Things to do in London
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Oxford, Cotswolds, Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick Castle Day Trip from London
10 hours (Departs London, United Kingdom)
by Viator
A region officially designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty can’t possibly be a bad place to spend a day. On this 10-hour day trip from London,…Not LP reviewed
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St James’s Palace
The striking Tudor gatehouse of St James’s Palace, the only surviving part of a building initiated by the palace-mad Henry VIII in 1530, is best approached from St James’s St to the north of St James’s park. This was the official residence of kings and queens for more than three centuries.
Foreign ambassadors are still formally accredited to the Court of St James, although the tea and biscuits are actually served at Buckingham Palace. Princess Diana, who hated this place, lived here until her divorce from Charles in 1996, when she moved to Kensington Palace. Prince Charles and his sons stayed on at St James’s until 2004, before decamping next door to Clarence House,…
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St Bride’s, Fleet Street
Rupert Murdoch might have frogmarched the newspaper industry out to Wapping in the 1980s, but this small church off Fleet St remains ‘the journalists’ church’ – William Caxton’s first printing press was relocated to the churchyard after his death in 1500. Candles were kept burning here for reporters John McCarthy and Terry Anderson during their years as hostages in Lebanon in the 1990s, and a plaque commemorates journalists killed in the Iraq war alongside even more recent memorials. St Bride’s is also of architectural interest. Designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1671, its add-on spire (1703) reputedly inspired the first tiered wedding cake. In the crypt there’s a…
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Royal Academy of Arts
Britain’s first art school was founded in 1768 but the organisation moved here onlyin the fol-lowing century. The collection contains drawings, paintings, architectural designs, photographs and sculptures by past and present Academicians such as John Constable, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, JMW Turner, David Hockney and Norman Foster. Highlights are displayed in the John Madejski Fine Rooms, which are accessible by free guided tours (1 hr; h1pm & 3pm Wed-Fri, 1pm Tue, 11.30am Sat). The displays change regularly.
The rooms themselves are a treat; it was in the Reynolds Room for instance that Charles Darwin first presented his groundbreaking ideas on…
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Wembley Stadium
The city’s landmark national stadium where England traditionally plays its international matches and where the FA Cup final is contested.
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Lord’s Cricket Ground
The ‘home of cricket’ is a must for any devotee of this peculiarly English game: book early for the test matches here, but it’s also worth taking the absorbing and anecdotal 90-minute tour of the ground and facilities. This interesting tour takes in the famous Long Room, where members watch the games surrounded by portraits of cricket’s great and good, and a museum featuring evocative memorabilia that will appeal to fans old and new. The famous little urn containing the Ashes, the prize of the most fiercely contested competition in cricket, resides here when in English hands. The ground itself is dominated by a striking media centre that looks like a clock radio, but you…
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Monument
Sir Christopher Wren and Dr Robert Hooke's huge 1677 column, known simply as the Monument, is a memorial to the Great Fire of London of 1666, whose impact on London's history cannot be overstated. Tens of thousands of Londoners were left homeless and much of the city was destroyed.
An immense Doric column made of Portland stone, it is 4.5m wide, and 60.6m tall – the exact distance it stands from the bakery in Pudding Lane where the fire reputedly started – and is topped with a gilded bronze urn of flames that some call a big gold pincushion. Although a midget by today's standards, the Monument would have been gigantic, and towered over London, when first built.
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Sketch
A design enthusiast's dream, with shimmering white rooms, video projections, designer Louis XIV chairs and toilet cubicles shaped like eggs. And that's just the Gallery, which becomes a buzzy restaurant and bar at night. The ground-floor Parlour has decadent cakes and decor, but is surprisingly affordable: perfect for breakfast, or afternoon tea served on fine bone china. The swanky Lecture Room upstairs is the realm of Pierre Gagnaire, whose book Reinventing French Cuisine gives a hint of what to expect.
