Money Matters in London

Money Matters

A movie in the West End costs £8-£12 (at some cinemas it's cheaper on Monday and at matinees); a theater seat costs anywhere from £10 to about £35, though you'll pay more for hit shows. Most museums are free, but the few that charge admission tend to ask for £5-£10. Coffee costs £1-£3; a pint of light beer (lager) in a pub costs £2.50 or more (glasses are bigger here than in the United States); whiskey, gin, vodka, and so forth, by the glass in a pub, cost £2.50 and up (the measure is smaller than in the United States); house wine by the glass costs around £2.50 in a pub or wine bar, £3.50 or more in a restaurant; a Coke goes for around £1 (although it can be double or even triple that in a pub); a ham sandwich from a sandwich bar in the West End costs about £3; a 1-mi taxi ride costs £4. Ticket prices on the Underground have gone up every year for the last five years, to the point where a single ticket within central London now costs £3.

Substantially reduced fees -- generally referred to as "concessions" throughout Great Britain -- are almost always available for children, students, and senior citizens.

ATMs

Credit cards or debit cards (also known as check cards) will get you cash advances at ATMs, which are widely available in London. To make sure that your Cirrus or Plus card (to cite just two of the leading names) works in European ATMs, have your bank reset it to use a four-digit PIN number before your departure.

Credit Cards

Credit cards are accepted virtually everywhere in London.

Currency

The units of currency in Great Britain are the pound sterling (£) and pence (p): £50, £20, £10, and £5 bills (called notes); £2, £1 (100p), 50p, 20p, 10p, 5p, 2p, and 1p coins. At this writing, the exchange rate was about Australian $2.42, Canadian $2.31, New Zealand $2.59, U.S. $1.92, and EUR 1.44 to the pound (also known as quid).