Go to Brick Road if you want to live dangerously by getting chatted up by aggressive restaurateurs who'll feed you indian/pakistani food of very dubious quality.
London should be lovely in October. Some of my favorite places / activities as a pseudo-Londoner...
1) Tate Modern (Already on your list, and all the museums in London are FREE!)
2) Borough Market (Lots of local foodies go there...check out great coffee and exotic food delights) http://www.boroughmarket.org.uk/
3) Walking thorough Chelsea / Belgravia / Kensington / Notting Hill (and see how the other half lives...)
4) Camden Markets (a bit touristy, but worth a visit, specially after dark when the rabble and street kids appear)
5) Spitalfield Market (near Brick Road, I think...great artsy stalls and boho stuff)
6) Greenwich Village & Observatory (Great view of London skyline from the park, and interesting history too).
7) London Eye (Really cool to look at)
8) The Orangery in Kensington Palace (Used to be the private greenhouse of the Queen, have high tea like the royals!!) http://www.digbytrout.co.uk/branches/kensington/index.htm
9) Flat WHITE in Soho (Awesome grungy New Zealand cafe with the best latte in London) http://www.flat-white.co.uk/
10) Hyde Park / Kensington Park (All the inner city parks of London are gorgeous and well used by the locals).
11) Pubs pubs and more pubs.
Could go on...
East London is pretty rough. London is like a sprawling village, and the nice areas are inner west of the center of town.
mighty - can't remember where i heard that name...prolly one of those boo-shwah nyc guides..i eat there more often than i should
antipodean - nice list; keep it coming if you've got the time...i'm also looking for places similar to Lower East Side/St. Marks in NYC or Harajuku in Tokyo
I had a think about this over lunch...what are then grungy, hip, arty places of London?? I seems every village/neighborhood has it's nice areas and its up-and-coming areas. London is a very blended city, you have public housing blocks peppered in amongst the ritzy residential neighborhoods (thanks to their social government programs striving for diversity etc), so alongside the wealthy are ethnic minorities, low or no wage earners etc. Maybe 10-15 years ago, Notting Hill was creative and grungy, but as its become more expensive, the artists have moved out and the dinks have moved in.
SoHo in the center of London is probably the most consistent and famous artsy neighborhood...its where all the film and telly studios are, and its always full of theatre goers, punk rock emos, suits and students. Depending on the time you have to explore the city, you could venture along the Kilburn High Road or West Hampstead, which are areas coming into their own. Angel / Islington is another area. So are Hackney, Clapham, Fulham, Battersea...the old Indian corner stores are moving out, gastro pubs, restaurants and clothing boutiques moving in.
To add to my pseudo-Londoner to do list...
12) Walk across the Millenium Bridge by Lord Foster
13) Take the District Line out to Putney Bridge Station, and take a double decker bus back along the Kings Road to Oxford Circus (sit on the top deck, a better, cheaper bus tour than the one given by the tour companies I reckon).
14) Take the tube to Canary Wharf, the shiny high rise financial district, no where near downtown London!
15) Visit the AA (and marvel at how small and quaint it is...I walked by it about 3 times)
16) Walk around beautiful St Johns Wood and Primrose Hill...you might see a *celebrity*
17) Visit Hampstead Heath (or "the heath" to the locals). It's wild and beautiful. Apparently there are separate men's and women's swimming ponds there...need I elaborate?
18) Stop by a pub for a beer and chips on the way home.