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London Eye: Champagne Experience
30 minutes (Departs London, United Kingdom)
by Viator
No visit to London is complete without a trip on the London Eye! Indulge yourself with this breathtaking experience. Book a flight and add a glass of Pommery…Not LP reviewed
from USD$55.08 -
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Marble Arch
John Nash designed this huge arch in 1827. It was moved here, to the northeastern corner of Hyde Park, from its original spot in front of Buckingham Palace in 1851, when it was adjudged too small and unimposing to be the entrance to the royal manor. If you’re feeling anarchic, walk through the central portal, a privilege reserved by (unenforced) law for the royal family and the ceremonial King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery. A plaque on the traffic island at Marble Arch indicates the spot where the infamous Tyburn Tree, a three-legged gallows, once stood. An estimated 50, 000 people were executed here between 1571 and 1783, many having been dragged from the Tower of…
reviewed
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Marble Hill House
An 18th-century Palladian gem, this majestic love nest was originally built for George II’s mistress Henrietta Howard and later occupied by Mrs Fitzherbert, the secret wife of George IV. The splendid Georgian interior contains some magnificent touches, including the hand-painted Chinese wallpaper in the dining parlour and some gorgeous furniture. The poet Alexander Pope had a hand in designing the park, which stretches leisurely down to the Thames.
To get there from St Margaret’s station, turn right along St Margaret’s Rd. Then take the right fork along Crown Rd and turn left along Richmond Rd. Turn right along Beaufort Rd and walk across Marble Hill Park to the house.…
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Golden Hinde
Okay, it looks like a dinky theme-park ride and kids love it, but stepping aboard this replica of Sir Francis Drake’s famous Tudor ship will inspire genuine admiration for the admiral and his rather short (average height: 1.6m) crew, which counted between 40 and 60. A tiny five-deck galleon just like this was home to Drake and his crew from 1577 to 1580 as they became the first sailors to circumnavigate the globe.
Tickets are available from the Golden Hinde Shop. On Sundays kids can party as pirates on deck; sleepovers on the gun deck (£39.95 per person) include grog, ship’s biscuits, a Tudor dinner and a breakfast of bread and cheese.
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Kensington Gardens
Immediately west of Hyde Park and across the Serpentine lake, these gardens are technically part of Kensington Palace. If you have kids, the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground, in the northwest corner of the gardens, has some pretty ambitious attractions for children. Next to the playground is the delightful Elfin Oak, an ancient tree stump carved with elves, gnomes, witches and small animals.
George Frampton’s celebrated Peter Pan statue is close to the lake. On the opposite side is a statue of Edward Jenner, who developed a vaccine for smallpox.
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Florence Nightingale Museum
Attached to St Thomas’s Hospital, this small, recently refurbished museum tells the story of feisty war heroine Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), who led a team of nurses to Turkey in 1854 during the Crimean War. There she worked to improve conditions for the soldiers before returning to London to set up a training school for nurses at St Thomas’s in 1859. So popular did she become that baseball-card-style photos of the gentle ‘Lady of the Lamp’ were sold during her lifetime. There is no shortage of revisionist detractors who dismiss her as a ‘canny administrator’ and ‘publicity hound’; Nightingale was, in fact, one of the world’s first modern celebrities. But the fact…
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Private Viewing of Stonehenge including Bath and Lacock
11 hours (Departs London, United Kingdom)
by Viator
Book an exclusive private viewing of Stonehenge. Stepping inside the "inner circle of stones" is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Tickets are limited and each…Not LP reviewed
from USD$152.65 -
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Pollock’s Toy Museum
Aimed at both kids and adults, this museum is simultaneously creepy and mesmerising. You walk in through its shop, laden with excellent wooden toys and various games, and start your exploration by climbing up a rickety narrow staircase, where displays begin with framed dolls from Latin America, Africa, India and Europe. Upstairs is the museum’s collection of toy theatres, many made by Benjamin Pollock himself, the leading Victorian manufacturer of the popular sets. Head up another set of stairs and you see tin toys and weird-looking dolls in cotton nighties. As you continue on the higgledy-piggledy trail of creaking stairs and floorboards, the dolls follow you with their…
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Small-Group Day Trip to Stonehenge, Bath and Windsor from London
11 hours (Departs London, United Kingdom)
by Viator
This small-group tour from London is your chance to travel through British history, from Romans to royals, in one day! Visit the mysterious prehistoric site of…Not LP reviewed
from USD$155.80 -
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Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain
Opposite Kensington Gardens’ Serpentine Gallery and across West Carriage Dr is this memorial fountain dedicated to the late Princess of Wales. Envisaged by the designer Kathryn Gustafson as a ‘moat without a castle’ and draped ‘like a necklace’ around the southwestern edge of Hyde Park near the Serpentine Bridge, the circular double stream is composed of 545 pieces of Cornish granite, its waters drawn from a chalk aquifer more than 100m below ground.
