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Hidden gems in London

69 places from the A Reason to Stop library. Pick one to see what makes it worth a stop, then take the whole list with you in the free app.

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All hidden gems

  • 2 Willow RoadHungarian-born architect Ernő Goldfinger's own modernist family home in Hampstead, designed and built by him in 1939 and preserved as the National Trust's first modernist property.
  • Abney Park CemeteryA Victorian garden cemetery in Stoke Newington, opened in 1840 and now a woodland Local Nature Reserve with a Gothic chapel at its centre, entered through Egyptian Revival gates.
  • Arnos Grove Underground StationCharles Holden's drum-shaped brick, glass and concrete station of 1932, with a circular ticket hall, a Grade II* listed piece of modernist Underground design in suburban north London.
  • The Attendant FitzroviaA coffee shop built inside a converted Victorian underground public toilet, with the original urinals still in place as counters.
  • Barbican ConservatoryThe second-largest conservatory in London, built on top of the Barbican Centre's theatre fly tower and planted with more than 1,500 species of tropical plants and trees.
  • Bonnington Square Pleasure GardenA pocket community garden in a former squatters' square in Vauxhall, laid out as leafy garden rooms with palms and seating on the site of Second World War bomb damage.
  • Brixton WindmillLondon's last working windmill, an 1816 Grade II* listed tower mill among terraced houses in Windmill Gardens, restored in 2011 and now milling flour by volunteers.
  • Brown Hart GardensA raised public garden terrace built directly on top of a working electricity substation just south of Oxford Street, with seating, planting and a small cafe.
  • Brunel Museum and Thames Tunnel ShaftA tiny museum in the old engine house of the world's first underwater tunnel, where you can peer down the huge shaft that workers once descended.
  • Buddhapadipa TempleA Thai Buddhist temple on Calonne Road in Wimbledon, with gardens, an ornamental lake and an orchard around an ordination hall painted with murals, where visitors of any faith are welcome.
  • Cable Street MuralA vast community mural on the side wall of the former St George's Town Hall, showing East Londoners blocking a fascist march in 1936. It is free to view at any time.
  • Chalcot CrescentA pastel-terraced Primrose Hill crescent used as the exterior of the Brown family's home, the fictional "Windsor Gardens," across all three Paddington films.
  • Chislehurst CavesA maze of man-made chalk and flint mine tunnels beneath Chislehurst that you explore on a lamp-lit guided tour. They sheltered thousands during the Blitz and later hosted 1960s gigs.
  • Cloister Garden, Museum of the Order of St JohnA small monastic-style garden of flowers and medicinal herbs behind the Museum of the Order of St John in Clerkenwell, laid out in 2011 and free to visit.
  • Crossbones Graveyard & Garden of RemembranceA small garden of remembrance kept by volunteer wardens on the site of a former unconsecrated burial ground in Southwark, entered through gates hung with ribbons and tributes.
  • Crossness Pumping StationA Victorian sewage pumping station on the Thames at Abbey Wood, part of Joseph Bazalgette's 19th-century London sewer system, restored around its ornate cast-iron Beam Engine House.
  • Dalston Eastern Curve GardenA volunteer-run community garden built on a disused stretch of Victorian railway line in Dalston, open to the public daily with a small cafe.
  • Eel Pie IslandA small Thames island near Twickenham reached by a footbridge, home to a community of artists' studios and a former hotel and jazz club that hosted early gigs by The Rolling Stones and The Who.
  • Estorick Collection of Modern Italian ArtThe UK's only gallery devoted to modern Italian art, housed in a Georgian townhouse in Canonbury and built around one of the world's finest collections of Italian Futurist painting and sculpture.
  • Garrick's Temple to ShakespeareA small domed temple built by the actor David Garrick in 1756 as a shrine to Shakespeare, standing on a riverside lawn beside the Thames at Hampton. It is Grade I listed.
  • General StoreAn independent specialist grocer on Bellenden Road stocking British and European cheese, charcuterie, bread, wine and store-cupboard essentials chosen for provenance over volume.
  • Giffin Square Mural, "His 'n' Hers"A trompe l'oeil mural called "His 'n' Hers," painted on the gable end of a building at the corner of Giffin Street and Deptford High Street facing Giffin Square, showing two chimneys personified with a pearl necklace and a necktie.