Another thing...Londoners are typically rude and unhelpful. Comes with living in a big busy city, I guess. The service in restaurants is terrible, and you'll be expected to tip anyway. Better you know and be prepared for it so it doesn't spoil your vacation experience...it's just London.
brick lane, not brick road. theres quite a few cool things around that neighborhood (cafes, bars, clubs).
i second the aboves and esp. recommend the borough market (weekdays), the spitalfields market (sundays, maybe sat too?), even the columbia road market for flowers (sundays).
tate modern is a fav. of mine...walk the southbank from the borough market past the tate/millenium bridge all the way to waterloo station. you'll get a nice view of the other bank/st. pauls/ parliament.
also check out camden, primrose hill and the parks (hyde/regents).
the thermal bath isnt exactly part of our culture...especially since theres only one...
for a truely english experience
1. find the commercial looking pub you can find [weatherspoons is ideal]
2. spend the night drinking stella [15-18 pints should be sufficient]
3. get into a fight with the biggest bloke in the establishment with regards his taste in football club
4. eat kebab in your now beer and bloodsoaked clothes
5. ritualisticly vomit in the usable parameters of a public facility [bus stops and phone boxes are best]
6. shout a women in tight white clothes, trying their best to walk in heels
7. fall asleep in a black cab
8. wake with a thoroughly british sense of regret and worthlessness
The course of Empire, as predicted by Ed Ruscha, goes East.
I love these London threads.
Buy an AtoZ. Hire a bicycle from BikeFix on Lambs Conduit Street.
You want seedy? Walk South down Berwick Street, past the best record shop in town Sister Ray, formerly Selectadisc (of Oasis recordsleeve fame), keep going past Richard Rogers building housing restaurant Yauatcha (Zaha's a regular) and Autodesk (on the first floor), past the market with Flat White coffee house on your left (presently under refurbishment) and you are on Porn Alley. Follow through for Rupert Street, the start of the Village.
Visit: The John Soane Museum (cf), in Lincolns Inn Fields. Go via the Brunswick centre and Marchmont Street, then cross Russell Square. Enter the British Museum from Russell Street, exit at the rear and go straight ahead for Senate House. Be awed. Turn left down Store Street for the Building Centre, home to the NLA scale model of London.
Unless you need more T-shirts, or skunk, or have a taxi booked to take you to music, fuck Camden (although there are some fantastic residential Streets parallel to Camden Road)
Shoreditch/Hoxton: From Old Street station take Leonard Street, your first corner on the left is the Dragon Bar. Drink. Walk on towards Great Eastern Street stopping and drinking regularly. Take Charlotte Road up towards Hoxton Square. Look behind you at the Gherkin and the other new tower under construction. Stop for a drink in the Barley Mow. Take a quick right left to SCP at the top of Curtain Road, find the new Adjaye on Rivington, and the Rivington Bar & Grill and Cargo. By now you are saturated with booze and graffitti. top of Curtain Road straight over, past the 333 night club, drink in the recently reopened electric showroom and coffee on the square after the White Cube in Macondo.
Serpentine Pavilion (Olafur Eliason, masterful) and gallery (Barney)
Brick Lane Market, Sunday a.m. people sell unmatched pairs of shoes for 10pence, broken clock radios and stolen bicycles. Get there early and admire the local gentlemen's piss-stained trousers then go to the Southern end and drink fruit smoothies by the Vespa shop.
Columbia Road Flower Market, Sunday a.m.: Magnificent
The Borough Market/Design Museum/Tate Modern/Oxo Tower/Gabriels Wharf/Royal Festival Hall/Hayward Gallery strip, taking in Waterloo Bridge (preferably at sunset), Millenium Bridge and St Pauls.
Over Waterloo Bridge, past big ben, houses of parliament, Westminster Abbey, turn right up horseguards parade to the ICA (run these days by the sharp-dressing Ekow Eshun), up the stairs and into St. James (so old money), up the hill and left onto Jermyn Street (Cigar smoke, good cigar smoke, fills the air), drop off Jermyn to catch the (second) White Cube. Chuck a right at the end of Jermyn and cross Piccadilly for Albemarle / Dover Streets, go left to hit Berkeley Square and find Mount Street (unfathomably money) at its North West corner. The end of Mount Street and Hyde Park sits before you with the Serpentine Gallery/Pavilion. Or from Albemarle go right for the Burlington Arcade, Royal Academy (now in the hands of the magnificent Charles Saumaurez-Smith), the Cork Street commercial galleries and Saville Row.
