Eight free days out across Lambeth, plus a £9.50 lido swim and a £5 windmill tour. Opening hours, prices and postcodes, checked against each venue this week.

Lambeth has a genuinely unusual set of days out for one borough: a 1930s lido, a working windmill, a national museum with free entry, a gallery built to house Damien Hirst’s art collection, a city farm and 85 hectares of common. Most of it costs nothing.

Everything below was checked against the venue’s own site or the council’s in the week of 9 August 2026. Prices and hours change, so the link on each entry goes straight to the source.

Free

Clapham Common

Free. Open 24 hours. SW4. Over 85 hectares, which makes it one of the largest open spaces in inner London. Three ponds, used for fishing and model boating, a Victorian bandstand, two woodlands, species-rich meadows, three cafés, two playgrounds, a paddling pool, a skatepark and a community garden. It is a Local Nature Reserve, so the meadows are managed rather than mown. Toilets and cafés keep their own hours even though the common itself never closes (Lambeth).

Brockwell Park

Free. Open 7.30am to 15 minutes before sunset. SE24. The hilly one, with the best view in the borough from the top. Inside it: a walled “Old English” flower garden, Brockwell Hall, ponds and ancient oaks, a community-run ride-on miniature railway, a community-run BMX track, tennis and basketball courts, grass football pitches, a playground and a wet play area. The wet play runs seasonally, normally from the last Saturday in May to the last weekend in September (Lambeth).

Streatham Common and The Rookery

Free. Open 7.30am to 30 minutes before dusk. Covington Way, SW16 3BX. The common has woodland, grassland, meadows, streams, a picnic area, a large playground, a café, toilets and a seasonal paddling pool. Tucked into it is The Rookery, a Grade II listed historic garden and a Local Nature Reserve since 2013, with ornamental ponds, an Old English Garden, a White Garden, an orchard and a community garden, next to a café, toilets, bookable tennis courts and a car park (Lambeth).

IWM London

Free. 10am to 6pm, every day except 24 to 26 December. Lambeth Road, SE1 6HZ. A national museum in the borough with free entry and no need to book. The permanent galleries run from the trenches of the First World War through the Blitz and the Cold War to the present day (IWM).

Newport Street Gallery

Free. Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm. 1 Newport Street, SE11 6AJ. Damien Hirst’s gallery in Vauxhall, in a converted Victorian scenery-painting studio, showing work from his own collection across six spaces, one of them with an 11-metre ceiling. The current exhibition is Jack White: THESE THOUGHTS MAY DISAPPEAR, running to 13 September 2026 (Newport Street Gallery).

Vauxhall City Farm

Free entry, £4 suggested donation. Tuesday to Sunday, 10.30am to 4pm, last entry 3.45pm. 165 Tyers Street, SE11 5HS. A working city farm five minutes from Vauxhall station, with a riding school alongside it (Vauxhall City Farm).

Black Cultural Archives

Free, by appointment only. 1 Windrush Square, Brixton, SW2 1EF. The national repository for the histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain. All visits are by appointment; the reading room and library open Wednesday 12pm to 5pm and Thursday and Friday 11am to 5pm, and you book a slot through their collections system before coming (Black Cultural Archives).

Brixton Village and Market Row

Free to wander. SW9. The covered market arcades off Atlantic Road and Coldharbour Lane, a mix of grocers, butchers, fabric shops and about as many places to eat as any street in south London. Individual traders keep their own hours.

Worth paying for

Brockwell Lido

Adult £9.50, child £6.00. Pool open 8am to 3pm daily. Dulwich Road, SE24 0PA. A 1930s outdoor pool in Brockwell Park, and the borough’s best-known building after the town hall. The wider centre opens 6.30am to 9pm Monday to Thursday, to 8pm on Friday, and 7.30am to 6.30pm at weekends (Active Lambeth).

Garden Museum

Adult £16, concession £13, students and unemployed £9, children 7 to 18 £9, under 6 free. Open daily 10am to 5pm. Lambeth Palace Road, SE1 7LB. In the deconsecrated church of St Mary-at-Lambeth next to Lambeth Palace, with a garden in the churchyard. It occasionally closes early for events, so check the day before (Garden Museum).

Brixton Windmill

£5 per person. Tours on the second weekend of each month, March to October. SW2. A working windmill in Brixton, opened to the public by its volunteer trust. Tours book online and slots sell out, so do not turn up hoping (Brixton Windmill).

