Things to do in London
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Flask
Charming nooks and crannies, an old circular bar and an enticing beer garden make this 1663 pub the perfect place for a pint en route between Hampstead Heath and Highgate Cemetery. It's like a village pub in the city. From Highgate tube station, cross Archway, turn right and then left onto Southwood Lane. At the lane's end, the Flask is a block to the right.
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Fernandez & Wells
A wonderful taste of Spain in Soho, Fernandez serves simple lunches and dinners of jamón (ham) and cured meats and cheese platters accompanied by quality wine. Grilled chorizo sandwiches are perfect for quick lunchtime bites. The place is usually busy, with a relaxed atmosphere and outside seating.
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Favela Chic
Ticks the following boxes: hip young things; crazy theme nights; lumberyard meets jungle decor; fun and funky music.
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Covent Garden Piazza
London’s first planned square is now the exclusive preserve of tourists who flock here to shop in the quaint old arcades, be entertained by buskers, pay through the nose for refreshments at outdoor cafes and bars, and watch street performers pretend to be statues.
On its western flank is St Paul’s Church. The Earl of Bedford, the man who had commissioned Inigo Jones to design the piazza, asked for the simplest possible church, basically no more than a barn. The architect responded by producing ‘the handsomest barn in England’. It has long been regarded as the actors’ church for its associations with the theatre, and contains memorials to the likes of Charlie Chaplin…
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Coach & Horses
Famous as the place where Spectator columnist Jeffrey Bernard drank himself to death, this small, busy and thankfully unreconstructed boozer retains an old Soho bohemian atmosphere with a regular clientele of soaks, writers, hacks, tourists and those too drunk to lift their heads off the counter. Pretension will be prosecuted.
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Cafe Bangla
Dining in the famous curry houses of Brick Lane is inevitably more about the experience than the food. Amongst the hordes of practically interchangeable restaurants, this one stands out for its murals of scantily clad women riding dragons, alongside a tribute to Princess Di.
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Big Chill House
A three-floor space with a good selection of live music and DJs, and a great terrace for hanging out, this place is run by the same people behind the popular Big Chill festival and record label. The music choice is always varied and international, the sound system is fantastic, plus entry is free most nights. Food is also served throughout the day. The kitchen also churns out good burgers.
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Bar Music Hall
Keeping the East End music-hall tradition alive but with a modern twist, this roomy space with a central bar hosts DJs and live bands. Music runs the gamut from punk to jazz to rock and disco.
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Anchor & Hope
The hope is that you’ll get a table without waiting hours because you can’t book at this quintessential gastropub, except for Sunday lunch at 2pm. The anchor is gutsy, British food. Critics love this place inside out and despite the menu’s heavy hitters (pork shoulder, salt marsh lamb shoulder cooked for seven hours and soy-braised shin of beef), vegetarians aren’t completely stranded.
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Anchor
Firmly anchored in many guidebooks (including this one) – but with good reason – this riverside boozer dates to the early 17th century (subsequently rebuilt after the Great Fire and again in the 19th century). Trips to the terrace are rewarded with superb views across the Thames but brace for a constant deluge of drinkers. Dictionary writer Samuel Johnson, whose brewer friend owned the joint, drank here, as did diarist Samuel Pepys.
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Albion
Opened in 2008 Boundary marked Sir Terence Conran’s re-entry to the capital’s eating scene – with a combination of two eateries, a hotel and a fantastic rooftop terrace. Albion, the ground-floor ‘caff’ combines a bright and stylish canteen-style restaurant with a terrific deli. The menu features feel-good British food, cooked to perfection, with plenty of attention to detail, including accompanying English wines and beers, quirky crockery and some classic British desserts. Bread is baked on site and breakfasts are a little more adventurous than most, with kippers, kidneys and duck eggs on offer. The subterranean Boundary restaurant is the spot for a glamorous…
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Absolut Ice Bar
At -6°C, this bar made entirely of ice is literally the coolest in London. Entry is limited to 40 minutes, and your ticket includes a vodka cocktail served in an ice glass. It's a gimmick, sure, but a good one, and there are plenty of places nearby that charge the same for a cocktail alone. Book ahead.
