Things to do in London

Tropers of Britain! I am in the particularly unusual position of being a young Irish troper who will shortly be the beneficiary of a month-long legal internship in the city of London.

To give you some background on my history with the city; I fell rather intensely in love with it on visiting it with my ex last year, and on reading some of Stephen Fry's works. So yes, dorky intellectualism and music are rather my scene.

What I need is advice on what to do in the period of time after my working day and on my days off. Are there museums I should see? Venues I should check out? Any and all information is much appreciated! By the way, if anyone feels this thread would more properly belong in Yack Fest, please feel free to move. Cheers in advance!

If you're at all interested in art, the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery (next door to it) and Tate Britain are worth going to for the traditional variety. Tate Modern has the modern stuff. And they're all free for the moment, although they do charge for special exhibitions, and with recent cut-backs the charges are higher. Also they really get busy at weekends.

The London Underground has a nasty habit of shutting down just the line you want to use to get somewhere for repair purposes at weekends - watch out for that. Also, London taxis charge the earth and you can guarantee that when you really want them (late at night, after the Tube's closed) they won't be around or won't be prepared to go where you want.

Make out with a London girl.

You know you want to, Dan.

You know you want to.

Or alternatively, you could go for a walk on Hampstead Heath. It's not actually a heath, which kind of disappointed me when I first moved to London, but it is a massive park.

EDIT: However, as it is a bit of a gay cruising zone in the evening, hanging around there then may be...misinterpreted. You may recognise the voice of experience.

edited 13th May '11 12:47:51 AM by captainbrass2

@captainbrass: Much appreciated, sir. I always wondered what Hampstead Heath actually was; having heard of it before but without any clear context. If the museums are indeed free, that's certainly where you'll find me.

@Dia: Already done, sir. I can testify to their loveliness.

While I'm not British and have only visited London once (though I plan on going this December if I manage to save enough money for the trip,) I'd like to recommend that you see as many musicals as possible. If you buy the tickets the day the show is, you'll get them at less than half price (there are special ticket booths just for that) and you'll find that they, somewhat surprisingly, do have good seats available (mostly due to cancellations, I presume).

The last time I was there, I was stupid enough to only see one musical when I had the chance to see more. On the other hand, the musical I did see was the greatest show on Earth*: Les Miserables. You'll find that it's still running in Queen's Theatre.

When I saw Lesmis, they had John Owen-Jones as Jean Valjean, but alas, he has returned to his previous role as the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera. So there's your excuse for seeing Phantom, too. It's playing at Her Majesty's Theatre.

When I was in London, I picked up brochures for many theatres, and one thing I found was that London's theatres didn't have a production of Wicked back then, but one was in the works. Now, it's running at the Apollo Victoria Theatre.

So those are my suggestions.

*I'll admit that I was exaggerating slightly when I said Lesmis in London is the greatest show on Earth. If you want to know what the greatest show on Earth actually is, the answer, as discovered by Richard Dawkins, is life. But Lesmis comes a close second.

edited 13th May '11 3:32:00 PM by BestOf

Heckle the Queen.

Go to camdem, especially the market. It has many interesting and amazing things to look at and buy.

Apart from that, just wander round. Try to find some nice pubs and have a drink?

I always found Camden a bit grotty, although it may have improved since and I was thinking of it as a place to live, not just visit. Never been to the market.

Seconding the pubs. There are some particularly nice old ones in and around Fleet Street and High Holborn.

Things to do in London:

Get black snotters from the pollution.

Get kept awake by sirens.

Get mugged.

Marvel at how awful the water tastes.

Pay three times the normal price for beer.

Yeah. London = Mordor with congestion charges.

This. London is pretty awful to be honest.

^^ That sounds to me like every city ever.

I like the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. I've hardly been to London, but the Globe is good.

It's true that the booze, like everything else, is more expensive (if you think beer's bad, you should try having gin as your "usual") and the water isn't great, although that's mostly because it's "hard". The water everywhere in the South is a bit slimy for the same reason. However, you're only likely to get mugged if you go to the same sort of run-down areas you'd get mugged in anywhere and I don't think London's more polluted than your average British city.

I had a pretty great time the last time I was in London, to be honest. As far as markets go, I've already visited Spitalfields, so I suppose Camden would be the next logical step.

Walk. I live here, and seriously wandering around the craziness that is London has never stopped being fun. If you're in the city (the City of London rather than London itself) anyway, take at least a minute to appreciate how odd the mix of ancient, traditional and hyper-modern architecture is. If you can, go at a weekend when it is deserted and even more spooky/unreal. The Barbican is nearby too, and worth a visit. :)

Also, as you're here in summer, go to Kew gardens. Take a picnic and a friend, and try to avoid too many crowds. It's really nice to take a boat from central down along the Thames to the world's best botanical gardens.

All the negative things people say about London are true (especially the snot thing, although much less the getting mugged thing in my experience). It's totally worth it.

I would say go eat at Costas Fish Restaurant, but I hear they closed last year. It was a nice family-run hole in the wall near Notting Hill. Fantastic fried fish.

Definitely go to the British Library to see the Magna Carta. I can't remember what station it's off of, but once you find that you just follow the signs for a few blocks.

edited 19th May '11 10:11:45 AM by Bur

Now that's definitely something I'd be interested in. Looking it up now.

I must thank you all for your kind advice. Tropers really are reliable for this sort of thing.

edited 8th Jun '11 3:21:35 PM by DanEile

I suggest you visiting the Tate Modern, the National Maritime Museum, Buckingham Palace and having dinner at Chinatown.

http://buckinghampalace.londonpass.com/

• Drink tea and eat crumpets.
• Force Chaucer to finish the Caunterbury Tales.
• Watch the coronation of Queen Elizabeth I
• Help sack the romano-british
  • Help defend the romano-british from being sacked
• See a Shakespearean play at the Globe.

Oh, wait, you don't have time travelling abilities? In that case, I have no idea.

edited 8th Jun '11 3:42:29 AM by annebeeche

Awww, I love London. <3

I'm going to sound really stupid now, but the tube is deadly, I could just get on in the morning and spend the whole day getting on and off going to god knows where, I just love it. <3

London Undergrouuuuuuuund

• Go to the British Museum
• Walk around Hyde Park
• Infiltrate Buckingham Palace
• Break into the House of Commons
• Get mugged by third-world immigrants
• Go on tube, get attacked by chavs

This is what I was like when I visited London. Gonna go there again this year, and I'll thoroughly enjoy the experience of functioning, affordable, easy-to-use transportation.

I bet people in London have no respect at all to the amount of design and work that's gone into making the Tube (probably) the best public transportation system in the world.

Sorry, I can't go along with that one. I use the Tube to get to work every day and the delays/cancellations you run into on a regular basis drive me nuts. Also, big chunks of it are closed for maintenance at weekends.

Having said that, I'm glad someone still admires British public transport. The Tube was an awesome technological achievement in its day, but it just can't cope with the numbers using it now.

I'm having a pretty awesome time so far. Been drinking with some buddies, visited various markets and the V&A. Should be able to give a full account of my trip when I get back for those who are interested.