Indoor things to do in London when it rains
It rains here about one day in three, which is a statistic you only really feel while standing under a bus shelter working out whether the afternoon is still worth it. So everywhere on this site carries a wetness score: how much of the trip is under a roof, how far the door is from the tube, and whether you will walk in looking like you swam.
It is for people who live here and have run out of ideas. For a parent with a small person and two hours to fill. For anyone whose friend is visiting on Saturday and has just seen the forecast quietly dismantle the plan.
It exists because most guides to indoor London are the same twelve attractions in a different order, written by somebody who has never had to cross the city in a downpour. This one is free and there is nothing to log into.
There are 341 places listed so far, and
88 of them are free.
The wetness score explains itself on the about page.
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From the blog
- Seven places worth leaving London for, all of them indoors: There is a point in a bad week of weather where the answer is not another London museum. It is a train, and somewhere with a roof at the other end.
- The West End is the driest night out in London and nobody says so: Three hours indoors, a bar, a cloakroom and a roof that has held since 1663. Theatre is the most weatherproof evening this city sells, and it is marketed on absolutely everything except that.
- Eight places that made me think: this would be a great date: I have been married a good while. Nobody needs me to find a date venue. The instinct has not got the memo.
- Eight small London museums that probably should not exist: A jar of moles, a surgical theatre in a church attic, and five thousand fans in Greenwich. All indoors, all real, none of them the British Museum.
- Your mate has flown in, it is raining, and London's reputation is now your problem: Five places that make London look like the city they were promised, none of which involve standing in it.
- Nine free places in London where nobody queues: Everyone knows the British Museum is free. Everyone also knows what the queue looks like at eleven on a wet Sunday. These nine are free too, and largely empty.
- Seven cool, dark rooms for when London hits thirty degrees: This is a website about staying dry, which makes it a website about weather, which means it also has to deal with the other thing London is spectacularly unequipped for.
Everywhere else