FairFare
London Attraction & Museum Ticket Prices
The main sights and museums in London: official ticket prices and booking sites, plus what to know before you book.
Booking tips before you go
Advance online vs on-the-day: the gap is real
The London Eye is from £29 booked ahead against £39 on the day, Buckingham Palace £33 against about £37, and Windsor Castle £32 against £36. Madame Tussauds runs £27 online against £39 on the day. Westminster Abbey, St Paul's and Tower Bridge list a single adult price on their official pages, but timed slots can still fill, so booking ahead protects your entry time.
Sources: londoneye.com, madametussauds.com, westminster-abbey.org, stpauls.co.uk, towerbridge.org.uk fetched directly 2026-09-19; Buckingham Palace and Windsor figures via Royal Collection Trust listings cross-checked (site blocked direct fetch).
Free museums: grab the free slot, and watch the paid shows
The British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, V&A and Tate Modern charge nothing for their permanent collections, and the Science Museum is free but needs a pre-booked timed ticket. A free slot is recommended rather than required at the British Museum, National Gallery and Natural History Museum. The money is in special exhibitions: the British Museum's Bayeux Tapestry display is £25–33, and the V&A's Schiaparelli show (to 8 November) was listed at about £28–30.
Sources: Science Museum, National Gallery and Natural History Museum pages fetched 2026-09-19; British Museum, V&A and Tate Modern via official-page search excerpts (British Museum blocked direct fetch); Bayeux prices per The Art Newspaper (May 2026) and Time Out (Sept 2026). V&A exhibition price is from a search excerpt, not fetched.
Do the London city passes pay off?
Go City's All-Inclusive pass starts at £99 for one day, and the Explorer starts at £64 for two attractions. By our arithmetic at 2026 advance prices, Tower of London £37 plus St Paul's £27 is exactly £64, so the cheapest Explorer saves nothing there. A one-day All-Inclusive needs roughly four paid sights in a day (Tower of London £37, London Eye from £29, St Paul's £27 and Tower Bridge £18 come to £111) to beat buying tickets directly.
Sources: gocity.com and londonpass.com pass pages fetched 2026-09-19 (only from-prices were shown; multi-day prices and promo codes change). The break-even arithmetic is ours, from the ticket prices in the cards above.
Ticket Prices by Attraction & Museum
Prices come from each attraction's official booking site where it could be read; otherwise they are cross-checked against independent 2026 sources, and each item's note says which. Re-check the official site for the current price before booking.
Tower of London
£37Historic Royal Palaces (official)
Adult, no optional donation (about £40.70 with donation); child 5–15 £18.50, under 5 free. Includes the Crown Jewels, Yeoman Warder tour and Wall Walks. Official site blocked direct fetch (403); confirmed via official-page search excerpt plus one independent 2026 guide.
Checked: 2026-09-19
Westminster Abbey
£31Westminster Abbey (official)
Adult, includes the multimedia guide; 65+ and students £28, children 6–17 £14, under 6 free. The temporary summer VAT price (£27.13, 25 June–1 September 2026) has ended, so £31 is the standard price. Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries are a separate £5 add-on.
Checked: 2026-09-19
St Paul's Cathedral
£27St Paul's Cathedral (official)
Adult without donation (£29.70 with the optional donation); seniors 65+ and students £24, children 6–17 £10.50. Covers the cathedral floor, crypt and all three dome galleries. The 25 June–1 September 2026 summer discount (£24) has ended.
Checked: 2026-09-19
London Eye
£29–39Merlin Entertainments (official)
Standard 30-minute flight: from £29 adult booked online in advance (child £26), but £39 adult if bought on the day. Fast Track from £49 online, £54 walk-up; children under 2 free. Online price varies with date and demand.
Checked: 2026-09-19
Buckingham Palace State Rooms
£33–37Royal Collection Trust (official)
Adult (25+) £33 in advance, about £37 on the day; ages 18–24 £21.50, children over 5 £16.50. Open only in summer: the 2026 season runs 9 July–27 September (Thursday–Monday in September), so check rct.uk for later dates. Royal Collection Trust blocked direct fetch (403); cross-checked across several 2026 sources.
Checked: 2026-09-19
Windsor Castle (day trip)
£32–36Royal Collection Trust (official)
Adult £32 in advance, £36 on the day; ages 18–24 £27.50 in advance, child 5–17 £16 in advance. Includes State Apartments, St George's Chapel (not Sundays), Queen Mary's Dolls' House and the audio guide. Open Thursday–Monday only, so plan the day trip around that. Royal Collection Trust blocked direct fetch (403); confirmed by the Windsor tourism site and other 2026 guides.
