We will be in London on Easter weekend and wondering what is open on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Are any of the museums open? Is evensong at Westminster Abbey open? Other sites worth seeing? We are concerned that those days may be somewhat lost to us.
Posted by
UK
769 posts
It’s a very big weekend for tourism so yes, museums etc will be open. This is not a particularly religious country so for most people the Easter weekend is a great four-day opportunity to get out and about. Things will be busy.
Churches will of course have Easter services so may not have their usual tourist opening times, particularly on Good Friday. Incidentally Evensong is a service of worship, not a thing that is “open.” Westminster Abbey’s website will at some point have a list of services over the weekend. I suspect Good Friday will be different to the standard evensong.
Posted by
Land of La
9261 posts
https://www.timeout.com/london/things-to-do/easter-in-london
As far as other sites worth seeing it’s London, plenty of sites worth seeing.
Tower Bridge
Buckingham Palace
Tower of London
The fallow dear in Richmond Park
The Thames River Path
St Paul’s Cathedral
Camden Lock Market
Greenwich Observatory
National Gallery
Imperial War Museum
Theatre and more theatre
Posted by
Singapore
590 posts
There's no Evensong on Good Friday, but there is the singing of the Passion and Holy Communion in the afternoon. And then multiple services on Easter Sunday. It is normally closed to tourist visits on Good Friday as well as Sundays.
And there is also the Maundy Thursday service on the Thursday evening.
Posted by
Freedonia
16409 posts
You'll be fine.
Attractions will be open.
Banks and offices will be closed on Good Friday. Just about everything else will be open.
On Easter Sunday, supermarkets and large stores will be closed. Restaurants and attractions will be open.
Public transport will run on a reduced (weekend) schedule.
Posted by
Lake District, England
8134 posts
Westminster Abbey and St Paul's and any other Church will almost certainly also be closed to visitors on the Saturday, given the liturgical significance of the day. In the morning there will be a brief starkly simple, quiet morning prayer, litany and possibly ante-communion, and possibly an equally simple said evening prayer.
Then towards midnight the great Easter Vigil. On Easter day there will be a number of services commencing with the Dawn Mass. Each Church varies but that can be as early as 5am. Then the Great Celebratory High Mass of Easter Day.
From Palm Sunday to Easter Day there will be all sorts of special services, and both dai!y Communion and the daily offices of Morning and Evening Prayer take on a different, more solemn note as we journey through that week.
All shops of any size are closed on Easter Day. So no food shops open other than corner shops, but tourist shops will be open.
On Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter) there will be outdoor processions at many Churches, including St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey (where the procession traditionally starts from St Margaret's Church) and also Westminster Roman Catholic Cathedral.
Easter Monday is also a Bank (or Public) Holiday when public transport will be on reduced schedules.
Posted by
1 posts
The Royal Choral Society performs Handel's Messiah on Good Friday each year at Royal Albert Hall. I saw it last year and it was amazing! I highly recommend.