What to do in Leicester Square

Get your glitz on at one of London’s most glamorous addresses. Yep, we’re talking lively Leicester Square, where Hollywood A-listers tread the red carpet at movie premieres and booths hawk tickets to the hottest shows in town. Read on for our guide to all the best things to do on Leicester Square, including snapping selfies with Paddington Bear and hitting a sugar high at the cavernous M&Ms store.

By <a href="#author-bio">Stuart Bak</a>
By Stuart Bak
Published: February 19, 2025
People walking on a red carpet

Go to the Movies

Flashbulbs popping as photographers snap a celebrity

Ask your average Joe or Jane what they know about Leicester Square and odds are they’ll say something about the movies. In fact you could say this place is synonymous with the silver screen. There are four cinemas on the square itself, and several more in the surrounding streets. The Odeon and Cineworld (formerly the Empire) are perhaps the best-known, having played host to many hundreds of glitzy movie premieres between them down the decades.

People eating popcorn and laughing in the cinema

Stars including Tom Cruise and Margot Robbie have walked the hallowed red carpet here to the pop of camera bulbs and the deafening screams of adoring fans. And it’s frankly impossible to resist striking your own best Ethan Hunt or Harley Quinn pose beneath the facades of these iconic picture houses. You can even pitch up to spectate at one of Leicester Square’s many premieres – a golden opportunity to nab #humblebrag selfies with the Hollywood A-list.

You’ll find most of the latest big-budget blockbusters playing at Vue, Cineworld and the Odeon on Leicester Square, but you can also catch old-school classics, indie arthouse flicks, foreign films and even musical singalongs at the effortlessly cool Prince Charles Cinema, just off the square on Leicester Place.

Watch the Free Street Entertainment

Street performers dressed as clowns

Leicester Square is also a fine place to grab a coffee, find a bench and simply watch the world go by, not least because of the plethora of live street entertainment you can expect to experience here at all times of day and night. Look out for gold-dipped human statues, budding Adeles and Ed Sheerans, and fire-jugglers giving it their all during the day. As night descends, the professional street performers thin out, giving way to amateur have-a-go artists, their off-key caterwauling often coinciding with throwing-out time at the many local watering holes in and around the square.

Shop Leicester Square Superstores

Child playing with colourful toy plastic bricks

Two titans of US and Danish culture straddle Leicester Square’s western entrance like capitalist colossi. Yes, we’re talking about the twin delights of M&Ms London and The Lego Store, respectively the planet’s largest candy and plastic brick emporia.

M&Ms London is serious business, with seven floors dedicated to the colourful chocolates. Join the party with your fave characters as they dance and bounce their way around their hallucinatory universe, treat yourself to branded apparel bearing the famous logo, and prepare to experience a sugar rush simply by setting eyes on the Everestian candy wall. 

Further kaleidoscopic adventures await over at The Lego Store. There are plenty of hands-on play opportunities and eye-popping Lego models here, including Harry Potter and Marvel characters, plus a recreation of Big Ben that stands over 20 feet tall. You can book a session to render your own portrait in Lego, thanks to the mighty Mosaic Maker, as well as designing mini figures in your own image at the Minifigure Factory. In a word: epic.

Bag Cheap West End Tickets

Sign advertising theatre tickets on Leicester Square

The TKTS booth has been operating on Leicester Square for nearly 50 years, bringing affordable West End tickets to the masses. It’s run by the Society of London Theatre and sells cut-price seats for performances the same evening. If you’re open to catching whichever shows happen to have last-minute seats on sale, this could well be for you. You might even save enough for a quick pre-theatre dinner, before heading off to be haunted by the Phantom of the Opera or to sing your heart out at Wicked.

Check out our full guide to getting cheap London attraction and theatre tickets here, and hit the buttons below to save up to 47% on top London attractions, tours and activities with The London Pass®.

