London advices

[iguana_tonante]

Ok, here's the deal: in about a week I'll be going to London for some days. It will be my first visit in The City (capital T and C), so I want to get the most of the experience. I'll have five full days to explore the place, and I'll be staying in a hotel in Fulham, with easy access to the Tube.

Since I've already seen people asking for travel advice in Misc, and I know there are some Londoners and London-lovers around here, I hope I could collect some useful informations. I've got myself a Lonely Planet guide, but I surely could use some natives' lore.

My English is not that bad for a foreigner (except for a quite recognizable accent), but will people be nice to me?

So, any advice? Places to see, places to avoid? Any tips, hints, suggestions that would help this Italian around?

 

[Angry Angel]

Visit the the Monument. Next to a nice bit of history it gives an interesting view over the Thames and South Bank, cheaper than the London Eye too.
You shouldn't go without a visit to Forbidden Planet either.
And there's the whole range of free musea of course.

Best thing would be, but you might be a bit late to arrange it ... a meet-up with the locals. I've been to several and can't wait till we have the time again to meet all of them for some Chinese and expensive ice cream.

 

[AdAstra]

Get an Oyster card!

Last summer when I was in London for three days, I had the distinct impression that I hadn't seen anything at all... Fortunately I had been there before, so the stuff I missed I had probably seen before, but still, it can be an overwhelming experience. =)

Uhm, enjoy a full day of shopping in Oxford Street and area. Let your inner child run free at Hamley's! Or your inner snob at Harrod's.
Go visit Greenwich! See a musical!

You won't be bored!

 

[Goliath]

So, any advice? Places to see, places to avoid? Any tips, hints, suggestions that would help this Italian around?

Well, as AdAstra already said, get an Oyster Card, for travel on the Tube.

London is huge, so what you do and see will really depend on what interests you.

My own favourite spot to visit is the Tate Modern, an art-deco power plant converted into a modern-art gallery. I go there every time I visit. As an Italian, you might be especially interested in its cast of Boccioni's Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, which is depicted on the Italian 20-cent coin.

 

[Flibble]

Most of the museums are free to get in to.
My favourites are the Natural History Museum and The Science Museum which are not too far away from Fulham. (South Kensington tube is the nearest stop!)

 

[VulKhan]

London is AWESOME! My favourite city in the world (and I still haven't seen most of all the cities, of course *lol*)
I was there for the first (and so far last *bowl*) time last July and we had only 3 days in The City!
Honestly, those were probably among the best days of my life so far.
We always arrived at Waterloo Station the morning (we lived on a campsite about 45 minutes away from London, in Chertsey) and from there, of course, we could go basically everywhere.
I wish we could have seen much more, but as I said, we only had 3 days which is FAR too less to explore the entire city! London is gigantic and breathtaking.
I mean, just the pure thought of standing up on Tower Bridge, walking through the exhibition they have up there, at that very moment. SO exciting!
Really, what you go see depends on what your most interested in.
I for one, spent one day going from one end of the city to the other and back again, by tube, to check out many of the famous places where the Rolling Stones (I know, I'm obsessed *lol*) have played since the early 60s as well as some roads and even the famour Edith Grove apartment where they used to live back then.
For an enormous fan like me, that was truly an experience!
Now, If cour not a Stones fan, it's highly unlikely that's what YOUR gonna do when you're in the big city.
I would definitely go check out Hyde Park. Speakers Corner. Maybe your lucky and even get there at a time when something's actually happening at the SC. These days, there's a KIOSK at that place. I remember last summer when my sister and me got there, we got us a Brownie and coffee there, sat down, and stared at the Speakers Corner sign. *lol*
It's really a lovely park, though. If the weather's nice, you can also lay down in the meadows or sit in chairs they have provided there and just enjoy! It's beautiful!
Nearby is Royal Albert Hall, of course. And Kensington, I believe it is. We walked down that road, until we came to Harrod's. I thought I had to see it from the outside, that's why. *lol*
Well, I bet you know that the best way to travel through the city is going by the underground (Mind The Gap! *lol* haha). You can erally get anywhere with that.
Kings Road in Chelsey is nice, too. Walk down Edith Grove from there and you'll get to Cheyne Walk, which goes parallel to the river Thames. It's a magnificent area! I'd actually love to live there! Overlooking Thames river. Well, maybe one day, If I have lots of money to afford it.hehe.
Then, of course, I would definitely visit Tower Bridge and, even better, Westminster Abbey! I adored Westminster Abbey, I spent a whole 3 hours in there looking around and staring at the incredible beauty of the builting and its treasures. My family was waiting outside cause they had finished their tour 2 hours before I finished mine and they were getting really impatient with me, but I simply forgot about the time in there. Completely! It's a magnificent place!
Unfortunately, it's very expensive to get inside. But that's the same everywhere around London, except for the museums.
On my last day I saw Buckingham Castle from the outside and some other Squares etc. And that evening I remember sitting there at the Thamse, inf ront of the grande Awuarium building, almost opposite of Big Ben and near Westminster Bridge, with my sister, and we simply didn't want to leave. We should have been back to the camping site at 9 or so, but eventually we got there at 11.30 pm or something like that, because we had been sitting there at the Thamse for so long, eating baked almonds (they sold that there) and watching the sun set. It was a magical moment and it was when I swore to myself that I was going to come back. That I will move to London, or near to London, one day. It's a fantastic city. The best. I love it!

