Places to visit for 4/5 days while staying in London Nov/Dec

Ok -I won't say any of those things! - but many many towns and cities are within 2 - 3 hours of London by train. Usually best prices are by booking in advance on the website of the train company, but for starters www.thetrainline.com has on line info for all UK train routes. Brighton is about 1 hour, Bournemouth Bristol Norwich and York about 2 hours, Chester Liverpool and Manchester about 2 1/2 hours, and most of these places have at least one train per hour, several of the have 2 -3 trains per hour.

Personally,I wouldn't bother with Brighton in the middle of winter.And certainly not for 4 or 5 days!

As mike says,there are loads of possibilties by train.Or by bus.Oxford or Cambridge,Bristol and Bath,Salisbury (and Stonehenge),Canterbury,The Cotswolds,The New Forest etc etc....these are all places I've stayed in and enjoyed.

why not make the most of your stay in London? Plenty to see and do there, and lots of green spaces too.

I always recommend a day trip to Hampton Court, there's history for you.

Any particular period of history? Destinations to recommend are different depending on whether you want to see Roman, Viking, Mediaeval, Georgian, Victorian, military / naval, industry, artistic, sites associated with specific people etc.

Personally, I'd say you would miss out if you didn't get outside south east England.

Day One: No need to visit Piccadilly Circus as such, it's just a road interchange. If you want to see it, get the Piccadilly Line from Kings Cross, come up briefly, then go back down and take the Bakerloo to Waterloo or Embankment for the Eye. (I wouldn't make that trip by bus as you'll probably be travelling at a severely congested time.)

Day Two: From the question mark I assume you haven't booked your play yet. Either pick something and book it NOW or go to the TKTS kiosk in Leicester Square in the morning, but don't expect to be able to buy tickets there for any particular play.

Day Three: The vast majority of buses in central London are double-deck, no need to plan it specifically as you'll probably end up using one anyway. I would suggest, on Day Two, get one of the remaining old Routemaster buses on route 15 from the Tower to Trafalgar Square (no extra fare), and go on from there to Westminster on one of the various routes that go down Whitehall. Again, given the question mark, if you haven't booked your Regents Park Theatre ticket do so NOW.

Day Four: You may want to change your order as the theatre itself at Shakespeare's Globe can only be visited in the morning on Sundays, as on the afternoon and evening it's used for performances. If you are considering seeing a play there in the afternoon, BOOK NOW!!! I MEAN IT OPEN A NEW BROWSER WINDOW THIS SECOND AND GO TO THE WEBSITE!!! Sunday matinees sell out FAST in advance.

Day Five: Forget Harrods.

"The only place I've heard that's good to train from London is Brighton. Is this the best place to visit for 4 days from London? Or should I mix it up?"

Brighton is easy to reach from London, but then so are many other places. London is the centre of the network hub for England. Brighton is worth visiting but maybe just for a day. I personally wouldn't want to commit myself to 4-5 days there when there are so many other places worth visiting....Have you thought about Canterbury with its marvellous cathedral? Or there is Dover with the castle and underground war rooms.

Then there are the university towns of Oxford and Cambridge - both with good rail links from London. To the west is Salisbury again with a super cathedral or Bath, a Georgian spa town with Roman baths.

A bit further is York, again with an excellent rail service, a walled town which preserves its medieval historic centre with cathedral and castle and enough museums to keep you occupied.

May be plan to break your stay up into two different places so you can see a bit more of England.

Given your interests I'd suggest that you try to see (a) one of the smaller historic cities of England, (b) the coast, and maybe (c) some country landscapes. Possible itineraries would be:

1. York (city)/Whitby (coast)/North York Moors.

or

1. Bath (city)/Somerset coast/Cotswolds.

or - a little closer to London yet much less visited than the others -

1. Norwich (city)/Norfolk coast/rural Suffolk.

There are plenty of possibilities even closer to London but, having said that, if you're going to get on a train anyway you might as well go somewhere that's two or three hours away and very different from the southeast. Also bear in mind that many train tickets (though not always the very cheapest) allow you to get off the train for a few hours en route to your destination, so you can get in a couple of quick visits to other places too.

One little point I'd add in support of this approach is that you will learn as much about how people really live in England from the smaller cities and towns as you will from London - in some ways more, because London (while it's full of great things to see) is also very much a rule unto itself, for example in being far more international than most of the UK.

"I am an inexperienced traveler and view thorntree as being a free travel advice business that comes in handy for the inexperienced and naive traveller "

No - we're not a business, we're more like a friendly cafe full of people who like travelling. Drop in for a drink or two and chat with us; we're always ready to help. Everyone here was once an 'inexperienced traveller' and while we occasionally have a crusty old curmudgeon or two most of us are quite approachable.
So - take our advice or not, do your trip, then keep on coming back with advice for others. Because things are always changing and up-to-date advice is valuable.
Have a nice trip.