London Things to Do Tips by christine.j

As I've already said on my UK page,my favourite what-to-do tip for London is go on a walk with London Walks. Over the years I have taken quite a lot, some general ones covering the main sights, and more specialized ones about the lesser-known areas of London.I liked them all.
The guides are entertaining, very knowledgable and ready to answer questions and tell you even more.

I was going to tell you my favourite walk and started to read their time table, but before I had reached Wednesday I had found three favourites already.I'm afraid naming all my favourites would be too much for this tip!

I found "Legal and Illegal London" very, very interesting. The Kensington walk is also among my favourites, but , as I said, so are many others.You get taken to places you'd never find on your own, or if you would, you wouldn't be allowed in.

Some practicalities:
The walks are £ 6 per adult, £ 5 reduced rate for senior citizens,students and discount card holders. (If you plan to take several walks)
There is no signing up, just show up at the meeting point. The guides usually wait a few minutes for any late-comers.
Language is English, and even though the walks are for tourists who may come from non-English speaking countries, the guides talk in a normal speed, not expecially slowly.
This is particulary true for the "special" walks, that is not the ones which take you to the main sights.

I've noticed that the walks with some basic sightseeing attract more people and the guides walk more slowly. I've been on "special" walks, with just three or four others, the pace was a lot faster, and we got to see much more.

On the website they warn people about other companies doing similar walks, I don't know how good or bad these are. I 've always been very happy with London Walks and won't change to another company.

On reading this I think I should add that I'm not employed by them and that I'm not getting any money from them.
They're simply excellent!

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Website: http://www.walks.com/Homepage/default.aspx

Last summer we acted like the tourists we were and booked the Duck Tours. This is a sightseeing tour in an amphibious vehicle, first about 45 minutes through the streets of London, then for another 30 minutes on the Thames. For this part we needed another driver. The tour guide told us that there are strict laws as to who is allowed to take people on the water. It takes several years of training to get the licence.

It was a very good tour. Our guide gave us good information about the buildings we saw. He also told us that we were sitting in one of the original amphibious vehicles used at D-day for landing on the beaches in Normandy. Then of course they were painted a dark grey, not the bright yellow of today.It was an strange feeling to imagine what these vehicles had been through.

Duck Tours are strict about the rules of only as many passengers as there are life jackets on board. There was a group with several children and they had to split up, because there were not enough jackets for children. If you want to book this as a family trip with children, it's a good idea to tell them before. The whole trip took about two hours, including all the security instructions etc, that's a long time if you have to wait for your turn to board.

We had great fun, especially when going into the water and later out of it. Don't wear your very best clothes, as you'll get a few drops of water , or a whole lot, depending where you sit.There are no windows!

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Directions: Meeting point is right in front of the London Eye.
Website: http://www.londonducktours.co.uk/

I love the parks in London, especially Kensington Gardens.Being able to go jogging there in early morning is one of the biggest advantages of staying in Bayswater. It's a busy park, with many people walking, dogs running, children playing and squirrels hoping to get a few nuts.You can also go and feed the ducks and swans at the lake there.My favourite time there is late spring, when all the flowers are in bloom.

When my children were small, they loved the playground with Peter Pan and the elves tree.

It is a very nice walk from Bayswater Road through Kensington Gardens to Kensington. Even the museums in South Kensington are not too far to walk to.

I often took a book and a picnic lunch and enjoyed a nice afternoon in the park. That's something which many tourists miss when they rush from one museum to the next. But then , I'm lucky, as I've been able to go to London very often and don't have to cram everything into one trip.

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Directions: Between Bayswater,Kensington and Hyde Park.

Kensington High Street is a very busy street. But when you turn right into the small church yard of St Mary Abbots church,the busy traffic seems miles away.
In front of the church there is a flower stand, you pass it and walk through a dark gate with many memorials plates on the walls, and you're in the yard behind the church. In summer especially it's beautiful there.

I was told that this is the church with the highest steeple in all of London, I don't know if this is true, but it certainly is very high.The church you see today is just over 130 years old, but there have been others on this site for about 1000 years. Many of the tomb stones and memorial plates are older than the church, coming from earlier buildings.
Have a look at the stone carvings above the door, isn't it amazing what the stone masons could do? (picture three). Picture four shows the steeple seen from Kensington Gardens.

This is a working church and inside it has the atmosphere of a working church, not like the touristy feeling some of the more famous churches in London. This is the reason I have no pictures from the inside of the church.

