Museums and Arcades: A Dry Route Through South Kensington and Mayfair

Direction
From South Kensington station, take the covered subway signposted to the museums, which runs almost the whole way under Exhibition Road. Come up the stairs directly outside the museum's main entrance.

See
A cathedral-like Victorian building with a blue whale skeleton hanging in the entrance hall and dinosaur skeletons through the east wing. Free to enter, and one of the few places in London where a rainy morning improves the experience by thinning the crowd.

Navi Tip
Use the Exhibition Road entrance rather than the main Cromwell Road steps. It is quieter and skips the worst of the queue.

Time here: 1 hr

Direction
Exit onto Exhibition Road and walk north about 150 m. The entrance sits almost directly opposite the Natural History Museum's side door.

See
Steam engines, an early jet engine, and a top floor devoted to flight and space. Also free, and large enough to fill an hour without repeating a room.

Navi Tip
The ground-floor cafe gets loud with school groups by lunchtime. The quieter cafe is on level 3.

Time here: 50 min

Direction
Continue north on Exhibition Road for around 250 m. The V&A entrance has a domed glass roof visible from the street.

See
Design, fashion, and sculpture spanning centuries, including cast courts full of plaster reproductions of European monuments. The courtyard cafe sits under cover in bad weather.

Navi Tip
The John Madejski Garden courtyard has a shallow pool that is oddly calming even when it is tipping down outside the glass.

Time here: 45 min

Direction
Walk back to South Kensington station, one stop, and take the Piccadilly line to Green Park. This keeps you underground for the transfer rather than crossing Hyde Park Corner on foot in the rain.

See
Green Park itself is plain by design, all grass and mature trees with no flower beds, but you are only passing through it to reach the arcades.

Navi Tip
If the rain has eased, the walk above ground along Knightsbridge and Piccadilly is more interesting than the Tube, about 25 minutes.

Time here: 15 min

Direction
From Green Park station, cross Piccadilly at the lights and walk east about 300 m. The arcade entrance is a narrow covered opening between shopfronts.

See
A glass-roofed Regency shopping arcade from 1819, still patrolled by uniformed beadles who once enforced rules against whistling and running. The shops are high-end, but the arcade itself is free to walk through.

Navi Tip
Fully covered end to end, so this is the driest 200 metres on the whole route.

Time here: 15 min

Direction
Exit Burlington Arcade onto Burlington Gardens, loop back to Piccadilly, and cross into the smaller Piccadilly Arcade opposite. It leads down to Jermyn Street.

See
A shorter, curved arcade of shirtmakers and shoe shops, then Jermyn Street itself, lined with awnings even where the arcade ends.

Navi Tip
Paxton and Whitfield on Jermyn Street sells cheese by weight and is worth a look even if you are not buying.

Time here: 20 min

Direction
Walk north up Regent Street's lower end for about 400 m under its wide shop awnings until the neon signs of Piccadilly Circus come into view.

See
London's busiest junction, ringed by digital billboards and the statue commonly called Eros. Mostly a photo stop and a transport hub rather than a destination in itself.

Navi Tip
The steps around the statue are a reasonable place to shelter under an umbrella while you check onward transport, since three Tube lines meet here.

Time here: 10 min