▲▲▲Hop-On, Hop-Off Double-Decker Bus Tours
Weekend Tour Packages for Students
Map: The City, The Tower & East London
Map: London’s Hotel Neighborhoods
Map: Victoria Station Neighborhood
“South Kensington,” She Said, Loosening His Cummerbund
Map: South Kensington Neighborhood
North of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park
Map: North of Kensington Gardens & Hyde Park
Big, Good-Value, Modern Hotels
Map: North London Accommodations
Map: London’s Major Train Stations
Map: Public Transportation near London
London is more than 600 square miles of urban jungle—a world in itself and a barrage on all the senses. On my first visit, I felt extremely small.
London is more than its museums and landmarks. It’s the L.A., D.C., and N.Y.C. of Britain—a living, breathing, thriving organism...a coral reef of humanity. The city has changed dramatically in recent years, and many visitors are surprised to find how “un-English” it is. ESL (English as a second language) seems like the city’s first language, as white people are now a minority in major parts of the city that once symbolized white imperialism. Arabs have nearly bought out the area north of Hyde Park. Chinese takeouts outnumber fish-and-chips shops. Eastern Europeans pull pints in British pubs. Many hotels are run by people with foreign accents (who hire English chambermaids), while outlying suburbs are home to huge communities of Indians and Pakistanis. London is a city of eight million separate dreams, inhabiting a place that tolerates and encourages them. With the English Channel Tunnel and discount airlines making travel between Britain and the Continent easier than ever, London is learning—sometimes fitfully—to live as a microcosm of its formerly vast empire.
The city, which has long attracted tourists, seems perpetually at your service, with an impressive slate of sights, entertainment, and eateries, all linked by a great transit system. With just a few days here, you’ll get no more than a quick splash in this teeming human tidal pool. But with a good orientation, you’ll find London manageable and fun. You’ll get a sampling of the city’s top sights, history, and cultural entertainment, and a good look at its ever-changing human face.
Blow through the city on the open deck of a double-decker orientation tour bus, and take a pinch-me-I’m-in-London walk through the West End. Ogle the crown jewels at the Tower of London, hear the chimes of Big Ben, and see the Houses of Parliament in action. Cruise the Thames River, and take a spin on the London Eye. Hobnob with poets’ tombstones in Westminster Abbey, and visit with Leonardo, Botticelli, and Rembrandt in the National Gallery. Enjoy Shakespeare in a replica of the Globe theater and marvel at a glitzy, fun musical at a modern-day theater. Whisper across the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, then rummage through our civilization’s attic at the British Museum. And sip your tea with pinky raised and clotted cream dribbling down your scone.
The sights of London alone could easily fill a trip to England. It’s worth at least three busy days. You won’t be able to see everything, so don’t try. You’ll keep coming back to London. After dozens of visits myself, I still enjoy a healthy list of excuses to return. Especially if you hope to enjoy a play or concert, a night or two of jet lag is bad news.
Here’s a suggested three-day schedule:
| 9:00 | Tower of London (crown jewels first, then Beefeater tour and White Tower; note that on Sun-Mon, the Tower opens at 10:00). |
| 13:00 | Grab a picnic, catch a boat at Tower Pier, and relax with lunch on the Thames while cruising to Westminster Pier. |
| 14:30 | Tour Westminster Abbey, and consider their evensong service (usually at 17:00, at 15:00 on Sun and off-season Sat, never on Wed). |
| 17:00 (or after evensong) | Follow my self-guided Westminster Walk. When you’re finished, if it’s a Monday or Tuesday, you could return to the Houses of Parliament and possibly pop in to see the House of Commons in action. |
| 8:30 | Take a double-decker hop-on, hop-off London sightseeing bus tour (from Green Park or Victoria Station), and hop off for the Changing of the Guard. |
| 11:00 | Buckingham Palace (guards change most days May-July at 11:30, alternate days Aug-April—confirm online). |
| 12:00 | Walk through St. James’s Park to enjoy London’s delightful park scene. |
| 13:00 | After lunch, tour the Churchill War Rooms. |
| 16:00 | Tour the National Gallery. |
| Evening | Have a pub dinner before a play, concert, or evening walking tour. |
Choose among these remaining London highlights: British Library, Imperial War Museum, the two Tates (Tate Modern on the South Bank for modern art, Tate Britain on the North Bank for British art), St. Paul’s Cathedral, Victoria and Albert Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Natural History Museum, Courtauld Gallery, or the Museum of London; take a spin on the London Eye or a cruise to Kew Gardens; enjoy a play at Shakespeare’s Globe; do some serious shopping at one of London’s elegant department stores or open-air markets; or take another historic walking tour.
To grasp London more comfortably, see it as the old town in the city center without the modern, congested sprawl. (Even from that perspective, it’s still huge.)
The Thames River (pronounced “tems”) runs roughly west to east through the city, with most of the visitor’s sights on the North Bank. Mentally, maybe even physically, trim down your map to include only the area between the Tower of London (to the east), Hyde Park (west), Regent’s Park (north), and the South Bank (south). This is roughly the area bordered by the Tube’s Circle Line. This four-mile stretch between the Tower and Hyde Park (about a 1.5-hour walk) looks like a milk bottle on its side (see map above), and holds 80 percent of the sights mentioned in this chapter.
With a core focus and a good orientation, you’ll get a sampling of London’s top sights, history, and cultural entertainment, and a good look at its ever-changing human face.
The sprawling city becomes much more manageable if you think of it as a collection of neighborhoods.
Central London: This area contains Westminster and what Londoners call the West End. The Westminster district includes Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace—the grand government buildings from which Britain is ruled. Trafalgar Square, London’s gathering place, has many major museums. The West End is the center of London’s cultural life, with bustling squares: Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square host cinemas, tourist traps, and nighttime glitz. Soho and Covent Garden are thriving people zones with theaters, restaurants, pubs, and boutiques. And Regent and Oxford streets are the city’s main shopping zones.
North London: Neighborhoods in this part of town—including Bloomsbury, Fitzrovia, and Marylebone—contain such major sights as the British Museum and the overhyped Madame Tussauds Waxworks. Nearby, along busy Euston Road, is the British Library, plus a trio of train stations (one of them, St. Pancras International, is linked to Paris by the Eurostar “Chunnel” train).
The City: Today’s modern financial district, called simply “The City,” was a walled town in Roman times. Gleaming skyscrapers are interspersed with historical landmarks such as St. Paul’s Cathedral, legal sights (Old Bailey), and the Museum of London. The Tower of London and Tower Bridge lie at The City’s eastern border.
East London: Just east of The City is the East End—the increasingly gentrified former stomping ground of Cockney ragamuffins and Jack the Ripper.
The South Bank: The South Bank of the Thames River offers major sights (Tate Modern, Shakespeare’s Globe, London Eye) linked by a riverside walkway. Within this area, Southwark (SUTH-uck) stretches from the Tate Modern to London Bridge. Pedestrian bridges connect the South Bank with The City and Trafalgar Square.
West London: This huge area contains neighborhoods such as Mayfair, Belgravia, Pimlico, Chelsea, South Kensington, and Notting Hill. It’s home to London’s wealthy and has many trendy shops and enticing restaurants. Here you’ll find a range of museums (Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Britain, and more), my top hotel recommendations, lively Victoria Station, and the vast green expanses of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.
For such a big and important city, it’s amazing how hard it can be to find unbiased sightseeing information and advice in London. You’ll see “Tourist Information” offices advertised everywhere, but most of them are private agencies that make a big profit selling tours and advance sightseeing and/or theater tickets; others are run by Transport for London (TFL) and are primarily focused on providing public-transit advice.
The only publicly funded (and therefore impartial) “real” TI is the City of London Information Centre (Mon-Sat 9:30-17:30, Sun 10:00-16:00; across the busy street from St. Paul’s Cathedral—around the right side as you face the main staircase, in the modern, angular building just toward the Millennium Bridge; Tube: St. Paul’s, tel. 020/7332-1456, visitthecity.co.uk). While officially a service of The City (London’s financial district), this office also provides information about the rest of London. It sells Oyster cards, London Passes, and advance “Fast Track” sightseeing tickets (all described later), and stocks various free publications: London Planner (a free monthly that lists all the sights, events, and hours), some walking-tour brochures, the Official London Theatre Guide, a free Tube and bus map, the Guide to River Thames Boat Services, and brochures describing self-guided walks in The City (various themes, including Dickens, modern architecture, and film locations). They give out a free map of The City, and sell several citywide maps; ask if they have yet another, free map with a coupon good for 20 percent off admission to St. Paul’s. I’d skip their room-booking service (charges a commission) and theater box office (may charge a commission).
