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I have one purpose with this piece: to get you beyond Buckingham Palace and neighboring Big Ben and into the secret parts of London too few know about. There is so much on offer in this incredible city, and the best way to experience that is to try something one of the more unusual experiences in London which will leave a lasting memory more than simply taking a walk along Tower Bridge or shopping on Oxford Street (although both are great).
In my view, the essence of what makes London so spectacular lies in its hidden corners and the lesser-known experiences which are usually reserved for locals with more time. I’m here to help you step off the beaten path and get a fresh perspective on what makes this city so vibrant.
If you don’t walk away with a story to tell for years to come, I haven’t achieved what I’ve set out to do. But I’m pretty confident that you’ll have that experience.

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Food and Drink
The Smokehouse Tour at Forman & Field
It’s time to take a journey to the heart of London’s culinary heritage and indulge in one of the most unique and unusual experiences in London that one can have. H. Forman & Son has been producing the famous London Cure smoked salmon in London’s East End for about 120 years. In our view, there’s nothing quite as exciting as taking their behind-the-scenes tour of the art of smoking fish in their warehouse – the last smokehouse in the East End.

The tour begins with a history of the smokehouse and the Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe that brought their tradition of smoking fish to London by none other than Lance Forman himself. Following which, you’ll get to go down to the smoking rooms to experience the magical process yourself.
You’ll get to see the dry-curing process live in action, as well as a smoked carving demonstration right before you eyes with the man who holds the Guinness World Record for fastest carve time. Food isn’t slow like this anymore, so let your appetite build as you watch and learn.
It will likely come as no surprise to our readers that our favorite part of the tour is the tasting at the end. You’ll receive a plate with more varieties of salmon than you thought possible, with an explanation to accompany each and every one. Save your piece of royal fillet to the end; it might be the tastiest salmon I’ve ever tried. The buttery texture and exquisite flavor is something you can’t find anywhere else, and you might just find yourself turning into a loyal customer.

The smokehouse tour is, unfortunately, run only every two months but you can book online up to a year in advance. If the infrequent group tour options don’t work for you, you can book a private tour at any time throughout the year, which is a different experience entirely.
Sake tasting at SAKE COLLECTIVE
One of the best bars in Spitalfields, SAKE COLLECTIVE has built a reputation in its community for offering an experience which is simultaneously a sake shop, a bar and a museum. Beyond the wide selection of Japanese sakes and the charming ambience to enjoy them in is the sake tasting experience that the team offers.
You’re probably right that sake isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of unusual experiences in London, but we at Travel Insighter celebrate what happens when cultures meet. And a sake experience in London isn’t like a sake experience anywhere else. Their regular gin and sake tasting experiences are an opportunity to learn about just how refined rice has to be to qualify for certain sake quality levels.

I truly believe that, once your eyes open to the world of sake, you might just find yourself choosing a bottle of sake over a bottle of wine at a restaurant. Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, SAKE COLLECTIVE will treat you to umami flavors that you’ll want to tell the world about. And if you’re looking for a date night experience, this is it.
Chocolate Experience at MyChocolate
From quite literally the moment you enter and the rich aroma of cocoa takes over your senses, you just know that this is going to be a great experience. The chocolate-making workshop at MyChocolate isn’t just about eating (though, of course, there’s plenty of that). It’s about the art and science of chocolate making, and that’s why it’s one of the more special and unusual experiences in London.
There are plenty of chocolate-making classes all around the world, but it’s a step ahead at MyChocolate with the knowledgeable instructors taking you through the journey of chocolate from its origins as a bitter Mayan drink to the comforting sweet treat that it is today. What makes the experience particularly great is that only your creativity is the limit: you can make anything from a shoe made out of chocolate to a chocolate pizza.
Don’t worry, yes, you will leave your class with a bag of chocolate goodies which you can bring home. But more to the point, you’ll take home a new appreciation for the craft of chocolate making and some excellent memories.
Museums
The Royal College of Surgeons’ Hunterian Museum
Warning: you’ll need a strong stomach (and probably a deep curiosity about the human body) if you want to go to the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Like all museums in London, entry is free (though you should pre-book tickets to avoid queuing), but that’s where the similarities end: this is truly unlike any other museum experience you’ll have. It’s fascinating, exciting and sometimes downright unsettling.


