Looking for thoughts on my itinerary.

Nah, this is a fine itinerary. You have no more than two “big things” a day (though Tuesday will be a long one) which is my rule of thumb. London is an easy place to add on a smaller sight or walk if you find yourself with time, probably too easy. So, it might feel bare bones on paper, but it’s how it ought to look imo.

I’m a museum freak, but I would not take on the British Museum and the National Gallery in one day. I would leave the National Gallery off this time.

My husband and niece went to Tower of London at 2 pm and tickets were all sold out for the day.

We had reservations at National Gallery and walked in. Those in line were not moving.

Unless you are huge museum person, I would not do British Museum and National Gallery in one day.

We went to St Paul’s at 10, had lunch and National Gallery at 2. It was a bit tight because waited 30 minutes for tour at St Paul’s. So we didn’t leave St Paul’s until 12:30 pm.

I recall changing of guard is late morning and have to get there early. So may end up taking whole morning.

BethFL makes a good point- changing or the guard is 11am, and if you want to see anything, you need to get there early. I would advise watching either the changing of the King's Life Guard at Horse Guards Parade (11am) or the dismounted inspection (in front of the Horse Guards building, facing Whitehall, at 4pm) if you want to get closer and see more. There is also a guard mounted at Friary Court (St James' Palace) and at the King's residence at Clarence House if you want to get a picture closer than you would at Buckingham Palace (but no change of guard ceremony).

If you go to St Paul's go there in the afternoon, then you can stay on for Choral Evensong. The days when you are there the Cathedral Choir are on vacation, so there are visiting choirs instead. On your dates it is the St Mark's Cathedral Compline Choir from Seattle who are singing Evensong as part of their pilgrimage to England (a nearly week long residence at St Paul's). The day you go on to Wales I am coming down from the North of England on a day visit specifically for that Evensong and the following Compline.

I agree that Tuesday will be a very long day. As noted above, the Changing of the Guards will take the entire morning, and Westminster Abbey deserves several hours (plus more if you are doing the verger's tour or the Diamond Jubilee Galleries). The Churchill War Rooms will also take a lot of time, and you will probably be exhausted by the time you are done.

That said, I realize you have a limited amount of time, so I understand the need to see as much as possible. One thing you could consider is focusing on either Westminster Abbey OR St. Paul's (my vote would be for WA). Then you could move WA to Wednesday morning, have lunch and then visit the British Museum. After that, if you have the energy, you could always visit St. Paul's evensong at 5 pm, which would let you see the cathedral and enjoy the music.

Ok, current alterations are as follows.

Monday stays the same

Tuesday- Changing of the Guards
Westminster Abbey
Trafalgar Square

Wednesday- Churchill Rooms in the AM
British Museum in the PM
Tube to Richmond area

Thanks everyone!

to reemphasize about the Changing of the Guard.

There is a wrought iron fence between the crowd and the ceremony, and it gets very crowded. Only the front couple of rows get to see anything, and others stick their phones up and sit on shoulders. You need to be there by around 8 if you want to stand a chance. It is a very short ceremony, just a very few minutes, and then everybody leaves.

If you took the advice to attend the horse guards instead you have much smaller crowds, shiny breastplates on the soldiers, and horses too. Because horses are tall they are easy to see. I went to one Changing of the Guard, and have been back to the Horse Guards many times.

Don't want to change your mind, just to provide the context for you.

Going to the Tower of London in the afternoon is when it is at its busiest, and can sell out. If you could work in getting there when it opens on Tuesday or Wednesday you can have a clear shot at the Crown Jewels and then get a free Beefeater tour.

If you are going to the National Gallery on Wednesday you will be in Trafalgar Square - it forms the north side of the square.

On the Monday and Tueday evenings that week Westminster Abbey Evensong will be sung by the Chapel Choir of St John's College, Durham and attended by His Excellency The High Commissioner for Jamaica on the Tuesday.

The Abbey Choir are on vacation, as at St Paul's.

On the Wednesday it is a said service.

Ok I will make notes for those and possibly alter Changing of the Guards. The crowd size is valuable information, my older adult daughter is autistic so often crowds are a problem. Also, I booked a timed entry for Tower of London.
Thanks, all!

Unless the dates change for August, you will not be able to see the changing of the guard on a Tuesday. The ceremony is on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday the formal ceremony is at Windsor Castle.) See this website for full details: https://www.householddivision.org.uk/changing-the-guard

As Nigel said, the actual change takes only minutes, but there's a lot of parading, bands, etc. so that the total time is closer to 30 minutes. We enjoy brass bands so for us the actual changing of the guard was far superior to the ceremonies happening at the Horse Guards. In 2011 we attended both the changing at Buckingham Palace and the one at Windsor, but that's us.

However, it will be crowded in August for sure, so if your daughter has trouble with crowds, it's probably not a good choice for you. We arrived late at Buckingham Palace and just took a place along the road where the bands march in and out and even that was pretty crowded. It worked for us since we mainly wanted to hear the music, having seen the actual guard change by accident on an off day on another trip, but if you want to see the full ceremony you will need to arrive very early to be up against the fence.

Make sure you go to the right Abbey Road, the one you want is in St John’s Wood.

Changing of the Guard we will play by ear. See how the morning goes. I think we’ll be flexible enough to adjust activities. Thanks, everyone!