Visit London, which serves the greater London area, doesn’t have an office you can visit in person—but does operate a call center and website (tel. 0870-156-6366, visitlondon.com).
Fast Track Tickets: To skip the ticket-buying queues at certain London sights, you can buy Fast Track tickets in advance—and they can be cheaper than tickets sold right at the sight. They’re particularly smart for the Tower of London, the London Eye, and Madame Tussauds Waxworks, all of which get very busy in high season. They’re available through various sales outlets around London (including the City of London TI, souvenir stands, and faux-TIs scattered throughout touristy areas).
London Pass: This pass, which covers many big sights and lets you skip some lines, is expensive but potentially worth the investment for extremely busy sightseers (£47/1 day, £64/2 days, £77/3 days, £102/6 days; days are calendar days rather than 24-hour periods; comes with 160-page guidebook, also sold at TI near St. Paul’s, tel. 0870-242-9988, londonpass.com). Among the many sights it includes are the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Windsor Castle, as well as many temporary exhibits and audioguides at otherwise “free” biggies. Think through your sightseeing plans, study their website to see what’s covered, and do the math before you buy.
For more information on getting to or from London by train, bus, and plane, see “London Connections,” at the end of this chapter.
By Train: London has nine major train stations, all connected by the Tube (subway). All have ATMs, and many of the larger stations also have shops, fast food, exchange offices, and luggage storage. From any station, you can ride the Tube or taxi to your hotel. For more info on train travel, see nationalrail.co.uk.
By Bus: The main intercity bus station is Victoria Coach Station, one block southwest of Victoria train/Tube station. For more on bus travel, see nationalexpress.com.
By Plane: London has six airports. Most tourists arrive at Heathrow or Gatwick airport, although flights from elsewhere in Europe may land at Stansted, Luton, Southend, or London City airport. For specifics on getting from London’s airports to downtown, see “London Connections” at the end of this chapter; for hotels near Heathrow and Gatwick, see here.
Theft Alert: Wear your money belt. The Artful Dodger is alive and well in London. Be on guard, particularly on public transportation and in places crowded with tourists, who, considered naive and rich, are targeted. The Changing of the Guard scene is a favorite for thieves. And more than 7,500 purses are stolen annually at Covent Garden alone.
Pedestrian Safety: Cars drive on the left side of the road—which can be as confusing for foreign pedestrians as for foreign drivers. Before crossing a street, I always look right, look left, then look right again just to be sure. Most crosswalks are even painted with instructions, reminding foreign guests to “Look right” or “Look left.” While locals are champion jaywalkers, you shouldn’t try it; jaywalking is treacherous when you’re disoriented about which direction traffic is coming from.
Medical Problems: Local hospitals have good-quality 24-hour-a-day emergency care centers, where any tourist who needs help can drop in and, after a wait, be seen by a doctor. Your hotel has details. St. Thomas’ Hospital, immediately across the river from Big Ben, has a fine reputation.
Getting Your Bearings: London is well-signed for visitors. Through an initiative called Legible London, the city is erecting thoughtfully designed, pedestrian-focused maps around town. In this sprawling city—where predictable grid-planned streets are relatively rare—it’s also smart to buy and use a good map. Benson’s London Street Map, sold at many newsstands and bookstores, is my favorite for efficient sightseeing.
Festivals: For one week in February and another in September, fashionistas descend on the city for London Fashion Week (londonfashionweek.co.uk). The famous Chelsea Flower Show blossoms in late May (book ahead for this popular event at rhs.org.uk/chelsea). During the annual Trooping the Colour in June, there are military bands and pageantry, and the Queen’s birthday parade (trooping-the-colour.co.uk). Tennis fans pack the stands at the Wimbledon Tennis Championship in late June to early July (wimbledon.org), and partygoers head for the Notting Hill Carnival in late August.
Traveling in Winter: London dazzles year-round, so consider visiting in winter, when airfares and hotel rates are generally cheaper and there are fewer tourists. For ideas on what to do, see the “Winter Activities in London” article at ricksteves.com/london-winter.
Getting Online with a Mobile Device: In addition to the Wi-Fi that’s likely available at your hotel, it’s smart to get a free account with The Cloud, a free Wi-Fi service found in many convenient spots around London, including most train stations and many museums, coffee shops, cafés, and shopping centers. Sign up at thecloud.net/free-wifi, where you’ll have to enter a street address and postal code; it doesn’t matter which one (use your hotel’s, or the Queen’s: Buckingham Palace, SW1A 1AA). Your Wi-Fi may be limited to 15 or 30 minutes at a time; if you max out, simply log in again.
Most Tube stations and trains have Wi-Fi, but it’s free only to those with a British cellular account. However, the Tube’s Wi-Fi always lets you access Transport for London’s Journey Planner (tfl.gov.uk), making it easy to look up your city transit options—and get real-time updates on delays—once you’re in a station. To access the rest of the Web using the Tube’s Wi-Fi, you can pay £2 for a one-day pass, or £5 for a one-week pass (easy sign-up and credit-card payment at my.virginmedia.com/wifi). The Wi-Fi can falter inside Tube tunnels, but generally comes right back as you approach the next station.
Useful Apps: While the Transport for London’s Journey Planner works great for people with access to the Internet, the MX Apps free Tube map works even when you’re not online, showing the easiest way to connect station A to station B. When you are online, the app provides live updates about Tube delays and closures. (It doesn’t, however, look up bus connections, and MX Apps’ “Bus London” map isn’t very useful offline.) City Maps 2Go ($2) lets you download searchable offline maps; their London version is quite good. Time Out London’s free app has reviews and listings for theater, museums, movies, and more (download the “Things to Do” version, which is updated weekly, rather than the boilerplate “Travel Guide” version).
Travel Bookstores: Located between Covent Garden and Leicester Square, the very good Stanfords Travel Bookstore stocks current editions of many of my books (Mon and Wed-Fri 9:00-20:00, Tue 9:30-20:00, Sat 10:00-20:00, Sun 12:00-18:00, 12-14 Long Acre, second entrance on Floral Street, Tube: Leicester Square, tel. 020/7836-1321, stanfords.co.uk).
Two impressive Waterstones bookstores have the biggest collection of travel guides in town: on Piccadilly (Mon-Sat 9:00-22:00, Sun 11:30-18:00, Costa Café, great views from top-floor bar, 203 Piccadilly, tel. 0843-290-8549) and on Trafalgar Square (Mon-Sat 9:30-21:00, Sun 12:00-18:00, Costa Café on second floor, tel. 0843-290-8651).
Baggage Storage: Train stations have replaced lockers with more secure left-luggage counters. Each bag must go through a scanner (just like at the airport), so lines can be slow. Expect long waits in the morning to check in (up to 45 minutes) and in the afternoon to pick up (each item-£8.50/24 hours, most stations daily 7:00-23:00). You can also store bags at the airports (similar rates and hours, excess-baggage.com). If leaving London and returning later, you may be able to store a box or bag at your hotel for free—assuming you’ll be staying there again.
“Voluntary Donations”: A handful of sights automatically add a “voluntary donation” of about 10 percent to their admission fees (these are noted in the listings). The price posted and quoted includes the donation, though it’s perfectly fine to say you want to pay a cheaper price without the donation.
Updates to This Book: For updates to this book, check ricksteves.com/update.
To travel smart in a city this size, you must get comfortable with public transportation. London’s excellent taxis, buses, and subway (Tube) system make a car unnecessary.
The helpful Welcome to London brochure, produced by the mayor’s office and Transport for London (TFL), includes both a Tube map and a handy schematic map of the best bus routes (available free at TFL offices—such as the one in Victoria Station, the City of London TI, and at museums and hotels all over town). For specific directions on how to get from point A to point B on London’s transit, call TFL’s automated info line at 0843-222-1234.
London has the most expensive public transit in the world—save money on your Tube and bus rides using a multiride pass. You have three options: Pay double by buying individual tickets as you go; buy a £5 Oyster card and top it up as needed to travel like a local for about £1-2 per ride; or get a Travelcard for unlimited travel on either one or seven days.
