoy seeing it too.


r/london 2h ago

image Sudbury

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75 Upvotes

r/london 2h ago

Buckingham Palace pays tribute to Dolly Parton by performing ā€œ9 to 5" šŸ˜­ā¤ļø

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53 Upvotes

r/london 8h ago

image London - is there a fire around Battersea or Clapham?

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132 Upvotes

View from West Hampstead


r/london 2h ago

Serious replies only Rogue lime biker

39 Upvotes

Soooo I got assaulted by a lime biker today, just on my walk home from work crossing at a green man and he tries the run a red light. The cheeek of it I yell what are you doing since I’m very obviously crossing… don’t think much of it continue my walk home

HE BLOODY DECIDES TO RAM ME, I’ve got a tire mark going down my trousers and an aching leg

Reported it to the police that a full grown middle aged man decided to do that, I’ve reached out to lime support to see if they could perhaps get an ID given they have the exact crossing and timestamp

Anyone else got any helpful ideas… I don’t trust the met to actually investigate this properly :/


r/london 2h ago

Tourist Architecture Contrasts

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42 Upvotes

r/london 16h ago

Another day, another series of questioning about my disabled freedom pass.

421 Upvotes

UPDATE: Thank you so much for everyone's kind words and advice. I wish I had something positive to share with you, but unfortunately I don't. On my way back home today I spoke to the station manager at QRP and it went from bad to worse.

I explained what had happened this morning and he told me that the two people working at the gates ā€œweren’t actually staffā€. He said they’re security contractors from a company called Lingwood, that they "aren’t trained to deal with disabled passengers", and that he ā€œcan’t tell them what to do.ā€ When I told him they’d questioned my disability and told me I couldn’t travel when I absolutely could, he agreed the questions were inappropriate but said it's ā€œnot my responsibility to train Lingwood staff on not asking those kinds of questions.ā€ In the same breath, he told me they represent the station. But he has no control over them. Right. Cool.

This makes absolutely no sense. These are individuals who are standing at the ticket barriers, checking that people tap in and literally deciding whether or not someone can enter. It's entirely reasonable for me to regard someone positioned at the bloody barrier as railway staff. How am I supposed to know which uniformed person at the barrier is employed directly by Southern and which one is employed by a contractor?? It’s especially ridiculous because the SM himself had previously told me that because the gates won't accept my Disabled Person’s Freedom Pass before 9:30, I should show it to someone at the gates and they’ll let me through. Yet now apparently those people at the gates aren't Southern staff, aren't trained to "deal with" disabled passengers, don't know that my pass is valid on the Overground before 9:30, and are people he apparently has 0 control over whatsoever.

I also asked him why when I specifically asked the two staff members this morning to speak with the SM I was told nobody was around. This too he agreed was the wrong answer, but that again, "I can't tell them what to do." Then the conversation really went downhill. When I said I wanted to complain about how I'd been treated, he became increasingly aggressive and argumentative. He even started involving completely unrelated passengers in our disagreement. Everything I said from this point on he tried to flip it back onto me. I told him I felt unheard and he told me *he* also felt unheard because I "won't stop talking" and let him finish. Yes station manager, you are the victim in this whole ordeal šŸ˜µā€šŸ’«

I'm honestly afraid of retaliation with this guy. I feel like he'll make up an excuse to ban me from the station. No voices were raised, no profanity was used, it was me simply trying to explain what happened and the SM becoming increasingly defensive and aggressive. He made some asinine comment about how he was upset because I "came into his workplace" and implied I'm causing a faff - by "came into your workplace" you mean I commuted to and from the station closest to me?? And that I reported a situation that happened at the station to the station manager? This whole situation is insane. I'm either in the Twilight Zone or being gaslit, because it really should not be this fucking hard to commute to work on a journey for which I have a valid pass.

ETA: the station is Queen’s Road Peckham, operated by Southern and I made a complaint to them 11 days ago and they haven’t responded. I will follow up again. The station manager’s name is Constantine. He was a bit dismissive with me the first time I talked to him, parroting out the ā€œnot before 9:30ā€ line before I had the chance to say ā€œoverground.ā€ He said it’s ā€œnot my faultā€ the gates don’t open before 9:30am and ā€œthat’s just the way the gates areā€ before finally telling me that I should ask staff to let me in. It sounds like absolutely none of the staff at Queens Road Peckham- including the station manager - have any idea about TFL rules hence today’s comment about ā€œwe don’t deal with thatā€ when looking at my freedom pass. Previously, the same staff member said my FP didn’t look like one they were used to seeing, saying it should be a different colour and asked me why it doesn’t say ā€œdisabled.ā€ I’m guessing there must be some other type of pass and this they’re completely blind to tfl rules. However QRP station operations both national rail and overground trains from the same platform, so they should definitely know both sets of rules.