  • God's Own JunkyardA warehouse crammed with vintage neon signage salvaged from old cinemas, shops, and film sets, with a café in the middle of it.
  • Grant Museum of ZoologyUCL's own zoology museum near Euston, a real 1828 teaching collection of animal specimens still used by students, best known for its jar of eighteen preserved moles.
  • Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, SouthallThe largest Sikh temple in London, a large gurdwara in Southall that welcomes visitors of any faith and runs a free langar kitchen.
  • Hackney City FarmA free-to-visit city farm beside Haggerston Park with pigs, sheep, poultry and a donkey, plus a cafe.
  • Hampstead Pergola and Hill GardenA raised, covered pergola of stone columns and climbing plants on the edge of Hampstead Heath, designed by Thomas Mawson for the soap magnate William Lever, with a formal garden beside it.
  • Hitchcock Mosaics at Leytonstone StationSeventeen mosaic murals line the entrance and subway of Leytonstone tube station, celebrating Alfred Hitchcock's films and his childhood in the area.
  • House Mill (Three Mills)A Grade I listed 18th-century tidal mill on the River Lea at Three Mills, built to use the tide to grind grain and still home to four large waterwheels, that can be toured on Sundays.
  • Isabella PlantationA 40-acre woodland garden inside Richmond Park, planted since the 1830s and known for its ponds, streams and evergreen azaleas.
  • Keats HouseThe Hampstead house where poet John Keats lived from 1818 to 1820, writing Ode to a Nightingale and several of his other best-known poems, saved from demolition and opened as a museum in 1925.
  • Kensal Green CemeteryThe first of London's great Victorian garden cemeteries, packed with ornate mausolea, a Greek Revival chapel and catacombs beneath a Grade I listed Anglican chapel. Brunel, Babbage and Trollope are among those buried here.
  • Khan's BargainsA sprawling variety and bargain shop on Rye Lane selling fruit, spices, dried goods, homeware and discount finds under a restored 1930s vaulted glass ceiling.
  • Kirkaldy Testing MuseumA small Grade II* listed museum in a former Victorian materials-testing works, built around David Kirkaldy's enormous 1866 hydraulic testing machine used to test the strength of metals and building materials.
  • Leake Street Arches (Waterloo Graffiti Tunnel)A 300-metre road tunnel beneath Waterloo station that operates as one of London's few legal street art zones, its walls repainted daily.
  • Little Angel TheatreA 150-seat puppet theatre in a former temperance hall on Islington's Dagmar Passage, opened in 1961 by puppeteers John and Lyndie Wright and still known as the home of British puppetry.
  • Little VeniceWhere the Regent's Canal meets the Grand Union, a leafy junction of houseboats and towpaths easy to miss from street level.
  • London MithraeumThe excavated remains of a Roman temple to the god Mithras, displayed in the basement of Bloomberg's London headquarters near Bank.
  • London Silver VaultsA subterranean arcade of dozens of independent silver dealers, reached through a bank-vault door and set behind steel-reinforced walls five levels below Chancery Lane.
  • London StoneA battered chunk of limestone set into a glass case on Cannon Street, long claimed to be a talisman for the City of London. Blink and you'll walk past it, which is part of the charm.
  • Mount Street GardensA leafy, hushed Mayfair garden on a former burial ground, with plane trees, winding paths and a small horse fountain. Locals use it as a lunchtime bolt-hole just steps from Mount Street's fancy shops.
  • Mudchute Park and FarmA free 32-acre city farm on the Isle of Dogs where llamas and ponies graze beneath the Canary Wharf skyline. An unlikely rural pocket in the middle of Docklands.
  • Neal's YardA small, brightly painted courtyard tucked off the streets of Covent Garden, easy to miss unless you know it.
  • Newington Green Meeting HouseA 1708 Unitarian meeting house on Newington Green, London's oldest Nonconformist place of worship still in use, now open free to visitors with exhibits on Mary Wollstonecraft.
  • Novelty AutomationA small Holborn arcade of handmade satirical machines built by a single inventor, playable with tokens bought on site.
