Child free unusual London ideas

[mamaduckbone]

I'm meeting a friend in London next week - we both have 2 teenage boys and go to London with them regularly but visits usually revolve around burgers and trainer shops so I'm looking for quirky, interesting things to do child free!

We're staying in Southwark so we'll spend some time pottering on the south bank / borough market. I wanted to get Skygarden tickets but that's not looking likely. We both know London well and don't need to do big sights, but looking for any little hidden gems.

You can get walk up Horizon 22 tickets, I've done it a few times now.

Don't know your interests or how hidden you would consider these, but they're not on the standard list and they're close to Southwark: the Sir John Soane's Museum in Holborn, the White Cube Bermondsey, and the Fashion and Textile Museum.

www.walklondon.com

Why don’t you do one of these walks which takes you around more popular and less known sites?

Barbie exhibition?

If you're looking for small and quirky (whether a museum, gallery or an event), lots of things on the ianvisits website. https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/

https://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/

https://oldoperatingtheatre.com/

https://www.thegardenat120.com/#content/page/roof_garden

https://leadenhallmarket.co.uk/

Any of these?

Chelsea Physic Garden

Regents Park for the rose garden and St John’s Lodge garden.

Leighton House and Samborne House in Holland Park.

The gloriously bonkers cast courts at the V&A.

Handel / Hendrix house in Brook Street, Mayfair.

City churches (google Friends of the City Churches for a list via their church finder link). There are some gems there.

Lunchtime violin recital at St Brides in Fleet Street next Tuesday.

Museum of the Order of St John, Clerkenwell / Farringdon.

You can book tours of the conservation of the north wing of St Bart’s hospital historic buildings.

If you find yourselves near the Barbican, Postman’s Park is worth a look.

Dr Johnson’s house in Gough Square near Fleet Street.

Dickens’ house in Doughty Street near Russell Square.

Walking through the Inns of Court: Gray’s Inn, Lincoln’s Inn (if you can get on a tour to go in the library, it is gorgeous), Middle Temple and Inner Temple. Temple Church is in Inner Temple, but check opening times.

Great views from the Monument (only 311 steps to the top!) and the IFS Cloud cable car (terrifying) across the Thames between Royal Victoria DLR and Greenwich.

Pie and mash in Greenwich.

Thames Clipper boats up the river.

If you have time, Eastbury Manor (National Trust) in Barking is a Tudor domestic manor plonked in the middle of suburbia.

Have a fabulous time.

Wow - so many ideas - thank you! There are a few that I've done but loads that I haven't. Off to do some research now...

Swimming in the bathing ponds on Hampstead Heath?

You've had loads of great suggestions so I'll offer an alternative. I lived in London and one of my favourite things to do was step off the main routes in the City or West End. Go one or two blocks back and its a different world. Just wander. Amazing historic buildings and squares. And look up. Above the more modern shop/office facades you can see so much history.

Its forecast to be 31 on Tuesday so might not be a bad idea🥵
I think we're going for the gardens at 120 Fenchurch (thanks @TheSquareMile) and a general mooch in that direction - maybe Leadenhall market as well. My friend can't walk miles and it's going to be roasting hot so plenty of drinks stops and pottering - very much looking forward to not doing the usual West End / Covent Garden / Soho schlep that we do with the teenagers. Thanks for all the ideas! Anything else in Southwark / City area that might suit?

@mamaduckbone

There's a Literary Walking Trail, if you fancy a stroll.

https://www.thecityofldn.com/article/city-of-london-literary-walking-trail/

Tour of The Royal Courts Of Justice and sit in on a case. Absolutely brilliant.

https://fashiontextilemuseum.org/exhibitionsdisplays/the-biba-story-1964-1975/

Biba Exhibition

Sir John Sloane museum in Holborn or the welcome collection in Euston are both interesting and not mainstream museums. If you like a glass of wine or for a light dinner, try Gordon's by embankment tube,

Depending what age they are I did a hidden London Underground tour last week - that was great. Loads of them and they take you to disused parts of underground stations.

Ah missed the point you will be teen free but still recommend the tour!

How about the guildhall in the city which has a gallery

If you go to the Guildhall don’t miss the amphitheatre in the basement.

Sir John Soane’s museum is fascinating, but only go there if you’re not carrying much. They’ll give you a plastic bag to put your own bag in & anything that doesn’t fit in it has to be left outside - and their cloakroom is very small.

Across the square from the Soane Museum the Royal college of surgeons museum is brilliant

And has lockers so you could do a combo

Have a saunter across the Millennium Bridge, pausing in the middle to glance up and down the river.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Bridge,_London

The Globe is on the Southwark side; they have tours, if you don't have time for an actual performance.

www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/

This is one of my favourite bits of London - Tate Modern / Shakespeare's Globe then along with ds2 to watch the skaters under the Southbank. The teens object to the Tate nowadays but loved it when they were littler and more malleable. I took Ds1 to see Macbeth at the Globe a couple of years ago when he was studying it for GCSE, but at 6'4 he was a bit crippled on the bench seats. Great experience though. I did the tour years ago when it first opened and remember it as being brilliant. Friend might enjoy that and I'd do it again - good suggestion thanks!

Not sure how I've never been to the Sit John Soane museum in all my years visiting / living in London - will definitely take a look on another trip if we don't
manage it this time.

Any great recommendations for places to eat that aren't chains or burgers? Happy with most types of food, budget is mid range.