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Tips 1 - 10 of 21 London Things to Do
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Things To Do: The London Eye
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For me this recent addition to the London skyline and to the tourist map is a great success, and a "must-see" attraction. OK it may sound a little scary to some to be 135 metres above the ground, but trust me, it's worth overcoming any fear you may feel. Our friend Dominik did just that earlier this year, and as soon as our 30 minute "flight" had finished he was talking about how soon we could go again!
You travel in an enclosed capsule with a small bench in the centre and 360 degree panoramic views (40km on a clear day). Unless you've booked a private flight you won't get the capsule to your selves though, and this is perhaps the only downside as on a busy day there could be around 20 other people in there with you, all eager for the best views. But be patient and take your time - once the initial excitement has died down you'll find there's plenty of time for everyone to get the photos they want and spot all the famous landmarks below.
I have to admit though that this isn't a cheap attraction. Adults pay £14.50, children (5-15 years) £7.25 (though under-fives go for free), senior citizens (60+) £11.00 and disabled passengers £11.00 (and can take one carer free of charge). If you book online you get 10% discount on these prices and also ensure yourself a shorter wait in line - and a guaranteed place on the busiest days - but of course you'll be taking a gamble on the weather. The best thing to do is to book online on the morning of your planned visit.
Oh and in case you're wondering, a private capsule will cost you around £400 :)
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Address: County Hall, Westminster Bridge Rd, SE1 7P
Directions: On the South Bank of the River Thames, opposite the Houses of Parliament. Nearest tube stations are Waterloo (follow signs for South Bank) and Westminster (exit 1, follow signs for Westminster pier). Ticket office located inside County Hall.
Website: http://www.londoneye.com/
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This photo has to be one of the iconic images of London …
… but how many of you think that it is a photo of Big Ben? In fact, Big Ben is the name of the bell inside the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster. And “Palace of Westminster” is the official name for the building which is home to the Houses of Parliament. This is because until 1512 the royal family lived where Parliament is now situated.
Parliament is open to all members of the UK public and overseas visitors. You can watch laws being made, attend debates and committees, tour the buildings, and if you’re a resident of the UK, climb the clock tower. I’ve never been to a debate or on a tour, but I’m lucky that my job has led to me being invited to receptions here on several occasions. There is an incredible sense of history in this building – echoes of the weighty decisions that have been made here, the great statesmen and women who’ve walked these corridors, the major events witnessed here. If you get the opportunity to go inside I would certainly recommend it if you have any interest in history or in politics.
To attend a debate you simply need to join the queue outside St Stephen’s entrance, although you may need to wait an hour or more. Make sure you check that the House is sitting though – details are available on the website below, including recess dates. Security these days of course is very tight, so come prepared for your bags, and your body, to be searched.
Overseas visitors can only tour Parliament during the Summer Opening, when paid-for tickets are available, but if you’re a UK resident you can arrange a place on a free tour through your MP.
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Address: Parliament Square, SW1
Directions: The nearest tube station is Westminster, on the Circle, District and Jubilee lines. Follow the signs to Exit 3
Website: http://www.parliament.uk/about/visiting.cfm
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St James’s Park is definitely one of my favourite spots in the city. All the London parks provide a welcome green oasis but for me this one has the edge. Perhaps it’s the lovely lake with so many beautiful water birds, or maybe the great views to be had from its bridge. Stand there for a while and look towards Whitehall – the domes and copulas will make you think you are somewhere far more exotic than London! Then turn to look the other way and you’ll see one of the city’s most famous buildings, Buckingham Palace, which in my opinion looks much better from this distance than close up!
This is also a great park for picnics, and for people watching. So linger a while on the benches – or why not follow a great London parks’ tradition and hire a deck-chair? And if you’re looking for refreshments, the park has an excellent restaurant (by reputation – I haven’t been – yet!) and several snack kiosks.