The transit system has six zones. Since almost all of my recommended accommodations, restaurants, and sights are within Zones 1 and 2, those are the prices I’ve listed here; you’ll pay more to go farther afield. Specific fares and other details change constantly; for a complete and updated list of prices, checktfl.gov.uk.
These days in London, individual paper tickets are obsolete; there’s no point buying one unless you’re literally taking just one ride your entire time in the city. Because individual fares (£4.50 per Tube ride, £2.40 per bus ride) are about double the cost of using a pay-as-you-go Oyster card, in just two or three rides you’ll recoup the £5 added deposit for the Oyster. If you do buy a single ticket, avoid ticket-window lines in Tube stations by using the coin-op machines; practice on the punchboard to see how the system works (hit “Adult Single” and your destination). These tickets are valid only on the day of purchase.
A pay-as-you-go Oyster card (a plastic card embedded with a computer chip) is the smart way to economically ride the Tube, buses, Docklands Light Railway (DLR), and Overground. You simply lay the card flat against (or near) the yellow card reader at the turnstile or entrance, it flashes green, and the fare is automatically deducted. (You’ll also tap your card again to “touch out” as you exit the Tube and DLR turnstiles, but not to exit buses.)
With an Oyster card, rides cost about half the price of individual paper tickets (£2.10 or £2.80 per Tube ride—depending on time of day, £1.40 per bus ride). You buy the card itself at any Tube station ticket window for a refundable £5 deposit, then load it up with as much credit as you want. (For extra peace of mind, ask about registering your card against theft or loss.) When your balance gets low, simply add credit—or “top up”—at a ticket window or machine. A price cap on the pay-as-you-go Oyster card guarantees you’ll never pay more than the One-Day Travelcard price within a 24-hour period.
You can see how much credit remains on your card by touching it to the pad at any ticket machine. Oyster card balances never expire (though they need reactivating at a ticket window every two years), so you can use the card whenever you’re in London, or lend it to someone else.
When you’re finished with the card (and if you don’t mind a short wait), you should be able to reclaim your £5 deposit at any ticket window. However, to make it as easy as possible to recoup your deposit, you should always use the same mode of payment: For example, if you pay the deposit in cash, you need to top up with cash. If you pay the deposit in cash and top up with a credit card, or vice versa, it can be more difficult (or impossible) to get your deposit back.
Transfers: You can change from one Tube line to another on the same Oyster journey (as long as you don’t leave the station); however, if you change between buses, or change between bus and Tube, you’ll pay a new fare.
Like the Oyster card, Travelcards are valid on the Tube, buses, Docklands Light Railway (DLR), and Overground. The difference is that Travelcards let you ride as many times as you want within a one- or a seven-day period, for one fixed price.
Before you buy a card, estimate where you’ll be going; there’s a card for Zones 1 and 2, and another for Zones 1-6 (which includes Heathrow Airport). If Heathrow is the only ride you’re taking outside Zones 1-2 (which is likely), you can pay a small supplement to make the Zones 1-2 Travelcard stretch to cover that one ride.
The One-Day Travelcard gives you unlimited travel for a day (Zones 1-2: £8.80, off-peak version £7.30; Zones 1-6: £16.40, off-peak version £8.90; off-peak cards are good for travel after 9:30 on weekdays and anytime on weekends). This Travelcard works like a traditional paper ticket: Buy it at any Tube station ticket window or machine, then feed it into a turnstile (and retrieve it) to enter and exit the Tube. On a bus, just show it to the driver when you get on.
The Seven-Day Travelcard is a great option if you’re staying four or more days and plan to use buses and the Tube a lot. It’s issued as credit on your plastic Oyster card, and gives you unlimited travel anytime, anywhere in Zones 1 and 2 for a week (£30.40 plus the refundable £5 deposit for the Oyster card). As with a standard Oyster card, you’ll touch it to the yellow card reader when entering or exiting a Tube turnstile, or when boarding a bus. It’s smart to keep an extra £5-6 worth of credit on your Oyster card on top of the Travelcard to cover travel outside zones 1-2 or after your Travelcard runs out.
Struggling to choose which pass works best for your trip? First of all, skip the individual tickets. On a short visit (three days or fewer), if you think you’ll be zipping around a lot, consider a One-Day Travelcard for each day you’re here (or at least for your busiest days); if you’ll be taking fewer rides, get an Oyster card and pay as you go. If you’re in London four days or longer, the Seven-Day Travelcard will likely pay for itself.
London’s subway system is called the Tube or Underground (but never “subway,” which, in Britain, refers to a pedestrian underpass). The Tube is one of this planet’s great people-movers and usually the fastest long-distance transport in town (runs Mon-Sat about 5:00-24:00, Sun about 7:00-23:00). Two other commuter rail lines, while technically not part of the Tube, are tied into the network and use the same tickets: the Docklands Light Railway (called DLR, runs to the Docklands, Greenwich, and Olympic Park) and the Overground.
Get your bearings by studying a map of the system (free at any station).
Each line has a name (such as Circle, Northern, or Bakerloo) and two directions (indicated by the end-of-the-line stops). Find the line that will take you to your destination, and figure out roughly which direction (north, south, east, or west) you’ll need to go to get there.
You can use an Oyster card, Travelcard, or individual tickets (all explained earlier) to pay for your journey. At the Tube station, touch your Oyster card flat against the turnstile’s yellow card reader, both when you enter and exit the station. If you have a regular paper ticket or a One-Day Travelcard, feed it into the turnstile, reclaim it, and hang on to it—you’ll need it later.
Find your train by following signs to your line and the (general) direction it’s headed (such as Central Line: east). Since some tracks are shared by several lines, double-check before boarding a train: First, make sure your destination is one of the stops listed on the sign at the platform. Also, check the electronic signboards that announce which train is next, and make sure the destination (the end-of-the-line stop) is the direction you want. Some trains, particularly on the Circle and District lines, split off for other directions, but each train has its final destination marked above its windshield.
Trains run about every 3-10 minutes. For a rough idea of how long it takes to get from point A to point B by Tube, estimate five minutes per stop (which includes time to walk into and out of stations, and to change trains). So a destination six stops away will take you about 30 minutes.
If one train is absolutely packed and another to the same destination is coming in three minutes, wait to avoid the sardine routine. Rush hours (8:00-10:00 and 16:00-19:00) can be packed and sweaty. Bring something to do to make your waiting time productive. If you get confused, ask for advice from a local, a blue-vested staff person, or at the information window located before the turnstile entry.
At most stations, you can’t leave the system without touching your Oyster card to an electronic reader, or feeding your ticket or One-Day Travelcard into the turnstile. (If you have a single-trip paper ticket, the turnstile will eat your now-expired ticket; if it’s a One-Day Travelcard, it will spit out your still-valid card.) Some stations, such as Hampton Court, do not have a turnstile, so you’ll have to locate a reader to “touch out” your Oyster card. If you skip this step and leave the station, the system assumes you’ve ridden to the most remote station, and highest fare will be deducted from your card. When leaving a station, save walking time by choosing the best street exit—check the maps on the walls or ask any station personnel.
The system can be fraught with construction delays and breakdowns (the Circle Line is notorious for problems). Most construction is scheduled for weekends. Closures are publicized in advance (online at tfl.gov.uk and with posters in the Tube; Google Maps also has real-time service alerts for the Tube, and TFL does a fine job of tweeting updates). Pay attention to signs and announcements explaining necessary detours. Closed Tube lines are often replaced by temporary bus service, but it can be faster to figure out alternate routes on the Tube; since the lines cross each other constantly, there are several ways to make any journey. For help, check out the “Journey Planner” at tfl.gov.uk, which is accessible (for free) on any mobile device within most Tube stations.
If you figure out the bus system, you’ll swing like Tarzan through the urban jungle of London. Pick up a free bus map; the most user-friendly is in the Welcome to London brochure (mentioned earlier). You can also find thicker, more in-depth maps of various sectors of the city (most useful is the Central London Bus Guide). Bus maps are available at Transport for London offices, the City of London TI, and other tourist spots around town. The map in this chapter highlights some of the handiest bus routes. With a mobile phone, you can find out the arrival time of the next bus by texting your bus stop’s five-digit code (posted at the stop, above the timetable) to 87287 (if you’re using your US phone’s SIM card, text the code to 011-44-7797-800-287).