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Wimbledon Common
Running on into Putney Heath, Wimbledon Common covers a staggering 460 hectares of southwest London. An astonishing expanse of open, wild and wooded space for walking, nature trailing and picnicking – the best mode of exploration – the common has its own Wimbledon Windmill, a fine smock mill (ie octagonal-shaped with sloping weatherboarded sides) dating from 1817, which now contains a museum with working models on the history of windmills and milling. It was during a stay in the mill in 1908 that Robert Baden-Powell was inspired to write parts of his Scouting for Boys. The adjacent Windmill Tearooms can supply tea, caffeine and sustenance.
On the southern side of the…
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Nobu
You’ll have to book a month in advance to eat here (or resign yourself to eating at 6pm or 10pm if you book just a few days before), but you’ll get to chew and view the greatest celebrity restaurant magnet in town. Nobu has been lobbied for years to stop serving bluefin tuna, an endangered species, but it’s been to no avail. Instead, you’ll find a one-liner asking you to ‘ask your server for an alternative’. Whatever your stance, the Japanese food at Nobu is divine (the scallops are the biggest you’ll ever see), if pricey. The decor is rather understated and the service discreet and efficient.
reviewed
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Danson House
This Palladian villa was built by one John Boyd, an East India Company director, in 1766. A 10-year restoration to bring the house back to its original Georgian style was completed in 2005, aided by the discovery of a series of fine watercolours of the interiors by the second owner’s daughter, Sarah Johnston, in 1805. Highlights include the dining room’s numerous reliefs and frescoes celebrating love and romance; the library and music room, with its functioning organ; the dizzying spiral staircase accessing the upper floors; and the Victorian kitchens (open only occasionally). The English-style garden is a delight, and on the large lake in Danson Park, which is flanked by…
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O2 (Millennium Dome)
The 380m-wide circular Millennium Dome (renamed O2) cost £750 million to build and more than £5 million a year just to keep it erect. It closed at the end of 2000, having failed miserably in its bid to attract 12 million visitors, and was until 2007 for the most part unemployed. Since then it has hosted big acts like Madonna, Prince, Justin Timberlake and Barbara Streisand in its 23, 000-seat 02 Arena and soul, pop and jazz bands in the 2350-seat IndigO2. Massive exhibitions (Tutankhamen and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, The Human Body) and sporting events have made their temporary homes here and there’s a slew of bars, clubs and restaurants sheltering under what was…
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Petersham Nurseries Café
In a greenhouse at the back of the gorgeously situated Petersham Nurseries is this award-winning cafe straight out of the pages of The Secret Garden. Well-heeled locals tuck into confidently executed food that often began life in the nursery gardens – organic vegetable dishes, such as artichokes braised with preserved lemon sage and black olives, feature alongside seasonal plates of, say, roasted quail with walnut sauce or white polenta with squid and sherry butter. Booking in advance is essential. There’s also a teahouse for sandwiches, tea and cakes.
Because of local residents and council concerns about traffic increasing with the cafe’s popularity, patrons are…
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England in One Day Trip
11 hours (Departs London, United Kingdom)
by Viator
Take a trip through the English countryside on a day trip from London to Stonehenge, Bath, Stratford-upon-Avon and the Cotswolds. You'll combine vibrant…Not LP reviewed
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London Thames River Dinner Cruise
2 hours 30 minutes (Departs London, United Kingdom)
by Viator
Breathtaking views, relaxing atmosphere, a 4-course meal and after-dinner dancing - what more could you ask for? A Thames River dinner cruise is the perfect…Not LP reviewed
from USD$122.75