British Library — Main foyer around the King's Library
Lots of people might be working, but others are sitting with a drink from the cafe or browsing the exhibition displays.
- talking is fine
- upright chairs
- plenty of tables you can work at
- indoor
A list of places in 'central'1 London you can spend time in, doing what you want, without time or financial pressure. Use these places to study, read, do laptop work, take a call, listen to music, play chess, chill with friends, etc. Think of what London's public living rooms would be.
There are no ratings here, no review counts and no ordering by popularity
These four are not scores. A place that fails one of them is not a worse place — it is a place this particular list is not for. That is why they are stated once here rather than offered as things to filter by.
4 places.
Lots of people might be working, but others are sitting with a drink from the cafe or browsing the exhibition displays.
Plenty of desks in quiet rooms, each with a lamp, plug sockets and comfortable enough chairs. Also request any book that takes your fancy.
Sit upstairs on the softer seats surrounded by Japanese design or sit at the table in the downstairs library.
You can sit in various spots across the three floors and chat, read or work from your laptop.
Know somewhere in central London that clears all four? The list only grows by people adding places they have sat in themselves.
Every place here was suggested by somebody who had been sitting in it, and read by a person before it was listed. Each entry carries the date it was last sat in, because places change — a cafe puts a time limit on the tables, a garden starts locking its gate. An old date does not mean an entry is wrong. It means nobody has been recently, and that is worth knowing rather than hiding.