See most of London in 6 hours

Why this line and not another

The interesting half of the Jubilee line is the extension that opened in 1999, when every station was handed to a different architect under one director, Roland Paoletti. Michael Hopkins took Westminster, Richard MacCormac took Southwark, Will Alsop took North Greenwich and Norman Foster took Canary Wharf. You are riding through a gallery of late twentieth century British architecture and most people never look up.

It was also the first line built step-free from end to end, with doors along the platform edge. If you are travelling with a pushchair, a suitcase or someone who does not do stairs, this is the line that works.

Pick one direction and stay in it. Doubling back is what turns a relaxed day into a day spent underground.

The six hours, stop by stop

Six hours is enough for the best of London, from Oxford Street to Stratford, if you keep moving. The famous stops stay in: Westminster and London Bridge are the reason most people come to London at all. What comes out is the paid attraction inside each stop that needs time you do not have. Skip the War Rooms, not Big Ben. Walk through Borough, do not queue for the Shard.

1. 1

   Bond Street, 9am

   Zone 1 · free to browse

   Selfridges' windows and the top of Bond Street, twenty minutes. A look, not the shopping day.

   Two stops, 4 minutes

2. 2

   Westminster, 9.30am

   Zone 1 · free to look

   Big Ben, the Abbey from outside, Parliament, then over the bridge to the London Eye and back. Fifty minutes.

   Three stops, about 6 minutes

3. 3

   London Bridge, 10.30am

   Zone 1 · Borough Market free

   Through Borough Market rather than round it, and look up at the Shard rather than queue for it. Thirty minutes.

   Three stops, about 7 minutes

4. 4

   Canary Wharf, 11.15am

   Zone 2 · free

   The roof garden on the way to the pier. Thirty minutes, then the eight minute walk to Canary Wharf Pier.

   Boat, about 10 to 15 minutes

5. 5

   Greenwich, 12.15pm

   Greenwich Pier · £7.40 boat

   The Cutty Sark from outside, the Old Royal Naval College grounds and lunch in Greenwich Market. Seventy-five minutes.

   Boat, about 10 minutes, or the 188 bus, about 20

6. 6

   North Greenwich, 1.45pm

   Zone 2 and 3 · cable car from £6

   The O2 and, if you want it, the cable car over the river. Forty minutes.

   Three stops, 8 minutes

7. 7

   Stratford, 2.40pm

   Zone 3 · free

   The Olympic Park and Westfield to finish, and you are done by about three.

• Book it with us as a guided day →

Nine to three, moving on time. Every famous stop stays in. What comes out is the two-hour paid attractions, not the landmarks.

Longer: every stop worth getting off at

1. 1

   Westminster

   Zone 1 · free to look · Churchill War Rooms £34

   Come up through the escalator box before you leave the station: 39 metres of raw concrete and steel props that look like the inside of a machine. Above ground are Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Parliament. Then cross Westminster Bridge. Five minutes later you are at the London Eye and the start of the South Bank, and from the far end of the bridge you get the better photograph of the tower. The Churchill War Rooms, the best paid museum in London, need two hours of their own.

   The South Bank, if you want more than the photograph →

   Three stops, about 6 minutes

2. 2

   London Bridge

   Zone 1 · Borough Market free, closed Mondays · The Shard from £28

   Borough Market is four minutes from the barriers and packs up at five. The Shard is directly above the station and the view costs £28 to £32. The free alternative is the bar on level 31 of the same building, which costs you a drink. Southwark Cathedral next door is free and nine hundred years old, and Tower Bridge is fifteen minutes along the river.

   One stop, 2 minutes

3. 3

   Bermondsey

   Zone 2 · weekends only

   The stop nobody makes. Maltby Street Market runs under the railway arches at weekends and is the best small food market in London, and the Bermondsey Beer Mile runs along the same arches on a Saturday. Midweek there is nothing here, so stay on the train.

   Two stops, 5 minutes

4. 4

   Canary Wharf

   Zone 2 · everything named here is free

   Foster's station is 300 metres long, built inside a drained dock. Above it, Crossrail Place Roof Garden sits under a timber lattice, free and open daily until about nine, planted with species from both hemispheres because the building sits on the Prime Meridian. Eden Dock put floating gardens and boardwalks into the water between the towers. This is where you leave the tube: Canary Wharf Pier is an eight minute walk west.