This is one of the more unusual experiences in London as visitors are challenged to question their perceptions of the human body and medical progress, specifically how progress in the medical field was made. This is ultimately a journey through the history of surgery, and it wasn’t always ethical. And beyond what is ethical, a lot of what masqueraded as ‘surgical instruments’ from past centuries will probably look a lot more like torture devices to the modern eye.
Travel tip: The museum is genuinely quite intense, so this might not be the best place for young children or those with sensitive stomachs.

If you can plan it, you absolutely should try to plan your visit around the 30-minute Curator Highlights Tour which takes place every Wednesday at 2:15 pm. There’s no better experience than seeing the museum through the eyes of a curator. There are only 12 spots on the tour so you’ll want to get there earlier to guarantee a spot.
Strawberry Hill House
There are very few Londoners who have heard of this experience, and you’ll question why that is after your visit. A visit to Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham is one of our unusual experiences in London which is made for architecture and history buffs. This Gothic Revival-era house doesn’t look like the typical stately European homes you’ll find dotted around the country and throughout Europe and its colonies. Rather, it’s a whimsical, theatrical creation which looks more like the set of a fairy tale than real life.

The house was created by Horace Walpole, the youngest son of Britain’s Prime Minister. Walpole took what was a modest house and turned it into a structure reminiscent of a castle, complete with towers and battlements. Even before you enter, the brilliant white exterior of the house stands in stark contrast to the green of its surrounding gardens.
And then once you enter, I can only describe the interior as a riot of color and pattern, and the attention to detail is absolutely mesmerizing. Make sure you visit the library with its distinct Gothic arches and bookcases painted to look as though they are Gothic panels. A visit to Strawberry Hill House is a physical experience of London’s authentic and theatrical sides. To make the experience that bit better, the gardens have been restored to their 18th-century appearance.
If you’re looking to celebrate Halloween the British way, your answer is the Halloween Gothic Tour at Strawberry Hill House. You’ll get to wonder the with the shutters closed and the rooms aglow with flickering candlelight, just as would have been the case in Walpole’s day.
Leighton House
A visit to Leighton House is a bucket-list experience for lovers of art and enthusiasts of cross-cultural architectural influences. You’re likely to simply walk by Leighton House, as it is the most the ordinary of red brick houses. But the moment you step inside, Leighton House is a fusion of colors, architectural styles, design – and a meeting of the worlds more generally.



Architecture in the Middle East is famous for its intricate mosaics, carved wooden screens, central fountains and rounded archways. Those really aren’t features of British architecture – except in the absolutely exquisite Arab Hall in Leighton House. The golden dome and peacock-blue tiles of the Arab Hall remind of Damascus rather than London, and it is an incredibly exciting experience to have in London.
The blend of different cultures and architectural styles is what makes a visit to Leighton House particularly special. At its core, Leighton House is living testament to the Victorian fascination with the Far East and the “Orient” more generally, and as you move through the house, you’ll get to experience everything from the Dutch and Italian paintings in the Silk Room to art pieces from Lord Leighton himself.

Dinosaurs at Crystal Palace Park
There are few things as unique as Crystal Palace Park. Crystal Palace is a wondrous site to visit and has a very interesting history of its own (it was once in Hyde Park). However, it is the iconic life-sized dinosaur sculptures which are the real draw to this area. The statues are located on islands within the lakes at the Penge side of the park. Best of all, they’re free to visit.
What makes a visit to the dinosaurs one of London’s most unique and unusual experiences is that the dinosaur statues don’t quite accurately represent what modern scientists consider to be the animals which once roamed our planet. The statues are, in fact, more telling about what pioneering scientists in the Victorian era understood about dinosaurs.
As you’re walking through, there is plenty of signage which debunks these once-accepted scientific understandings of dinosaurs which makes it a lot more exciting to visit.
And just in case you thought it hadn’t been taken far enough, the café in the park is clad in half-round cedar shingles, conceived to be analogous to the scaled skin of the nearby dinosaur models.
If you have a bit more time in your day, carve out half an hour to visit the Crystal Palace Subway. The restoration project for the subway was completed in September 2024. Luckily, this means visitors can finally visit this stunning heritage-listed subway which is a relic of Victorian construction.
Experiences
Ceremony of the Keys
If you’re reading this article, then you’re looking for experiences in London that aren’t on the typical tourist trail like the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace or seeing the crown jewels at the Tower of London. But those aren’t the only experiences in those places. Too few people know about the Ceremony of the Keys that takes place at the Tower of London daily at 9:30 pm.