Some history
This is the oldest Royal Park in London, surrounded by three palaces: Westminster, the oldest and now the Houses of Parliament, St James's and of course Buckingham Palace. The Park was once a marshy meadow. In 1532 Henry VIII acquired it as a deer park and built the Palace of St James's. The park was redesigned in Charles II’s time, with avenues of trees planted and lawns laid. The King opened the park to the public and was a frequent visitor, feeding the ducks and mingling with his subjects. Later Horse Guards Parade was created by filling in one end of the canal and was used first as a mustering ground and later for parades. The Park changed again when John Nash redesigned it in a more romantic style. The canal was transformed into a natural-looking lake, and in 1837 the Ornithological Society of London presented some birds and had a cottage built for a bird-keeper. You can still see the cottage on the eastern side of the lake, near Horse Guards Parade, and apparently the position of bird-keeper remains to this day too :) Oh, and the famous resident pelicans are fed every day at 2:30pm
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Directions: Nearest tube stations are St. James's Park (District & Circle lines) and Charing Cross (Northern & Bakerloo)
Website: http://www.royalparks.gov.uk/parks/st_james_park/
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Westminster Abbey should definitely be high on every visitor's must see list. I think is one of the two places in London where you get the greatest sense of the country's history (the Tower of London is the other). Here all British monarchs from 1066 onwards, with the exceptions only of Edward V and Edward VIII, have been crowned, many of them married and, until George II, buried. Its wealth of historic sights include the Coronation Chair, the Shrine of Edward the Confessor, the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, various Royal Tombs and the Royal Chapels.
So many of Britain's great men and women are buried here: Chaucer, Spenser, Kipling, Dickens & Tennyson with other writers in Poets' Corner; Handel, Vaughan Williams & Purcell; Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton & Robert Stephenson; Dame Peggy Ashcroft & Sir Henry Irving ...
Others are buried elsewhere but commemorated here: the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Winston Churchill ...
The abbey is mainly Gothic in style, and its proper name is actually the Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster - but no one ever calls it that, and very few Londoners would even recognise the name! There has been a church on this site since 616AD but the present building was started in 1045 and much added too over the following centuries, being more or less finished in the 15th.
The Abbey is open to visitors on weekdays and Saturdays, but on Sunday only for those atending a service. Times vary a lot, so check the website below before you go - also if you'd like to attend a service. There is an entry charge of £10 (adults) and £7.00 (children & seniors).
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Phone: 020 7654 4900
Address: Deans Yard, SW1
Directions: St James's Park or Westminster tube (both on the Circle and District lines). Westminster is nearer but I prefer the approach from St James's Park. Follow signs to the right exit, and walk ahead down Tothill Street - you can't miss it!
Website: http://www.westminster-abbey.org
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Is there a London tourist who doesn’t come at some point to Trafalgar Square? It’s rightly one of the best-known and most iconic places in the city, and on a sunny day is a great place to linger a while and enjoy the sights. These include:
~ Nelson’s Column, of course – a granite column 185' high, crowned by the statue of Lord Nelson
~ the wonderful bronze lions, by Edwin Landseer, at the 4 corners of the monument (one of my earliest memories is of my law-abiding father being told off by a policeman for letting me sit on one of them!)
~ the fountains, adorned with mermaids, dolphins and tritons – a cooling sight on the hottest of days
~ the smallest police box ever built, on the SE corner of the square (now sadly used only for storage but once a facility for the famous Scotland Yard)
~ the Imperial Standards of Length, marking the point from which all distances from London are measured
The square is surrounded by great buildings, including the National Gallery on the north side, St Martin in the Fields (a beautiful Wren church, currently undergoing renovation) to the north-east, South Africa House (for years the site of a permanent anti-Apartheid protest, now thankfully no longer necessary) on the east and Canada House on the west. To the south, wonderful views can be had down Whitehall to the Houses of Parliament at the end – check out my general tips for a suggested walk that will take you through much of this area.
At Christmas the square is extra-special, with the large tree donated every year by the Norwegian government (in gratitude for Britain's assistance during WW2) a focal point for carol singing and in recent years a European-style Christmas Market. The square is also the centre for major celebrations (when London was awarded the Olympic Games, for example, and when England won the Rugby World Cup) and for demonstrations. In fact, there is nearly always something going on here - so do come and join in!
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Address: Trafalgar Square, WC2
Directions: Nearest tube is Charing Cross (Bakerloo or Northern lines) or Leicester Square (Piccadilly or Northern lines)
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You could spend a day here and still come away wishing you had seen more! Despite the name, this isn’t a museum about Britain – the collections include artefacts from all over the world (including controversially some that people feel should have stayed where they were, such as the Elgin Marbles from the Acropolis), and span 2 million years of history.
