19 (Actually) Cool Things to Do in London (You Haven’t Thought of Before)

Looking for cool things to do in London that bring out your adventurous side?

Compete in teams in this live-action race across London, the official live experience of the hit TV show. 

Solve puzzles, make strategic choices, and navigate the city in a thrilling urban adventure that lets you race around London in real time, making tactical decisions and completing challenges.

Discover hidden gems and curious corners of the capital on one of these self-guided treasure hunts. 

Search winding alleys and discover lesser-known historic sites, using cryptic clues and engaging riddles to reveal the city’s secrets.

This one’s for all you Dickens fans out there.

Step into a gripping, Dickens-inspired storyline in this immersive mystery experience, where you and your team must untangle a plot unfolding across the streets of London. 

You’ll follow a vague, mysterious figure and get to the bottom of the mystery, while also visiting some of London’s coolest (and most charming) hidden gems.

Often find yourself glued to true crime podcasts or bingeing documentaries? This is for you. 

Revisit a chilling case that may (or may not be) attributable to Jack the Ripper as you walk through atmospheric streets, solving clues and piecing together one of London’s most infamous unsolved crimes. 

You’ll visit places the victims and alleged perpetrators visited, and get to read the real case files from 200 years ago. Think you can solve it? Only one way to find out…

Did we really just put visiting a sewage plant on our list of cool things to do in London? Yes we did.

Proving beauty can be found in the unlikeliest of places, the Crossness Pumping Station is a marvel of Victorian engineering and, even more surprisingly, artwork. 

You’ll find it hidden away in southeast London tucked beside the Thames Path.

Plenty of history happened in this city but something that gets less attention than it deserves (in our opinion) can be found in Gough Square.

This is Dr. Johnson’s House, a preserved 18th-century home where the first dictionary of the English language was compiled. Take a look inside and see where all the words who made it into your spelling tests at school were listed and categorised. 

Movie buff looking for cool things to do in London? We’ve got you.

Nicknamed 'Flicker Alley,' this picturesque passage near Covent Garden is lined with antique bookshops, film memorabilia stores, and old-world charm that harks back to cinema’s golden days.

Your definition of “cool” might differ wildly from ours, but this is up there with one of the coolest memorials in London we know of.

Tucked away in the heart of the city, Postman’s Park is home to a moving memorial to everyday heroes who gave their lives to save others. All real life names and stories, make sure you take enough time to read about how individuals from the past contributed to the lives of their fellow neighbours.

Again, it’s hard to have a favourite monument in London but this is up there for us.

The clue’s in the name with this one, really. Cleopatra’s Needle may be a well-known obelisk, and yes, it’s an authentic piece of Ancient Egyptian history, but how it came to be here in London is a fascinating story that we bet you don’t know.

We’re also betting you had no idea that it actually conceals a Victorian time capsule that was buried at the time of its placement, or that Queen Victoria herself requested the Sphinxes that surround it face the way they do. 

The architecture itself might not be to everyone’s taste, but did you know that inside the brutalist walls of the Barbican hides a lush, tropical conservatory? 

Home to over 2,000 species of exotic plants and trees, the Barbican can provide some much-needed green space in a city that occasionally can feel more like a concrete jungle. 

Similarly, you might not be aware that one of the oldest botanic gardens is hidden away in Chelsea.

Founded in 1673, the Chelsea Physic Garden is a historic haven of medicinal plants, herbal lore, and peaceful greenery in one of London’s poshest neighbourhoods (and, in our opinion, that is the height of cool).

I think we can all agree that some of the coolest animals ever to have existed are dinosaurs, so it makes total sense that one of the coolest things to do in London is to go and see the first ever models of them.

Head on over to Crystal Palace Park to see life-sized, Victorian-era dinosaur models. Yep, they look really weird, and that’s because they predate scientific accuracy. Doesn’t make them less cool, though.

Any bookshop gets a big thumbs up from me, but this one is extra special. 

If you haven’t heard of it, moored on the Regent’s Canal, is Word on the Water, a cosy, floating bookshop that hosts live music and poetry readings. Check it out next time you’re in the area!

If your idea of finding cool things to do in London is hunting down the quirkiest spots in the city, put this at the top of your list.

Burlington Arcade is a luxury shopping strip guarded by its own private police called Beadles, who patrol in Edwardian dress to keep the peace and uphold tradition. Unusual? Yes. Cool? Definitely!

Looking for cool things to do in London that also stop your tummy from rumbling? Head here.

Mercato Mayfair combines mouthwatering global cuisine with stunning neo-classical architecture, all within the walls of a deconsecrated church turned food hall. It even has a beer brewery in its crypt, so, how’s that for cool?

On the other hand, if you’re looking to do some food shopping somewhere cool, we’d recommend Seven Dials Market. 

You’ll find diverse street food, indie eateries and a buzzing social atmosphere housed in a vibrant warehouse space in the heart of Covent Garden. Doesn’t get better than that, does it?

With over 500 years of history, The Prospect of Whitby is one of London’s oldest pubs and that alone makes it one of the coolest (for us, at least). 

Frequented by smugglers, sailors, and even Charles Dickens himself, it’s a neat place to go to feel like you’re a part of the never ending pulse of London.

Maybe you’re more Bond than Long John Silver, in which case, the Morpeth Arms are for you.

Overlooking MI6, The Morpeth Arms is famed for its 'Spying Room’, complete with surveillance gear, where patrons can peer through binoculars at spy HQ while enjoying a pint in “secretive” surroundings.

If that’s not “cool” enough for you, back in the day, the tunnels beneath it were used by prisoners leaving Millbank Prison and being deported to Australia (apparently, the basement is haunted by them).

Finally, one of our quirkier ideas of cool things to do in London: hunting down Tobacco Dock’s statues.

There are quite a few spots in London where you can find odd snippets of the city’s history, but this one isn’t as well known. 

Explore Tobacco Dock’s labyrinth of vaulted brick spaces to stumble upon quirky statues and hidden art tucked among historic warehouses and waterside walkways. And keep an eye out for one of our personal favourites: it shows a tiger swiping at a young boy!