Eleven of these cost nothing, including a rooftop art space and an ancient wood. Verified August 2026 prices and opening hours across Dulwich, Peckham and Camberwell.
This corner of south London has an unusual mix: a world-class Old Master gallery next to a village green, an ancient wood on a ridge, a Victorian cemetery run by volunteers, and a car park roof in Peckham that has been an art venue for twenty years. Most of it is free, and almost none of it needs a car.
Every price and opening time below was checked against the venue’s own website in August 2026. Where something is closed or altered, we say so.
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Gallery Road and College Road, SE21 7AD. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm. The oldest purpose-built public art gallery in England, with Rembrandt, Poussin and Rubens in a Soane building.
- Collection ticket: £10 adult with donation. Students and disabled visitors £5, under-30s £5, under-18s free, Universal Credit and Pension Credit free, Art Fund members free, companions free.
- Exhibition ticket: from £16 adult with donation, which includes the collection. Students and disabled visitors £10, under-30s 50% off, under-18s free, Universal Credit and Pension Credit £1.
- Sculpture Garden and grounds: free, open 8am to 5pm every day.
- ArtPlay Pavilion, a play space for under-8s, is £9 a session and includes free entry for up to two adults per child. Open 9am to 4.45pm daily.
- Membership as a Friend is £46 a year and covers everything.
On now: Portrait of a City: A Century of American Photography, 28 July to 4 October 2026, £16 or £14.40 booked online. Curtain Up! runs to 25 October and is included with admission. Hokusai: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji opens 20 October and runs to 17 January 2027, from £21.50. Charlie Mackesy follows on 3 November, included with admission.
Getting there: West Dulwich or North Dulwich station, or the P4 bus. Note: College Road outside the Gallery is currently closed by a burst water main and the P4 is on diversion, though the Gallery itself is open. See roadworks and travel.
Horniman Museum and Gardens
100 London Road, Forest Hill. It is over the boundary in Lewisham rather than Southwark, but it is the family day out most Dulwich households use, so it belongs here.
- Museum and Gardens: free. Museum open daily 10am to 5.30pm; Gardens 7.15am (8am on Sundays and bank holidays) to 8.30pm.
- Aquarium: £5.70 adult, £3.10 child, £13.20 for a family of four, or £2 on Universal Credit. Under-3s free.
- Butterfly House: £8.70 adult, £5.70 child, £22.80 for a family of four, or £2 on Universal Credit. Open 10.30am to 4pm, last entry 3.30pm, timed tickets.
- Check before you go: the Natural History Gallery is closed until early 2027 for the Nature + Love project, and parts of the Gardens may be closed with routes changed.
Dulwich Park
College Road, SE21. Gates open at 7.30am, closing times vary with the season. Free.
Twenty-nine hectares, a Green Flag winner, and the best all-round park in the area. There is a boating lake with rowing boats and pedalos, £4 for children under 15 and £17 for a family of two adults and two children for 30 minutes; a large playground for children up to 14; the Dulwich Clock café, 8am to 5.30pm and to 6pm on Saturdays; and cycle hire. Dogs may be off the lead on the perimeter path. Parking at the College Road entrance.
Sydenham Hill Wood and Dulwich Wood
Crescent Wood Road, SE26, and the Cox’s Walk entrance off Dulwich Common. Free, managed by the London Wildlife Trust, which runs 36 reserves in London and charges for none of them.
The largest remaining fragment of the old Great North Wood, on the ridge above Dulwich, complete with a disused railway cutting and the folly ruins. The Trust is currently running a project to reunite Sydenham Hill Wood and Dulwich Wood as one site. Free family nature activities and a Nature Storytime session for young children run on Mondays through the summer holidays.
Bold Tendencies
Floors 7 to 10, Peckham Multi-Storey Car Park, 95a Rye Lane, SE15 4ST. Free entry, first come first served.
This is the twentieth anniversary season, titled Euphoria, running 15 May to 12 September 2026, Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 11pm. A non-profit arts organisation that has been turning a disused car park roof into a public space since 2007, and home to Frank’s Cafe, which takes cards only and does not take reservations. Step-free access is available on request. Peckham Rye station is 150 metres away.
Peckhamplex
95a Rye Lane, SE15 4ST, in the same building. An independent six-screen cinema open since 1994, and the reason people travel across London to see a film in Peckham: every ticket is £6.99, plus a 60p per ticket booking fee, so £7.59 in total, with £1 extra for 3D. It runs mainstream, art house and foreign language films, plus subtitled, autism-friendly and Watch With Baby screenings.
South London Gallery
65 to 67 Peckham Road, SE5 8UH, with the Fire Station galleries at number 82. Free. Open Wednesday noon to 9pm and Thursday to Sunday noon to 6pm, closed Monday and Tuesday.
Contemporary art in a Victorian gallery building, with a garden by Gabriel Orozco and a neighbourhood café, South London Louie. On now, both free and both closing 23 August 2026: Paulo Nimer Pjota: Encantados and Ranti Bam: SACRED GROVES. Groups of more than ten should book a free visit in advance.
Nunhead Cemetery
Linden Grove, SE15. Free, open daily.
One of the “Magnificent Seven” Victorian cemeteries, consecrated in 1840, now half wild wood and half monuments, with an avenue of limes and a view of St Paul’s from the top. The Friends of Nunhead Cemetery run a free guided tour on the last Sunday of every month at 2pm from the Linden Grove gates, open to all. Extra themed tours in August 2026 include a Woodland Trail on 16 August and Music Hall Artistes on 23 August, with the general tour on 30 August. The Friends have secured £3.7m for the restoration of the East Lodge.