Buses are covered by Travelcards and Oyster cards. You can also buy individual tickets from a machine at bus stops (no change given), but you can’t buy tickets on board. Any bus ride in downtown London costs £2.40 for those paying cash, or £1.40 if using an Oyster card (with a cap of £4.40 per day).
The first step in mastering London’s bus system is learning how to decipher the bus stop signs. In the first column, find your destination on the list—e.g., Paddington. In the next column, find a bus that goes there—the #23. The final column has a letter within a circle (e.g., “H”) that tells you exactly which bus stop you need to stand at to catch your bus. (You’ll find the same letter marked on a neighborhood map nearby.) Make your way to that stop—you’ll know it’s yours because it will have the same letter on its pole—and wait for the bus with your number on it to arrive. Hop on, and you’re good to go.
As you board, touch your Oyster card to the card reader, or, if you have a paper ticket or a One-Day Travelcard, show it to the driver. On “Heritage Routes” #9 and #15 (some of which use older double-decker buses), you may still pay a conductor; take a seat, and he or she will come around to collect your fare or verify your pass. There’s no need to tap your card or show your ticket when you hop off.
If you have an Oyster card or Travelcard, save your feet and get in the habit of hopping buses for quick little straight shots, even just to get to a Tube stop. During bump-and-grind rush hours (8:00-10:00 and 16:00-19:00), you’ll usually go faster by Tube.
London is the best taxi town in Europe. Big, black, carefully regulated cabs are everywhere. (While historically known as “black cabs,” some of London’s official taxis are covered with wildly colored ads.) Some cabs now run on biofuels—a good way to dispose of all that oil used to fry fish-and-chips.
I’ve never met a crabby cabbie in London. They love to talk, and they know every nook and cranny in town. I ride in a taxi each day just to get my London questions answered (drivers must pass a rigorous test on “The Knowledge” of London geography to earn their license).
If a cab’s top light is on, just wave it down. Drivers flash lights when they see you wave. They have a tight turning radius (on new cabs, the back tires actually pivot), so you can hail cabs going in either direction. If waving doesn’t work, ask someone where you can find a taxi stand. Telephoning a cab will get you one in a few minutes, but costs a little more (tel. 0871-871-8710; £2 surcharge, plus extra fee to book ahead by credit card).
Rides start at £2.40. The regular tariff #1 covers most of the day (Mon-Fri 6:00-20:00), tariff #2 is during “unsociable hours” (Mon-Fri 20:00-22:00 and Sat-Sun 6:00-22:00), and tariff #3 is for nighttime (22:00-6:00) and holidays. Rates go up about 15-20 percent with each higher tariff. All extra charges are explained in writing on the cab wall. Tip a cabbie by rounding up (maximum 10 percent).
Connecting downtown sights is quick and easy, and will cost you about £6-10 (for example, St. Paul’s to the Tower of London, or between the two Tate museums). For a short ride, three adults in a cab generally travel at close to Tube prices—and groups of four or five adults should taxi everywhere. All cabs can carry five passengers, and some take six, for the same cost as a single traveler.
Don’t worry about meter cheating. Licensed British cab meters come with a sealed computer chip and clock that ensures you’ll get the correct tariff. The only way a cabbie can cheat you is by taking a needlessly long route. One serious pitfall, however, is taking a cab when traffic is bad to a destination efficiently served by the Tube. On one trip to London, I hopped in a taxi at South Kensington for Waterloo Station and hit bad traffic. Rather than spending 20 minutes and £2 on the Tube, I spent 40 minutes and £16 in a taxi.
If you overdrink and ride in a taxi, be warned: Taxis charge £40 for “soiling” (a.k.a., pub puke).
If you forget this book in a taxi, call the Lost Property office and hope for the best (tel. 0845-330-9882).
To sightsee on your own, download my series of free audio tours that illuminate some of London’s top sights and neighborhoods: the British Museum, the British Library, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and my walks around Westminster and The City (see sidebar on here for details).
Two competitive companies (Original and Big Bus) offer essentially the same two tours of the city’s sightseeing highlights, with nearly 30 stops on each route. Big Bus tours are a little more expensive (£30), while Original tours are cheaper (ask for discount with this book) and nearly as good.
These two-to-three hour, once-over-lightly bus tours drive by all the famous sights, providing a stress-free way to get your bearings and see the biggies. They stop at the same core group of sights regardless of which overview tour you’re on: Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, St. Paul’s, the Tower of London, Marble Arch, Victoria Station, and elsewhere. With a good guide and nice weather, I’d sit back and enjoy the entire tour. (If you don’t like your guide, you can hop off and try your luck with the next departure.)
Each company offers at least one route with live (English-only) guides, and a second (sometimes slightly different route) comes with recorded, dial-a-language narration. In addition to the overview tours, both Original and Big Bus include the Thames River boat trip by City Cruises (between Westminster and the Tower of London) and three 1.5-hour walking tours.
Pick up a map from any flier rack or from one of the countless salespeople, and study the complex system. Sunday morning—when the traffic is light and many museums are closed—is a fine time for a tour. Unless you’re using the bus tour mainly for hop-on, hop-off transportation, consider saving time and money by taking a night tour (described later).
Buses run about every 10-15 minutes in summer, every 10-20 minutes in winter, and operate daily. They start at about 8:30 and run until early evening in summer or late afternoon in winter. The last full loop usually leaves Victoria Station at about 19:00 in summer, and at about 17:00 in winter (confirm by checking the schedule or asking the driver).
You can buy tickets from drivers or from staff at street kiosks (credit cards accepted at kiosks at major stops such as Victoria Station, ticket good for 24 hours).
They offer two versions of their basic highlights loop: The Original Tour (live guide, marked with a yellow triangle on the front of the bus) and the City Sightseeing Tour (essentially the same route but with recorded narration, a kids’ soundtrack option, and a stop at Madame Tussauds; bus marked with a red triangle). Other routes include the blue-triangle Museum Tour (connecting far-flung museums and major shopping stops), and green, black, and purple triangle routes (linking major train stations to the central route). All routes are covered by the same ticket. Keep it simple and just take one of the city highlights tours (£29, ask for discount with this book, limit four discounts per book, they’ll rip off the corner of this page—raise bloody hell if the staff or driver won’t honor this discount; also online deals, info center at 17 Cockspur Street, tel. 020/8877-1722, theoriginaltour.com).
For £30 (up to 30 percent discount online—requires printer), you get the same basic overview tours: Red buses come with a live guide, while the blue route has a recorded narration and a one-hour longer path that goes around Hyde Park. These pricier Big Bus tours tend to have better, more dynamic guides than the Original tours, and more departures—meaning shorter waits for those hopping on and off (daily 8:30-18:00, winter until 16:30, info center at 48 Buckingham Palace Road, tel. 020/7233-9533, bigbustours.com).
This tour offers a 1.5-hour circuit, but after hours, with no extras (e.g., walks, river cruises), and at a lower price. While the narration can be pretty lame, the views at twilight are grand—though note that it stays light until late on summer nights, and London just doesn’t do floodlighting as well as, say, Paris (£19, £15 online). From June through late September, open-top buses depart at 19:00, 20:00, 20:45, 21:30, 22:10, and 22:55 from Victoria Station (Jan-May and late Sept-late Dec departs at 19:00, 20:45, and 22:10 only with closed-top bus, no tours between Christmas and New Year). Buses leave from near Victoria Station (in front of Grosvenor Hotel on Buckingham Palace Road; or you can board at any stop, such as Marble Arch, Trafalgar Square, London Eye, or Tower of London; tel. 020/8545-6110, london-by-night.net). For a memorable and economical evening, munch a scenic picnic dinner on the top deck. (There are plenty of takeaway options within the train stations and near the various stops.)
Several times a day, top-notch local guides lead (sometimes big) groups through specific slices of London’s past. Look for brochures at TIs or ask at hotels, although the latter usually push higher-priced bus tours. Time Out, the weekly entertainment guide, lists some, but not all, scheduled walks. Check with the various tour companies by phone or online to get their full picture.
To take a walking tour, simply show up at the announced location and pay the guide. Then enjoy two chatty hours of Dickens, Harry Potter, the Plague, Shakespeare, Legal London, the Beatles, Jack the Ripper, or whatever is on the agenda.