Some highlights:
~ From Ancient Egypt (one of my favourite collections): statuary & decorated architecture, inscribed with hieroglyphs; coffins & mummies of individuals; furniture, fine jewellery & other burial goods.
~ From Imperial China: calligraphy, paintings & ceramics (and in 2008 there will be an exhibition featuring some of the Terracotta Army from Xian)
~ From Anglo-Saxon: one of the most impressive collections, the treasures from the ship burial at Sutton Hoo, Suffolk.
~ From the Aztecs: stone & ceramic sculptures; musical instruments such as drums, decorated with intricate carvings; rare turquoise mosaics.
~ From Iron Age Britain: one of the items that has fascinated me since I first saw it, Lindow Man. This is the body of a man discovered in August 1984 when workmen were cutting peat at Lindow Moss bog in NW England. The conditions in the peat bog meant that the man’s skin, hair and many of his internal organs are well preserved, and scientists have been able to do lots of research to learn about his life and death, concluding that he was probably the victim of a ritual sacrifice by druids.
Do open up my 2nd photo to see a view of the museum few people will get – the stunning green glass roof photographed from above. This is part of the wonderful view I enjoy from my office window :)
Admission is free, as it is to all the major museums in London. Open every day 10.00-17.30, and later on Thursdays and Fridays.
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Phone: 0 20 7323 8299
Address: Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG
Directions: Nearest tube is Holborn (Central & Piccadilly lines) – the museum is signposted from the station. It’s also an easy walk from Russell Square (Piccadilly line), Tottenham Court Road (Central line) & Goodge Street (Northern line)
Website: http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
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These days this is possibly the centre of London’s tourist community. People seem to gravitate here and it’s easy to understand why. There’s always something to see or do – a craftsman at work or street-performer to watch, an interesting shop to explore, a new bar or restaurant to try.
Covent Garden was once the main fruit and vegetable market for London, in fact the largest in England. This market used to fill the square and you can still see some of the old structures, now used to shelter the craft market stall-holders. Meanwhile in the south-east corner of the square was a flower market (now the home of London’s Transport Museum, closed for refurbishment until autumn 2007). If you’ve seen the film “My Fair Lady” you should be able quite easily to imagine how the square would have looked in the days of the market – and do head for the western side to see the lovely Inigo Jones church of St Paul’s, on whose steps Eliza Doolittle took refuge.
The market closed in 1973 and there was talk of knocking down the old buildings, but they were saved through a public campaign, and a new and vibrant focus for enjoyment in London was created. Not only in the square itself, but in many of the surrounding streets, which are now filled with a wide variety of shops (many of them “one-off”s rather than chains), cafes, pubs and restaurants. There’s also, of course, the world-famous Royal Opera House in the north-east corner – tickets are traditionally expensive but efforts have been made in recent years to make them more affordable, and even if you’re not into opera the building is well worth a look.
By the way, my main photo with its aerial view was was taken from the terrace of one of my favourite pubs here, above the Cornish pasty shop in the north-west corner of the market.
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Directions: Nearest tube, unsurprisingly, is Covent Garden (Piccadilly line) but this can get very crowded. Leicester Square (same line & Northern too) is quieter and only 5 minutes walk away.
Website: http://www.coventgardenlife.com/
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Things To Do: The British Library
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This is one of my favourite modern buildings in London and it's a shame that it's often missed by tourists - possibly because it's a little off the beaten track (near St Pancras Station in a fairly unattractive part of town) and possibly because they're unaware of its attractions.
Firstly, there's this lovely courtyard, free and open to all, with lots of places to sit in the sun or shade, maybe with a book (this is a library after all!) and perhaps with a coffee from the little cafe. There are also a number of eye-catching sculptures such as the one in my 2nd photo and a lovely small bust of Anne Frank.
Next, go inside to discover the treasures within. This is the main legal deposit library for the nation and it therefore holds a copy of every book ever published here - mind-boggling!! Altogether there are about 150 million items, in most known languages. If you're a scholar or researcher you may want to apply for a reader's ticket to give you access to all that wealth, but most casual visitors will want to see the big stars of the collection. Have a look at the King's Library, a glass-enclosed column of beautifully bound books that runs the height of the building at its core. Visit the Treasures Gallery to see some of the world's most exciting and significant books, such as Magna Carta, the Gutenberg Bible and Shakespeare's First Folio. There's also a gallery for changing exhibitions - the current one is called "Sacred" and uses the world's greatest collection of Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy books to show how much we all have in common.
