What To See In London

[XOKCowboy]

Help us out. A bunch of us have gone to London for the last 2 years and all we've seen was the airport, cabs, hotel, cabs, airport. This time we're not going to make that mistake. We're taking 3 days off after the conference to really see London. We're going to be staying around Paddington Station and of course we're got all of the usual things on our itinerary like the British Museum, the Tower Of London, Buckhingham Palace, etc. I've heard that Stonehenge is a waste since you can't get near it but that a day tour of Windsor Castle is worthwiile. Anybody else have any suggestions?

Also any info on cool things to do at night in London would be appreciated also.

Thanks

[corksean]

1. If you're there on a Sunday I would highly recommend Camden Market

It's a huge (mostly)outdoor market kicking off around 11am and running until about 5pm. As well as all the usual second hand clothes, jewelery and bric-a-brac you have stalls run by up and coming fashion designers and artists where you can pick up some fabulous stuff really cheap. There is also a large section dedicated to antiques (I furnished half my house there!).
It gets very busy but the atmosphere is amazing and the food stalls are top notch.
Nearest Tube Camden Town (Northern Line). Leave the station and you're right in the Market.
Check out The Black Cap pub while you're there. It's a famous gay bar 200yds from the Tube station where you get hilarious drag acts most evenings.

I'd also recommend Jack the Ripper Walking Tours (http://www.jack-the-ripper-walk.co.uk/). Did it once and the guide was very good, very knowledgeable about the Ripper and local history. A lot of the area hasn't changed much since the crimes were committed, and you get a very good feel for working class Victorian London.

For pubs check out http://www.beerintheevening.com/ and if you're thirsty use their Pub Crawl generator to plan your evening.

[KurtNYC]

33. Camden market was fun

A pic:


I was walking through, heard a guy say "I hate that Yank wanker." Turned and he was pointing a poster of Leonardo DiCaprio.

There was a booth selling Jamaican stuff and they had several signs asking people not to ask them where to buy drugs. While I'm looking at the signs, another tourist asked them. Must happen all day long.

[HEyHEY]

2. Dont' foget the bars on Charring crossroad

[billyskank]

3. The Science Museum

It totally rocks! :bounce:

[khashka]

4. OK...

You've got most of the obvious things.

If Stonehenge was a possibility, then so is Avesbury. Not as obvious as Stonehenge but much more intriguing. And as far as I know, you can still approach and touch the stones.


If you are staying near Paddington and will be there on a Sunday - Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park. (Easily walkable) Quite unique. Any one can get up on a soap box and spout any kind of nonsense. And so can you :) Trust me, it's great fun!

Camden Town. Just take the Tube. You can buy antiques, utter pieces of crap, and everything else. It has a real radical feel - although last time I was there it was starting to feel commercial.

Nightlife - my recommendations won't help you, unless you're interested in gay nightlife. Grab a copy of TimeOut, instead.



Khash.

[seemunkee]

28. I'll second Speaker's Corner and Camden town

And add in Westminster Abbey, the feeling of history there is amazing

[Omphaloskepsis]

5. Flame away...

I hate London. Really, I do hate it. The nightlife is shit. (personal experience, maybe it doesn't suck?) We viewed all the major things in a single day while walking. (Anecdotal)

Hop on the Chunnel to Paris for your extra days. Paris > London..

[billyskank]

7. You experienced all there is to do in London?

That's amazing. You must get up very early in the morning. :sarcasm:

[Omphaloskepsis]

9. Just all of the shit London is Famous for..

It is clustered together. When was your last visit?

[billyskank]

10. A few weeks ago

I'm british.

[Omphaloskepsis]

11. I caught that... and I feel like a dork..

Basically, I felt like I experienced all the big things in London on a single day of walking around. A cool city for sure.. But, I find it lacking considering the population.

[billyskank]

12. You can't experience all of London in a day of walking

that's ridiculous. You must mean central London. London probably has as much nightlife as the whole of the rest of England, Scotland and Wales put together. It has everything. Even my best friend from New York agrees that it's a huge city. Any kind of debauched or hedonistic pleasure you may want to enjoy, you can find it in London. This can't be said about any other city in Britain: if you were talking about any of them then I would agree, but not London. I found your statement absurdly arrogant.

[Omphaloskepsis]

14. Well, I live in Oregon...

The ugly American in me only knows of a few major landmarks in London. It was simple to visit all of them on a simple walking trip. I know there are more. I just wanted to get to Paris... Burn.. j/k..

[billyskank]

15. Paris is a great place

Of that there is no doubt.

[Kashka-Kat]

21. deleted posted in wrong place duh

[pitohui]

32. if you're tired of london you're tired of life

c'mon, this is just chain-yanking

you can't even see the entire british museum in a day of walking, much less the whole of london!

