How we pick

Tap In London puts free and cheap things to do in one place, with how to get there. Here's exactly how it works.

Ads pay for the site, and never change the listings

Tap In London shows a few ads from Google to pay for itself. They're always labelled "Advertisement" and kept apart from the listings. Nobody can pay to be listed, to be shown higher up, or to have a listing changed: what's on the site, and the order it's in, works exactly as this page describes.

You don't need an account: saved events and your postcode stay on your own phone. Ads and visit counting only use cookies if you say yes; you can change that any time from "Cookie settings" at the bottom of every page. The privacy page has the details.

Where listings come from

Every morning we read the public "what's on" pages of more than 70 museums, galleries, theatres, comedy clubs, markets and listings sites. That includes Tate, the V&A, the National Gallery, the British Library, Wellcome Collection, the Science and Natural History Museums, Royal Museums Greenwich, IWM, London Museum, the Barbican, Somerset House, the Serpentine, the National Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe, Sadler's Wells, Soho Theatre, Angel Comedy, The Comedy Store, the Roundhouse, the Prince Charles and Castle cinemas, the Royal Institution, the Royal College of Music, the Mayor of London, the Royal Parks and the big markets, plus Official London Theatre, OutSavvy, Luma, Skiddle, Meetup and Allevents. Each card says where it came from ("via …") and links to the original.

Some things are lists we check by hand against each place's own website: London's markets, the Royal Parks, viewpoints, landmarks and stadium tours, cheap theatre ticket schemes, regular free comedy nights, and London's parkruns. We don't list anything we can't link back to.

Where a site asks automated visitors to wait between pages, we wait. Some places block automated visits, so they aren't here yet, including Kew Gardens, Historic Royal Palaces, the Royal Collection, BFI Southbank and Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Prices

Prices are the ones the venue or ticket site shows, with the date we last checked. "Free" means free to get in. "Free, book ahead" means it's free but you need a ticket. "From £10" is the cheapest ticket we saw. "See listing" means the source didn't give a price. Ticket sites can add booking fees, so check the final price before you pay. We leave out anything where the cheapest ticket is over £100.

Getting there

Nearest stations, live line status and journeys come straight from Transport for London. Maps are from OpenStreetMap.

Editor's picks

Now and then a person on the team marks something as an Editor's pick because they think it's worth your time. Picks are never paid for.

Always check before you go

Venues change plans. We rebuild the listings every day, but the venue's own page is always the final word on times, prices and access.