If you don’t already have enough suggestions, my thread from 2 years ago:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=753368&highlight=London
If I only had one day, it would be the British Museum…no, wait, the Imperial War Museum…or the Churchill Museum. Ah heck, you can’t go wrong with any of those.
I knew I was spending far too much time on London at Wikipedia and Google Maps when I saw Joseph Grimaldi Park on the map and my first thought was “it’s odd that there’s a park named after him” and my second thought is “well, it sort of makes sense since it’s near Sadler’s Wells…” :smack:
I like typical touristy things - sometimes, things are popular because they are cool:
The Museums & Museum-like places (The British Museum, the Tate Modern, the V&A, Saatchi, the Library, the other Tates, the other museums)
Churches (Westminster, St. Paul (feed the birds-tuppence a bag!), the “Oranges & Lemons” ones)
Walk the bridges
The London Eye
Tower of London & Ceremony of the Keys
“Mind the Gap”
Ride a double decker bus (if they still have those)
Take a London cab
Go to Harrod’s and/or get takeout at M&S
See a show in the West End*
Hyde Park
Go to all the places that show up in books all the time
*This is the one thing I didn’t do on my trip that I really regret. In the US, theaters tend to be dark on Mondays. Apparently, in London, they tend to be dark on Sundays. I had a very short trip, I assumed that I could find a ticket to something on Sunday night only to find that it wasn’t going to happen.
I had two days in London. I spent one of them in Greenwich which tells you all you need to know about where my priorities lie.
I also toured the HMS Belfast, saw a rained out Wimbledon and Westminster Abbey.
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I wanted to shop at Liberty, but we ran out of time.
I can’t believe no one so far has mentioned The British Museum.
We allocated a whole day, thinking that would be plenty of time, and I felt like I barely scratched the surface. I’m not a huge museum guy, although I’m probably more so than your average Joe. Mostly I just like to be outdoors when I’m traveling, but there is just so much to see it’s astounding. Go and go again and again and again.
As an American, I really liked driving around the countryside, so if you have time, get out a bit. Stonehenge isn’t that far, or go to Avebury. Definitely eat in a pub. You’ll not find that kind of experience in the US.
I know, right??
I went in early September. Odd that I didn’t see this thread - it would have been most helpful.
My visit included the following, sorted into Tiers 1-4 in order of personal preference.
TIER 1
The Tower of London, including a Yeoman Warder tour
[ul]
[li]Absolutely amazing - I would go once a year if I lived in London. Special side note: I stayed at a hotel two blocks away, which made finding my way home after a night out easy. The Tower Hill Underground station is situated right next to a large section of the London Wall, first built by the Romans, then added to through the Middle Ages. Today, the Wall serves as the boundary between the Station and a kids’ playground. It’s a poetic blend of history and function. [/li][/ul]
Westminster Abbey
[ul]
[li]Overwhelming sense of history. Discussingthe interments thereinwould be folly. The one that most affected me, though, was Charles Darwin’s simple stone in a side corridor. I would not have expected a man so thoroughly (and unfairly) vilified by so many religious people to rest in a Gothic church. I stood there in wonder for about ten minutes, both in the incongruity and in sheer awe of the changes in our understanding of life wrought by the brain entombed before me. The magnitude of the place is such, though, that others may not even rank Darwin’s interment as one of the top ten here. Beautiful church, too. Absolutely essential. The only downside is that pictures are not allowed.[/li][/ul]
The British Museum
The National Gallery
[ul]
[li]Both of these collections beggar description. A day’s visit simply isn’t enough for either of them. If I lived in London, I’d visit one or the other about once a week to slowly absorb their offerings. They are both open late on Friday - the crowds are probably thinnest then.[/li][/ul]
TIER 2
Houses of Parliament
[ul]
[li]Not quite as awe-inspiring as the Tier 1 attractions above, but close. Obviously an essential visit. Like Westminster, pictures are not allowed inside - though the statues in the park outside (including Anglophone heroes like Gandhi, Mandela, and Lincoln) affords some nice shots.[/li][/ul]
Jack the Ripper Walking Tour
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[li]Had a great time. My most significant realization was that a man covered in blood would have attracted very little attention given the number of working slaughterhouses in the area. The most significant surprise was that Mitre Square, the site of Catherine Eddowes’ murder, is also now a kids’ playground. There’s something awfully poignant about that.[/li][/ul]
Shakespeare’s Globe
[ul]
[li]I didn’t see a play since the production that week was not one of the Bard’s - still worthwhile. May have been Tier 1 if I’d been there a week earlier to see King Lear.[/li][/ul]
Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens
[ul]
[li]The last place I visited. A beautiful park and a great place to decompress. Both the Princess Diana Fountain and the Peter Pan Statue are worth a look. I didn’t boat the Serpentine, but that may be a very fun thing to do.[/li][/ul]
Handel and Hendrix in London
[ul]
[li]A sentimental favorite since I love Hendrix and have sung in the Messiah choir. Strangely underdeveloped on the Handel side, but more often than not you’ll catch an impromptu recital there featuring one of the period harpsichords. If you’re not a fan of either musician, though, it’s a very meager attraction. My guide on the Hendrix side was a remarkably intelligent fellow, by the way.[/li][/ul]
The Tate Modern
[ul]
[li]As Abraham Lincoln said, it’s the sort of thing that people who like that sort of thing would like. I’d see it if I were you, especially considering its remarkable repurposing from a power station to a museum.[/li][/ul]
TIER 3
Tate Britain
[ul]
[li]Primarily English portraiture; it seems to focus on Pre-Raphaelite work and similar styles. I probably should rank this higher - it suffers from being so near the other museums above. Many of my friends rated my pictures of the works here as the best shots of my trip.[/li][/ul]
Buckingham Palace
[ul]
[li]Strangely underwhelming. I realize this is a “must-do” on most people’s lists, but I didn’t get much out of it. It wasn’t bad by any means, but it wasn’t nearly as impressive as the Tower, Westminster Abbey, The British Museum, or The National Gallery. The Gardens out back are even less satisfying - much less attractive than Hyde Park. And for the love of all that’s sacred, I couldn’t get away from the Changing of the Guard ceremony fast enough. It’s a mob scene for…not much. Again, not bad, but not near the top tier of attractions unless you are enchanted by the Royals.[/li][/ul]
Highgate Cemetery
[ul]
[li]Had it not been raining, and had I gotten to see the side that was available by tour only, I may have ranked this higher. It was moving to see Douglas Adams’ and Eric Hobsbawm’s resting places, anyway, though you may prefer Karl Marx or George Eliot. Interesting how many of my friends expressed a desire to micturate on the remains of Herbert Spencer and Malcolm McLaren. Thankfully, they weren’t along.[/li][/ul]
TIER 4
The London Eye
[ul]
[li]It didn’t add to my visit. You might like it, though.[/li][/ul]
You aren’t wrong. The perimeter is butt ugly. You might not guess prison; more like city reservoir. It is an utter blight.