What do you really want to see? Particular vernaculars, types of people, scenes, queens, galleries and bookshops, restaurants and festive haunts?
back from trip - posted some tags from my visits to Brick Lane and Ménilmontant (yes, i know that's actually in Paris, but....). please drop in - and thanks again for the xlnt tips everyone...
London sights and sounds
going to be visiting London in October and would like to hear from anyone in the area or visited recently w/ recommendations on stuff to check
on my list:
- Serpentine Gallery
- Tate Modern
- Albert Museum
- more of the obvious stuff
anyone got something x-otic to share?
also, conducting research on the seedy parts of cosmopolitan areas - in London, what's seedy?
no neighborhood is too dangerous (i live in a rough neighborhood...), but please give me the heads up if you recommend a perilous area
Go to Brick Road if you want to live dangerously by getting chatted up by aggressive restaurateurs who'll feed you indian/pakistani food of very dubious quality.
Sir John Soane's Museum, really you have to see that.
Jazz Bar in Stoke Newington. It's seedy, awesome music ... great times.
brick road sounds like curry alley here in nyc...do they have the decorative lites as well?
wow..i've never heard the term curry alley. you referring to the stretch of 2nd ave between 2nd and 10th or so?
if yes, then yes. very much like that, only i've had MUCH better food in that stretch of NYC.
here's my shameless personal photo plug:
just after leaving the National Gallery which was awesome.
London should be lovely in October. Some of my favorite places / activities as a pseudo-Londoner...
1) Tate Modern (Already on your list, and all the museums in London are FREE!)
2) Borough Market (Lots of local foodies go there...check out great coffee and exotic food delights) http://www.boroughmarket.org.uk/
3) Walking thorough Chelsea / Belgravia / Kensington / Notting Hill (and see how the other half lives...)
4) Camden Markets (a bit touristy, but worth a visit, specially after dark when the rabble and street kids appear)
5) Spitalfield Market (near Brick Road, I think...great artsy stalls and boho stuff)
6) Greenwich Village & Observatory (Great view of London skyline from the park, and interesting history too).
7) London Eye (Really cool to look at)
8) The Orangery in Kensington Palace (Used to be the private greenhouse of the Queen, have high tea like the royals!!) http://www.digbytrout.co.uk/branches/kensington/index.htm
9) Flat WHITE in Soho (Awesome grungy New Zealand cafe with the best latte in London) http://www.flat-white.co.uk/
10) Hyde Park / Kensington Park (All the inner city parks of London are gorgeous and well used by the locals).
11) Pubs pubs and more pubs.
Could go on...
East London is pretty rough. London is like a sprawling village, and the nice areas are inner west of the center of town.
i will be there in late october early november as well.
p2an - will do
mighty - can't remember where i heard that name...prolly one of those boo-shwah nyc guides..i eat there more often than i should
antipodean - nice list; keep it coming if you've got the time...i'm also looking for places similar to Lower East Side/St. Marks in NYC or Harajuku in Tokyo
Islington...not quite St.Marks in NYC, but there's a bit of a happening thing going on from what i saw when i was there in January.
I had a think about this over lunch...what are then grungy, hip, arty places of London?? I seems every village/neighborhood has it's nice areas and its up-and-coming areas. London is a very blended city, you have public housing blocks peppered in amongst the ritzy residential neighborhoods (thanks to their social government programs striving for diversity etc), so alongside the wealthy are ethnic minorities, low or no wage earners etc. Maybe 10-15 years ago, Notting Hill was creative and grungy, but as its become more expensive, the artists have moved out and the dinks have moved in.
SoHo in the center of London is probably the most consistent and famous artsy neighborhood...its where all the film and telly studios are, and its always full of theatre goers, punk rock emos, suits and students. Depending on the time you have to explore the city, you could venture along the Kilburn High Road or West Hampstead, which are areas coming into their own. Angel / Islington is another area. So are Hackney, Clapham, Fulham, Battersea...the old Indian corner stores are moving out, gastro pubs, restaurants and clothing boutiques moving in.