Whenever I'm in London, even if it is just for a very short stay, I always make sure I'll come to this church.

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Directions: Corner of Kensington High Street and Kensington Church

Despite the name, this museum is not a place I would take children, definitely not small children.Pollocks Toy Museum is a museum from a collector for collectors( and those who take collectors to London). The museum spreads over two houses, all the rooms are extremely small and narrow, the stairs are steep and the staircases again very narrow. Very difficult for someone with walking problems.
Every corner of this museum is full of toys, I don't think there is any type of old toy not shown here.Teddy bears, paper dolls, cardboard games and many, many others. The name comes from Benjamin Pollock,who had made Victorian toy theatres. In the shop attached to the museum you can buy reprints of these toy theatres and remakes of other Victorian toys.I've been there a few times, even though I am not a collector , and I really like it. There is a lot of atmosphere in this old place.

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Address: 1, Scala Street
Directions: Close to Goodge Street tube station
Website: http://www.pollockstoymuseum.com/index.html

It's easy to spend weeks in this museum and still discover new things. A very good first introduction is the British Museum walk by London Walks. We were taken to some of the highlights, the layout of the museum was explained and at the end we could stay in the museum and see some more. As always, the tour guide stayed for some time and anwered questions.
The most impressive item in my mind is the Rosetta Stone. A dictionary in stone is amazing and to think that someone was able to figure out what it means is even more amazing.The most touching exhibition piece was a letter by a Roman mother to her son, a soldier stationed in England hundreds of years ago. She is worried that he might be cold, as she heard the climate there was very harsh.
Mothers really haven't changed at all.

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Phone: 0 20 7323 8299
Address: Great Russell Street, WC1
Directions: Holborn tube
Website: http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk

I like walking along the Thames, from the London Eye past the Globe Theatre to Southwark Cathedral. Once you have managed to get through the crowds waiting their turns for the Eye, you can turn right and just keep walking.
Last summer there were many street performers there, it was fun to watch. A couple of tables full with boxes of used books invited us to browse through them. The further we walked , the less crowded it was and when we reached the pub The Anchor, we were actually able to get a table outside on the terrace, overlooking the Thames.The perfect spot for a break.
If you're interested in Shakespeare, the Globe Theatre shop is a good place. Apart from his plays they had good information about Elizabethan times and customs available, also of course the usual souvenirs with "Shakespeare" written on them.

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Address: Waterloo, SE1
Directions: Waterloo tube
Website: http://www.southbanklondon.com/

Walking along the South bank took us to Southwark Cathedral.For more than one thousand years there has been a church in this spot.In the cathedral as it is today, there are still many features and parts left from these older churches.
Southwark Cathedral is a very impressive building, huge from the outside, beautiful inside. However, even though we visited on a Sunday afternoon in August, we were among very few tourists there.Quite a difference to St Pauls, for example.

It is very colourful inside. The second picture shows the tomb plate of John Gower, a friend of Chaucer, who is said to have been the first English poet. He died in 1408.

The third picture is the tomb plate of John Trehearne,who died in 1600. The plate says he was a " Gentleman Portar to King James the First". I'm not sure what a portar was, maybe a porter? He was carrying things for the king? Does anybody know? He must have been a special porter, to get such an elaborate tomb plate.

The most famous member of this cathedral was William Shakespeare. Since the Globe theatre was just a short distance away, he attended service here. There is a memorial dedicated to him (picture four), underneath a window showing characters from his plays.

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Directions: on the South bank of the Thames
Website: http://www.southwark.anglican.org/cathedral/index.htm

When I used to take my children/niece/nephew to London they all liked to go to Hampton Court, to the maze there.
It's an easy journey, just about 30 minutes by train and a very short walk to the palace.The castle is supposed to be haunted, but we've never seen any ghosts.

The gardens are wonderful, but the best part is the maze.Over three hundred years old, this is a real maze for adults, not an easy one where any adult can just look over the hedges. We always made sure we stayed together and had great fun trying to find the centre first and then trying to find the exit again. Even though I had been in there a few times, I still got completely lost again the next time I went. We encountered a few people who were afraid, surprisingly more adults than children. One poor woman was actually crying.

To celebrate your success of finding out again, you can go to one of the cafés in the park.

The tickets for palace,gardens and maze are not cheap, especially when you are several people in your group ,but there are also tickets for the maze only.

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Phone: 0 20 8781 9500
Address: East Molesey, KT8 9AU
Directions: Network Rail from Waterloo to Hampton Court
Website: http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/