Three more things I’ve only finally done this year:
Walk across the crosswalk at Abbey Road.
Go to the Museum of Childhood.
See the longest-running play in the world - The Mousetrap.
I would push the Tate Britain further to the top of the list. The Tate Modern gets all the fancy press, but the shit I really like is north of the river. Epstein’s massive sculpture JACOB AND THE ANGEL…Richard Dadd’s intricate painting THE FAIRY FELLER’S MASTER STROKE…Sargent’s lovely CARNATION LILY LILY ROSE…Mark Gertler’s terrifying MERRY-GO-ROUND…dozens upon dozens of others in the 19th-early 20th century rooms.
Basically, I look at art and buildings and bookshops…same as I do in Paris or San Francisco or Barcelona.
Play fetch with the Queen’s Corgis.
Tour Buckingham Palace
British Museum
Pose at the Abbey Road crossing
Tower of London
Tour Parliament, if they have tours
All the other museums
Can someone explain this to me, because I just don’t get it. I used to drive down Abbey Road all the time when I lived nearby, and the crossing was always clogged with foreign tourists, and, really, well, it’s just a residential street in a London suburb. Yes yes, Beatles and all that, but of all the stuff to see in London, people go out of their way to get on a tube, travel to Zone 2, just to cross a road??? There’s literally nothing else in the area.
I’m totally uninterested in all the history stuff most people have mentioned wanting to see. For me, hitting the pubs and things like Abbey Road crossing would be my only reason to visit the UK.
Probably why I just visit Caribbean beaches for vacations.
It’s one of those iconic things that you can’t pass on while you’re there. I would never make the trip for that purpose, it’s schmaltz and campy as hell, but why not? Just like when you’re in Italy you pose by the Leaning Tower of Pisa so that you appear to be keeping the tower from falling over. It might take 10 minutes tops, then you cross it off your list and go on to more significant things.
And I’m exactly the opposite. Caribbean beaches would just bore me. Call me Anakin, I guess.
I do LIKE the Beatles, but there are still people for whom they are the by all and end all, and those folks want to take that Abbey Road shot. Most people probably wouldn’t prioritize Hendrix & Handel like I did - most people in its neighborhood don’t even know it’s there - but I enjoyed it thoroughly.
That’s why we have different things to do. Different people like different things. And that’s OK.
Yes but but… it doesn’t take ten minutes. It’s in St John’s Wood which is just a suburb, so you’ve got to go way out of your way to get there, taking up a morning in the process. If you’re passing through I could understand, like visiting Platform 9 3/4 if you’re taking a train from Kings Cross to somewhere else. But Abbey Road isn’t on the way to anywhere!
Thanks for the info. I’ll still go there if I get to London. It’s hard for people like me to appreciate how long it takes to get around such a sprawling city.
I went up to St. Pancreas station just to see St. Pancras station. And what a marvelous Victorian Gothic heap it is! Well worth the trip, even if you’re not catching a train.
Last month I went there and saw Abbey Road while also seeing Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill. From my starting point on the west side of the park and back it took around an hour. I went there not to see it, but to see everyone seeing it! And it was jam packed with wacky and dangerous tourists, even on a weekday in November (granted by mistake I took the vacation during the buildup to Remembrance Day so I don’t know if that influenced the number of tourists in London in general.) (In fact, my flight back was delayed for a minute because it was scheduled for takeoff at 11:00 during the moment of silence.)
St. Pancras is my favorite London “monumental” building I’ve seen so far. (All Saint’s Fulham would be tied with it if there were better viewpoints for it, but I’m sure it’s a great destination nonetheless during the summer and/or spring when the flower garden is in bloom in Fulham Palace.) I was underwhelmed by the core City/Westminster buildings. On the plus side, however, I loved the tiny, old churches that were everywhere, and also was pleasantly surprised at how much of the old London walls are still viewable.
When I go back I will make sure to visit a few weeks closer to summer, when I can take a day trip to either Hastings or Canterbury when all the buildings grounds are open. Both of them seem to have several old buildings/ruins I can see.