← Triplan

🎡 London Essentials

London · 3 days · 17 stops · 15% local · ~12.6 km walked (~16,800 steps) · dense pace

Westminster to the Tower by riverbank and market hall — the big-ticket London walk, organized so you cross the river at the right moments.

♿ Terrain: easy. Flat; step-free Tube access varies — buses are the reliable option.

👀 Safety: watch your pockets. Phone-snatching by bike is the real risk — keep phones away from kerb edges; pickpockets on the Tube.

London EssentialsPhoto: Wikimedia Commons ↗
1
Day 1
~3.9 km · ~5,200 steps
Open route ↗

Abbey at opening, Westminster Bridge for the Parliament shot, then the whole day is one riverside walk east — Eye, South Bank, Tate's Turbine Hall, and Borough Market before the stalls wind down (~17h).

Westminster & South Bank

~5h

Parliament to the riverside walk

  • Westminster Abbey

    A thousand years of coronations and poets' graves — book ahead.

  • Houses of Parliament & Big Ben

    The gothic riverfront icon — best photographed from Westminster Bridge at dawn.

  • London Eye

    Thirty slow minutes over the Thames — or just admire it from the bank.

  • South Bank

    The riverside walk — skate park, bookstalls under the bridge, street food.

Bankside & Borough

~4h

Art, theatre and market arches

  • Tate Modern

    Modern art in a power station — the Turbine Hall commission is always free.

  • Shakespeare's Globe

    The rebuilt wooden O — £5 standing tickets like it's 1599.

  • Borough Market

    A thousand years of market under the railway arches — go hungry, weekdays are calmer.

2
Day 2
~2.6 km · ~3,400 steps
Open route ↗

National Gallery morning (free — pick a wing), Covent Garden's street performers over lunch, Soho's record shops, then the British Museum's late-afternoon lull. Theatre ticket for the evening if you plan ahead.

Soho & Covent Garden

~7h

The West End on foot

  • National Gallery

    Van Eyck to Van Gogh over Trafalgar Square — free, always.

  • Covent Garden

    Piazza performers and the old market halls — opera spills out on summer nights.

  • Soho

    Louche old heart of the West End — records, bars, late-night espresso.

  • British Museum

    The world's attic under the Great Court roof — free, pick two galleries and stop.

3
Day 3
~6.1 km · ~8,200 steps
Open route ↗

St Paul's early, Sky Garden slot booked a week out (it's free), Tower of London with a Yeoman tour, cross Tower Bridge — then walk north into Shoreditch for street art and a 3am-institution Brick Lane bagel, whatever the hour.

City & Tower

~6h

Wren's dome to the Crown Jewels

  • St Paul's Cathedral

    Wren's dome — climb to the Golden Gallery for the river panorama.

  • Sky Garden

    Free garden viewpoint atop the Walkie-Talkie — book the slot a week out.

  • Tower of London

    Crown jewels, ravens and a thousand years of grim history — Yeoman tours are the way in.

  • Tower Bridge

    The bridge everyone means when they say London Bridge — glass floor up top.

Shoreditch & Brick Lane

~3h

East London to finish

  • Shoreditch Street Art Laneslocal

    Rivington to Redchurch — the open-air gallery that repaints itself.

  • Brick Lanelocal

    Bagels at 3am, curry houses, vintage floors and fresh paint every week.