To ask for help for a cheap day out near Tower Bridge

[Tereseta]

I'm taking my OH to London for his birthday and we are staying one night by Tower Bridge. We have no idea of where things are London and are on a minimal budget. Are there any free/low cost places near there to visit. Also are there many places to eat and drink round there or will we need to travel. Sorry, very clueless and have ended up in a Google black hole.

How on earth is view from the shard £42!! Thats crazy!
The daysoutguide us a great site, the 2 for 1 offers may come in handy. My mum posted me some vouchers from the kellogs boxes but didn't include the serial numbers from inside the box, didn't have the heart to tell her so I could use these instead

Don't forget to visit Tower Bridge itself You can book in advance

It's a lovely way to pass an hour or so and its little engine room museum is interesting too.

@Tereseta

How on earth is view from the shard £42!! Thats crazy! The daysoutguide us a great site, the 2 for 1 offers may come in handy. My mum posted me some vouchers from the kellogs boxes but didn't include the serial numbers from inside the box, didn't have the heart to tell her so I could use these instead

To be fair, if I rang my mum and told her she'd forgotten the 'serial' numbers from the boxes of Kellogs, she'd have said "Oh haha!" and hung up on me

If you're on a budget make sure you take water bottles with you for walking/ travelling around because there are plenty of water fountains around now and I always find that as soon as I set foot in a shop I spend a tenner! Especially in tourist areas, if you don't know where the normal shops are. The tube is hot and stuffy until about December and museums too.

For history, Ceremony of the Keys is good and only £5

www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/whats-on/ceremony-of-the-keys/#gs.b6oph3

I used to live close to Tower Bridge but now live in Essex. My recommendation would be Bodeans to eat, it's fantastic and I really miss going there!

bodeansbbq.com

If I’m being totally honest I would say give the Shard a miss till you visit again and I’m sure you will as there is so much to see and do.

I live in London so trust me on this .👍🏻👍🏻

I like Convent Garden - that's a fun place to wonder round & lots of places to eat
We also like to take the boat/ or bus to Greenwich
I love London (except for the roads -that's on another thread!)

I agree with skip the shard. It's weirdly worth the money in the end, but not if money is tight and it means you can't do other stuff. Also getting out of there without paying more than the entry fee is an effort!

The actual tower of london is a great day out, if he likes history. And seeing the crown jewels is amazing.

I love the Tower Bridge tour. At a tenner a head it's one of the more reasonably priced tourism options, although there are lots of other free choices if you can't run to it.

Put some comfy shoes on and have a walk:

• Tower of London
• Across Tower Bridge
• HMS Belfast
• Pass London Bridge
• Southwark Cathedral
• Borough Market – get lunch
• Shakespeare’s Globe
• Tate Modern (free entry)
• Across Westminster Bridge
• Big Ben and Houses of Parliament
• Westminster Abbey
• St James’s Park
• Buckingham Palace
• St James’s Palace
• Trafalgar Square (national gallery is free)
• Covent Garden - watch street performers

There are a few comedy clubs around Leicester Square/Covent Garden which do shows for less than £20 per ticket on Saturday nights, or you can usually get fairly cheap tickets for musicals or plays if you're okay with sitting quite far back.

Don't pay £42 to go up the shard: you can just go up to one of the restaurants and have a none alcoholic cocktail for £9. Drink it slowly and enjoy the views! There are a few different restaurants; aqua shard, oblix east, oblix west, ting. Some of them do have a minimum spend, but I don't think Ting does.

If you’re going into Liverpool Street Spitalfields is fun to wander round!

I know you said your on a budget and only in London for one night but I would feel bad if I didn’t mention about going to the Theatre as it was closed for so long but now all theatres are open.
You can pop along to Shaftesbury Avenue and you will see all the theatres and if you pop into the box office they have amazing prices for tickets for shows on the night especially if you go in a hour before the show starts ,
Just a thought.

Not sure when you’re coming to London but as your husband is a history buff this is a really good thing to do in the evening www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/whats-on/ceremony-of-the-keys/#gs.b6utvw
It’s only £5 each (used to be free 😳) went a couple of years ago with teens and we still talk about it.

You can get boat to Greenwich and up to Westminster other way and see sites. Greenwich has Observatory, naval museum, cutty sark and lovely park, markets, Blackheath has great places to eat if its good weather and walk across heath.

Not sure if this will be any use as it is dependent on when you are going, but there is another rooftop garden near Sky Garden called The Garden at 120. It is free and you do not need to book. It is currently closed but will be reopening later this year.

St Dunstan in the East is a park that is around ten minutes walk from the Tower of London. It is a church that was destroyed during ww2 and the ruins have been converted into a park. It is small but is a beautiful and peaceful place to visit.

Can you cycle? If so then hop on a Santander rental bike. You can join cycle super highway number 3 just north of tower bridge and take it into the city, then along embankment, past parliament, into green park, past Buckingham palace etc.
Almost entirely separated from traffic. Very popular tourist bike route - it will be busy.

I'd also second trying to get tickets for a show - try calling in at some theatre box offices about an hour before the show starts.

If the Monument has reopened thats an interesting view. I think it was about £3.50 a person when we went.

Last time I went we had an unexpectedly fantastic time just going up and down on the clipper boat! You can get on and off at loads of places and you just flash your debit card at the contactless machine as you get on or off and it works out how much you owe. I think we went from Westminster all the way out to the O2 arena and back for about £8. They have a bar too so you can have a drink if you fancy it.

If you download GPSmyCity there are tons of good free walking tours on it.

You used to be able to get twin tickets for The Monument and Tower Bridge, which was a saving over buying them seperately. I love the effort of getting up Monument for the view.
Also you used to be able to go up the Sky Garden without booking if you got there early enough - literally as it opened, they would allow walk ups (that probably has been changed post covid?)
I would definately recommend Borough market for lunch - huge diversity of food.
If you are Greenwich way then the foot tunnel under the Thames from isle of dogs is a cool experience.
Just strolling along the South Bank in the autumn is a lovely experience, do a loop that takes in Trafalgar Square for a more touristy experience. St. Martin in the Fields have some lovely candlelit concerts which are worth checking out (not free).

Keep checking the sky garden as odd tickets come up all the time.

DH and I checked 20 mins apart last time and there was none available when I checked, but he got two tickets when he checked.

As you're on the river I would base your activities around that - so go to Borough Market (it's expensive but no more than eating in a restaurant) or pick up a coffee from Monmouth or a cake from Konditor and Cook.

Walk to Tate Modern (free) and then either go across the bridge to St Paul's or keep walking up to the South Bank and / or get the clipper.

Just take your time and potter!

An option for dinner would be flatironsteak.co.uk/restaurant/london-bridge - it's actually much nicer than the website suggests and nice and airy inside.