Hidden London: where Londoners go once the sights are done

Do the famous list first

This page is for after the famous days, not the first one. If you have not seen Big Ben, St Paul's and the river yet, start with what most people miss: the better thing two minutes from each famous place.

• What most people miss in London →

North: Highgate and Hampstead Heath

Highgate and Hampstead sit next to each other and the Heath joins them, so these four are one day.

1. 1

   Highgate Cemetery

   Swain's Lane N6 6PJ · daily 10am to 5pm, to 4pm November to February · East side £10, West side by guided tour £18 · Archway, Northern line

   A Victorian cemetery on a hill, left overgrown on purpose and kept going by a charity. Karl Marx is buried on the East side, which you walk round on your own. The West side, with the Egyptian Avenue and the catacombs, is the better half and can only be seen on a guided tour of about 75 minutes, which runs in the rain.

2. 2

   Parliament Hill

   Hampstead Heath NW5 · free, always open · Gospel Oak or Hampstead Heath, Overground

   The view of the City from the top of Parliament Hill is protected in planning law, which is why nothing has been allowed to block it. On a clear day you can pick out St Paul's, the Shard and Canary Wharf from one bench. Free, and the most London thing on this page.

   More free views of London →
3. 3

   Kenwood House

   Hampstead Lane NW3 7JR · free · the north edge of the Heath

   A stately home at the top of the Heath, run by English Heritage and free to walk into. It holds a Rembrandt self-portrait and Vermeer's The Guitar Player, one of the few Vermeers in Britain, in a house most visitors never find. The café garden is where north London has Sunday lunch.

4. 4

   The Hill Garden and Pergola

   Inverforth Close NW3 7EX · free · Hampstead or Golders Green, Northern line

   An Edwardian raised walkway about 800 feet long, covered in wisteria and quietly falling apart, built for the soap magnate Lord Leverhulme so his guests could stroll above the Heath. The most beautiful thing in north London that almost nobody has heard of.

The canal: Little Venice to Coal Drops Yard

1. 1

   Little Venice

   Warwick Avenue W9 · free · Warwick Avenue, Bakerloo line

   Where two canals meet in a triangular basin with a willow island, a floating café and a puppet theatre on a barge. Ten minutes from Paddington station and nothing like it.

   The canal, stop by stop →
2. 2

   Regent's Canal, by boat

   London Waterbus, Little Venice to Camden · £17 adult, £14 child · 45 minutes

   The canal runs behind the back of the city, past the zoo and under a bridge blown up by a gunpowder barge in 1874. There is a tunnel with no towpath in the first kilometre, which is where most people give up. Take the boat through it and pick the canal up again at Camden.

   Boat or towpath, and where the tunnel goes →
3. 3

   Coal Drops Yard and Granary Square

   Stable Street N1C 4AB · free · King's Cross St Pancras

   Two Victorian coal stores reworked by Thomas Heatherwick, with the roofs pulled up until they meet in the middle and fifty-odd shops and restaurants underneath. Granary Square next door has 1,080 fountains that children run through all summer, and a book barge on the canal sells second-hand books off its deck.

   Coal Drops Yard, in the shopping guide →

South-west: Richmond

About twenty minutes by train from Waterloo, or the District line and the Overground to Richmond. Half a day, and the one place on this page that feels like leaving London without leaving it.

1. 1

   Richmond Hill

   Richmond TW10 · free · Richmond station

   The view from the top of Richmond Hill, down over a bend in the Thames and the water meadows, is protected by its own Act of Parliament, passed in 1902. Turner and Reynolds both painted it. Stand on the terrace at the top and you will see why somebody thought it needed a law.

2. 2

   King Henry's Mound

   Richmond Park, by Pembroke Lodge · free · park open daily from early morning until dusk

   A mound in Richmond Park with a gap cut through the hedge and a telescope. Look through it and ten miles away, framed exactly, is the dome of St Paul's. The sightline is protected, so nothing can ever be built in it. Around six hundred deer roam the park around you.

3. 3

   Petersham Nurseries

   Church Lane, Petersham TW10 7AB · free to walk round

   A garden shop and café in a set of old glasshouses, at the bottom of the hill across Petersham Meadows. Free to wander, expensive to eat in, and very good at both.

In the middle of town, if you only have an hour

1. 1

   St Dunstan in the East

   St Dunstan's Hill EC3R 5DD · free · 8am to 7pm or dusk if earlier · Monument

   A Wren church bombed in the Blitz, never rebuilt and turned into a garden inside its own ruined walls. Ivy through the empty window frames and a fountain where the nave was. Five minutes from the Tower of London and quieter than anything near it.

2. 2

   Postman's Park

   King Edward Street EC1A · free · St Paul's

   A small park two minutes from St Paul's with a wall of Victorian ceramic tiles, each one remembering an ordinary person who died saving somebody else. It is the most moving thing in the City and it takes ten minutes.

3. 3

   The Kyoto Garden

   Holland Park W8 · free · 7.30am until half an hour before dusk · Holland Park, Central line

   A Japanese garden given to London by Kyoto in 1991, with a waterfall, stone lanterns, koi and peacocks that walk the paths as if they own them. Pair it with Notting Hill, fifteen minutes north.

How to fit these into a trip

Pick one area a day, not one place from each. Highgate and Hampstead are next to each other, the canal runs from Little Venice to King's Cross, and Richmond is its own half day.

Most people visiting London also have people to see: family in one borough, a friend in another. These places are spread out in the same way, which is exactly what a tube map makes hard. A plan built with you does exactly that: tell us where you are staying and who you are visiting, and the hidden days go around them rather than the other way round.

What it costs