Shark Walk glass floor
You cross a glass walkway over the Pacific tank while sharks pass directly beneath your feet.
Fernando Losada Rodríguez — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photograph by Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net). — CC BY-SA 4.0
Beneath the old headquarters of London's county government, in basement corridors that once held clerks and filing cabinets, sharks now cruise over visitors' heads. That is SEA LIFE London: opened in 1997 in the vaults of County Hall on the Thames, wedged against the London Eye, bought by Merlin in 2008 and relaunched under the SEA LIFE name the following year after an expansion. The location is its strongest card. You are a few steps from Westminster Bridge and Big Ben, which makes it an easy rainy-day stop rather than a destination in its own right. Inside, around fourteen zones run as a single one-way route: a glass floor you walk across above the Pacific tank while sharks pass underneath, a glass tunnel where sea turtles and rays glide overhead, a shallow ray lagoon you can peer into at eye level, a Coral Kingdom billed as the UK's largest coral reef display with hundreds of clownfish, a jellyfish gallery with shifting coloured light that small children adore, and a modest colony of Gentoo penguins that arrived in 2011. Roughly five hundred species by the aquarium's own count, but the tanks are mid-sized: anyone who has seen the Dubai Aquarium in the Dubai Mall or the Fakieh Aquarium in Jeddah will find it smaller and tighter than expected, and weekend or school-holiday crowds make the route slow. Price is the real obstacle. £39 per adult if you turn up without a booking, around £28 when booked online in advance with a timed slot, and a child aged two to fifteen pays almost the adult rate (about £25 online, £35 on the day). For a family of five that is over £130 even with advance booking, for a visit that takes about ninety minutes. The sensible way in is a combination ticket with the London Eye, Madame Tussauds or the neighbouring Shrek's Adventure, which sharply cuts what the aquarium effectively costs. The venue is entirely cashless. For families with children under ten it genuinely works: there are lifts, pushchairs go in without trouble, though the passages narrow at peak times. Usual hours are 10:00 to 17:00 on weekdays, stretching to 18:00 at weekends and in school holidays, with last entry an hour before closing, and it closes on Christmas Day. Nearest stations are Waterloo (Jubilee, Northern and Bakerloo lines) and Westminster (Jubilee, Circle and District), each about five minutes on foot.
You cross a glass walkway over the Pacific tank while sharks pass directly beneath your feet.
A glass tunnel where sea turtles and rays glide overhead: the best moment of the visit.
The colour-shifting jellyfish gallery and the Gentoo penguin colony are what children under ten remember.
County Hall, Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 7PB
London EyeThe wheel never stops for you to board. The London Eye turns at about 26 centime2 minutes walk4.6
Big BenBig Ben is not the tower. The name belongs to the Great Bell, roughly 13.7 tonne5 minutes walk4.7
Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament)The building you know from a thousand photographs is not a medieval palace at al6 minutes walk4.6
Westminster AbbeyNo monarch of England or Britain has been crowned anywhere else since 1066. The 8 minutes walk4.5
Trafalgar SquareFour bronze lions guard a column some 52 metres tall, and on top of it a one-arm12 minutes walk4.5Honestly no, if the tanks themselves are the draw; they are smaller and more crowded here. It earns its place only with young children on a wet day, or when bundled into a London Eye combination ticket that sharply cuts its effective price.
Yes. The standard ticket is sold with a timed entry slot, and in July and August the midday slots sell out while walk-up queues grow long. Book the first morning slot, or pay the extra for an anytime-entry ticket (from £33 online) if your day is flexible.