You’ll get to experience the exact exchange of words which has been spoken for centuries. These words form part of the traditional ‘locking up’ process of the Tower of London. If you want to take it a step further, there is an excellent after hours tour of the Tower of London which includes the ceremony which allows you the chance to enter the Tower after the gates have closed to the public.
For our military history buffs, it is widely considered that this ancient ritual is the oldest extant military ceremony in the world. The Yeoman Warders of the Tower of London have been performing the ritual for over 700 years. In my humble opinion, seven centuries of tradition is good enough reason to carve out half an hour and experience a piece of history.

Sleepover at the Natural History Museum
I didn’t really think it could be possible for dinosaurs to get two mentions in a list of unusual experiences in London. However, the sleepover at the Natural History Museum will convince you that it was the right thing to do. This isn’t the sleepover of your childhood; rather, this is a sleepover beneath the beloved blue whale in the iconic Hintze Hall which is not quite like anything else.
Being an adult sleepover in a British museum, you can expect drinks and nibbles to be served until just after midnight, and a pub-style quiz of all things natural history. The sleepovers are held irregularly but usually once or twice a month. You’ll want to book well in advance – this is a special experience, and special experiences attract demand.
Theatre
Dennis Severs’s House
If there is an experience that I can’t recommend to anyone and everyone of all ages and tastes, it’s a visit to Dennis Severs’s House in Spitalfields. This is interactive theatre like no other, with one or a few (depending on the night) actors and actresses taking you through centuries of history simply by moving through an old Victorian-era house that has been curated to retain the textures, smells, foods and even technologies of the time.
In many ways, a night at Dennis Severs’s house is like walking into a painting by one of the old masters. The team has thought about every single detail, from the smells that are genuinely from that era, to the design of the bedrooms and drawing room. You will be taken through the successes, trials and tribulations of the Huguenot inhabitants of the home through the centuries. In our opinion, this tour offers one of the most intimate ways of learning, which you truly can’t find elsewhere.

Make sure to book in advance as these are intimate experiences with only a few places per session. And if you happen to be spending more time in that area (and you should, Spitalfields is one of London’s unknown hidden treasures), there’s plenty more to do around Spitalfields and Brick Lane.
Midnight matinee at Shakespeare’s Globe
If you know Shakespeare, you’ve likely heard of the Globe, the famous Elizabethan playhouse first built in 1599 for which Shakespeare wrote his plays. Shakespeare’s Globe is a marvelous reconstruction of that playhouse set on the south bank of the River Thames and boasts the only thatched roof in London (thatched roofs were banned following the Great Fire in 1666).

But it’s what happens within this special playhouse which is so exciting. You absolutely can choose to watch a performance at a more sociable hour, but one of the most exciting and unusual experiences in London is to go for a midnight matinee performance at the Globe. These performances run seasonally throughout summer, but only a few evenings. Tickets usually fly out the door because this experience has the reputation for being one of the most special in London.
Tickets are as cheap as £5 (though you’ll need to stand for those tickets). If your back can handle it, a standing experience at the Globe is the right way to do it. Otherwise, make sure to book a ticket with a pre-purchased cushion if you plan to sit. And if you can only find ‘obstructed view’ seats, don’t worry about it: the theatre is spectacularly intimate. In my opinion, there really isn’t a bad seat in the house.
For more of Shakespeare’s England, don’t miss our ultimate guide to one day in Stratford-upon-Avon – the birthplace and home of Shakespeare.
Special Mention: Our Cookie Crawl Experience
One of our guiding principles at Travel Insighter is that the world and its plurality of cultures and traditions is best experienced by taste. We decided that London was missing a fun way to get to know its lesser-known neighborhoods and smaller businesses, so we created the ultimate Travel Insighter London Cookie Crawl Experience.



We researched the best of London’s cooking offering and plotted them on a map in the most logical order so you can go around the city (by bike, car or public transport) and experience different sides of this wonderful city. Get a few friends together, download our guide and have a day out in London that you won’t forget (not least because of the sugar coma).
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