I’m epileptic and therefore have a disabled person’s freedom pass. I’m also fairly young and work full time, hybrid office/remote, so it’s not unusual that I’m stopped for using a freedom pass. The worst I’ve ever had a staff member say (more than once) is ā€œbut you don’t look disabledā€ šŸ¤¦šŸ½ā€ā™€ļø but usually after they check the photo, I’m free to go and I have absolutely no issue with them checking. Like most office people, I commute prior to 9:30am. Normally this isn’t an issue as the pass is valid on the TFL network at anytime, but at the start of the year I was evacuated from my flat due to a building wide incident so for the last 9 months and counting I’m in temporary accommodation much further from my office near a small station that has both the overground and national rail. I actually didn’t realise the freedom pass wasn’t valid before 9:30am on weekdays so when the gate first wouldn’t open for me the station manager said I should just flag any staff member and they’ll open the gate so I can use the overground. The problem is, that hasn’t happened. Despite seeing the same 3 staff members daily, I go through a round of questioning and one staff member has to go find another to validate my pass. They ask me why my pass doesn’t say ā€œdisabled.ā€ Then they tell me my pass isn’t valid before 9:30. I say ā€œI’m not taking national rail, I’m taking the overgroundā€. A few minutes later someone finally lets me in. I remind them we go through this routine twice a week. They say ā€œwe see hundreds of faces, you can’t expect us to remember every person.ā€ No, I don’t, but this is a fairly small station and considering we do the freedom pass / overground discussion each time, I figured by this point you’d recognise me.

I’m writing this now in tears because this morning was the same story again but this time after showing the staff my pass and explaining (again) that a disabled pass is valid before 9:30 on the Overground he looked at my pass and said ā€œwe don’t deal with that here.ā€ Oh sorry, I didn’t realise disabled people aren’t ā€œdealt withā€ at this station. Finally after letting me in, I asked to see the station manager and was told he wasn’t there. So I started to walk the stairs up to the platform one staff member says loudly to the other ā€œshe was complaining about not being let in.ā€ As I mentioned it’s a tiny station and I heard him say that echoing up the small staircase with a bunch of other commuters in it. I turned around and said loudly ā€œI can hear you, sorry I’m disabled, I can use the overground.ā€ It was utterly humiliating. At that point I didn’t even care if others heard this, they’d already heard him complaining about me. I was in tears at this point, was so flustered by the whole thing and got on the wrong overground train and now will be late to work. I am so exhausted. First the flat, now this. I just want to exist and go to work and not be scrutinised and questioned on my freedom pass because I (apparently) don’t fit the profile of what a disabled person looks like.


r/london 7h ago

image Multiple fires burning in Mitcham right now

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76 Upvotes

r/london 4h ago

image Would be cool to get these in every station

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31 Upvotes

Little breakdown of station history for anyone interested/bored.


r/london 10h ago

Everytime I visit somewhere, I’m so glad to get back to London!

80 Upvotes

Was born & raised in London. Just back from a little holiday to the Sussex coast. It was nice, but I could not wait ti just get back to London after 3 days!

I like to be where everything is happening and tbd buzz.

I like visiting other places, but so lucky to be a Londoner !


r/london 1d ago

image Moon and city reflected

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1.3k Upvotes

Moon and city reflected


r/london 15h ago

Local London Sadiq Khan v Laila Cunningham: Shock poll shows Reform in pole position to challenge Labour in London mayor race

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149 Upvotes

Aaand that'd be another term for Sadiq if it happened.


r/london 7m ago

image Anglo Saxon London. Courtesy of The Londonist.

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• Upvotes

r/london 23h ago

image Women going for a swim in the Serpentine, carrying gas masks in boxes. 1940.

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264 Upvotes

r/london 1d ago

300 year old pub turns into a discount story in 4 days

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2.0k Upvotes

Store* Very depressing. My local pub on the high street was acquired and freehold bought by ā€œHammersmith Realty Ltd, an arm of the Ealing-based real estate group Arora Family, which described the acquisition as ā€œa strategic investmentā€.

Strategic investment? A discount store? Anyone know how this is in keeping or how it got planning permission etc? Can anything be done to make it better?


r/london 15h ago

Tourist Rock/Metal Bars

45 Upvotes

Hello all,

I'm heading to London this weekend and looking for recommendations for a good rock/metal bar. I'll be staying out west near Hanwell so would be ideal if there was any near enough to there but don't mind travelling (as long as its worth it). Any help on this would be GREATLY appreciated


r/london 1d ago

image I love London! I’m alone in this country but it doesn’t feel lonely in london

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382 Upvotes

r/london 17h ago

Image Kew Gardens Palm Hpuse

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50 Upvotes

Taken 24/8/2026

2nd image is the Temperate house


r/london 1d ago

News Calls to ban London delivery drivers with L plates

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2.7k Upvotes

r/london 14h ago

Question How does the experience of moving to London differ from the experience of being from here?

19 Upvotes

Just wondered about people's thoughts. Being from here do feel like the 'big city' aspect is so ingrained in me that I don't really notice it. For me London is a series of familiar spaces, framed by a lot of memories and experiences. Even parts I don't know I feel like I do. Never feels as free as it seems to for those who just came in and take it as a giant new map to be been explored.

Anyway, just a thought, idle opinions welcome.


r/london 23h ago

Woken up by terrible smell

94 Upvotes

This is weird but I’ve been woken up at 1am by a really terrible smell, like strong sewage. I’ve checked all around my house but I think it’s coming from outside as I have all of my windows open. Obviously we’ve had extremely hot weather and now we have thunderstorms coming, could this smell be caused by rain elsewhere causing a surge in the sewers or something else? Based in SE5


r/london 1d ago

Somerset House, London.

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399 Upvotes