   Uber Boat from Canary Wharf Pier, about 10 to 15 minutes

5. 5

   Greenwich, by boat

   Greenwich Pier SE10 9HT · Uber Boat, East zone · £7.40 at peak, £6.20 off peak, with contactless

   This is the move the tube map hides. Maritime Greenwich is not on the Jubilee line, and North Greenwich, which is, is a different place. Take the boat instead and you land at the Cutty Sark. The Old Royal Naval College grounds, the National Maritime Museum, the Queen's House and the park are all free. Cutty Sark is £22, the Painted Hall £19 and the Royal Observatory £24. Greenwich Market, two minutes from the pier, is lunch.

   Greenwich in full, and which tickets are worth it →

   Boat again to North Greenwich Pier, about 10 minutes, or the 188 bus

6. 6

   North Greenwich and the O2

   Zone 2 and 3 · O2 free to walk in · Up at The O2 from £35 · cable car from £6

   Alsop's station is a dark blue tiled cavern lit like a cathedral and worth thirty seconds of looking up. The O2 is free to walk into. Up at The O2 takes you over the roof of the dome on a fabric walkway, from £35 on a weekday, ninety minutes with the briefing. The cable car crosses the river to the Royal Docks in about ten minutes, from £6 one way. You are back on the Jubilee line here.

   Three stops, 8 minutes

7. 7

   Stratford

   Zone 3 · park and museums free · ArcelorMittal Orbit from £15

   Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Westfield Stratford City with 350 shops, and the two newest free museums in London: V&A East Storehouse, a working store with half a million objects on open racking, and V&A East Museum next door, which opened in April 2026. The Orbit is £15 for the viewing platforms and more if you want the slide.

   Or go the other way from Westminster

8. 8

   Wembley Park

   Zone 4, the other end of the line · stadium tour £24

   Twenty-five minutes west of Westminster. Wembley Stadium tours are £24 adult and £17 child, 10am to 4pm on days with no event, about 75 minutes. Boxpark Wembley and the London Designer Outlet are at the foot of Olympic Way. This is a different day from the eastern half, not something to bolt on.

The other stops, in one line each

Stanmore to Kilburn

Suburban. Nothing to see

West Hampstead

A good high street and two rail lines, no reason to be a tourist here

St John's Wood

Five minutes to the Abbey Road crossing, which is a zebra crossing on a busy road with a queue. Lord's Cricket Ground is the better reason

Baker Street

Sherlock Holmes Museum, Madame Tussauds and the south end of Regent's Park

Bond Street

Oxford Street, Selfridges and the Elizabeth line

Green Park

Buckingham Palace, the Royal Academy, Fortnum and Mason

Waterloo

Leake Street, the South Bank, the whole Queen's Walk

Southwark

MacCormac's blue glass cone is worth the walk through. Tate Modern is eight minutes away

Canada Water

A very good public library on the water, and the Overground

Canning Town and West Ham

Interchanges. Keep going

The one detour off the line

The Gun, 27 Coldharbour, E14 9NS. A Grade II listed pub on the river wall at Blackwall, about twenty minutes on foot from Canary Wharf or a short hop on the DLR. It takes its name from the cannon fired to open the West India Docks in 1802, and the covered riverside terrace faces the O2 straight across the water. The right place to end this day if it was a long one.

What it costs

If you have the whole day

• Westminster at nine, before the Abbey queue forms. Cross the bridge while it is quiet.
• London Bridge by half eleven for Borough, and not on a Monday.
• Canary Wharf around one, then the boat to Greenwich for lunch at the market.
• Greenwich for the afternoon, then the boat on to North Greenwich for the O2 at dusk.
• Stratford after, or save it for the next morning when the Olympic Park is empty.
• Bermondsey only on a Saturday.

Touch in and out with the same card all day. Once you reach the tube cap the rest of your tube journeys that day are free. The boat is charged on top.

What this day is not

It is not a walking tour and it does not try to be. You see less at each stop than you would on foot, and you cover twelve miles of London without your knees noticing. For a short stay or a family with a wide range of ages that is the right trade.