Okay, most people don't actually buy the art in these galleries; you go to look, not to shop. But the East End galleries are the place to go if you want to know what's happening right now in the London art scene.

Galleries are a way into the city's ever-changing art scene. Unless you're from another major metropolis, the odds are that nothing like this exists in your hometown. It's possible that unless you've spent time in a world-class city before, you also may not know to look for them or know what the "galleries" listing in Time Out means. These galleries are small spaces, sometimes a single room, which display work by one or two contemporary artists at a time. The art is available for sale, generally at very high prices. Anyone can come in and look. A staff member sits behind a desk somewhere, but you are not expected to interact with him. It is not clear how galleries make money, since they don't charge admission and they don't make very many sales, but their expenses are probably low.

Giving addresses is a bit dangerous, because the really cutting-edge galleries tend to open and shut like day lilies as rents go up in one neighborhood and tumbledown warehouses get renovated in another. Pick up a copy of Time Out and see what's listed. But a good place to start is at White Cube in Hoxton Square, one of London's most prestigious (and therefore non-peripatetic) galleries. It's hard to miss: it's the only white cube-shaped building on the square, although not the only gallery.

But for the new stuff by lesser-known artists, head further east past Brick Lane through a hopping Pakistani neighborhood to the former warehouses south of the Brixton tube stop. On a recent trip, we saw, among other things:

--A room in which the floor had been covered with intertwining plastic tubes in primary colors, each full of water which was being slowly pumped into a central tank

--A series of six-foot-tall statues of the head of Queen Elizabeth (the iconic silhouette from postage stamps) made out of plastic toy guns, lizards, ivy fronds, kewpie dolls, and the like

--A film in which two dazed naked people slowly interacted with a series of weirdly anthropomorphic robots

--A set of paintings of roads gleaming after rain (those we would have bought if we had had two thousand pounds to spend) exhibited in a gallery which also contained a vitrine full of water holding a rusting industrial spring

It’s a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. In case it's not clear from the descriptions above, these galleries hold everything from the beautiful to the ridiculous. Whatever kind of art you like, you'll find something to enjoy at one of them.

Most galleries are open from noon to 5pm on weekends and not at all during the week. All are free. Wear comfy shoes.