Walking Westminster and St James's in London

Westminster Abbey first thing

Westminster Abbey (Broad Sanctuary) is the one to book before anything else in Westminster. Twin Gothic west towers rise over the street, and the route inside takes you across the Cosmati mosaic pavement in front of the high altar and over the floor stones of Poets' Corner, with the fan-vaulted ceiling of the Lady Chapel above you.

Entry runs on timed slots. Book the earliest one you can get. Vergers lead guided tours if you want the coronation history spoken aloud instead of piped through a handset, and the Abbey takes school and coach parties at its own group rates.

Sundays are services only. Keep the Abbey for a weekday or a Saturday and give Sunday to the rest of this walk.

The Palace of Westminster and the pub opposite

The riverside front of the Houses of Parliament (Palace of Westminster) runs along the water in honey Anning limestone, the clock faces of the Elizabeth Tower above it. Booked tours take you inside to Westminster Hall and its hammerbeam oak roof. The audio tour of the hall and chambers starts at £31, and one child goes free with it.

The Elizabeth Tower climb is a separate ticket at £55. It is 334 steps on a spiral stair, there is no lift, and the age floor is 11. A single booker can hold no more than eight tickets, so a party of 10 splits across two bookings. Tickets release three months ahead, on the second Wednesday of each month at 10 a.m., and they go within minutes. Set a reminder for that morning. If you miss the window, take the hall-and-chambers tour.

St Stephen's Tavern (opposite the Elizabeth Tower) was built in 1875 and wired to Parliament's division bell so MPs could be called across to vote. The original brass bell still hangs on the wall. Etched glass, tall mirrors, a pint at £7 to £8, mains £16 to £20, and an upstairs room with a window onto Parliament. It is a walk-in, and it cramps up at division times and after work. More than six of you, come early or ask about that upstairs room.

Up Whitehall to Horse Guards

Whitehall runs north from Parliament, and the first door on it is below street level. The Churchill War Rooms (under Whitehall) keep the wartime cabinet bunker as it was found, low concrete ceilings, Churchill's camp bed, the transatlantic telephone room. Entry is £34, under-5s free, on timed slots that sell out. Book yours before you travel. The corridors are narrow, and a large party gets split across several slots.

Further up Whitehall, the archway at Horse Guards opens onto a sand parade ground. The Household Cavalry Museum (Horse Guards) is £11 and small, and a glass partition stands you beside the working stables, black horses, troopers in plumed helmets and breastplates. The audio guide runs in nine languages. Time your visit with Changing the King's Life Guard at 11 a.m., 10 a.m. on Sundays, or the 4 p.m. inspection. The parade ground shuts occasionally for state ceremonial.

Banqueting House (Whitehall) is the substantial survivor of the lost Palace of Whitehall and the site of Charles I's execution. Inigo Jones' Palladian stone front faces the street; inside is a single white-and-gold double-cube hall with no pillars and Rubens' vast allegorical ceiling panels overhead. The 2026 restoration added a lift up to the ceiling. Entry is £10. It opens on scheduled days rather than daily, so check the open-day calendar before you build a morning around it.

The National Gallery and St Martin-in-the-Fields

Whitehall ends at Trafalgar Square, under Nelson's Column. The National Gallery (Trafalgar Square) is behind the domed neoclassical portico on the north side, free to walk into, no booking for the collection. Van Gogh's Sunflowers and the Rokeby Venus hang on red-walled galleries. The Sainsbury Wing entrance has reopened with a glass-walled foyer, and the bicentenary programme runs through 2026. Exhibitions are ticketed separately.

On the corner of the square, St Martin-in-the-Fields (Trafalgar Square) has Gibbs' Georgian steeple and columned portico above a brick-vaulted crypt. The church costs nothing to enter. Lunch is downstairs in the crypt café, tables set on old gravestones, mains £10 to £16, walk-in. Evenings bring Vivaldi or Mozart by candlelight in the nave and the Crypt Lates, with tickets from £12 to £40.

Millbank and the Turner rooms

A 10-minute riverside walk upstream from Parliament brings you to Tate Britain (Millbank), up the stepped stone entrance under its portico. This is the quietest of the great galleries around here, free to enter, no booking, five centuries of British art and the world's Turner collection hung with stormy seascapes. Under the rotunda, a spiral staircase turns beneath a glass oculus. Exhibitions are £20.

Across St James's Park to Buckingham Palace

St James's Park is the oldest royal park, free and unticketed. Stand on the Blue Bridge and the lake frames Buckingham Palace at one end, the Whitehall domes and the Elizabeth Tower at the other. It is the best free view in London. Pelicans hold Duck Island, willows lean into the water, and the deckchairs and the lakeside café are paid extras. Green Park adjoins to the north-west.

At the western end, Buckingham Palace shows its Portland stone East Front behind the gilded railings of Canada Gate, with the Victoria Memorial roundabout in front and bearskin sentries on the forecourt where Changing the Guard happens. The State Rooms open in summer, July to late September, from £33, and the red-and-gold Throne Room is on that route. Outside those months, The King's Gallery is the visit: through 2026 and 2027 it is showing the late Queen's wardrobe. The Royal Mews runs most of the year, and gallery and Mews tickets cost less than the State Rooms.

Green Park and Piccadilly

Spencer House (Green Park) is London's finest surviving 18th-century private palace and still the Spencer family's own. Public guided tours run on Sundays at £20 to £25, and the house closes for August. The Palm Room has carved gilded palm-tree columns, the Painted Room its ceiling, and the Palladian garden front looks out over Green Park. No photography inside.

Fortnum & Mason (Piccadilly) has been the royal grocer for three centuries. The shopfront is eau-de-nil and stacked with hampers, the clock outside moves its figures, and a spiral stair climbs under a glass atrium. Walking the food hall costs nothing, and that is worth doing on its own. Afternoon tea in the fourth-floor Diamond Jubilee Tea Salon, teal banquettes and marble tables, starts at £84 and needs a reservation.

The Ritz London (Piccadilly) stands behind its arcaded colonnade and gold lettering at the Green Park end of St James's. Afternoon tea in the Palm Court, under chandeliers beside the mirrored trompe-l'oeil garden and its gilded fountain statue, is £95 per adult across several daily sittings. The dress code holds: jacket and tie for men. Book months ahead. Rooms run several hundred pounds a night. A major refurbishment is underway, so confirm which rooms and bars are open when you book.

Evening in St James's

Quaglino's (St James's) reopened on 7 October 2026 after a full art deco restoration; the room itself dates from 1929. A curved staircase sweeps down into the basement, a central bar is ringed with stools, and a stage stands in the middle of the floor under low golden light. Daytime plates are ten pounds, and dinner à la carte runs well above that. The licence runs to 1 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, in a part of London that otherwise shuts early.

The American Bar at The Stafford London (a quiet St James's cul-de-sac) has been serving since 1930 and is one of London's longest-running cocktail bars. The panelled room is low-lit, and its ceiling and walls are crammed with donated memorabilia, club ties and model aeroplanes among it. Cocktails are £22 to £28, and the door is open daily from morning to midnight. Book a table or arrive early. The Stafford is a five-star hotel on the same yard. Dukes Bar nearby stays shut until its hotel reopens in 2027.

Opening days and booking

Sundays are narrower here: the Abbey holds services only, and Spencer House opens for its public tours. Book the Abbey, the Churchill War Rooms and any Elizabeth Tower climb before you travel, check the Banqueting House open days, and reserve afternoon tea.

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