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Abeno Too
This restaurant specialises in soba (noodles) and okonomi-yaki (Japanese-style pancakes), which are cooked in front of you on a hotplate. Sit at the bar or by the window and feast.
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Southbank Centre
The overhauled Royal Festival Hall is London’s premier concert venue and seats 3000 in a now-acoustic amphitheatre. It’s one of the best places for catching world-music artists and hosts the fantastic Meltdown festival. Allies and Morrison architects worked on the £91-million renovations by using the existing 1950s materials – concrete, leather and wood – to superb effect. The sound is fantastic, the programming impeccable and there are frequent free gigs in the wonderfully expansive foyer.
There are more eclectic gigs at the smaller Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room. The three are also regular venues for the Dance Umbrella citywide festival, as well as…
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Royal Shakespeare Company
Productions of the bard's classics and other quality stuff.
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Royal Opera House
The £210 million redevelopment for the millennium gave classic opera a fantastic setting, and coming here for a night is a sumptuous prospect. Although the program has been fluffed up by modern influences, the main attractions here are still the classical ballet and opera – all are wonderful productions and feature world-class performers.
Midweek matinees are usually much cheaper than evening performances and restricted-view seats cost as little as £7. There are same-day tickets (one per customer available to the first 67 people in the queue) from 10am for £8 to £40. Half-price stand-by tickets are only occasionally available. Otherwise, full-price tickets go for…
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Royal Albert Hall
This splendid Victorian concert hall hosts classical-music, rock and other performances, but is most famously the venue for the BBC-sponsored Proms. Booking is possible, but from mid-July to mid-September Proms punters also queue for £5 standing (or ‘promenading’) tickets that go on sale one hour before curtain-up. Otherwise the box office and prepaid ticket collection counter are both through door 12 (south side of the hall).
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O2 Academy Brixton
It’s hard to have a bad night at the Brixton Academy, even if you leave with your soles sticky with beer, as this cavernous former art deco theatre (holding 5000) always thrums with bonhomie. There’s a properly raked floor for good views, as well as plenty of bars. Massive acts show – including Madonna (once) and The Prodigy – but more likely artists are Band of Horses, Beady Eye or DJ Shadow.
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Lord’s Cricket Ground
A trip to Lord’s, aka ‘the home of cricket’, is often as much a pilgrimage as anything else. As well as being home to Marylebone Cricket Club, the ground hosts test matches, one-day internationals and domestic finals.
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London Walks
A huge array of walks, including Jack the Ripper tours at 7.30pm daily and 3pm Saturday, Beatles tours at 11.20am Tuesday and Saturday and a Sherlock Holmes tour at 2pm Friday.
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London Bicycle Tour
Themed 2½- to 3½-hour tours of the 'East', 'Central' or 'Royal West'.
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London Beatles Walks
Following the footsteps of the Fab Four.
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KOKO
Once the legendary Camden Palace, where Charlie Chaplin, the Goons, the Sex Pistols and Ryan Adams have all performed in the past, Koko is keeping its reputation as one of London’s better gig venues – Madonna played a Confessions on a Dance Floor gig here in 2006 and Prince gave a surprise gig in 2007. The theatre has a dance floor and decadent balconies, and attracts an indie crowd with Club NME on Friday. There are live bands almost every night of the week.
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Hope & Anchor
There is a scarcity of decent pubs in Islington, where the offerings are overwhelmingly cocktail lounges or DJ bars, but this rough-round-the-edges boozer with a famous musical past (U2, Dire Straits, Joy Division and, more recently, the Libertines have all played here) attracts a muso cross-section of the neighbourhood and is a lot of fun.
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