Visiting London

[kingme]

Visiting London next week. Any suggestions wht not to miss? Anyone there the weekend 24 25 26?
Whts the weather like?

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

Visiting London next week. Any suggestions wht not to miss? Anyone there the weekend 24 25 26?
Whts the weather like?

Don't bother. It's shit

 

[StoneHappyMonday]

1) Swim in the River Thames, everyone does that, brilliant experience.

2) If in North London, ask a black cab to take you "south of the river" after 10pm. Watch hilarity ensue.

3) Have a competition whereby you try and buy a pint of drinkable beer in a pub for under £4. Wetherspoons is cheating.

London's fucking great.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

1) Swim in the River Thames, everyone does that, brilliant experience.

2) If in North London, ask a black cab to take you "south of the river" after 10pm. Watch hilarity ensue.

3) Have a competition whereby you try and buy a pint of drinkable beer in a pub for under £4. Wetherspoons is cheating.

London's fucking great.

4) try and have fun for under a grand

Alternatively, visit the lake District, the Cotswolds, the Norfolk Broads, the new forest, Devon, Cornwall, Wales, the peak District, Scotland etc. Etc. There's more to life than that London...

 

[benson7]

5) Engage in friendly banter with the locals, they love a chit chat with strangers.

 

[StoneHappyMonday]

5) Engage in friendly banter with the locals, they love a chit chat with strangers.

6) Especially on the tube. It's because there is nothing else to do stuck below ground that Londoners particularly like a good ol' discussion on the underground. Top tip.

 

[alasdairm]

london is magnificent - i suggest you:

1. just walk around and keep your head up. there are so many cool places to walk around london and so many amazing things to see. if you want to get immersed in bustle and touristy, just walk around trafalger square, up through leicester square and picadilly circus, up regent street - dipping into carnaby street - along oxford street, etc.

if you want something less urban, walk from little venice to camden along the canal or just go get lost on hampstead heath or wimbledon common.

2. eat and drink. i left the uk in the early 90s and i still miss the beer. drink ale and lots of it there are thousands of restaurants in london spanning all styles. eat chinese food in china town or indian food in brick lane or whatever you like

3. go see art; the national gallery; the national portrait gallery; the tate modern; the tate britain; the barbican; etc.

4. go see museums: the british museum; the v&a; the natural history museum; the science museum; the london transport museum; the imperial war museum; etc.

5. go see music. when i lived in london, there seemed to be a show i wanted to see pretty much every night of the year.

6. buy time-out and just find something to do

pro-tip: don't get on the tube at all. if you need to get somewhere too far to walk. take the bus and look out of the window...

have fun.

alasdair

 

[Arnold]

Camden town, this place was hip long before hipsters were born especially if you've never been there before.
Wong Kei in Chinatown. Supposedly the 'rudest' restaurant in Chinatown which I completely disagree with.
It's a must have experience. The food is always excellent and quite cheap.

 

[StoneHappyMonday]

Camden town, this place was hip long before hipsters were born especially if you've never been there before.
Wong Kei in Chinatown. Supposedly the 'rudest' restaurant in Chinatown which I completely disagree with.
It's a must have experience. The food is always excellent and quite cheap.

1st line = long past sell by date. Like 20 years.

2nd line = Yep. Urban myth.

3rd line = Agree.

 

[Mentes]

london is magnificent - i suggest you:

1. ...

In addition to all this useful stuff, for clubs see here

There are some great parties on over that weekend Worth chucking in a mention of Fabric, easily one of the best clubs in the world, stay past 3am and the tourists empty out and the vibe improves... there is also a new 2000+ person venue call Printworks that looks amazing.

Defo check what's on at the barbican, and if you do this on a Friday then the food market on Whitecross street is several shades of awesome.

This place for the best salt beef in London, and brick lane also has cafe 1001 (often day parties) and rough trade for record shopping as well as all kinds of other stuff on depending on the day.. it's also round the corner from spitalfields market, great at the weekend.