Peckham Rye Park and Common
Strakers Road, SE15, with entrances on Peckham Rye, Homestall Road, Colyton Road and Strakers Road. Park gates open at 7.30am; the Common is open at all hours. Free.
Sexby Gardens with its rose pergolas, a Japanese Garden that opened in 1908 and a Japanese shelter restored in 2005, an arboretum which is a dog-free zone, an adventure playground, a skate park with a metal mini ramp, an outdoor gym renewed in 2023, and the Round Café, 8am to 6.30pm. There is a small car park on Strakers Road.
Belair Park
Gallery Road, SE21, with entrances on Gallery Road and Thurlow Park Road. Gates open at 7.30am. Free.
Belair House was built in 1785 in the style of Robert Adam, and the lake at the centre of the park was made by damming the River Effra, which now runs underground. The landscape is Grade II listed, along with the lodge and entrance gate. There is a playground, tennis, football and cricket pitches, and a free skate park with no booking needed. Parking at the Gallery Road entrance, West Dulwich station is a short walk, and no barbecues are allowed.
Burgess Park
Albany Road and Cobourg Road, SE5 and SE17. Free.
Southwark’s largest park at 56 hectares, running from Camberwell and Walworth across to Peckham and the Old Kent Road, and named after Jessie Burgess, Camberwell’s first woman mayor, in 1973. Reopened in 2012 after an £8m transformation. It has a 400-metre BMX track of national standard, open regularly until 9pm after an induction, seven tennis courts near Addington Square open 7am to 10pm, two full-size artificial pitches, a lake with day-ticket fishing, an outdoor gym, play areas split for under and over 5s, and water play jets at Chumleigh Gardens in summer.
Southwark Park
Gomm Road, SE16 2ET, Bermondsey. Gates open at 7.30am. Free.
Grade II listed, 63 acres, and more than 150 years old. There is a lake, formal gardens, an art gallery, the Southwark Park Sports and Athletics Centre and the Pavilion Café, run by Colicci, open 8am to 7.30pm in summer and 8am to 4pm in winter. Car park at Hawkstone Road; Bermondsey, Canada Water, Rotherhithe and Surrey Quays stations are all close.
Two more, for a specific mood
Dulwich Hamlet FC, at Champion Hill, SE22. Non-league football with one of the best crowds in the country for its level. The men’s first team opened its Isthmian Premier League campaign at home on 8 August 2026, and tickets are sold per fixture through the club.
Dulwich Leisure Centre, Crystal Palace Road, SE22. A council-run pool and gym that has been open since 1892, with the high ceilings and wrap-around balcony of the original building. Southwark brought its leisure centres back in-house, so this is the council’s own, along with Camberwell, Peckham Pulse, The Castle, Canada Water, Surrey Docks and Southwark Park athletics.
Frequently asked questions
What is there to do in Dulwich for free?
Eleven places on this page charge nothing: the Horniman Museum and Gardens, the Dulwich Picture Gallery Sculpture Garden, Bold Tendencies, South London Gallery, Nunhead Cemetery and its monthly tour, Sydenham Hill Wood, Dulwich Park, Belair Park, Peckham Rye Park and Common, Burgess Park and Southwark Park.
How much is Dulwich Picture Gallery?
£10 for an adult with donation to see the collection, or from £16 for a ticket that includes the current exhibition. Under-18s are free, as are visitors on Universal Credit or Pension Credit for the collection. The Sculpture Garden is free to everyone.
Is the Horniman Museum free?
Yes, the museum and the gardens are free. The Aquarium (£5.70 adult) and the Butterfly House (£8.70 adult) are ticketed, and the Natural History Gallery is closed until early 2027.
What can I do with children in Dulwich?
Dulwich Park has the boating lake and the largest playground, at £4 a child for 30 minutes on the water. The Gallery’s ArtPlay Pavilion is £9 a session for under-8s and includes two adults. Burgess Park has the BMX track and summer water jets, and the Horniman has the Aquarium and Butterfly House. Sydenham Hill Wood runs free family nature sessions on Mondays in the summer holidays.
Where is the cheapest cinema in London?
Arguably Peckhamplex on Rye Lane, where every ticket is £6.99 plus a 60p booking fee, whatever the film and whatever the time.
Related
- Dulwich train times to London: everything on this page is reachable from a station on that list.
- Roadworks, parking and travel in Dulwich: where to park, what the tollgate costs, and what is shut this week.
- Southwark planning news: what is being built around Rye Lane and the Old Kent Road.
Sources
- Dulwich Picture Gallery: visit us and what’s on for prices, hours and the exhibition dates.
- Horniman Museum and Gardens: ticket information, Aquarium and Butterfly House.
- Southwark Council park pages for Dulwich Park, Peckham Rye Park and Common, Belair Park, Burgess Park and Southwark Park.
- Bold Tendencies: visit and contact, Peckhamplex, South London Gallery, Friends of Nunhead Cemetery, London Wildlife Trust: Sydenham Hill Wood, Dulwich Hamlet FC and Southwark Leisure.
Prices and opening hours were correct on 9 August 2026. Check with the venue before you set out, particularly for the ticketed attractions.
Have your say
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