This leading company lists its extensive and creative daily schedule on their amusing website, as well as in a beefy, plain London Walks brochure (available at St. Martin-in-the-Fields’ Café in the Crypt on Trafalgar Square and at the City of London TI). Just perusing their fascinating lineup of tours inspires me to stay longer in London. Their two-hour walks, led by top-quality professional guides (ranging from archaeologists to actors), cost £9 (cash only, walks offered year-round, private tours for groups-£130, tel. 020/7624-3978 for a live person, tel. 020/7624-9255 for a recording of today’s or tomorrow’s walks and the Tube station they depart from, walks.com).
London Walks also offers day trips into the countryside, a good option for those with limited time and transportation (£12-16 plus £10-50 for transportation and any admission costs, cash only: Stonehenge/Salisbury, Oxford/Cotswolds, Cambridge, Bath, and so on). These are economical in part because everyone gets group discounts for transportation and admissions.
This company employs students (rather than licensed guides) who recite three-hour spiels covering the basic London sights. While the fast-moving, youthful tours are light and irreverent, and can be both entertaining and fun, it’s misleading to call the tours “free,” as tips are expected (the guides actually pay the company for the privilege of asking for tips). Given that London Walks offers daily tours at a reasonable price, taking this “free” tour makes no sense to me (daily at 11:00 and 13:00, meet at Wellington Arch, Tube: Hyde Park Corner, Exit 2). Sandemans also has other guided tours for a charge, including a Pub Crawl (£20, nightly at 19:30, meet at Verve Bar at 1 Upper St. Martin’s Lane, Tube: Leicester Square, newlondon-tours.com).
Fans of the still-Fab Four can take one of three Beatles walks (London Walks has two that run 5 days/week; Big Bus includes a daily walk with their bus tour; both listed earlier).
Each walking tour company seems to make most of its money with “haunted” and Jack the Ripper tours. Many guides are historians and would rather not lead these lightweight tours—but, in tourism as in journalism, “if it bleeds, it leads” (which is why the juvenile London Dungeon is one of the city’s busiest sights).
Two reliably good two-hour tours start every night at the Tower Hill Tube station exit. London Walks’ leave nightly at 19:30 (£9, pay at the start, tel. 020/7624-3978, recorded info tel. 020/7624-9255, jacktheripperwalk.com). Ripping Yarns’, which leave earlier, are guided by off-duty Yeoman Warders—the Tower of London “Beefeaters” (£7, pay at end, nightly at 18:45, no tours between Christmas and New Year, mobile 07813-559-301, jack-the-ripper-tours.com). After taking both, I found the London Walks tour more entertaining, informative, and with a better route (along quieter, once-hooker-friendly lanes, with less traffic), starting at Tower Hill and ending at Liverpool Street Station rather than returning to Tower Hill. Groups can be huge for both, but there’s always room—just show up.
Standard rates for London’s registered Blue Badge guides are about £150-165 for four hours and £250 or more for nine hours (tel. 020/7611-2545, guidelondon.org.uk or britainsbestguides.org). I know and like four fine local guides: Sean Kelleher (tel. 020/8673-1624, mobile 07764-612-770, seankelleher@btinternet.com), Britt Lonsdale (£230/half-day, £330/day, great with families, generous with pre-trip advice, tel. 020/7386-9907, mobile 07813-278-077, brittl@btinternet.com), and two others who work in London when they’re not on the road leading my Britain tours, Tom Hooper (mobile 07986-048-047, tomh@ricksteves.net) and Gillian Chadwick (mobile 07889-976-598, gillychad@hotmail.co.uk).
These two guides have cars or a minibus (particularly helpful for travelers with limited mobility): Robina Brown (£330/half-day, £475/day, £660 outside London, £40 more for groups of 4-6 people, also does overnight tours farther afield, tel. 020/7228-2238, driverguidetours.com, robina@driverguidetours.com) and Janine Barton (£350/half-day, £470/day within London, £550 outside London, tel. 020/7402-4600, seeitinstyle.synthasite.com, jbsiis@aol.com).
A bright-yellow amphibious WWII-vintage vehicle (the model that landed troops on Normandy’s beaches on D-Day) takes a gang of 30 tourists past some famous sights on land—Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus—then splashes into the Thames for a cruise. All in all, it’s good fun at a rather steep price. The live guide works hard, and it’s kid-friendly to the point of goofiness. Beware: These book up in advance (£21, April-Sept daily, first tour 9:30 or 10:00, last tour usually 18:00, shorter hours Oct-March, 1-4/hour, 1.25 hours—45 minutes on land and 30 minutes in the river, £3 booking fee by phone or online, departs from Chicheley Street—you’ll see the big, ugly vehicle parked 100 yards behind the London Eye, Tube: Waterloo or Westminster, tel. 020/7928-3132, londonducktours.co.uk).
London, like Paris, is committed to creating more bike paths, and many of its best sights can be laced together with a pleasant pedal through its parks. A bike tour is a fun way to see the sights and enjoy the city on two wheels.
Three tours covering London are offered daily from their base at Gabriel’s Wharf on the South Bank of the Thames. Sunday is the best, as there is less car traffic (Central Tour—£19, daily at 10:30, 6 miles, 2.5 hours, includes Westminster, Covent Garden, and St. Paul’s; West End Tour—£19, April-Oct daily at 14:30, Nov-March daily at 12:00 as long as at least 4 people show up, 7 miles, 2.5 hours, includes Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Soho, and Covent Garden; East Tour—£22, April-Oct Sat-Sun at 14:00, Nov-March only on Sat at 12:00, 9 miles, 3.5 hours, includes south side of the river to Tower Bridge, then The City to the East End; book ahead for off-season tours). They also rent bikes (£3.50/hour, £20/day; office open daily April-Oct 9:30-18:00, Nov-March 10:00-16:00, west of Blackfriars Bridge on the South Bank, 1a Gabriel’s Wharf, tel. 020/3318-3088, londonbicycle.com).
Daily bike tours cover the highlights of downtown London, on two different itineraries (£2 discount with this book): Royal London (£20, daily March-Nov at 11:00, mid-May-mid-Sept also at 15:30, 7 miles, 4 hours, meet at Queensway Tube station; includes Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, and Trafalgar Square) and River Thames (£28, March-Nov Thu-Sat at 10:30, nearly daily in summer, 4.5 hours, meet just outside Southwark Tube Station; includes London Eye, St. Paul’s, Tower of London, and London Bridge). The guiding style wears its learning lightly, mixing history with humor. Reservations are easy online, and required for River Thames tours and kids’ bikes (off-season tours can be arranged, mobile 078-8233-8779, www.fattirebiketourslondon.com). Confirm the schedule online or or by phone. They also offer a range of walking tours (details online or by phone).
Andy Steves (my son) runs Weekend Student Adventures, offering active and experiential three-day weekend tours from €199, designed for American students studying abroad (see wsaeurope.com for details on tours of London and other great European cities).
London offers many made-for-tourist cruises, most on slow-moving, open-top boats accompanied by entertaining commentary about passing sights. Several companies offer essentially the same trip. Generally speaking, you can either do a short city-center cruise by riding a boat 30 minutes from Westminster Pier to Tower Pier (particularly handy if you’re interested in visiting the Tower of London anyway), or take a longer cruise that includes a peek at the East End, riding from Westminster all the way to Greenwich (save time by taking the Tube back).
Each company runs cruises daily, about twice hourly, from morning until dark; many reduce frequency off-season. Boats come and go from various docks in the city center. The most popular places to embark are Westminster Pier (at the base of Westminster Bridge across the street from Big Ben) and Waterloo Pier (at the London Eye, across the river).
A one-way trip within the city center costs about £10; going all the way to Greenwich costs about £2 more. Most companies charge around £3 more for a round-trip ticket, and others sell hop-on, hop-off day tickets (around £19). But I’d rather just savor one cruise, then zip home by Tube—making these return tickets not usually worthwhile.
You can buy tickets at kiosks on the docks. A Travelcard can snare you a 33 percent discount on most cruises (just show the card when you pay for the cruise); the pay-as-you-go Oyster card only nets you a discount on Thames Clippers. Because companies vary in the discounts they offer, always ask. Children and seniors generally get discounts. You can purchase drinks and scant, overpriced snacks on board. Clever budget travelers pack a picnic and munch while they cruise.