And I am very jealous you are going there this summer and not taking me along. I wanted to go there again this summer, but due to money reasons just can't make it, unfortunately.*lol* No, just kidding, It will be great, you will live it, I swear.
Have the best time of your life and loads of fun!!!!
Hope to hear how it was when you return then.

 

[Geckothan]

I live right next to London and I find it a rather dull, run down place. Maybe I just take it for granted.

 

[Omnius]

If you're interested in military aviaton, I can totally recommend the RAF Museum in Hendon, London. It's really awesome!

 

[iguana_tonante]

Thanks everybody for the useful tips. Yeah, I plan to exploit the free museums as much as possible. British, Science and Natural History are already on my list. British alone would probably take a whole day. I'm still trying to fit Tate in my schedule.

People told that the Tower of London, while expensive to get into, is well worth a visit. I'm also thinking about Greenwich, but it's a bit out of the way.

The Monument sounds like a very good suggestion: I've already heard other people say that the London Eye is quite overrated.

Too many things to do and so little time!

Any advice on unsafe places to avoid? I don't want to stroll at 3 AM in the wrong side of town. (I heard Londoners have shown an unhealthy passion for blades, recently...)

 

[Angry Angel]

London Eye is ok, if you plan it right. So your cart should be in the highest position at sunset and make sure you have good weather

Dunno if you're into markets, but Camden Market is worth a visit as well, it's a bit alternative, but fun to walk around for a while and they have some good food stands there.

I've walked through a large part of London during the late evenings/nights ... never had the feeling it was unsafe ... but who knows ... might have been lucky Could be they didn't dare to approach the weird guy taking pictures of everything and carrying a tripod.

 

[cheeseyfatmonkey]

I live in the suburbs of Greater London and in terms of a 'wrong side of town' then their really isn't one. There are certainly rougher bits that you might want to avoid for a night out.

In terms of a fun night out though I'd recommend a few of the bars and restaurants in Angel. Old Street also has some very good places to go out in. You'll probably be very busy in the West End for most nights (it's where my friends go to pull tourists). Lonely Planet for London is very good. I've lived here all my adult life and still am finding new stuff to do in the Lonely Planet.

A few of my favourites:

Camden market (scruffy but fun)
Richmond Park (amazing panoramic views of the city)
The Southbank
Borough market (amazing food)
Natural History Museum

There is loads more. I love London...I still get excited about spending time in town even after over a decade of living here.

