Three free viewing galleries in the City

Most first-timers pay for the Shard or the London Eye. Three office towers in the City do not charge at all, and between them they cover the same view. Each needs a free timed ticket, each releases those tickets on a Monday, and each has a different trick for seeing the sun go down. Horizon 22 and The Lookout are on the same street and Sky Garden is a few minutes away, so on a clear day you could do two.

Sky Garden, 20 Fenchurch Street

The one your friends have heard of, and the one everyone assumes costs money. It does not. Levels 35 to 37 of the Walkie-Talkie hold a three-storey planted garden, a glazed gallery and an open-air terrace that looks straight down the Thames: the Shard, Tower Bridge, the Tower and the river bending away to Canary Wharf. There are bars and cafés up there, so you can sit at the top for the price of a coffee. We rate it for weekend evenings: it is open until 9pm on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays, the only one of the three that is. Free tickets go online at skygarden.london every Monday morning for the week three weeks ahead, and weekend slots go fast, so book on the Monday. You get one hour from entry, and if you arrive more than fifteen minutes late you will very likely be turned away. If the free slots have gone, a table at Darwin Brasserie or Fenchurch Restaurant, or a booking at the Sky Pod bar, gets you in without a separate ticket. The entrance is on Philpot Lane, and you queue there even with a ticket.

Horizon 22, 22 Bishopsgate

Level 58, 254 metres up, which the operator calls London's highest free viewing platform. The lift takes 41 seconds. You get close to 300 degrees: the Gherkin and the Cheesegrater almost at eye level, the Shard and Tower Bridge to the south, Canary Wharf to the east, St Paul's and the West End to the west. It is higher than the Shard's main viewing floor and costs nothing, but it only opened in 2023 and sits inside an office block, so most guidebooks still miss it. Free tickets are released every Monday at 10am for the following fourteen days at horizon22.co.uk, and that is the only legitimate place to get them. If your date does not show, it is fully booked; when we checked, every daytime slot in the window had gone, so be on the site at 10am on a Monday. Hours are weekdays 10am to 6pm, Saturday to 5pm and Sunday to 4pm, so it only works for sunset once the clocks go back. Bring photo ID, expect airport-style screening, and leave big bags at the flat.

The Lookout, 8 Bishopsgate

The 50th floor of 8 Bishopsgate, up the road from Horizon 22. The smallest of the three, with no café and just the view: the Gherkin, the Leadenhall Building and Lloyd's directly below, then the Tower, Tower Bridge, the Shard and St Paul's beyond. We send people here for one reason: it is the only one of the three open until 9pm on a weekday. Mondays and Fridays run noon to 9pm, which is your free weekday sunset in the City and the lit-up towers afterwards. Tuesday to Thursday it is 10.30am to 5.30pm, Saturday 11am to 6pm, Sunday 10am to 5pm. Tickets are free at booking.8bishopsgate.com, released on Mondays up to about two weeks ahead, maximum ten per booking, and a visit lasts 45 minutes. Show the QR code at the ground-floor reception, and come at the right time or you will be refused.

• Free sunset: a weekend evening slot at Sky Garden, or a Monday or Friday evening at The Lookout. Horizon 22 only works for sunset after the clocks change.
• If a date is not showing on any of the three booking sites, it is sold out. Try the next Monday release.
• All three close for maintenance and private hire on some days; check the venue's site the morning you go.
• Nearest stations: Monument for Sky Garden; Liverpool Street or Bank for Horizon 22 and The Lookout.