Put Yourself in the Picture

In-keeping with its long association with the movies, Leicester Square is also home to a ‘Scenes in the Square’ sculpture trail, in which fictional legends of the silver screen can be spotted perched on benches, swinging on street lights and hanging out on the tops of buildings. We won’t spoil the fun by telling you where to find all of them, but to give you a flavour, you can expect to share a marmalade sandwich with Paddington Bear, spot Mary Poppins (and her trusty umbrella) touching down in the gardens, and grab a selfie with Mr Bean. Though locating the elusive Wonder Woman statue may well leave you climbing the walls…

Eat Your Way Through Chinatown

Traditional fish-shaped taiyaki cakes in a bakery window

Leicester Square lies a single block south of London’s vibrant Chinatown district. And indeed you can often catch the scent of ducks roasting and garlic frying as it drifts in on the breeze, though there is of course stiff olfactory competition from the ubiquitous cinema popcorn and aforementioned M&Ms chocolate emporium.

Follow your nose round the back of Cineworld to Gerrard Street, Chinaworld’s main thoroughfare, from where you can take your pick of the finest Asian cooking in town. Find a favourite spot for hotpot or spicy Sichuan curries, or make straight for the authentic bakeries where delectably sweet treats including egg custard tarts and traditional taiyaki – fish-shaped cakes with a sweet azuki-bean filling – await. Yum.

Read our ultimate guide to London’s Chinatown here.

Save big on Attractions near Leicester Square

Woman taking a selfie in front of Westminster Abbey

Leicester Square’s central location puts it within stumbling distance of dozens of top London attractions and landmarks. We’re talking – deep breath – the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the British Museum, the London Eye and loads more. Entry to many of the city’s top ticketed attractions is included with The London Pass® which is available for up to 10 days of consecutive sightseeing and could save you up to 47% on regular admission costs. Find out more and get your London Pass here.

Stuart Bak
Stuart Bak
Freelance travel writer

Stu caught the travel bug at an early age, thanks to childhood road trips to the south of France squeezed into the back of a Ford Cortina with two brothers and a Sony Walkman. Now a freelance writer living on the Norfolk coast, Stu has produced content for travel giants including Frommer’s, British Airways, Expedia, Mr & Mrs Smith, and now Go City. His most memorable travel experiences include drinking kava with the locals in Fiji and pranging a taxi driver’s car in the Honduran capital.

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The Royal Naval College in Greenwich, South London.
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South London Attractions