The Library also has a good book and gifts shop, a cafe and restaurant. And if you can't get here, you can explore the pages of some of its most wonderful books through the Turning the Pages website - a wonderful use of technology that allows you to feel as if you really are turning the pages of these priceless volumes.
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Phone: 020 7412 7332
Address: 96 Euston Road, NW1 2DB
Directions: Nearest tube: Kings Cross/St Pancras (numerous lines) or Euston
Website: http://www.bl.uk/
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HMS Belfast served in WW2, playing a leading part in the Normandy Landings. She is now moored on the Thames near Tower Bridge as a unique reminder of Britain’s naval heritage. A visit to the ship makes a good day out, especially for families – we took a young nephew there many years ago and he loved imagining himself as a sailor!
The ship has been restored to reflect the different the campaigns that she served in, with 9 decks to explore. Areas you can visit include the Boiler Room, Engine Room, Wheelhouse, Ship’s Company Dining Hall, Mess Deck and Admiral’s living quarters.
There is a café on board where you can get cooked meals, hot and cold drinks, snacks, sandwiches and confectionery.
A few points to note about getting around HMS Belfast:-
Wheelchairs: unfortunately only limited areas of the ship are accessible for wheelchair users, though modifications have been made to provide a limited tour including the Quarterdeck, the Boat Deck and the café. Access to the ship is via a gangway with a wheelchair lift.
Safety: children under 16 have to be accompanied by an adult. Please make sure children (and you!) have suitable footwear – there are lots of narrow metal steps so flip-flops, “heelys” and high heels just wouldn’t be safe.
The ship is also used for corporate events and conferences (hence my recent visit) and if you’re travelling to London with a group of children you might like to know that school classes and youth groups (age 8+) can now sleepover on board. HMS Belfast's sleepover provides the opportunity to experience what it is like to live and sleep in the renovated mess-decks. The children sleep in original bunks, with authentic lockers and shower facilities. Meanwhile, you’ll be pleased to know, there are separate cabins with en-suite for accompanying adults. Breakfast, a session with an Education Officer and exploration of the ship are included in the price.
Open daily (except over Christmas), 10.00am – 6.00pm (till 5.00pm in winter)
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Address: Morgan's Lane, Tooley Street, SE1 2JH
Directions: Nearest tube stations are London Bridge (Northern and Jubilee lines) and Tower Hill (District and Circle lines)
Website: http://hmsbelfast.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.00e
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The best way to see London’s River Thames is possibly to take a boat trip along it. There are several companies offering these, all pretty similar. Trips depart from a number of central London locations along the river, including Charing Cross Pier (by Embankment tube station), Westminster Pier (by Westminster Bridge and the tube station of the same name), Tower Bridge and Waterloo on the south bank. Some trips are quite short and focus on the central stretch of the river, while others go as far west as Kew Gardens or as far east as the Thames Barrier.
Depending on how long the trip you chose is, the sights you will see from the boat will probably include
~ London’s bridges, including the iconic Tower Bridge (not to be confused, as some tourists do, with the more mundane London Bridge)
~ great views of some of the most famous sights, such as Parliament, St Paul’s cathedral and the Tower of London
~ the restored warehouses in the eastern part of the city, now among the most sort-after London addresses for those that can afford to live here
You’ll also get a good insight into all the activity on the river itself, with other sightseeing boats, river police, barges and privately-owned vessels etc. passing regularly. Commentary is usually provided in a number of languages, and refreshments available on board. In the evening some of the companies run dinner or disco cruises, and boats can also be hired out for groups to enjoy a private customised tour. The website below lists a large number of companies offering tours, but the best bet may be simply to turn up at one of the piers and see what’s on offer, though at busy times you may have to wait a while for a place on a tour.
Fares vary depending on the route you choose but are typically between £6 and £10 for an adult, with discounts for children, senior citizens and family groups.
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Directions: You'll see tours offered from several piers on both banks of the Thames
Website: http://www.riverthames.co.uk/boat/cruise.htm
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on Jun 25, 2007