[lady raven]

39. I must admit...

I was really shocked to go over there and find that almost everything was closed by midnight (I'm sure there were lots of clubs open, but we didn't go to them). Being from Oklahoma, I expected London to be a city that never sleeps. Instead, it made Oklahoma City seem wild from that perspective.

With the exception of tonight (insomnia), I am no longer a night person, so it doesn't matter so much to me anymore.

[RebelOne]

6. Henry the 8th's estate is fabulous.

[MissHoneychurch]

8. St. Pauls Cathedral

and go on top of it. A lot of stairs but the view is breathtaking.

[sbj405]

13. Greenwich

Especially if the weather is nice. Visit the prime meridian and naval museum.

[Strong Atheist]

16. The Tower of London is neat ... nt.

[radwriter0555]

17. HULLO??? HARRODS????? You MUST must must must must must

spend a couple hours shopping at Harrods.

Picadilly Circus is wonderful too.

Check out Kensington High Street at Cromwell. Lots of great restaurants.

and for THE best meal of your life, please visit Maggie Jones's Cafe; Old Court Place, bottom end of Kensington Church St. W8. It's a casual place, but the food is the best and at fantastic prices.

If you like sushi and good fun, find "Yo Sushi" place where the sushi comes round on conveyer belts to your seat and you pick what you like.

[radwriter0555]

18. London Walks is a FANTASTIC way to experience London as well

http://london.walks.com/

[blondeatlast]

19. "See You Next Wednesday," just make no one is talking to people

you can't see in the theater.

"An American Werewolf in London" joke, see?

[WolverineDG]

20. You CAN see Stonehenge up close

you just have to take a "special access" tour. I've used this company in the past & really enjoyed the trip. Got some great pics too.

http://www.astraltravels.co.uk/

And ditto the recommendation for London Walks. I love taking an afternoon & evening walk on the day I arrive. Keeps me up & active until bed time. :)

dg

[Kashka-Kat]

22. one of my fave places

http://www.soane.org / Although this website does not really do it justice-- in reality its very quirky and fun

[tishaLA]

34. That is a great place

Very fun and quirky.

[AllegroRondo]

23. Most fun I had in London

was walking through Hyde Park and watching Brits try to play American Baseball. It seemed to be quite popular. Some were good, most had no clue of the rules. But they all seemed to be having a great time.

[Deep13]

24. Walk around Westminster at night and soak up the atmosphere.

There is so much to do in London that I would narrow my interest. I was there as an exchange student for three weeks in 1993.

I heeded the advice to skip Buckingham palace. It is out of the way, crowded and the changing of the guard is about all there is to see. Take the tour of the royal crypts at Westminster Abbey. Stonehenge is a haul and, as you say, you have to observe from a distance. I also heeded the advice to skip Canterbury which apparently is a destination for geriatric tourists.

For history, try the Greenwich area and the National Maritime Museum. Read Nelson's letters and see the coat he wore at Trafalgar. Walk around Fleet St. and the Royal Courts of Justice. There is history all over London and it would be hard to describe even the highlights. St. Paul's is amazing, but so are the dozens of smaller medieval churchers in London.

For touristy culture, there's Mdme. Toussaud's, the attractions at Picadilly Circus and endless cultural events. Check out the flower gardens in Regent's Park if in season. Ultimately, London lives in its streets and not in the museums. The pubs are great and the ones in the city do not mind foreigners. The best seafood is from little hole-in-the-wall places and not in restaurants.

A good daytrip is to the town of Arundel, accessible by British Rail. http://www.arundel.org.uk/
It is a typical English town with meticulous gardens, a medeival town square and both an 11th century castle that you can tour and a gen-yoo-ine gothic cathedral.

[smirkymonkey]

25. Go to the Ice Bar.

for a rare experience.

Tate Modern, National Gallery if you like museums. If you want to do a day trip, I would suggest Bath or one of the quaint towns in the Cotswolds. However, I think you could fill your time quite nicely just walking around London and taking in the sites - weather permitting.

For a short stay, it's kind of nice to take the tour bus around to get your bearings and then go back to the places that looked most interesting.

[pitohui]

31. have you tried vinopolis?

the signs for the various tastings sounded pretty good but a little pricey and time did not allow

[kay1864]

26. Cabinet War Rooms

Very cool. They're the actual underground rooms where Churchill and his military staff conducted the war campaign during WWII. I remember the Big Board and the multi-colored phones, the tiny quarters for the enlisted men, Churchill's bedroom, etc.

Self-guided tour with headphones. Takes about an hour. Right near a tube stop IIRC.

I'm not a history buff by any means, but I enjoyed the heck out of this one.