  • Nunhead CemeteryA wooded Victorian cemetery on a South London hill, half-swallowed by trees, with crumbling monuments, an Anglican chapel and views towards St Paul's Cathedral.
  • Paddington Bear StatueA bronze statue of Paddington Bear standing on Platform 1 of Paddington station, marking the spot where the fictional bear was first found.
  • Peckham PalmsAn Afro hair and beauty retail hub on Blenheim Grove, purpose-built as a collective of independent Black-owned salons, braiders and barbers under one roof.
  • PeckhamplexAn independent six-screen cinema on Rye Lane, converted from a former Sainsbury's supermarket in 1994, known for keeping ticket prices well below the London average.
  • Phoenix GardenA volunteer-run wildlife garden squeezed between Covent Garden and Denmark Street, built on a former bomb site and car park.
  • Puppet Theatre BargeA working marionette theatre built inside a converted 1930s iron Thames barge, moored in Little Venice from October to June and at Richmond over summer.
  • Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof GardenA rooftop garden on top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall at Southbank Centre, planted with over 200 native wildflower species and home to a small bar built inside a reused shipping container.
  • Review BookshopAn independent bookshop on Bellenden Road, open since 2005, stocking literary fiction alongside cookbooks and gifts, with staff recommendations posted throughout the shop.
  • Rich MixA charity-run, five-floor arts and cinema centre in Shoreditch, converted from a former leather factory and opened in 2006 to promote cultural activity and community cohesion in east London.
  • Sandys Row SynagogueLondon's oldest surviving Ashkenazi synagogue, in a building erected by Huguenots in 1766 as a church, and the last fully functioning Jewish community in Spitalfields.
  • Spitalfields City FarmA charity-run city farm on Buxton Street, a short distance from Brick Lane, with farm animals, a tea hut and a farm shop.
  • St Katharine DocksCentral London's only marina, just east of Tower Bridge, built in 1828 to a Thomas Telford design and converted from a working commercial dock into a yacht-filled waterside quarter of shops, pubs and restaurants.
  • St Pancras Old ChurchA Grade II* listed parish church on Pancras Road that claims one of the oldest Christian sites in London, with a churchyard that holds Sir John Soane's tomb.
  • Surrey Docks FarmA free working city farm on the Rotherhithe riverside, with goats, sheep, pigs, cows and ducks on a 2.2-acre site.
  • Sutton HouseThe oldest surviving house in Hackney, a Tudor brick mansion built in 1535 for Sir Ralph Sadleir, one of Henry VIII's chief minister's right-hand men, now run by the National Trust.
  • Tibetan Peace GardenA circular contemplative garden beside the Imperial War Museum, with a bronze Kalachakra mandala at its heart and Himalayan plants around it. It is a peaceful, little-noticed corner of Southwark.
  • Tower Hamlets Cemetery ParkA 19th-century burial ground that has reverted to woodland, with tilting Victorian monuments among the trees. It is a 33-acre local nature reserve close to Mile End.
  • Twinings MuseumA tiny museum at the back of the 216 Strand Twinings shop, on the site the tea company has continuously traded from since 1717, generally reckoned to be London's oldest business run by the same family on the same site.
  • Two Temple PlaceA lavish neo-Tudor building by the Thames, built in 1895 as an estate office for William Waldorf Astor and now hosting free exhibitions drawn from UK regional collections.
  • Viktor Wynd Museum of CuriositiesA small Hackney museum and bar packed into a former call centre, displaying a cabinet-of-curiosities mix of taxidermy, shrunken heads, occult ephemera and outsider art.
  • West Norwood CemeteryOne of London's 'Magnificent Seven' Victorian cemeteries, with a Greek Orthodox necropolis and dozens of listed monuments among the hillside mausolea.
  • William Morris Society at Kelmscott HouseA small museum run by the William Morris Society in the coach house and lower rooms of Kelmscott House, William Morris's London home on Upper Mall in Hammersmith.
  • Woodberry WetlandsA former 19th-century reservoir between Stoke Newington and Manor House, now a reed-fringed nature reserve with a boardwalk and a cafe, unusually wild for inner London.
  • Word on the WaterA floating secondhand and new bookshop housed in a converted 1920s Dutch barge, permanently moored on Regent's Canal near King's Cross.

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