The three dominant companies are City Cruises (handy 30-minute cruise from Westminster Pier to Tower Pier; citycruises.com), Thames River Services (fewer stops, classic boats, friendlier and more old-fashioned feel; thamesriverservices.co.uk), and Circular Cruise (full cruise takes about an hour, operated by Crown River Services, crownriver.com). I’d skip the London Eye’s River Cruise from Waterloo Pier—it’s about the same price as Circular Cruise, but 20 minutes shorter. The speedy Thames Clippers (described later) are designed more for no-nonsense transport than lazy sightseeing.
For details—including prices, schedules, and exactly which piers each company uses—check their websites or look for ticket kiosks at the docks. If you’d like to compare all of your options in one spot, head to Westminster Pier, which has a row of kiosks for all of the big outfits.
Cruising Upstream, to Kew Gardens: Boats operated by the Westminster Passenger Services Association leave for Kew Gardens from Westminster Pier (£12 one-way, £18 round-trip, cash only, 2-4/day, 1.5 hours, about half the trip is narrated, wpsa.co.uk). Romantic as these rides sound, it can be a long trip.
Thames Clippers, which uses fast, sleek, 220-seat catamarans, is designed for commuters rather than sightseers. Think of the boats as express buses on the river—they zip through London every 20-30 minutes, stopping at most of the major docks en route (including Canary Wharf/Docklands and Greenwich). They’re fast: roughly 20 minutes from Embankment to Tower, 10 more minutes to Docklands, and 10 more minutes to Greenwich. However, the boats are less pleasant for joyriding than the cruises described earlier, with no commentary and no open deck up top (the only outside access is on a crowded deck at the exhaust-choked back of the boat, where you’re jostling for space to take photos). Any one-way ride costs £6.50, and a River Roamer all-day ticket costs £15 (discounts with Travelcard and Oyster card, thamesclippers.com).
Thames Clippers also offers two express trips. The Tate Boat ferry service, which directly connects the Tate Britain (Millbank Pier) and the Tate Modern (Bankside Pier), is made for art lovers (£5.50 one-way, covered by River Roamer day ticket; buy ticket at gallery desk or on board; for frequency and times, see the Tate Britain and Tate Modern listings, later, or tate.org.uk/visit/tate-boat). The O2 Express runs only on nights when there are events at the O2 arena (departs from Waterloo Pier).
Just about every visitor to London strolls along historic Whitehall from Big Ben to Trafalgar Square. This walk gives meaning to that touristy ramble (most of the sights you’ll see are described in more detail later). Under London’s modern traffic and big-city bustle lie 2,000 fascinating years of history. You’ll get a whirlwind tour as well as a practical orientation to London. (You can download a free, extended Rick Steves audio version of this walk to your mobile device; see here.)
Start halfway across 
Westminster Bridge for that “Wow, I’m really in London!” feeling. Get a close-up view of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben (floodlit at night). Downstream you’ll see the London Eye. Down the stairs to Westminster Pier are boats to the Tower of London and Greenwich (downstream) or Kew Gardens (upstream).
En route to Parliament Square, you’ll pass a 
statue of Boadicea, the Celtic queen defeated by Roman invaders in A.D. 60.
For fun, call home from near Big Ben at about three minutes before the hour to let your loved one hear the bell ring. You’ll find four red phone booths lining the north side of 
Parliament Square along Great George Street—also great for a phone-box-and-Big-Ben photo op.
Wave hello to Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square. To Churchill’s right is Westminster Abbey, with its two stubby, elegant towers. The white building (flying the Union Jack) at the far end of the square houses Britain’s Supreme Court.
Head north up Parliament Street, which turns into 
Whitehall, and walk toward Trafalgar Square. You’ll see the thought-provoking 
Cenotaph in the middle of the boulevard, reminding passersby of the many Brits who died in the last century’s world wars. To visit the Churchill War Rooms, take a left before the Cenotaph, on King Charles Street.
Continuing on Whitehall, stop at the barricaded and guarded 
#10 Downing Street to see the British “White House,” home of the prime minister. Break the bobby’s boredom and ask him a question. The huge building across Whitehall from Downing Street is the Ministry of Defence (MOD), the “British Pentagon.”
Nearing Trafalgar Square, look for the 17th-century 
Banqueting House across the street and the 
Horse Guards behind the gated fence.
The column topped by Lord Nelson marks 
Trafalgar Square. The stately domed building on the far side of the square is the National Gallery, which has a classy café in the Sainsbury wing. To the right of the National Gallery is St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church and its Café in the Crypt.
To get to Piccadilly from Trafalgar Square, walk up Cockspur Street to Haymarket, then take a short left on Coventry Street to colorful Piccadilly Circus (see map on here).
Near Piccadilly, you’ll find a number of theaters. Leicester Square (with its half-price TKTS booth for plays—see here) thrives just a few blocks away. Walk through seedy Soho (north of Shaftesbury Avenue) for its fun pubs. From Piccadilly or Oxford Circus, you can take a taxi, bus, or the Tube home.
▲▲Houses of Parliament (Palace of Westminster)
Other Sights on Trafalgar Square
▲State Rooms at Buckingham Palace
Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace
▲▲Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace
These sights are listed roughly in geographical order from Westminster Abbey to Trafalgar Square, and are linked in my self-guided Westminster Walk.
The greatest church in the English-speaking world, Westminster Abbey is where the nation’s royalty has been wedded, crowned, and buried since 1066. Indeed, the histories of Westminster Abbey and England are almost the same. A thousand years of English history—3,000 tombs, the remains of 29 kings and queens, and hundreds of memorials to poets, politicians, scientists, and warriors—lie within its stained-glass splendor and under its stone slabs.
Cost and Hours: £18, £36 family ticket (covers 2 adults and 1 child), cash or credit cards accepted (line up in the correct queue to pay), ticket includes audioguide and entry to cloisters and Abbey Museum; abbey—Mon-Fri 9:30-16:30, Wed until 19:00 (main church only), Sat 9:30-14:30, last entry one hour before closing, closed Sun to sightseers but open for services; museum—daily 10:30-16:00; cloisters—daily 8:00-18:00; no photos, café in cellar, Tube: Westminster or St. James’s Park, tel. 020/7222-5152, westminster-abbey.org. It’s free to enter just the cloisters and Abbey Museum (through Dean’s Yard, around the right side as you face the main entrance), but if it’s too crowded inside, the marshal at the cloister entrance may not let you in.
When to Go: The place is most crowded every day at midmorning and all day Saturdays and Mondays. Visit early, during lunch, or late to avoid tourist hordes. Weekdays after 14:30 are less congested; come after that time and stay for the 17:00 evensong. The main entrance, on the Parliament Square side, often has a sizable line. Of the two queues (cash or credit) at the admissions desk, the cash line is probably moving faster.
Music and Services: Mon-Fri at 7:30 (prayer), 8:00 (communion), 12:30 (communion), 17:00 evensong (except on Wed, when the evening service is generally spoken—not sung); Sat at 8:00 (communion), 9:00 (prayer), 15:00 (evensong; May-Aug it’s at 17:00); Sun services generally come with more music: at 8:00 (communion), 10:00 (sung Matins), 11:15 (sung Eucharist), 15:00 (evensong), 18:30 (evening service). Services are free to anyone, though visitors who haven’t paid church admission aren’t allowed to linger afterward. Free organ recitals are usually held Sun at 17:45 (30 minutes). For a schedule of services or recitals on a particular day, look for posted signs with schedules or check the Abbey’s website.
Tours: Entertaining guided tours of the Abbey (£3, 1.5 hours, schedule posted outside and inside entry) are offered up to 5/day in summer, 4/day in winter.
Self-Guided Tour: You’ll have no choice but to follow the steady flow of tourists through the church, following the route laid out for the audioguide. My tour covers the Abbey’s top stops.
• Walk straight in through the north transept. Follow the crowd flow to the right and enter the spacious...
Nave: Look down the long and narrow center aisle of the church. Lined with the praying hands of the Gothic arches, glowing with light from the stained glass, it’s clear that this is more than a museum. With saints in stained glass, heroes in carved stone, and the bodies of England’s greatest citizens under the floor stones, Westminster Abbey is the religious heart of England.
The king who built the Abbey was Edward the Confessor. Find him in the stained glass windows on the left side of the nave (as you face the altar). He’s in the third bay from the end (marked S: Edwardus rex...), with his crown, scepter, and ring.