Checked: 2026-09-19
Tower Bridge Exhibition
£18Tower Bridge (official)
Adult; concession £13.50, child 5–15 £9, under 5 free; the official page lists one price with no online/on-the-day gap. Covers both towers, the glass-floor high-level walkways and the Victorian engine rooms. Bookable up to 8 weeks ahead.
Checked: 2026-09-19
Sky Garden
Free20 Fenchurch Street (official)
Free public viewing gallery, but a free timed ticket must be booked online in advance (released weekly, roughly three weeks ahead) and slots go fast. The site currently warns that one lift is out of service, capacity is reduced and some ticket holders may not get in at their booked time.
Checked: 2026-09-19
British Museum
FreeBritish Museum (official)
Free permanent collection; a free timed ticket is recommended for priority entry, and walk-up entry remains available. The Bayeux Tapestry display (10 Sept 2026–11 July 2027) is a separate ticket at £33 peak, £27 off-peak or £25 super-off-peak, reported sold out through December 2026 with January–March 2027 slots opening 21 October.
Checked: 2026-09-19
Natural History Museum
FreeSouth Kensington (official)
Free general admission; a free entry ticket is not required but is recommended at weekends and school holidays to skip queues. Paid exhibitions such as Wildlife Photographer of the Year (from 16 October 2026) are ticketed separately. Closed 9 October 2026 and 24–26 December.
Checked: 2026-09-19
National Gallery
FreeTrafalgar Square (official)
General admission is free and donations are welcome; booking is not required, but a free ticket gives fast-track entry. The Renoir and Love exhibition (3 October 2026–31 January 2027) is ticketed and includes general admission; its price was not shown on the official planning page.
Checked: 2026-09-19
Churchill War Rooms
£34Imperial War Museums (official)
Adult (16–64); concession £30.60, child 5–15 £17, under 5 free. Timed-entry general admission tickets on the official IWM ticket page are valid for visits from 2 September 2026 to 31 March 2027 (one secondary source says the adult price was £33 before April 2026).
Checked: 2026-09-19
Hampton Court Palace
£29–32Historic Royal Palaces (official)
Adult £29 off-peak (weekdays) and £32 peak (weekends and bank holidays) until 27 November 2026; child 5–15 £14.50/£16. Includes the palace, gardens and maze. One guide reports festive-period adult prices of £32–35 from 28 November. Official site blocked direct fetch (403); an official-page search excerpt and an independent 2026 guide agree.
Checked: 2026-09-19
Warner Bros. Studio Tour London – The Making of Harry Potter
£58.50Leavesden, outside central London (official)
Adult (16+) in 2026; child 5–15 £47, family £188, under 4 free. The official page already lists 2027 prices (adult £61, child £48, family £192), so visits next year cost about £2.50 more per adult. Book a timed slot online in advance.
Checked: 2026-09-19
Madame Tussauds London
£27–39Merlin Entertainments (official)
General admission from £27 adult online in advance (child 2–15 from £24) versus £39 (child £35) bought on the day, a saving of up to 31%. Online prices are dynamic and rise with demand; under 2 free.
Checked: 2026-09-19
The View from The Shard
£28–32The Shard (official)
Dated, timed tickets with dynamic pricing: adult (13+) roughly £28–32 depending on date and time, child 4–12 about £10–12, 3 and under free. The official FAQ confirms prices vary by day and time but shows figures only in the booking flow, so this range comes from a ticket-listing site; arriving over 15 minutes late can trigger a £15 rebooking fee.
Checked: 2026-09-19
Royal Observatory Greenwich and Cutty Sark
£24 / £22Royal Museums Greenwich (official)
Adult £24 for the Royal Observatory and £22 for the Cutty Sark; the Day Pass covering both is £38 (about £8 cheaper than buying separately). The National Maritime Museum and Queen's House are free to enter.
Checked: 2026-09-19
The London Pass (Go City All-Inclusive)
From £99Go City, third-party pass (official seller)
All-Inclusive (day-based, 113 attractions) from £99, and the Explorer pass (choose 2–7 of 76 attractions) from £64; only the All-Inclusive covers Buckingham Palace. Multi-day prices were not shown on the fetched pages and a 10% AUTUMN promo code was running; whether it pays off depends on how many paid sights you really visit (see the notes below).
Checked: 2026-09-19