[kay1864]

27. For the British Museum...

Grab a copy of Rick Steves' London before you go. He gives you the highlights, so you don't waste hours and hours. Also has some good restaurant recommendations.

[kwassa]

29. The Eiffel Tower

A great view from the top

[pitohui]

30. WHEN are you going? WHAT is your budget?

some of the suggestions, like a day trip to bath, oh god, be aware that you will NOT believe the crowds of people packed like beans in a can at bath in the summertime

greenwich is a good suggestion and is actually inside london now, you can go on your zone 1-2 travelcard or if you decide to take the ferry then show your card anyway and get a few pounds off the price

british museum by itself is an all day thing even if you only hit highlights

natural history, v&a, science museum are all close together BUT even if you only do the highlights there that's another day gone

plenty of free art museums, tate modern is prob. the best in my view, but there's nat'l gallery, nat'l portrait gallery, tate britain

the city of london museum is pretty nifty, with everything from skulls of young men who were sacrificed to the river thames in prehistoric days to treasures that keep being discovered whenever they do construction work in london, such as the cheapside horde

london is known for its parks and on a nice day be sure to set aside time for a walk but again you will not believe the hordes of people

if you're on a budget, it makes no sense to stand in line and pay boocoo bucks to see the inside of the tower of london when there are so many other treasures and museums open to the public for free w. no standing in line (except when they are checking bags)

nightlife, ha, i'm too shy to suggest anything because london is crazy-expensive, even a simple beer is going to cost ya

[KurtNYC]

35. A couple more ideas

I went in 1998 and stayed in Kilburn (off the Bakerloo line).

Leicester Square - the theater district, lots of live performers in the street -- musicians, buskers

Carnaby Street - made the whole Austin Powers mid-1960s mod scene what it was. Easy to get to also.

Portabello Road market - starts at Hyde Park and goes on for miles, as it peters out you are in a working class neighborhood with pubs full of cockney speaking brits

Almost any live band - saw a Pink Floyd clone band at the Half Moon at 93 Lower Richmond Road in Putney (south of the Thames). Live music every night and they are reportedly famous for folk music. The band I saw would hardly qualify -- Masque, an 11-member band doing tight renditions of Pink Floyd hits (including Dark Side of the Moon, Another Brick in the Wall, Wish You Were Here, and Run Like Hell ) complete with sound effects, a "talk tube" and two lovely British "birds" on backing vocals.

The reconstructed Globe theater - if you are into that kind of thing (eg Shakespeare).

There is a rock-n-roll wax museum near Picadilly that was kind of fun. You wear headphones that pick up audio the corresponds to the wax musician you are looking at. You look at Sid Vicious and it says "he doesn't like you..."

I did not connect with any good food (although my British friends tell me it is out there and it is better than it used to be). Shopping is just a bad idea since the prices are much higher for most things. I was also put off by the unfriendliness of the locals which I found especially odd because usually when you are on vacation you have such a happy glow that people are kind of drawn to you. But that certainly wasn't the case here. Interesting city nonetheless.

[clyrc]

36. I liked the Museum of London

My husband is thrilled beyond sanity that he got to see Dickens' chair.

[mrbill]

37. How many holes does it take to fill the Albert Hall???

My guess is around 7000.

Visit Uncle Karl's grave at Highgate Cemetery at the Archway Underground stop.

Abbey Road Studios are at the St John's Wood stop. Another good photo op on the crosswalk.

The Freud Museum.

London has good theatre.

[lady raven]

38. Some things I remember

I really enjoyed visiting Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, an old pub in Fleet Street.

The Tower of London is fascinating. And I had an interesting experience there with one of the ravens, who has since then been sent away for being aggressive toward visitors (She was just playful with me)

The tour of tower bridge is really interesting too- You go down into the inner workings of the bridge.

The National Gallery, last time I visited, was free and a wonderful afternoon, and around the corner at St. Martin in the Fields church, they had a free concert at lunchtime. I think this was either a weekly or daily thing.

Highgate Cemetery is beautiful and there is an interesting vampire legend there. There are some famous residents there, including George Eliot and Karl Marx.

You're lucky to be going there now- I lived there for awhile with my ex husband, and unfortunately the unpleasant company and having my activities dictated to me dampened the experience for me- I want to go again with my husband and son and the freedom to see and do what I want to. Also, I was there before they opened Buckingham Palace to visitors, so I'd love to go there.

Use a London A to Z map to help you get around- Mine was small and spiral bound, and I knew where I was and where I was going at all times. And if you are ever lost, ask a London taxi driver- They are required to know all of London like the backs of their hands, and can tell you how to get ANYWHERE in the city.

Sadly, I have intentionally tried to block out most of my first marriage, which also means that there's a LOT about my time in London that I don't remember off the top of my head. These are the things I remember easily.