God's Own Junkyard
Photograph: God's Own Junkyard

Alternative London

Been there, seen that? Explore lesser-travelled London with our guide to the city away from the tourist trail

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Forget Big Ben and forget Buckingham Palace. This is the London that doesn’t make it on to the postcards, but it’s the London Londoners love. Delve a little deeper into the city and discover alternative nights out, unusual exhibitions and quirky things to do in London. 

Alternative days out in London

Unusual things to do

Alternative nights out

Escape the tourist traps in the city

Isabella Plantation
Attractions

Isabella Plantation

Watching south-west Londoners mistake chugging around Richmond Park in their 4x4s for a day in the country isn’t everyone’s idea of fun, but the...

Hill Garden and Pergola
Attractions

Hill Garden and Pergola

A favourite of local artists, this formal Arts and Crafts garden, created between 1910 and 1925 by Thomas Mawson for soap magnate Lord Leverhulme and restored...

Walthamstow Wetlands
Attractions

Walthamstow Wetlands

Walthamstow Marshes have always been a place for Londoners to go and pretend they live in the actual countryside, and now that illusion is about to get even...

Nunhead Cemetery
Attractions

Nunhead Cemetery

Two-hour guided tour of Nunhead Cemetery, a romantic and overgrown Victorian cemetery featuring 1,000 ivy-clad angels and mighty Victorians buried in the green...

Unusual day-trips from London

Bizarre London museums

Leighton House Museum
Museums

Leighton House Museum

Leighton House reopened in April 2010 after a £1.6 million refurbishment which has uncovered and restored many of the decorative schemes and features of...

Wellcome Collection
Museums

Wellcome Collection

  • 4 out of 5 stars

Sir Henry Wellcome, a pioneering 19th-century pharmacist, amassed a vast and idiosyncratic collection of implements and curios relating to the medical trade,...

Museum of Brands, Packaging & Advertising
Museums

Museum of Brands, Packaging & Advertising

  • 3 out of 5 stars

Roll up, roll up! The Museum of Brands has found itself a glam new home; still in Notting Hill but now with extra added space for its seemingly endless...

Horniman Museum
Things to do

Horniman Museum

  • 4 out of 5 stars

An anthropological museum set in 16 acres of landscaped gardens, the Horniman has a traditional natural history gallery – dominated by a bizarre, overstuffed...