To add to my pseudo-Londoner to do list...
12) Walk across the Millenium Bridge by Lord Foster
13) Take the District Line out to Putney Bridge Station, and take a double decker bus back along the Kings Road to Oxford Circus (sit on the top deck, a better, cheaper bus tour than the one given by the tour companies I reckon).
14) Take the tube to Canary Wharf, the shiny high rise financial district, no where near downtown London!
15) Visit the AA (and marvel at how small and quaint it is...I walked by it about 3 times)
16) Walk around beautiful St Johns Wood and Primrose Hill...you might see a *celebrity*
17) Visit Hampstead Heath (or "the heath" to the locals). It's wild and beautiful. Apparently there are separate men's and women's swimming ponds there...need I elaborate?
18) Stop by a pub for a beer and chips on the way home.
Another thing...Londoners are typically rude and unhelpful. Comes with living in a big busy city, I guess. The service in restaurants is terrible, and you'll be expected to tip anyway. Better you know and be prepared for it so it doesn't spoil your vacation experience...it's just London.
London is the best city in the world IMO... but dont waste your time with the London Tower
brick lane, not brick road. theres quite a few cool things around that neighborhood (cafes, bars, clubs).
i second the aboves and esp. recommend the borough market (weekdays), the spitalfields market (sundays, maybe sat too?), even the columbia road market for flowers (sundays).
tate modern is a fav. of mine...walk the southbank from the borough market past the tate/millenium bridge all the way to waterloo station. you'll get a nice view of the other bank/st. pauls/ parliament.
also check out camden, primrose hill and the parks (hyde/regents).
enjoy!
bardens boudoiur or old blue last for live music, thats east, shoreditch/hackney
luminare in kilburn
terrelick tower-paddington, also worth seeing the unrolling bridge by heatherwick
peckham library
DLR through docklands, now thats real interesting, especially if u go from bank all the way to new cross
brick lane was fashionable and upcoming about 5 years ago, now its watered down and the city is slowly eating it up.
www.londonarchitecturediary.com is like.. the best
archinecters - thanks for all the help - i'll bring everyone back some chips
the design museum - there's a hadid retrospective at present
brick lane and spittlefields is essential, my favoruite part of the city
also if you like it gritty then obviously shorditch (thats were all the young gritty london offices are)...and smack addicts, so a nice blend
bethnall green, the historic gangland of london
also the areas around covent garden and seven sisters, not gritty but they have a certain quality...
westend has lost its way...the organic hipness turned to commercial marketability and that was that...its all about the east
hmmm, and as a little game of hide and seek; try and find brick house by caruso st john....
enjoy the most organic metropolitan urban situation in the world
screw looking at buildings, one place i'm gonna hit in engalund
Book plenty of time in advance! We missed out on Bath, so decided we'd go for a jaunt in Wales instead.
the thermal bath isnt exactly part of our culture...especially since theres only one...
for a truely english experience
1. find the commercial looking pub you can find [weatherspoons is ideal]
2. spend the night drinking stella [15-18 pints should be sufficient]
3. get into a fight with the biggest bloke in the establishment with regards his taste in football club
4. eat kebab in your now beer and bloodsoaked clothes
5. ritualisticly vomit in the usable parameters of a public facility [bus stops and phone boxes are best]
6. shout a women in tight white clothes, trying their best to walk in heels
7. fall asleep in a black cab
8. wake with a thoroughly british sense of regret and worthlessness
johnszot and vado...i will be in london mid-october as well...3 days...that's a lot to see...a lot of pubs to visit...
this should come in handy as well, i hope!
http://www.pubs.com/features_search.cfm
You can take your dog into most english pubs. They just hang out under the table while you have a pint. Brilliant concept.
r-i guess the sun has set on the british empire...
The course of Empire, as predicted by Ed Ruscha, goes East.
