Date Ideas in Central London for Under £10 Each: Fares, Free Rooms and Cheap Tickets

How to keep a date under £10

The simplest rule is that the date's only real cost is getting around. Central London has enough free rooms, courtyards and parks that you can spend an afternoon moving between them and pay only for a bus or a boat. A coffee or a drink at the end will usually take you past £10, so plan whether that is part of the budget before you meet.

This guide deliberately leaves out two things we cover elsewhere. Free national museums and galleries, from Tate Modern to the Wallace Collection, are in our guide to free galleries and museums for a date. Cheap theatre schemes, including £5 Globe yard tickets and TKTS in Leicester Square, are in our cheap theatre guide. What follows are the places and fares that sit between those: free rooms people walk past, fares that turn a journey into part of the date, and offers with an age or student condition.

All prices below are as published on each organisation's own pages when checked on 14 October 2026. Transport prices in particular are about to change, so check again if your date falls after 1 November.

The bus as the date: £1.75 and the Hopper

TfL's bus and tram fares page lists an adult pay as you go fare of £1.75, paid by contactless or Oyster. The Hopper fare gives unlimited bus and tram journeys within one hour of first touching in, for the same £1.75, as long as you use the same card or device each time. If an Oyster card goes into a negative balance after the first journey, the Hopper does not apply unless you top up within the hour. The daily bus cap is £5.25.

TfL says bus and tram fares rise on 1 November 2026: pay as you go goes to £1.85, the daily cap to £5.55 and the weekly cap to £26.10. Its page does not give a separate figure for the Hopper after that date.

In practice this means two people can ride the top deck of a bus across central London, hop off, and change to a second bus within the hour for £1.75 each. Even if you take several buses through the day, the daily cap keeps the total under £6 each. Sit upstairs at the front and let the route do the sightseeing: the conversation tends to come from what you pass rather than from what you have to think of to say.

On the river: Thames Clippers fares that fit

Uber Boat by Thames Clippers prices its services by zone: West, Central and East, with your ticket needing to cover every zone you pass through. Its ticket page gives an adult single in the East or West zone as £9.40 at the pier, £7.20 online or in the app, and £6.20 off-peak or £7.40 peak with Oyster or contactless. A Central zone single is £16.40 at the pier, £11.70 online and £9.90 off-peak or £11.90 peak by Oyster or contactless.

So the only central boat ride that stays under £10 is an off-peak Central zone single paid by contactless or Oyster, and only on a weekday: the page says weekends and bank holidays are peak all day. The peak and off-peak windows on the page are not clearly laid out, so confirm the times before you travel. A one-zone trip at either end of the route, at £6.20 off-peak, leaves more room in the budget.

If one of you holds a TfL Travelcard on paper or loaded onto Oyster, the boat company gives a third off standard fares, and Oyster-linked Travelcards apply it automatically. Other formats, such as a contactless card, do not qualify. For which piers fall in which zone, the company points to its route map rather than listing them. Our guide to Thames boats and river trips covers longer cruises.

Somerset House and the Courtauld: a courtyard and a condition

Somerset House's opening times page lists the site as open Monday to Sunday 8am–11pm, with the Strand entrance open 8am–11pm, the Great Arch entrance on Victoria Embankment 8am–7pm, and the Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court, Seamen's Hall and River Terrace open 8am–11pm. It notes that the Fountain Court sometimes closes for concerts and events, and when checked it said the courtyard fountains were switched off. The page does not set out which areas are free or list prices, so treat exhibitions as separately ticketed and check them individually.

The Courtauld Gallery, inside Somerset House, is open daily 10am–6pm, with last entry at 5.15pm. Its permanent collection costs £16 for adults aged 19 and over, which is outside this budget, but it is free for students, anyone 18 or under, Universal Credit and Pension Credit holders, Art Fund members and teachers, among others. If either of you qualifies, it becomes one of the cheapest serious art collections in central London to visit together. Its current Salman Toor exhibition is £7 for students, and the gallery lists late openings to 8pm on 6 November, 4 December and 8 January 2027.

• Somerset Housearts centre and courtyard

  Strand, WC2

  Site open daily 8am–11pm; Fountain Court and River Terrace 8am–11pm, though the court sometimes closes for events.

• The Courtauld Galleryart gallery

  Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 0RN

  Daily 10am–6pm; £16 for adults, free for students, under-19s and some other groups.

The BFI on the South Bank: free archive, £4 films

The BFI Mediatheque at BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XT, is a free viewing space for the BFI National Archive. Its page says it is open Tuesday to Sunday 11am–9pm, closed on Mondays except bank holidays, and may close for private bookings, events and during the London Film Festival. You choose a booth, touch the screen and watch; headphones are provided, or you can bring your own wired pair. It holds over 180,000 titles, most of which cannot be watched at home because of rights.