 

[Niorah]

A lot of people have already made the best suggestions as to places to visit, so I'll give you advice as to ensure your safety instead:

Don't show off your cell phone, digital camera, or any other valuable item when you are in -any- place. Don't count your money when people can see you. Do not, for any reason in the world, stare into the eyes of anyone crossing your path, most people are ok, but sometimes you can run across the resident madman and that's trouble. Beware most of all of small groups of young boys -and- girls, say aged between 9 and 25, they are the ones who most probably will have a knife on them, and if they're moving in a herd they may be looking for trouble.

If out of sheer bad luck somebody stops you and asks you for money and valuable items, give it all to them, it's not worth your health, as they could become seriously violent otherwise.

This said, I've been living here for almost two years now and nothing has ever happened to me or anybody I know *knocks on wood*, and it is relatively safe to stroll around downtown even quite late at night.
If you do that, you'll find that the worst that can happen to you is that one of the (many, -many-) drunks ends up vomiting on your shoes by mistake. C'est la vie.

 

[StolenThunder]

I'm also thinking about Greenwich, but it's a bit out of the way.

While everything in London looks (and often is) far away from everything else, the reality is it's easy to travel those distances on the train/tube/light railway. Greenwich is well worth a morning or afternoon.

 

[Goliath]

While we're on the subject of visiting London...

I recently heard from a colleague of mine after he returned from there.

He's a History professor, like me, and has recently written a book about monuments to early 20th-century British generals like Herbert Kitchener and Douglas Haig. He took this trip to obtain photos for this book.

Here are the results:

I completely mis-timed my trip to start with. Not only did I not realize that the British May bank holiday was a week later than Ontario's -- meaning I lost 15% of my research time -- but my efforts to get photographs for my book was stymied by

1) the surprise closure of the National Army Museum,

2) the inaccessibility of all but one of the items I ordered at the British Library due to their moving of materials to a new offsite storage facility at Boston Spa,

3) the stands put up for trooping of the colour which entirely obscured the statue of Kitchener in Horse Guards,

4) the unexplained locking of the Kitchener Chapel in St. Paul's,

5) the absence of any photos of either the unveiling of the Haig or Kitchener memorials in the National Archives (a surprise to me given practically every other major memorial has dedication photos),

6) the inaccessibility of the photo archive of the National Media Museum (its in Bradford, why?),

7) the idiots at the Tate getting the wrong files ready for me -- I only had one half day booked in there -- which meant that if the Tate has good material I didn't see it,

8) getting into a shouting match with one of the staff at the Imperial War Museum, and subsequently leaving without looking at anything in their collection.

Result: absolutely no images for my book despite 8 days of increasingly frantic attempts to obtain them.

Compound that with losing a crap load of my (needed) travel receipts due to an over zealous maid in my room, and doing something really bad to my knee on the third day of the trip so that the remaining 7 days comprised increasingly painful hobbles around London.

And lastly, I was punched in the face by an irate, drunken Manchester United fan who, pissed that Man U had lost to Barcelona that night, took a dislike to me for reasons unknown on the train back from giving my research talk at Huddersfield.

All in all, I think this trip counts as an unmitigated disaster. I will have to find images by remote, now. Possible, but harder, costlier and more time extensive. Fuck.

Needless to say, I hope your trip goes better than his did, iguana_tonante.

 

[An Officer]

^ A fruitful trip, I see. It's tragic, but so funny. Is that for real?