South London is the catch-all term employed for much of the area ‘sarf’ of the River Thames, a mystical zone where West End cabbies fear to tread and where the cool kids hang out at trendy Peckham and Brixton cocktail bars. It’s also where you’ll find fab London landmarks like the Crystal Palace Park dinosaurs, Brockwell Lido, and the fascinating Horniman Museum with its famously overstuffed walrus mascot. Read on for our pick of the South London attractions you should go out of your way to see. Greenwich There are a great many attractions to tempt day trippers to ultra-hip Greenwich, the historic village that sits on a sharp bend of the Thames’s south bank. Chief among these are the Cutty Sark, Royal Museums and Royal Observatory, but there’s loads more to enjoy here. Shop the cute Greenwich Market (and sample some of the wonderful street food here while you’re at it); take in fine city views from Greenwich Park; and check out the latest contemporary art, fashion and photography from local artists at the NOW Gallery. But, most of all, don’t miss the chance to take a stroll beneath the Thames itself, via the awesome Greenwich Foot Tunnel. This marvel of early 20th-century engineering is 1,215 feet of cast-iron, concrete and white-glazed tiles, set 50 feet beneath the surface of the river. Emerge at the southern tip of the Isle of Dogs for spellbinding views back across the Thames to the Royal Observatory. The Crystal Palace Park Dinosaurs Named for the huge glass structure that was relocated here from Hyde Park following the Great Exhibition in 1851 (but sadly now long gone), Crystal Palace Park is a typical Victorian pleasure garden that retains many of its playful original features and quirks. Case in point: the much-loved crumbling dinosaur sculptures that bask in and around the lake. What these beautiful beasts lack in realism they more than make up for in charm, with the high camp of the megalosaurus proving a particular highlight. Fill your boots with fun selfies then stroll the park’s curvaceous lanes, taking in replica sphinxes, haunted statues, a cool maze, and Crystal Palace Bowl, the legendary outdoor venue where Bob Marley played his last ever UK gig. Horniman Museum and Gardens It’s a truth universally acknowledged that London’s smaller museums are often its most interesting. The Horniman proves the theory by way of a fascinating collection of some 350,000 anthropological artifacts that includes Asian puppets, European wind instruments, Navajo textiles and more. Equally eye-popping is the natural history section, where the menagerie of taxidermy beasts of yore includes the overstuffed walrus that is the museum’s emblem. He’s been around since 1901– that's as long as the museum itself. Look out too for the ‘Horniman merman’ – truly the stuff of nightmares. Brockwell Lido Swimming outdoors at all times of year is a peculiar pastime of South Londoners, with the hardiest of swimmers frequenting the iconic Brockwell Lido right through the depths of winter. Let’s be clear: this art-deco South London landmark is a) open-air and b) unheated, so you might want to consider visiting in the somewhat sultrier summer months, rather than during a January blizzard. Though, boy, nothing will earn you the right to that post-dip hot chocolate (with extra marshmallows) faster than a 40°F dip in your smalls. Brixton Village Brixton’s bright lights and eye-candy street art will have your camera popping the second you step off the Tube. Pay homage at the shrine to Brixton boy David Bowie, then follow the huge neon sign down Electric Avenue to Brixton Village, humming the classic Eddy Grant hit as you go. Inside this covered foodie mecca, trains thunder overhead and the heady aromas of jerk chicken and freshly roasted coffee intermingle. Roll the dice and take your pick from – deep breath – artisan pizza, belly-busting burritos, dirty burgers, Vietnamese street food and more. But the smart money here goes on colorful modern Caribbean cuisine: curried mutton roti, cod fish fritters, fried plantain and spicy rice for the win. Dulwich Picture Gallery Housed in a Grade II-listed early 19th-century building designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane, Dulwich Picture Gallery packs a quite extraordinary punch for its relatively diminutive size. For inside this South London gem is where you’ll find one of the country’s finest collections of Old Masters, some 600 pieces with a focus on French, Italian and Spanish Baroque art and British portraits from the Tudor era to the 19th Century. Rembrandt, Canaletto, Gainsborough, Rubens and Constable provide some of the best wow moments. Nunhead Cemetery The second-largest and arguably most impressive of London’s Magnificent Seven Victorian cemeteries, Nunhead promises 52 acres of haunting landscape for tombstone tourists to explore. Think grand, vine-clad memorials to the great and good of 19th and 20th Century London, including inventors, engineers, MPs and music hall legends of the Victorian era. As woodland has encroached on the cemetery over the years, so too has the native wildlife. Arrive at just the right twilight hour for spooky sightings of tawny owls, pipistrelle bats and urban foxes. Maltby Street Market One of London’s cooler but lesser-known markets, Bermondsey’s Maltby Street is the kind of place to arrive hungry and leave with a great big sourdough cheese toastie-induced smile across your face. There are cool street food stalls galore at this weekend market, which takes place beneath soaring Victorian railway arches, providing the perfect backdrop to your next set of IG food shots. Try waffles with fried buttermilk chicken, Venezuelan rainbow arepas and black pudding scotch eggs for the win, then hit up Bermondsey’s nearby ‘beer mile’ to sample some of the coolest craft ales in town, fresh from the brewery taprooms. Streatham Rookery South London attractions don’t come much more manicured than Streatham Rookery. Set within Streatham Common, this hidden gem is one of the city’s finest formal gardens, its cascading terraces crammed with ornamental hedges, lily-covered ponds, stone sundials and vibrant beds of wildflowers and herbaceous plants. Grab a mini picnic from the café and find yourself a quiet nook to watch the birds, bees and butterflies flitting among the plants and trees. You might even be lucky enough to catch an open-air theatrical performance here in summer. Save on Activities and Attractions in London Save on admission to London attractions with The London Pass. Check out @GoCity on Instagram for the latest top tips and attraction info.
Stuart Bak
Stuart Bak
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Things to do on Remembrance Day in London
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Things to do on Remembrance Day in London

