Useful things to know before your visit
Address: SEA LIFE London Aquarium, County Hall, Westminster Bridge Road, Waterloo SE1 7PB. Telephone: 0871 663 1678. Website: visitsealife.com
How much do the tickets cost?
You can book adult tickets online in advance from £28, and children (2-15 years) from £25. Infants under-2 are free. If you pay on the day then it’s more expensive: adults are from £39, and children are from £35.
What are the opening hours?
Outside school holidays the SEA LIFE London Aquarium’s opening times are 10am to 5pm (Mon-Fri); 10am to 7pm (Sat); 10am to 6pm (Sun). During school holidays the times are 9.30am to 7pm (Mon-Sun). Last entry is 1 hour before closing time.
How much time do you need?
A typical visit to the SEA LIFE London Aquarium takes 2 hours.
Which buses go to the SEA LIFE London Aquarium?
Bus routes 3, 11, 12, 76, 77, 148, 159, 381, 453 and C10 all stop close by.
Which is the closest train station?
The nearest station is Waterloo, which connects with the Bakerloo Jubilee Northern and Waterloo & City lines. It also serves National Rail trains. You can walk the ⅓ mile to the SEA LIFE London Aquarium in about 5 minutes.
Which other attractions are nearby?
These attractions are all within 15 minutes walk of the SEA LIFE London Aquarium: London Dungeon, London Eye, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Banqueting House, Downing Street, Hayward Gallery, Jewel Tower, Westminster Abbey, Household Cavalry Museum, Churchill War Rooms, Horse Guards, Garden Museum, Cleopatra’s Needle and Benjamin Franklin House.
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Email My review of the SEA LIFE London Aquarium
This place is always busy with families because it’s one of the big four attractions by County Hall: the London Eye, London Dungeon, Shrek’s Adventure and Aquarium. They’re literally within fifty paces of each other so the pavement is permanently heaving with people deciding what to do, deciding whether to queue, posing for photos, seeing where the boat goes, or just standing there snapping selfies and getting in absolutely everybody’s way (mainly mine). So it’s an extremely busy place – you’ll be grateful for the peace and quiet once you step inside.
Photo: londondrum.comGlass floor over the shark tank
The very first thing that they make you do once you’ve paid your entry fee is walk across the top of the shark tank – and I’m being serious. They’ve laid a glass floor across the top of it so you can see the frenzied sharks thrashing beneath your feet, with strings of blood trailing out of their mouths like snot from a school kid’s nose, gnashing and sharpening their scissor-like teeth ready for when the wafer-thin glass cracks and sends the tourists tipping into the tank like human flakes of fish food. Apparently this is supposed to be fun. I have to be honest and admit that I don’t enjoy this bit, and I am always very careful to check it for cracks beforehand because you can never be too careful.
Photo: londondrum.comThe only good news is that if the worst happens then death will be quick because sharks don’t hang about when it comes to eating humans, and I’m guessing it will all be over in less than ten-seconds. But I suppose it all depends on which piece of you they bite off first: your arm, your leg or your head. Ideally you want it to be your head.
After that you head downstairs to the fish tanks. It’s all very dark and stone-like down here. There’s a warm watery smell in the air and swirling movie music playing though the speakers (one of those ocean adventures like 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea).
Photo: londondrum.comYou begin with the little fish: starfish, urchins and anemones. They’ve got a few jellyfish and squids and an octopus as well. Then you walk round a corner and into another world… you’ll be standing in front of a gigantic tank with spotlights at the top making it look like there are rays of sunlight falling through it, like sunshine through a storm cloud, cutting through the hazy blue gloom to a carcass on the bottom. It looks like the bones of a whale, or the big ribs of a plesiosaur. It really does feel like you’re peering into another world.
The underwater glass tunnel
Photo: londondrum.comThe really great thing about this tank is its glass tunnel across the bottom of it, so you can see a million fish floating six inches above your head. You’ll see a giant ray swooping across the sky like a billowing bedspread let loose from a washing line, and a big tortoise as well, or a turtle, a terrapin, or whatever those floating stones are called. I know the glass distorts everything you’re looking at, but when the ray swims over the top of the tunnel it looks like the bottom of a rowing boat with four oars sticking out the side.
Photo: londondrum.comAfter that it’s back to the sharks. You’ll find yourself standing at the bottom of that same two-storey tank that you walked across at the start, and this is one of things that I like most about the arrangement of the place: you keep coming across the same tanks as you wind your way up through the building, viewing them at different levels. The shark tank is big enough to turn the blue water black at the back and they emerge out of the gloom like hunting submarines.
Photo: londondrum.comNemo’s Kingdom & Penguin Point
Then you’re into the little kid’s section: Nemo’s Kingdom. You won’t have any trouble finding Nemo in here because there are about fifty-thousand of them swimming around the brightly coloured corals.
After that you’re into my favourite zone: the Aztec rainforest with rock carvings and jungle creepers hanging from the ceiling. It’s like a lushly-coloured jungle with tropical storm sounds and cascading waterfalls and all of the animals look like they’re ready for war. It’s all armoured shrimps and piranhas – prehistoric-looking creatures from the time of the dinosaurs.
Photo: londondrum.comThe final section is Penguin Point which has been completely revamped since the last time I visited. The last time I came it was just a swimming pool of water with about five lonely penguins in it, but it’s like a Disney film set now – they’ve added a big wintery grotto to it with columns of frozen snow and an icy waterfall tumbling down the back wall.
I’ve ranked the SEA LIFE London Aquarium as ★8 in the best things to do with kids in London
It also appears in my one-day London itinerary for families, spending two days in London with the family itinerary and how to spend a week in London itinerary
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What do you think? (5)
Ask a question, or share your experience of the SEA LIFE London Aquarium
Ivan I had to stand in front of the big 2 story tank for an hour while my kid was looking at the divers in there feeding them. Most of the other tanks are small and with all the dense plants I struggled to see anything in most of them. They had a open tank which my kid could put his hand in, and he liked that. He got to touch some big fish. There were no piranhas in it (I checked). (reply)
Scott Can we use our Merlin Pass at the aquarium? (reply)
Craig Hi Scott. You can do, yes. The London Aquarium is one of their attractions, but depending on what kind of pass you’ve got it might have some exclusion dates on it. The Discovery Pass, for example, can only be used on weekdays during term time. So you’ll have to check. (reply)
Miles Hi, we’re coming on saturday, is there anywhere to park? (reply)
Craig Hi Miles. They don’t have their own car park, but there’s a couple of Q-Parks on the other side of the river, a short walk across the bridge – q-park.co.uk/en-gb/cities/london/westminster/ – and q-park.co.uk/en-gb/cities/london/trafalgar/ (reply)
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