Underrated Hidden Gems in London
Written by UK Hidden Gems Editorial
Updated 5 August 2026
The underrated hidden gems in London are Two Chairmen Pub, Diana Fountain, The Smallest Police Station in the UK, Highgate Cemetery, Churchill War Rooms, Greenwich Foot Tunnel, Eel Pie Island and Eltham Palace.
London hides an astonishing amount in plain sight, and even seasoned visitors walk past its quieter corners without a second glance. Away from the well-trodden sights are back-street pubs, curious relics and layered histories that reward anyone who slows down to look.
There is the Two Chairmen, a listed pub tucked behind St James's Park, the Diana Fountain rising from its pond in Bushy Park, and the tiny police post built into a lamp on Trafalgar Square. Some spots on this list are ticketed or well-visited rather than truly obscure, such as Highgate Cemetery, the Churchill War Rooms and Eltham Palace, yet each is easy to overlook and richly rewarding once you go.
Others come with quirks of access, from the round-the-clock Greenwich Foot Tunnel under the Thames to Eel Pie Island, which stays largely private but opens its artists' studios a few weekends a year. Together they show a city that keeps its best stories just off the main route.
Here are eight underrated hidden gems to seek out in London.
Two Chairmen Pub
Photo: Andrew Abbott via Geograph.org.uk
Two Chairmen Pub The name reaches back to the men who once carried sedan chairs and waited here for fares in the eighteenth century, when a royal cockpit stood across the way. This small, old back-street pub sits at 39 Dartmouth Street in Westminster, facing Queen Anne's Gate and a short step from St James's Park.
The listed building keeps its bench seating and an eighteenth-century painted mural on the back wall. One word of warning: a separate pub of the same name stands near Trafalgar Square, so the two are easily muddled by anyone going on the name alone.
Diana Fountain
Photo: Marathon via Geograph.org.uk
Diana Fountain stands on the long Chestnut Avenue in Bushy Park, near Hampton Court, a tall ornamental fountain rising from a round pond. A gilded bronze figure tops a tiered marble base ringed with bronze boys, nymphs and shells.
Despite the name, the figure is not really Diana. The fountain was restored and re-gilded in recent years and makes a centrepiece on Wren's grand approach to the palace.
Often passed by visitors making straight for Hampton Court, it rewards a pause on the avenue, so seek it out on a walk through the park.
The Smallest Police Station in the UK
Photo: John Salmon via Geograph.org.uk
The Smallest Police Station in the UK amounts to a tiny, one-person post carved into a hollowed-out stone lamp-holder at the south-east corner of London's Trafalgar Square. Not much more than a round stone box pierced with slit windows, it was fashioned in the 1920s so that officers could keep an eye on demonstrations filling the square and telephone for reinforcements, and it stayed in use until radios rendered it pointless.
The nickname flatters it, for with neither cells nor a desk it was never truly a police station. It still stands on its corner, crowned by its lamp, a small oddity most people stride right past.
Look for it as you cross the square.
Highgate Cemetery
Photo: Jim Osley via Geograph.org.uk
Highgate Cemetery is a Victorian garden cemetery in north London, split by Swains Lane into an east and a west side. The older west side, opened in 1839, holds the Egyptian Avenue and the Circle of Lebanon, ringed by tombs and overgrown greenery, while the east side, opened in 1860, is where Karl Marx lies beneath a large bronze bust, along with George Eliot, Douglas Adams and George Michael.
A charitable trust has run it since 1975, and it is still a working cemetery. Entry is ticketed, with guided and self-guided visits booked ahead.
Well-known yet easy to leave for another day, it richly rewards those who make time to seek it out.
Churchill War Rooms
Photo: David Dixon via Geograph.org.uk
Churchill War Rooms occupy a warren of preserved wartime offices hidden beneath Whitehall in Westminster, run today as a branch of the Imperial War Museums. Two attractions sit side by side underground: the original Cabinet War Rooms, with the Map Room and Cabinet Room left much as they stood in 1945, and the modern Churchill Museum, which traces the wartime leader's life through personal belongings and an interactive timeline.
The complex was pressed into service in 1939, sealed up once the war ended, and finally opened to the public in 1984. You will find the way in at Clive Steps on King Charles Street.
Book ahead and descend into history.
Greenwich Foot Tunnel
Photo: Stanley Howe via Geograph.org.uk
Greenwich Foot Tunnel runs under the River Thames, linking Greenwich on the south bank with the Isle of Dogs on the north. Opened in 1902, it is a tiled cast-iron tube about 370 metres long, entered through round brick buildings capped with glazed domes at each end, with lifts and spiral stairs down to it.
Walkers use it around the clock, and cyclists must get off and push. It comes up on the north side by Island Gardens, with a celebrated view back to the old buildings of Greenwich.
Quietly threaded beneath the river, it is an easily missed way to seek out that classic view of Greenwich.
Eel Pie Island
Photo: Basher Eyre via Geograph.org.uk
Eel Pie Island is a small inhabited island in the Thames at Twickenham in southwest London, reached on foot by a footbridge. It holds around fifty homes, a boatyard, and a cluster of artists' studios that open to the public a few weekends a year, with most of the island private the rest of the time.
In the late 1950s and 1960s the island's hotel was a well-known music venue where the Rolling Stones and The Who played, before it burned down in 1971. Largely off-limits day to day, it is best sought out on one of those open weekends, when its creative corner welcomes visitors.
Eltham Palace
Photo: Rob Farrow via Geograph.org.uk
Eltham Palace is a former royal palace in southeast London where a medieval great hall is joined to a striking Art Deco house of the 1930s. The great hall, with its huge hammerbeam roof, was built in the 1470s under Edward IV, and Henry VIII spent much of his childhood here.
In 1933 Stephen and Virginia Courtauld leased the site and built the modern house alongside, with richly designed interiors. English Heritage runs it, set in gardens crossed by a moat with a surviving medieval bridge.
Often overshadowed by grander central attractions, this unusual pairing of eras is well worth the trip out to seek it out.
FAQs
Which of these London gems need tickets?
Highgate Cemetery is ticketed, with guided and self-guided visits booked ahead, and the Churchill War Rooms and Eltham Palace are also run as paid attractions by the Imperial War Museums and English Heritage. The Two Chairmen pub, Diana Fountain and the little police post sit out in public spaces.
How do I get to Eel Pie Island?
Eel Pie Island lies in the Thames at Twickenham and is reached on foot by a footbridge. Most of the island stays private, but its artists' studios open to the public a few weekends a year, which is the best time to visit.
Where is the smallest police station in the UK?
It stands at the south-east corner of Trafalgar Square, built into a hollowed-out stone lamp-holder. Despite the nickname it was never really a police station, and it is easy to walk straight past among the crowds.
Conclusion
London rewards anyone who steps a little off the obvious route. Some of these gems are genuine curiosities, from the Two Chairmen pub and the lamp-post police post on Trafalgar Square to the Diana Fountain in Bushy Park and the tiled Greenwich Foot Tunnel under the river.
Others, like Highgate Cemetery, the Churchill War Rooms and Eltham Palace, are ticketed and well-visited yet easy to keep putting off, and each repays the effort of finally going. Eel Pie Island, largely private, opens its studios only a handful of weekends a year.
Check tickets, opening times and open weekends before you set out, since access varies from place to place. Slow down, look a little closer, and you will find that these are the underrated hidden gems to seek out in London.