If you're looking for things to do on Remembrance Day in London, check out our guide and discover everything you need to know to commemorate this momentuous day. Including: What is Remembrance Day? The history of Remembrance Day Why do we honour Remembrance Day? Things to do on Remembrance Day in London Other things to do on Remembrance Day in London What is Remembrance Day? This sacred day, marked annually on the 11th of November, carries a unique weight and history, not just in London but across the United Kingdom and far beyond its shores. It is a day that compels the entire city to pause and pay homage to the courage, sacrifice, and unwavering dedication of those who have served their nation in times of conflict. Remembrance Day is an occasion that transcends its historical origins; it symbolizes unity, respect, and gratitude, reminding us that we must never forget the lessons of the past. It underscores the unyielding values of peace, democracy, and the freedoms we cherish today. The history of Remembrance Day It falls on the 11th month of the 11th day of the 11th year because that's when the armistice between the Central Powers, made up of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire, and the Allied Powers, made up of Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Canada, Japan, and the United States, began. The armistice was signed at around 5AM, but it would take time to disseminate the end of the conflict to units across the war's many battlefields. This momentous occasion ended the deadliest human conflict of all time and laid the groundwork for the ceremony we honour today. From those early beginnings, Remembrance Day has evolved into a day of reflection and gratitude, not just for the fallen, but for every person who has gone to war. It's often remembered with the iconic red poppy, which frequently grew on the graves of fallen soldiers during the war. This humble flower was immortalised thanks to the poignant war poem In Flanders Fields by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. Why do we honour Remembrance Day? Remembrance Day is a poignant reminder of the sacrifices and courage of those of us who have worn or still wear their nation's uniform. It's a tribute to their unwavering dedication to duty, sacrifice, and valour. Through commemorating these sacrifices, we honor the values of freedom, democracy, and peace that they fought to protect. Remembrance Day isn't merely an exercise in historical remembrance; it reinforces our shared humanity. It unites us in acknowledging our collective responsibility to ensure it never happens again. This day underscores the importance of striving for a world where conflict makes way for dialogue and understanding. It's also a day that transcends borders. The act of remembrance isn't confined to one nation or culture. It's a universal gesture that speaks to the fundamental principles of honor, respect, and gratitude. Through this observance, we weave a tapestry of shared humanity that extends far beyond national identities. Remembrance Day is a day of reflection, gratitude, and unity. It's a day when we pay homage to the past while renewing our commitment to shaping a future marked by peace, understanding, and the enduring values for which so many have sacrificed. In the heart of London, and indeed the world, it stands as a powerful testament to the enduring strength of the human spirit. Things to do on Remembrance Day in London So, let's talk about things to do on Remembrance Day in London. The first, and arguably most famous event, is the Cenotaph service. The Cenotaph, an imposing Whitehall monument, is the focal point of the nation's remembrance. Here, government officials, members of the Royal Family, veterans, and representatives of the armed forces gather in a powerful display of unity and tribute. The moment of silence, marked by the chiming of Big Ben, encapsulates the gravity of the occasion. The Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance is another highlight. This annual event at the Royal Albert Hall is a magnificent tribute combining music, drama, and poignant remembrances. It's a night of reflection and gratitude, where artists and performers unite to honor the fallen and those who continue to serve. For those who seek a more personal and reflective experience, the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey provides a sacred space for reflection. It's a sea of thousands of small wooden crosses, each representing an individual life lost in conflict. Visitors can plant their own cross and pay their respects in a deeply personal way. These are just a few of the many Remembrance Day events that London hosts, each offering a unique perspective on the significance of this day. The city's rich history and unwavering commitment to remembrance create a solemn and inspiring atmosphere. London's events pay homage to the past and inspire a collective commitment to a future marked by peace and unity. Other things to do on Remembrance Day in London If you'll be in London for a few days, or want something to do between Remembrance Day events, check out our picks of other things to do on the day. The first is the Guards Museum, which is dedicated to the elite soldiers handpicked to protect the King or Queen, as well as the Royal Palaces. The museum itself explores how the role of these guards has evolved through the centuries, features artefacts like uniforms that date back to the English Civil War, as well as tonnes of learning materials and photo opportunities. Next is the Royal Airforce Museum, which charts the history of Britain's airborne fighting force - which was created during the First World War. Inside, you'll see a huge number of replica planes, and learn about the brave men and women who piloted them. And finally, you could go and see the Changing of the Guard, the ceremony where the New Guard replaces the King's Guard. It's a grand affair, and one you shouldn't miss while in London! Of course, there's so much more to do and see in England's capital, and with the London Pass, you can see all the city's best bits for one low price!
Dom Bewley
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