Also with regards to travel, do you know about the Oyster Card?I haven’t been to London for over a year so things might have changed, but this has been in operation for years. You buy the card for a few quid (refundable whenever you want, plus any balance on the card) and charge it with cash at major stations. Then “tap” in and out on the underground or overground. Fares are capped depending on “zones” which I never worked out, but it works out at a maximum of £12 per day
The link doesn’t seem too clear to me so anyone wants ot chip in with a simpler one please do so.
Oyster is the only option, really - I don’t even know how you pay cash these days, certainly can’t use money on busses. I guess you could buy a day card for cash money …
But really, just get an Oyster. You probably saw the link to visitor Oyster:
This is what we do when we stay. A cheap Travelodge at East India dock right next to the DLR and via the DLR you can be at the tower of London in 15 minutes, The Olympic Park with shops and restaurants in 10 minutes or via the DLR and Jubilee line you can be at Westminster in 20 minutes.
It is in no way picturesque but it is cheap and cheerful and the connections are good.
I can’t let that lie! Some parts of Tower Hamlets (no the) are pretty rough, but some are lovely - most of trendy Shoreditch is Tower Hamlets and Docklands is full of posh new developments. Plus the Tower itself and the area around it. Here’s my road: http://i1064.photobucket.com/albums/u365/samtheteacher/mystreet_zpsu9t2cmqp.png Yeah, SO third world (if the link doesn’t work, it’s a street of Victorian townhouses in a terrace with Victorian streetlamps, all well-kept. Not posh, just ordinary, but far from third world). You can’t have got out much round here in your six months to have missed seeing streets like that - it’s most of the borough except for Docklands.
There are a lot of brown-skinned people though, if that’s what you meant?
However, for a tourist I would recommend staying in the West/Central areas already recommended unless your budget won’t reach that far or you want somewhere quiet (the areas around those hotels will be anything but quiet). It does make it easier to see the major tourist attractions and they are well worth seeing. Somewhat cheaper but still nice - and quieter - are the many, many hotels near Victoria on the Pimlico side. If I couldn’t stretch to a high end hotel but wanted to remain central I think that’s where I’d go.
Yeah; London hotels have sticker shock written all over them. I’ve stayed at the Lime Tree on several trips since the 1980s. New mattresses, bedspreads, and a coat of paint haven’t made it exactly fancy, but other hotels in the area tend to be two or three times the price.
Oh get over yourself. I lived there for years and like every other district of London there are a nice parts scattered here and there but Tower Hamlets is pretty grotty, although it continues to get nicer as the exorbitant prices force middle class people to colonise. It’s still nowhere I would recommend to a foreign tourist unless they are interested in the history of the area (of which there is an abundance) or enjoy seeing the down-at-heel part of large cities.
Cephas Avenue might be a nice looking little side street but go round the corner to Mile End Road and or Roman Road and it’s not quite so picturesque.
Some of Mile End Rd is grim, but not all. Roads like the one I linked to are really common - they’re not an anomaly. “Third world” is ridiculous. Tbh you talking about the borough getting nicer as middle class people colonise does make it sound as though you were thinking of the people, not the buildings, which aren’t suddenly becoming more middle class.
I wouldn’t recommend most of the borough either, but that’s the same with almost all boroughs of London really; nothing bad about them, just not that interesting for tourists. Although Tower Hamlets does have one teeny tiny castle that I think most people consider fairly historical Docklands in general has lots to see (and, er, is not remotely third world by any standard) and obviously the art stuff appeals to a lot of young people. I still wouldn’t suggest it for a first visit (except the Tower) but you seem to have forgotten a lot of what’s actually in the borough.
I lived in Bromley by Bow - its not much like the test of the area.
I have no objection to the “brown” people who surrounded me - Pakistanis and Afghans for the most part; but I did find the local “white” population pretty objectionable - I’d be leaving for a shift early in the morning and they’d be out drinking their Tennant’s; when I returned in the evening, the same people doing the same thing.
However, this is not a "rich’ area by any means, both “white” and “brown” were certainly struggling and the general feel of the area is unpleasant: high rise council flats with low rise council flats in between; generally shabby and dirty.
Again, I live in the 3rd world- I am Zimbabwean and now live in South Africa. When I describe a fairly shitty part of London as 3rd world I must point out that I somewhat experienced in living in the 3rd world.
As I was short of money I tended to walk rather than ride busses, trains and the DLR, so I did get to see the area - and I would consider a 10 - 15km (+/- 6 - 10 mile) walk home from work through the dodgy bits of the East end to have cemented that view.
I’d invite anyone who believes you to have a scoot around Google maps.
Pakistani and Afghan ethnicities are unusual in Tower Hamlets - your neighbours were vastly more likely to be Benjali; were you really paying that much attention? .
There are some tower blocks like you describe, some posh areas in Docklands - you seem to have forgotten that exists - and lots of streets like the one I linked to. I’m sorry but you are factually wrong in multiple ways. It’s a weird borough with both extreme poverty and extreme wealth in neighbouring homes. To act as if only the poverty exists is ignoring enormous swathes of the area. It’s also not the only borough in London that’s like that.
Follow-up - I just got back from my vacation. Ended up staying at a hotel in Earl’s Court. Seriously, what is it with European hotels and not having ice machines?
I ended up taking day trips to Manchester (via Preston - you would think I would have been tipped off about “what to do in Preston” by the lack of it being mentioned in the latest Lonely Planet Great Britain guide, but it’s one of the stations I “sponsor” on All The Stations (check it out on YouTube) so I figure I had to go there…and somehow, another person was assigned the same seat that I was on the train back to London), Dover (where I waited in line for 45 minutes to see the “secret underground tunnels,” only for, about 10 minutes into the tour, the fire alarm to go off and the tunnels evacuated), and Cambridge (I had been to Oxford a couple of weeks earlier - besides, after years of listening to the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, I wanted to visit the Chapel at King’s College).
Europeans just don’t do ice. Anyway, next time try Hazlitt’s (if you’ve got the money). Other than the Savoy, it’s the only London hotel which is a tourist destination itself (it was the home of writer William Hazlitt).
‘You want ice with that?’ is a question that seems to always be asked every time I’ve ordered a soft drink in the UK. I’ve never seen an ice machine in any UK hotel, even a huge hotel like Novotel which was aimed at business travelers.
Better to get a regular Oyster card than a Visitor Oyster. The regular card costs 5 pounds (before you add credit to it) and the visitor card cost 3 pounds BUT you can get your 5 pounds refunded when you leave with the regular but with the visitor one you can’t get a refund.
With either card you can get refunded for any remaining travel funds but if it’s a lot they’ll send you a check in pounds sterling whereas if it’s not too much you get refunded at the ticket counter (in cash or credit card). I don’t remember the cut-off point for a mailed check vs. cash/CC refund. If you are American (or anything other than British) getting a check back home that’s in pounds sterling would be a real pain.
Docklands in general has lots to see (and, er, is not remotely third world by any standard) and obviously the art stuff appeals to a lot of young people. I still wouldn’t suggest it for a first visit (except the Tower) but you seem to have forgotten a lot of what’s actually in the borough.