I love these London threads.
Buy an AtoZ. Hire a bicycle from BikeFix on Lambs Conduit Street.
You want seedy? Walk South down Berwick Street, past the best record shop in town Sister Ray, formerly Selectadisc (of Oasis recordsleeve fame), keep going past Richard Rogers building housing restaurant Yauatcha (Zaha's a regular) and Autodesk (on the first floor), past the market with Flat White coffee house on your left (presently under refurbishment) and you are on Porn Alley. Follow through for Rupert Street, the start of the Village.
Avoid: Carnaby Street, Oxford Street, Shaftesbury Avenue.
Visit: The John Soane Museum (cf), in Lincolns Inn Fields. Go via the Brunswick centre and Marchmont Street, then cross Russell Square. Enter the British Museum from Russell Street, exit at the rear and go straight ahead for Senate House. Be awed. Turn left down Store Street for the Building Centre, home to the NLA scale model of London.
Unless you need more T-shirts, or skunk, or have a taxi booked to take you to music, fuck Camden (although there are some fantastic residential Streets parallel to Camden Road)
Shoreditch/Hoxton: From Old Street station take Leonard Street, your first corner on the left is the Dragon Bar. Drink. Walk on towards Great Eastern Street stopping and drinking regularly. Take Charlotte Road up towards Hoxton Square. Look behind you at the Gherkin and the other new tower under construction. Stop for a drink in the Barley Mow. Take a quick right left to SCP at the top of Curtain Road, find the new Adjaye on Rivington, and the Rivington Bar & Grill and Cargo. By now you are saturated with booze and graffitti. top of Curtain Road straight over, past the 333 night club, drink in the recently reopened electric showroom and coffee on the square after the White Cube in Macondo.
There's more and more.
I second from the previous posts:
Serpentine Pavilion (Olafur Eliason, masterful) and gallery (Barney)
Brick Lane Market, Sunday a.m. people sell unmatched pairs of shoes for 10pence, broken clock radios and stolen bicycles. Get there early and admire the local gentlemen's piss-stained trousers then go to the Southern end and drink fruit smoothies by the Vespa shop.
Columbia Road Flower Market, Sunday a.m.: Magnificent
The Borough Market/Design Museum/Tate Modern/Oxo Tower/Gabriels Wharf/Royal Festival Hall/Hayward Gallery strip, taking in Waterloo Bridge (preferably at sunset), Millenium Bridge and St Pauls.
Over Waterloo Bridge, past big ben, houses of parliament, Westminster Abbey, turn right up horseguards parade to the ICA (run these days by the sharp-dressing Ekow Eshun), up the stairs and into St. James (so old money), up the hill and left onto Jermyn Street (Cigar smoke, good cigar smoke, fills the air), drop off Jermyn to catch the (second) White Cube. Chuck a right at the end of Jermyn and cross Piccadilly for Albemarle / Dover Streets, go left to hit Berkeley Square and find Mount Street (unfathomably money) at its North West corner. The end of Mount Street and Hyde Park sits before you with the Serpentine Gallery/Pavilion. Or from Albemarle go right for the Burlington Arcade, Royal Academy (now in the hands of the magnificent Charles Saumaurez-Smith), the Cork Street commercial galleries and Saville Row.
What do you really want to see? Particular vernaculars, types of people, scenes, queens, galleries and bookshops, restaurants and festive haunts?
London is my lover.
You will also need an Oyster card, available from any travel station, use it on pay-as-you go, charge it with £10 to start.
The AtoZ is an indispensible map-book
r
totally agree, though as Jamie T so beautifully sings, one should really fall asleep on the Northern Line...
damn - psyarch bringin the heat - big ups 2 u
LONDONERS -
back from trip - posted some tags from my visits to Brick Lane and Ménilmontant (yes, i know that's actually in Paris, but....). please drop in - and thanks again for the xlnt tips everyone...
oh yeah - the link
http://www.johnszot.com/
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