The Tate Modern has been extended so is even bigger, and the southbank is a great walk from london bridge & borough market (food to please everyone!), down to to waterloo... southbank centre.

The Design Museum has also moved to a new location, depending on where you end up, it's worth a gander.

Camden is indeed a shadow of it's former self... but if you're in the area, the stalls are alright and the canal is a nice walk... but defo wont be a highight, unless you've never been?

Plan your days, 1+ on not bothering with the tube for short journeys if you can help it, get to where you are going and explore... in three days you could do the southbank, a couple of museums, eat some amazing food and go to a decent party !

 

[alasdairm]

Wong Kei in Chinatown. Supposedly the 'rudest' restaurant in Chinatown which I completely disagree with.
It's a must have experience. The food is always excellent and quite cheap.

i saw a waiter drag a guy out of the restaurant by his collar for tapping his chopsticks on the table once

i disagree on the food quality - it's average.

there are better restaurants within 500 yards e.g. four seasons

alasdair

 

[kingme]

Well i personally have seen the museums and did all the usual tourist stuff on my previous 2 visits. But the tate modern i always like.

Will be checking out the clubs but am rather weary of going alone since i dont know the local etiquette.

Last i recll the londpn food is not too great and expensive for what it is...

Is the zoo nice?
Whats there to do on mondays and tuesday evenings?
Cheers!
Pm me if anyone is interested in meeting up.

 

[alasdairm]

Whats there to do on mondays and tuesday evenings?

time out

alasdair

 

[Safrolette]

london is magnificent - i suggest you:
1. just walk around and keep your head up. there are so many cool places to walk around london and so many amazing things to see.
pro-tip: don't get on the tube at all. if you need to get somewhere too far to walk. take the bus and look out of the window...
have fun.

Totally agree with tip n.1 (and most of the others) but not with the pro-tip... I love travelling by Tube when in London! But buses are cool too %)
Have you been to any park? If the weather is nice a walk in one of the parks is highly recommended: Regent's Park (HUGE), Hyde Park (more manageable), St James' Park (small but perfectly formed. It's the Queen's back garden, basically).
And I never fail to walk down the Southbank from Westminster Bridge to the Globe Theatre when I'm down there.
You say that you've done all the museums, been already at the Victoria & Albert? It's great

 

[MuseEPDBluesRepeat]

Myself and Pagey live in London (well, Twickenham) and have done for a good few years now. So in terms of clubs, I can definitely reiterate Mentes' suggestion of Fabric - recently reopened and one of my all time favourite clubs. Obviously check out the obvious stuff, galleries - National, Tate, Tate Modern, plus all the usual tourist traps like Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Street etc. Some of the markets are great too, Brixton and Borough come to mind.

There's also a tonne of great green spaces, obviously the royal parks: Regents, Hyde, St. James, but also Hampstead Heath, and near our neck of the woods, Richmond Park and Kew Gardens which is absolutely stunning in spring.

Weather has been pretty decent recently, pleasant spring sunshine and fairly mild -but the weather is a fickle beast this time of year and it could easily be very chilly in a week's time!

We're around all the time, seeing as we live there

 

[StoneHappyMonday]

Is the zoo nice?

It's a zoo. No, I don't think it's nice. However, if you get a nice day, get up Primrose Hill (the nicest hill park in London) and enjoy the sounds of the zoo and the amazing sight you get of London.

 

[ponch]

Remember to stand on the left of the escalators when using the underground.

 

[MuseEPDBluesRepeat]

Remember to stand on the left of the escalators when using the underground.

And that different underground stations will have different left/right systems for their walkways...

 

[kingme]

Any good food place? Cheap but tasty?

 

[Safrolette]

Any good food place? Cheap but tasty?

I'll show my age now saying Marks & Spencer. There are a couple of big ones in Oxford Street, one not far from Oxford Circus and the other one more towards the Marble Arch end, same side as John Lewis and Selfridges. Leon (it's a chain) it's decent too. Don't know about independent places, I moved up North from there quite a long time ago, in 2004.
Only a few days to go now, have an ace time kingme, London is such a great city %)