For a date, pick a booth together and take turns choosing: an old public information film, a regional news clip, an episode of something one of you half remembers. The BFI says that for a special trip you should email the BFI Reuben Library to confirm it is open on your date, and the Reuben Library itself is also free.

If you are both between 16 and 25, BFI Southbank's own page offers £4 cinema tickets for any film at any time. That puts a proper cinema screening, in one of London's main repertory cinemas, well inside this budget. The box office is listed as open 11am to 8.45pm.

• BFI Mediatheque, BFI Southbankfree film archive viewing

  Belvedere Road, South Bank, SE1 8XT

  Free; Tuesday to Sunday 11am–9pm, closed Mondays except bank holidays. £4 cinema tickets for ages 16 to 25.

In the City: a Roman amphitheatre and a wall of heroes

The City of London's page for the Guildhall Art Gallery says admission to the gallery and to London's Roman Amphitheatre beneath it is free. Booking a general admission ticket is encouraged, but you can walk in on the day. City Guides run free introductory tours Tuesday to Sunday at 12.15pm and 1.15pm, lasting 30 to 45 minutes, with no booking needed. The page lists special closure days, so check it before travelling, and note that it does not give regular hours on the visit page itself.

A short walk away is Postman's Park, home to the Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice. According to Wikipedia, the painter George Frederic Watts proposed it in 1887, and it was unveiled unfinished in 1900 as a wall of ceramic tablets, each recording an ordinary person who died saving someone else. The early tablets were made by William De Morgan and later ones by Royal Doulton; 53 were in place when work stopped in 1931, and a 54th was added in 2009. The wall was designed for 120.

The two together make an hour that costs nothing, and the tablets in particular give you something real to talk about. They are short, specific and often moving, so it is worth reading a few in silence before saying anything.

• Guildhall Art Gallery and London's Roman Amphitheatrefree gallery and archaeology

  Guildhall, City of London

  Free admission; free introductory tours Tuesday to Sunday at 12.15pm and 1.15pm. Check listed closure days.

• Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice, Postman's Parkmemorial and small park

  Postman's Park, City of London

  Wall of 54 tablets to people who died saving others, begun in 1900.

St James's Park and the 2.30pm pelicans

The Royal Parks says pelicans have lived in St James's Park since 1664, when the Russian ambassador gave a pair to Charles II, and that more than 40 have lived there since. They are fed fish daily, usually around 2.30pm. The Royal Parks also reports that four chicks hatched recently, the first in the park in over 360 years; they are being kept in a secure area visitors cannot enter, and an extra morning feed has been added while they are young. Visitors are asked not to approach the chicks, and dogs must be on leads on the path around the lake.

The park page lists some pedestrian gates as open 5am to midnight and says food and drink are available. Time the walk so you reach the lake a little before 2.30pm, then carry on to the next free stop. Combined with a Hopper bus, it is an afternoon for £1.75 each.

• St James's Parkroyal park

  Westminster, SW1

  Pelicans fed daily around 2.30pm; chicks in a closed area; some gates open 5am to midnight.

Before you go

• Check fares if your date is on or after 1 November 2026, when TfL's bus fare rises to £1.85 and the daily bus cap to £5.55.
• Use the same contactless card or device for every bus journey, or the Hopper will not apply; on the river, Oyster or contactless is cheaper than buying at the pier.
• Weekend boat travel is charged at peak fares all day, which pushes a Central zone single to £11.90.
• Check the Guildhall Art Gallery's page for closure days, and email the BFI Reuben Library if you are making a special trip to the Mediatheque.
• If you are relying on a student or under-26 price, bring proof: the Courtauld's free entry and BFI's £4 tickets both depend on it.

Questions people ask

What is the cheapest way to see central London on a date?

The bus. TfL charges £1.75 per journey by contactless or Oyster, and the Hopper lets you take more buses within an hour of first touching in for no extra charge. The daily bus cap is £5.25. Fares rise to £1.85 on 1 November 2026, with the daily cap rising to £5.55.

Can you take a Thames boat for under £10?

Yes, within limits. Uber Boat by Thames Clippers charges £6.20 off-peak and £7.40 peak for an East or West zone single by Oyster or contactless. A Central zone single is £9.90 off-peak on weekdays but £11.90 at peak, and weekends are peak all day.

Is the BFI Mediatheque free?

Yes. The BFI says the Mediatheque at BFI Southbank is a free viewing space, open Tuesday to Sunday 11am–9pm and closed on Mondays except bank holidays. It may close for private events and during the London Film Festival, so the BFI suggests emailing its Reuben Library before a special trip.

When are the St James's Park pelicans fed?

The Royal Parks says the pelicans are fed fish daily, usually around 2.30pm, with an extra morning feed while recently hatched chicks are young. The chicks are kept in a secure area that visitors cannot enter.