On the floor near the west entrance of the Abbey is the flower-lined Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, one ordinary WWI soldier buried in soil from France with lettering made from melted-down weapons from that war. Contemplate the million-man army from the British Empire, and all those who gave their lives.
• Walk up the nave toward the altar. This is the same route every future monarch walks on the way to being crowned. Midway up the nave, you pass through the colorful screen of an enclosure known as...
The Choir: These elaborately carved-wood and gilded seats are where monks once chanted their services in the “quire”—as it’s known in British churchspeak. Today, it’s where the Abbey boys’ choir sings the evensong. The “high” (main) altar, which usually has a cross and candlesticks atop it, sits on the platform up the five stairs in front of you.
• It’s on this platform—up the five steps—that the monarch is crowned.
The Coronation Spot: The area immediately before the high altar is where every English coronation since 1066 has taken place. Royalty are also given funerals here. Princess Diana’s coffin was carried to this spot for her funeral service in 1997. The “Queen Mum” (mother of Elizabeth II) had her funeral here in 2002. This is also where most of the last century’s royal weddings have taken place, including the unions of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip (1947), Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson (1986), and Prince William and Kate Middleton (2011).
• Veer left and follow the crowd. Pause at the wooden staircase on your right.
Shrine of Edward the Confessor: Step back and peek over the dark coffin of Edward I to see the tippy-top of the green-and-gold wedding-cake tomb of King Edward the Confessor—the man who built Westminster Abbey. God had told pious Edward to visit St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. But with the Normans thinking conquest, it was too dangerous for him to leave England. Instead, he built this grand church and dedicated it to St. Peter. It was finished just in time to bury Edward and to crown his foreign successor, William the Conqueror, in 1066. After Edward’s death, people prayed at his tomb, and, after getting good results, Pope Alexander III canonized him.
• At the top of the stone staircase, veer left into the private burial chapel of Queen Elizabeth I.
Tomb of Queens Elizabeth I and Mary I: Although there’s only one effigy on the tomb (Elizabeth’s), there are actually two queens buried beneath it, both daughters of Henry VIII (by different mothers). Bloody Mary—meek, pious, sickly, and Catholic—enforced Catholicism during her short reign (1553-1558) by burning “heretics” at the stake.
Elizabeth—strong, clever, and Protestant—steered England on an Anglican course. She holds a royal orb symbolizing that she’s queen of the whole globe. When 26-year-old Elizabeth was crowned in the Abbey, her right to rule was questioned (especially by her Catholic subjects) because she was considered the bastard seed of Henry VIII’s unsanctioned marriage to Anne Boleyn. But Elizabeth’s long reign (1559-1603) was one of the greatest in English history, a time when England ruled the seas and Shakespeare explored human emotions. When she died, thousands turned out for her funeral in the Abbey. Elizabeth’s face on the tomb, modeled after her death mask, is considered a very accurate take on this hook-nosed, imperious “Virgin Queen.”
• Continue into the ornate, flag-draped room up a few more stairs, directly behind the main altar.
Chapel of King Henry VII (a.k.a. the Lady Chapel): The light from the stained-glass windows; the colorful banners overhead; and the elaborate tracery in stone, wood, and glass give this room the festive air of a medieval tournament. The prestigious Knights of the Bath meet here, under the magnificent ceiling studded with gold pendants. The ceiling—of carved stone, not plaster (1519)—is the finest English Perpendicular Gothic and fan vaulting you’ll see (unless you’re going to King’s College Chapel in Cambridge).
• Go to the far end of the chapel and stand at the banister in front of the modern set of stained-glass windows.
Royal Air Force Chapel: Saints in robes and halos mingle with pilots in parachutes and bomber jackets. This tribute to WWII flyers is for those who earned their angel wings in the Battle of Britain (July-Oct 1940). A bit of bomb damage has been preserved—look for the little glassed-over hole in the wall below the windows in the lower left-hand corner.
• Exit the Chapel of Henry VII. Turn left into a side chapel with the tomb (the central one of three in the chapel).
Tomb of Mary, Queen of Scots: The beautiful, French-educated queen (1542-1587) was held under house arrest for 19 years by Queen Elizabeth I, who considered her a threat to her sovereignty. Elizabeth got wind of an assassination plot, suspected Mary was behind it, and had her first cousin (once removed) beheaded. When Elizabeth—who was called the “Virgin Queen”—died heirless, Mary’s son, James VI, King of Scots, also became King James I of England and Ireland. James buried his mum here (with her head sewn back on) in the Abbey’s most sumptuous tomb.
• Exit Mary’s chapel. Continue on, until you emerge in the south transept. You’re in...
Poets’ Corner: England’s greatest artistic contributions are in the written word. Here the masters of arguably the world’s most complex and expressive language are remembered: Geoffrey Chaucer (Canterbury Tales), Lord Byron, Dylan Thomas, W. H. Auden, Lewis Carroll (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), T. S. Eliot (The Waste Land), Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, and Charles Dickens. Many writers are honored with plaques and monuments; relatively few are actually buried here. Shakespeare is commemorated by a fine statue that stands near the end of the transept, overlooking the others.
• Exit the church (temporarily) at the south door, which leads to the...
Cloisters and Abbey Museum: The cloistered courtyards that adjoin the church gave monks a place to meditate on God’s creations. The small Abbey Museum, formerly the monks’ lounge, is worth a peek for its fascinating and well-described exhibits.
• Go back into the church for the last stop.
Coronation Chair: A gold-painted oak chair waits here under a regal canopy for the next coronation. For every English coronation since 1308 (except two), it’s been moved to its spot before the high altar to receive the royal buttocks. The chair’s legs rest on lions, England’s symbol.
This Neo-Gothic icon of London, the royal residence from 1042 to 1547, is now the meeting place of the legislative branch of government. Like the US Capitol in Washington, DC, the complex is open to visitors. You can view parliamentary sessions in either the bickering House of Commons or the sleepy House of Lords. Or you can simply wander on your own (through a few closely monitored rooms) to appreciate the historic building itself.
The Palace of Westminster has been the center of political power in England for nearly a thousand years. In 1834, a horrendous fire gutted the Palace. It was rebuilt in a retro style that recalled England’s medieval Christian roots—pointed arches, stained-glass windows, spires, and saint-like statues. At the same time, Britain was also retooling its government. Democracy was on the rise, the queen became a constitutional monarch, and Parliament emerged as the nation’s ruling body. The Palace of Westminster became a symbol—a kind of cathedral—of democracy. A visit here gives both UK residents and foreign tourists alike a chance to tour a piece of living history and see the British government in action.
Cost and Hours: Free, open to visitors whenever Parliament is in session—generally Oct-July, Mon-Thu. If you see a light on above Big Ben’s clock and a flag atop Victoria Tower (at the south end of the building), then Parliament is in session.
The House of Commons is usually in session Oct-July Mon 14:30-22:00, Tue-Wed 11:30-19:00, Thu 9:30-17:30; House of Lords is typically in session Oct-July Mon-Tue 14:30-22:00, Wed 15:00-22:00, Thu 11:00-19:00; last entry usually around 20:00, both houses closed Fri-Sun except for Sat tours. During the Aug-Sept recess, the only way to visit is on a guided tour (see below). Tube: Westminster, tel. 020/7219-4272 or 020/7219-3107, see parliament.uk for schedule, or visit parliamentlive.tv for a preview.
Dealing with Lines: Expect lines—it may take a while to get through security, plus another 20-60 minutes once inside to be admitted to the house chambers. Lines are longest at the start of each day’s session (when the most fiery debate often occurs), and especially bad on Wednesdays, when the prime minister normally attends. The later in the day you enter, the less crowded (and less exciting) it is. Visiting after 18:00 is risky, as sessions tend to end well before their official closing time, and visitors aren’t allowed in after the politicians call it a day.
If you only visit one of the bicameral legislative bodies, I’d choose the House of Lords. Though less important politically, the lords meet in a more ornate room, and the waiting time is shorter (likely less than 30 minutes). The House of Commons is where major policy is made, but the room itself is sparse, and waiting times are longer (30-60 minutes or more). If you just want to see the grand halls of this majestic building (without visiting either of the legislative chambers), you won’t have any waiting once you’re through security.