Streatham Ice and Leisure Centre

390 Streatham High Road, SW16 6HX. Open 6am to 10pm Monday to Friday, 7am to 7pm at weekends. An Olympic-size ice rink plus a 25-metre lane pool, a 13-metre teaching pool, a 100-station gym, fitness studios and a sports hall. Public skating sessions run for 60 minutes and the council advises booking online in advance; prices are on the booking system rather than the information page (Lambeth).

The Ritzy, Brixton

Child tickets £3 for any film at any time. The Picturehouse cinema in Brixton, and the cheapest way to take children to the pictures anywhere near here (Picturehouse).

What a day out in Lambeth costs per adult A price ladder of days out in Lambeth. Free: Clapham Common, Brockwell Park, Streatham Common and The Rookery, IWM London, Newport Street Gallery, Vauxhall City Farm with a four pound suggested donation, Black Cultural Archives by appointment, and Brixton Village. Paid: a child cinema ticket at the Ritzy is three pounds, a Brixton Windmill tour is five pounds, a swim at Brockwell Lido is six pounds for a child and nine pounds fifty for an adult, and the Garden Museum is sixteen pounds for an adult and nine pounds for a child. Eight of the twelve cost nothing, and the dearest is £16 Adult admission, checked against each venue's own site, week of 9 August 2026. Free Clapham Common, 85 hectares, open 24 hours Brockwell Park, walled garden and miniature railway Streatham Common and The Rookery IWM London, no booking needed Newport Street Gallery, Tuesday to Sunday Vauxhall City Farm, £4 donation suggested Black Cultural Archives, by appointment Brixton Village and Market Row Paid, per adult unless shown £3 The Ritzy, any child ticket, any film £5 Brixton Windmill tour £6 Brockwell Lido, child swim £9.50 Brockwell Lido, adult swim £9 Garden Museum, child 7 to 18 £16 Garden Museum, adult Streatham Ice prices sit on the booking system, not the information page. Bars are to scale against the £16 top price. Check the venue before travelling: opening hours change more often than prices do.
A family of four can fill a weekend in Lambeth for the price of two museum tickets.

If you only have one day

With children and no money: Brockwell Park in the morning for the miniature railway and the wet play, then walk down Dulwich Road to Brixton Village for lunch. If it is a second weekend of the month between March and October, add the windmill for £5.

Rain: IWM London, free, all day, and no booking. If you want something quieter afterwards, Newport Street Gallery is 20 minutes’ walk along the Albert Embankment and also free.

Hot day: Brockwell Lido at £9.50, then the top of Brockwell Park. The pool is open 8am to 3pm, which is earlier than most people expect, so an afternoon plan will not work.

Cold day: the Olympic-size rink at Streatham, then Streatham Common and The Rookery if the light holds.

Also in the borough

The Kia Oval in Kennington is Surrey’s home ground and hosts Test cricket. The Southbank Centre, the National Theatre and the London Eye are all in Lambeth too, on the SE1 riverside, though they are usually filed under central London rather than under the borough.

Frequently asked questions

What is there to do in Clapham for free?

Clapham Common is the obvious one: 85 hectares, open 24 hours, with a bandstand, three ponds, a paddling pool, a skatepark and three cafés. Within a couple of miles you also have Brockwell Park, Streatham Common and The Rookery, IWM London, Newport Street Gallery and Vauxhall City Farm, all free.

How much is Brockwell Lido?

£9.50 for an adult and £6.00 for a child. The pool is open 8am to 3pm daily. It has been run by Active Lambeth, the council’s own service, since 1 July 2026.

Can you go inside Brixton Windmill?

Yes. Tours run on the second weekend of every month from March to October and cost £5 per person. They book online and sell out, so do not turn up on spec.

Is IWM London free?

Yes, and you do not need to book. It opens 10am to 6pm every day except 24 to 26 December, on Lambeth Road, SE1 6HZ.

What can you do in Lambeth when it rains?

IWM London and Newport Street Gallery are both free and indoors. Streatham Ice and Leisure Centre has an Olympic-size rink and two pools. The Ritzy in Brixton charges £3 for any child ticket at any time.

Where can I take children in Streatham?

Streatham Common has a large playground, woodland, a café and a seasonal paddling pool, with The Rookery gardens attached, all free. Streatham Ice and Leisure Centre on the High Road has the rink, a teaching pool and a sports hall.

Related

Sources

Opening hours and prices were correct on 9 August 2026. Check the venue’s own site before you travel, particularly for anything seasonal.