London trip July or August

[AgileEagle]

Thinking about booking a trip to London from Ireland.
Would it be quieter in July before the kids break up for the summer or would it not make much difference? I've only been in March when I thought it was busy but was probably very quiet!!

It's busy pretty much all the time on weekends then anyway, it depends what you want to do and see. Walking round Covent Garden, Soho, Seven Dials, Tower of London etc will be heaving but that's just how it is. Museums will be busy but I've never felt like they're overwhelmingly so. What are you aiming to see and how far are you travelling?

Good point about weekends. I'm looking at going Sunday to Thursday.
Not really sure what we want to do, tower of london maybe but no definite plans for anything else

I’d go before the school holidays start, or wait until September.

The Tower will be busy for sure, they have their poppy display on the so it gets much busier. Have you been to Hampton Court? People get put off as its 30 mins train from Waterloo but it's stunning that time of year in the gardens and more space to spread out than Tower. Lovely area too, the Thames is very pretty there. It would take up a full day. Shut on Monday and Tuesday not in school hols though.

It'll be quieter outside of school hols but if you're visiting touristy things it's just busy in summer anytime in London, many international travellers when they're they're their different holidays.

Avoid school holidays if you can but it will never be “quiet”.
London is always heaving!
fwiw are far more foreign tourists in London than uk tourists! August is the tail end of the summer season for many

I live in London and the tourist areas are pretty heaving even now.
Weather wise July is often much hotter than August so depends how much you like sweaty crowds.

If you’re not in school holiday time, you’ll be in peak school trip time at the museums, so it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other really.

Thanks everyone really helpful O forgot about school trips! Might leave it until Sept or October

I just came back from a day out in London, it's already heaving and very busy.

I work near St. Paul's Cathedral and the tourist season start around April, while English schools obviously add to the mayhem, it's by far not the only reason London is busy.

September is a lot nicer and beginning of October still really good.

I don’t think UK school holidays will make much of a difference. Most schools in other countries break up much earlier than ours so July will be busy. I’d definitely wait until September or early October if you wanna it to be (slightly) less busy.

Book things in advance. The summer is not a time to just rock up to places and see how it goes.
Go early or late in the day to busy places.
Plan some trips to big open spaces where crowds don't matter.
London is a lovely place to visit. I was there for a weekend last August and Monday was definitely quieter than Sunday - but still pretty busy!