National Gallery Friday Lates

The National Gallery on a Friday evening is a different building entirely — thinner crowds, a run of free talks and workshops through the Sainsbury Wing, and none of the daytime scrum around the big-name canvases. It's the way to actually look at the collection rather than just tick it off.

Sessions run free but fill up, so book ahead and build in time either side to sit with a drink in the foyer — a proper, low-key date night or solo evening that costs nothing but a bit of forward planning.