I would highly recommend a boat ride from the Thames Southbank if you do decide to go to Greenwich - the greenwich observatory, maritime museum, and surrounding views are really worth it (they also have a planetarium at the observatory which has some great short movies - the "blackholes" showing rocks!). Plus, from Embankment station, which is directly on the water, a boat ride from there would only be 45 mins max to Greenwich. The Thames Clipper is the fastest way to get there, and costs about £4 each way. During your ride, you can have uninterrupted views of all the major landmarks - big ben and the houses of parliament, St Paul's cathedral, canary wharf and the "gherkin" building, etc... It's quite a refreshing ride on a hot summers day.
http://www.thamesclippers.com/

If you are interested in museums and art, I highly recommend the Courtauld gallery, which has quite a surprising number of masterpieces: http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/collections/index.shtml
Just as impressive, if not more so, than the National Gallery, but less swarms of people, and the location itself - Somerset House, is breathtaking. It has a wonderful quiet, regal, gravitas to it. Lots of paintings from the Renaissance, and a whole room full of Rubens, if you're into that. This one is not free, but it's only about £5 pounds per person.

Buckingham Palace, you have to see, if only for St James' Park alone - which has sun loungers liberally scattered on warm days. So pristine and peaceful, and a nice place to rest after Piccadilly and Trafalgar square, which are very close by. Plenty of wildlife there, a variety of birds, lots of squirrels, also black swans in the lake along with the white swans - I don't think I've seen black swans anywhere else. I'm sure there must be, but those took me by surprise. There's a guy who likes to sun himself there with his python, another one who likes to take his ferrets for a walk along the paths on leashes... The human-life might prove just as entertaining as the wildlife...

If you enjoy a good drink - the best (properly equipped) bar in town is Lab, on Old Compton street - they have any and all ingredients, and will make any drink you describe, say by mentioning your favourite flavours - they'll whip up an especially designed one on the spot... the bar staff can even toss a few bottles and shakers ala Cocktail. It has a similar reputation to Harry's Bar in Venice, in terms of excellence. It doesn't seem to have that many tourists though - more of a drinking establishment for the local media houses. It's not cheap, but it's not exorbitant either - cocktails average at about £7 each.
http://www.urbanpath.com/london/cocktail-bars/lab.htm#main

I could go on and on, but 5 days is not enough to get a proper taste of London, you would need at least a month for that. So you'll just have to prioritise according to preference. What a wonderful problem to have. Perhaps if you are specific about any particular interests, you might get more tailor-made suggestions...

...And my signature is on topic for once!

EDIT: to provide links.

 

[StolenThunder]

I would highly recommend a boat ride from the Thames Southbank if you dodecide to go to Greenwich - the greenwich observatory, maritime museum, and surrounding views are really worth it (they also have a planetarium at the observatory which has some great short movies - the "blackholes" showing rocks!). Plus, from Embankment station, which is directly on the water, a boat ride from there would only be 45 mins max to Greenwich. The Thames Clipper is the fastest way to get there, and costs about £4 each way. During your ride, you can have uninterupted views of all the major landmarks - big ben and the houses of parliament, St Paul's cathedral, canary wharf and the "gherkin" building, etc... It's quite a refreshing ride on a hot summers day.

Definitely. The low cost makes it a much more attractive proposition than the tourist boats too.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I'm also thinking about Greenwich, but it's a bit out of the way.

While everything in London looks (and often is) far away from everything else, the reality is it's easy to travel those distances on the train/tube/light railway. Greenwich is well worth a morning or afternoon.

I think this would be an appropriate time to point out that the place you want to visit is Maritime Greenwich, not the other one.

 

[An Officer]

The first time I went there, it was an uncomfortable ride on the docklands light railway, not much to see on that, took ages to get there, and yes, there do seem to be a confusing number of Greenwich stops. However, by boat, it is picturesque, comfortable, there's only one stop for Greenwich, and it's quite straightforward after that.

As to whether people will be nice, iguana_tonante... I think you'll find a lot of English people find Italian accents quite attractive, so no problems there. You'll also find Italians everywhere, both as residents, and tourists. Keep your ears open, and you'll be hearing Allora quite a lot.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

The DLR is very awkward to ride, but, after awhile, I began to view the sudden jerks on turns to be a fun bonus. Just don't stand if you can help it

 

[An Officer]

^ Yes! It's more like a roller-coaster than a normal city transport. Thank goodness I don't live on it's route - never again! And so noisy...