So I’m starting on my thesis and will need (le sigh!) to visit London to get further along. I’m going to be working on the logistics of the scholarly portion of the trip – I am essentially studying the reconstruction techniques of 17th century theaters and will obviously need to speak with some people – but I wanted the advice of folks in the know about where to stay and where to avoid, how to do this on a comfortable shoestring (I’ll be getting financial assistance, most likely, but I can’t yet confirm how much), and what I shouldn’t miss while I’m there. I am a museum junkie so there’s no fear of me not hitting all those, I’m certainly not planning on renting a car, and I intend to stay for about three weeks in what looks like the best weather London has to offer.
Well at least you’ll be in and out before the Olympics, that should save some money. I would suggest seeing some of the Olympic venues while they’re shiny and new.
You’re out almost a month before they start so you’ll probably be okay. Definitely start looking for accomodation as soon as you have your budget confirmed though.
First weekend of June (if you’re here then) is the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. There’ll be plenty of pomp about if you’re in to that sort of thing.
What’s your accommodation budget? When we go to London, we tend to stay at a Premier Inn- it’s the bottom end of chain hotels but we’ve always found them clean, quiet and with comfortable beds. The ones further out of London are cheaper, but you need to factor in the zone you’ll be staying in, as that affects the price of an all-day tube ticket.
You’ve already said you’ll be hitting the museums, so I won’t touch on those, but here are some different things you might enjoy:
Greenwich village is lovely on a sunny day, you can wander through the park up to the observatory to get your mandatory ‘standing on the timeline’ photo. It’s nice to just chill out in the park, too.
Take in a **show **if your budget allows - Mathilda is very highly reviewed (although I haven’t seen it myself yet)
Camden Market to eat, shop and people watch
Tower of London - tours are given by actual Yeoman and are good fun
The British Library has a fantastic collection, it might not occur to people to visit as it’s not branded as a museum as such
It’s a bit of bad luck for you that the British Museum’s big Shakespeare exhibition - one of the few elements of the Cultural Olympiad that looks as if it might actually be quite good - doesn’t open until 19 July.
Check out the Victoria & Albert Museum. Don’t miss “Costume Through the Ages” --you’ll be fascinated at what women wore as underwear in the 17th century. Don’t miss the jewelry exhibit upstairs where you can see the actual emeralds worn by Empress Josephine Bonaparte (look for them in other museums in her portraits). Swing over and check out the arms and armor exhibit, too. Just a great museum!
I’ll definitely hit the V&A, thanks! I don’t think I’ll be able to stick around into July, but we’ll see. And I hadn’t thought of the collection at the British Library…
Does anyone have recommendations for where to stay/how to find an inexpensive place for three-plus weeks straight?
People I know who’ve stayed here have said it’s very good for the price and not horrible for any price. It’s on a direct bus to pretty well everywhere.
If you have a whole LOT more money, this is lovely.
You can take a bus to Oxford, it takes about an hour. It’s nice to just walk around but art & artifact junkies can’t miss the Ashmolean and the Pitt-Rivers museums. The Ashmolean at least presents items in an educational format; the Pitt-Rivers is just a glorious pile of plunder.
Nearly all the universities in London offer summer accommodations. I’m hesitant to give specific names of places that I stayed because that was 25 years ago, but here’s one lead.Here’s another.And another.