What can you do in London with a budget of just £10, including food and world-class experiences? Lara Joanna Jarvis recently set herself that challenge and shared the results with her Instagram followers, and said we could write up her adventures to share them with you too!
She started her day on Millennium Bridge, walking to the iconic Saint Paul's Cathedral on Lovegate Hill at the highest point in the City of London before taking a stroll through Festival Gardens and the lovely grounds.
Get your bearings in the gardens and then head towards Bank Station; the architecture around there is amazing. Next to the Bank of England building is the Royal Exchange, a historic Grade 1 building which is now full of luxury brand shops and fine dining restaurants. You can also grab a drink there - because when Queen Elizabeth I opened the building in 1571 she granted it a license to serve alcohol! Even though when it originally opened it of course wasn't a high end shopping centre, but rather London's first purpose built location for trading stocks. It's a truly beautiful building - and you can have a lovely walk through there and take a look at all of the things which are definitely not on our budget for this £10 London day out!
A couple of minutes walk from here is Leadenhall Market, which dates back to the 14th century. You may well recognise it from a film... spoiler alert, it's Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films (and we also feature it on one of our free self-guided film set walking tours of London). It's also said to have inspired sets from Wonka.
A few minutes' walk from here, you'll be headed up to the clouds, up to Sky Garden. You can book, but they also take walk-ins, and this is arguably the best view of London. The best part is it's absolutely free. It's also just a 4 minute walk from The Garden at 120, which we've reviewed previously, which is regarded as the largest public roof top garden in London. To be honest, we're not really clear about the different definitions as Sky Garden is larger and still free - so you choose which you prefer!
By now you'll have worked up a bit of an appetite, so take a walk across London Bridge with amazing views, towards Borough Market. This is a great spot for grabbing food and even though it can get super busy, there are so many delicious places to try new foods and eat your way around with free samples that it's definately worth a visit.
Heading slightly out onto Winchester Square, you can then head for some dinner, but remember Lara was doing this day with only £10 to spend. So she headed to Franco Manca to take advantage of their Pizza for £5 offer they are running for the whole of January 2025. If you want budget left for dessert, stick to tap water though!
After your meal, why not head back to Borough Market if you fancy something sweet so you can finish off with some delicious pudding? Lara opted for Humble Crumble, and decided it was so worth the viral hype in her opinion! At £5.50 though it did just send her over her £10 budget, with a total spend for the day of £10.50.
She then ended her day with a walk over the iconic Tower bridge towards the Tower of London.
Make sure you save this post, or head to her Instagram to save her reel, for next time you're in London.
