Even Londoners cannot claim to know every part of this vivid, varied and vast city. That’s what makes it so exciting. You’ll see something different each time you visit, each time you step over the threshold. One author of an 1869 London travel guide wrote that capturing everything the city had to offer was as futile a pursuit as “emptying the Atlantic with a limpet shell”. Whichever postcode you choose, you’ll find something that hints at the capital’s past.
The old gas lamp on Carting Lane outside the Savoy; the ornate Coalbrooke Gates in Hyde Park created for the Great Exhibition of 1851. In some spots you can hear the River Fleet rushing beneath the pavement or view the old Roman walls of what was then Londinium. New York claims to never sleep, but Soho and Shoreditch give the Big Apple a run for its money with crowds in the streets (especially in summer) until the early hours. The city is also fantastically green, too, with not just the Thames to follow but canals, too. In other words, there’s plenty of respite to be found from the city’s frenetic beat.
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What to do
Pound the streets as Charles Dickens did and you’ll truly get to know it. You can visit his former home on 48 Doughty Street and learn about his love of milk punch (gin, milk, lemon, nutmeg) and the accompanying parties that would go on into the early hours. Of course there are myriad world-class museums to choose from — the Victoria and Albert Museum and Natural History Museum, both in South Kensington, among them. The Cast Courts at the V&A, which include copies of Trajan’s Column, are especially eye-opening. Niche interests are looked after, too, at the Museum of Brands in Notting Hill or the Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret — with Europe’s oldest surviving operating theatre — near London Bridge. Below ground, visitors can book tours of disused spaces on the Tube network and even walk under Trafalgar Square. Immediately above, there’s the National Gallery (Monet, Rubens, Degas, Picasso) and nearby the bright lights of shop-filled Carnaby Street and the brash but brilliant West End. Glossy Mayfair has hushed galleries and tempting window displays while the royal parks are free and beautiful at any time of year.
Where to stay
Central London has never been better served for great places to stay — Nomad has opened opposite Covent Garden opera house with a cavernous and glamorous restaurant and arty library bar minutes away from the covered market and surrounding shops. In-the-thick-of-it Leicester Square has The Londoner with eight subterranean storeys including a spa and pool. If you’re looking for more of a townhouse feel, there’s the Lost Poet in trendy Notting Hill or Lime Tree in smart Belgravia where the people watching is reliably good and the dogs beautifully clipped. Number Sixteen in South Kensington has a sheltered garden, The Orangery, where you can dine. Evenings buzz at the Ned, in the former Midland bank in the City, and you can relive the jazz age in its basement jazz and cabaret bar, The Parlour. If you’re popping out to Hampton Court or Richmond for a day trip from London, try the Mitre (right on the river) in the former and Richmond Harbour Hotel in the latter. The Hoxton (with outposts in Southwark, Shoreditch and Holborn) is a reliably stylish option whichever corner of the city you choose; don’t miss the chance to dine at the slick rooftop Seabird restaurant if you plump for Southwark.
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Food and drink
The capital is an all-day and all-night buffet of dining possibilities whether you want to grab something from a stall at Borough Market in London Bridge and watch the river go by, go upmarket in Mayfair or Covent Garden or hole up at a cosy bar in Soho for tapas or a pie. There are wine bars and restaurants beneath the redeveloped Battersea Power Station, its chimneys glowing at night, and you can eat in Paddington Basin, in a boat on the canal. Of course there are pubs. Gordon’s wine bar (London’s oldest wine bar) on Villiers Street is atmospheric, as is Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on the old newspaper alley, Fleet Street. Piccadilly has a cavernous Parisian brasserie and red lantern-swagged Chinatown is full of charm — and, yes, buffets. In East London you’ll find quirky independents and open-air barbecues and, if you’re near Dalston, you could even combine that with an evening swim at heated London Fields Lido.
Don’t miss
Pretty Columbia Road flower market on a Sunday morning and the treasure-filled Sir John Soane’s Museum (you can’t possibly miss the sarcophagus of Pharaoh Seti) when it’s candlelit on winter evenings. Cross and re-cross the Thames on the formerly wobbly bridge outside Tate Modern or the romantic pink-painted Albert Bridge into Battersea Park. See London from the water in a river taxi from Westminster to Greenwich where you can walk beneath the Thames, down the foot tunnel or admire the painted hall in the Old Royal Naval College. Walk The Line is an outdoor sculpture trail starting at Anish Kapoor’s twisting tower in the Olympic Park and ends with an upside-down pylon by Alex Chinneck at north Greenwich. The Emirates Air Line (part of the route) brings views as exhilarating as you’ll experience from the London Eye but of a very different part of town. Walk down the Mall to admire the stirring view of Buckingham Palace — you can go inside on a guided tour — and arrive in time to watch the Changing of the Guard.
Know before you go
Weather is not to be relied on in the UK, but spring is blossom-filled (try Kew Gardens) and autumn often glorious with a sense of summer still sparking into September. It can be surprisingly quiet in August when many Londoners go on holiday and you tend to have better luck getting into the most sought-after restaurants. Plus there’s the Royal Academy’s buzzing Summer Exhibition, at which you can purchase artwork to take home and even have a glass of wine while you are browsing. Winter brings firework displays, outdoor ice rinks and Christmas lights on all the main shopping streets.
Transport is easy to navigate — with no need to buy tickets for the tube, buses or overground trains (even from Gatwick airport) — you can tap in and out using a debit or credit card with contactless payment enabled. Don’t be put off by your journey from the airport — it’s uninspiring whether you’re coming in from Gatwick or Heathrow, but everything gets better once you’re in. Most places take card payments — even market stalls — so you don’t need wads of cash to get around. Tipping is not as widespread as it is in the US, for example, but restaurants often add an automatic 10-13 per cent. Don’t believe the myth that Londoners aren’t friendly, they are just fast walkers — you can ask them directions.
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