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There are several youth hostels in London, and universities offer rooms from June to September. International Students House has year-round rooms. There are also many cheap bed and breakfasts.

Buses are cheaper than the tube (underground). If you are making more than two tube journeys in a day, Travel Cards are good value. They are also valid on buses and the Docklands Light Railway (but not before 9:30am on weekdays). Carnets, with 10 Zone 1 tickets, and pre-pay Oyster cards also save you money.

It’s quite possible to eat a two-course meal with a drink and coffee for under £20 in many places in London. Chinese and Indian restaurants are often inexpensive, and many churches have cheap lunchtime cafés. Expensive restaurants can become affordable with set-lunch or pre-theatre menus.

Some museums are free. Others have free late afternoon or evening entry. Special deals can mean that buying a season ticket makes sense if you want to visit more than twice. An International Student Card (ISIC) offers reduced- price entry to many museums. Look out for free lunchtime lectures.

Covent Garden is the best place for day-long entertainment, and there’s always someone to look at or listen to in Leicester Square. At weekends artists hang their work up on the railings in Piccadilly outside Green Park, and by Hyde Park on Bayswater Road.

London is awash with free music. Free lunchtime concerts are held in churches and at the music colleges (in term time). Performances also take place at the Southbank Centre in summer and at the National Theatre, the National Gallery, and in malls such as Hays Galleria and Canary Wharf.

The best place for these is the half-price ticket booth called “Tkts”, located on the southside of Leicester Square, which sells tickets for performances on that day only. “Fringe” theatres outside the West End (often in pubs) are considerably cheaper. On Mondays, all seats are £7.50 at the Royal Court. The Royal Opera House has standing tickets from £4–8. The Prince Charles cinema in Leicester Place is the cheapest in central London.

Pick up barely-worn, designer clothes at a dress agency (try The Loft, 35 Monmouth St WC2; L’Homme Designer Exchange, 50 Blandford St W1).

London’s markets have bargain antiques, fashions, jewellery and cheap food.

London’s parks offer endless free entertainment, whether watching sports in Regent’s Park or listening to bands at St James’s Park bandstand.