Tours: When Parliament is in recess during much of August and September, you can get a behind-the-scenes peek at the royal chambers of both houses by taking a tour (£15, 1.25 hours, generally Mon-Sat, times vary, so confirm in advance; book ahead by calling 0844-847-1672 or through ticketmaster.co.uk). The same tours are offered Saturdays year-round 9:15-16:30.
Nearby: Across the street from the Parliament building’s St. Stephen’s Gate, the Jewel Tower is a rare remnant of the old Palace of Westminster, used by kings until Henry VIII. The crude stone tower (1365-1366) was a guard tower in the palace wall, overlooking a moat. It contains a fine little exhibit on Parliament and the tower (£4, April-Oct daily 10:00-17:00; Nov-March Sat-Sun 10:00-16:00, closed Mon-Fri; tel. 020/7222-2219). Next to the tower (and free) is a quiet courtyard with picnic-friendly benches.
Big Ben, the 315-foot-high clock tower at the north end of the Palace of Westminster, is named for its 13-ton bell, Ben. The light above the clock is lit when Parliament is in session. The face of the clock is huge—you can actually see the minute hand moving. For a good view of it, walk halfway over Westminster Bridge.
This excellent sight offers a fascinating walk through the underground headquarters of the British government’s fight against the Nazis in the darkest days of the Battle for Britain. It has two parts: the war rooms themselves, and a top-notch museum dedicated to the man who steered the war from here, Winston Churchill. For details on all the blood, sweat, toil, and tears, pick up the excellent, essential, and included audioguide at the entry, and dive in. Allow yourself 1-2 hours for this sight.
Cost and Hours: £17.50 (includes 10 percent optional donation), £5 guidebook, daily 9:30-18:00, last entry one hour before closing; on King Charles Street, 200 yards off Whitehall, follow the signs, Tube: Westminster, tel. 020/7930-6961, iwm.org.uk/churchill. The museum’s gift shop is great for anyone nostalgic for the 1940s.
Cabinet War Rooms: The 27-room, heavily fortified nerve center of the British war effort was used from 1939 to 1945. Churchill’s room, the map room, and other rooms are just as they were in 1945. As you follow the one-way route, be sure to take advantage of the audioguide, which explains each room and offers first-person accounts of wartime happenings here (it takes about 45 minutes, not counting the Churchill Museum). Be patient—it’s well worth it. While the rooms are spartan, you’ll see how British gentility survived even as the city was bombarded—posted signs informed those working underground what the weather was like outside, and a cheery notice reminded them to turn off the light switch to conserve electricity.
Churchill Museum: Don’t bypass this museum, which occupies a large hall amid the war rooms. It dissects every aspect of the man behind the famous cigar, bowler hat, and V-for-victory sign. It’s extremely well-presented and engaging, using artifacts, quotes, political cartoons, clear explanations, and high-tech interactive exhibits to bring the colorful statesman to life; this museum alone deserves an hour. You’ll get a taste of Winston’s wit, irascibility, work ethic, passion for painting, American ties, writing talents, and drinking habits. The exhibit shows Winston’s warts as well: It questions whether his party-switching was just political opportunism, examines the basis for his opposition to Indian self-rule, and reveals him to be an intense taskmaster who worked 18-hour days and was brutal to his staffers (who deeply respected him nevertheless).
A long touch-the-screen timeline lets you zero in on events in his life from birth (November 30, 1874) to his first appointment as prime minister in 1940. Many of the items on display—such as a European map divvied up in permanent marker, which Churchill brought to England from the postwar Potsdam Conference—drive home the remarkable span of history this man lived through. Imagine: Churchill began his military career riding horses in the cavalry and ended it speaking out against the proliferation of nuclear armaments. It’s all the more amazing considering that, in the 1930s, the man who would become my vote for greatest statesman of the 20th century was considered a washed-up loony ranting about the growing threat of fascism.
Eating: Get your rations at the Switch Room café (in the museum), or for a nearby pub lunch, try Westminster Arms (food served downstairs, on Storey’s Gate, a couple of blocks south of the museum).
The Horse Guards change daily at 11:00 (10:00 on Sun), and a colorful dismounting ceremony takes place daily at 16:00. The rest of the day, they just stand there—terrible for video cameras (on Whitehall, between Trafalgar Square and #10 Downing Street, Tube: Westminster, changing-the-guard.com). Buckingham Palace pageantry is canceled when it rains, but the Horse Guards change regardless of the weather.
England’s first Renaissance building (1619-1622) is still standing. Designed by Inigo Jones, built by King James I, and decorated by his son Charles I, the Banqueting House came to symbolize the Stuart kings’ “divine right” management style—the belief that God himself had anointed them to rule. The house is one of the few London landmarks spared by the 1698 fire and the only surviving part of the original Palace of Whitehall. Today it opens its doors to visitors, who enjoy a restful 20-minute audiovisual history, a 30-minute audioguide, and a look at the exquisite banqueting hall itself. As a tourist attraction, it’s basically one big room, with sumptuous ceiling paintings by Peter Paul Rubens. At Charles I’s request, these paintings drove home the doctrine of the legitimacy of the divine right of kings. Ironically, in 1649—divine right ignored—King Charles I was famously executed right here.
Cost and Hours: £5 (includes 10 percent optional donation), includes audioguide, daily 10:00-17:00, last entry at 16:30, may close for government functions—though it promises to stay open at least until 13:00 (call ahead for recorded information about closures), aristocratic WC, immediately across Whitehall from the Horse Guards, Tube: Westminster, tel. 020/3166-6154, hrp.org.uk.
London’s central square—at the intersection of Westminster, The City, and the West End—is the climax of most marches and demonstrations, and a thrilling place to simply hang out. A recent remodeling of the square has rerouted car traffic, helping reclaim the area for London’s citizens. At the top of Trafalgar Square (north) sits the domed National Gallery with its grand staircase, and to the right, the steeple of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, built in 1722, inspiring the steeple-over-the-entrance style of many town churches in New England. The pedestal called the Fourth Plinth (see map) is often topped with a temporary work of art. In the center of the square, Lord Horatio Nelson stands atop his 185-foot-tall fluted granite column, gazing out toward Trafalgar, where he lost his life but defeated the French fleet. Part of this 1842 memorial is made from his victims’ melted-down cannons. He’s surrounded by spraying fountains, giant lions, hordes of people, and—until recently—even more pigeons. A former London mayor decided that London’s “flying rats” were a public nuisance and evicted Trafalgar Square’s venerable seed salesmen (Tube: Charing Cross).
Displaying Britain’s top collection of European paintings from 1250 to 1900—including works by Leonardo, Botticelli, Velázquez, Rembrandt, Turner, Van Gogh, and the Impressionists—this is one of Europe’s great galleries. You’ll peruse 700 years of art—from gold-backed Madonnas to Cubist bathers.
Cost and Hours: Free, but suggested donation of £4, temporary (optional) exhibits extra, daily 10:00-18:00, Fri until 21:00, last entry to special exhibits 45 minutes before closing, no photos, on Trafalgar Square, Tube: Charing Cross or Leicester Square.
Information: Helpful £1 floor plan available from information desk; free one-hour overview tours leave from Sainsbury Wing info desk daily at 11:30 and 14:30, plus Fri at 19:00; excellent £3.50 audioguides—choose from one-hour highlights tour, several theme tours, or tour option that lets you dial up info on any painting in the museum; ArtStart computer terminals help you study any artist, style, or topic in the museum, and print out a tailor-made tour map (located in the comfy Espresso Bar on the ground floor of the main building; a few more non-printing terminals are inside the entrance to the Sainsbury Wing); info tel. 020/7747-2885, switchboard tel. 020/7839-3321, nationalgallery.org.uk.
Eating: Consider splitting afternoon tea at the excellent-but-pricey National Dining Rooms, on the first floor of the Sainsbury Wing. The National Café, located near the Getty Entrance, also has afternoon tea.
Visiting the Museum: Pick up the handy map and approach the collection chronologically. In the medieval and early Renaissance rooms you’ll see shiny paintings of saints, angels, Madonnas, and crucifixions floating in an ethereal gold never-never land. Then comes the Renaissance, where artists rediscovered the beauty of nature and the human body, expressing the optimism and confidence of this new age. Look for Botticelli’s Venus and Mars, Michelangelo’s The Entombment, Raphael’s Pope Julius II, and Leonardo’s The Virgin of the Rocks. In The Origin of the Milky Way by Venetian Renaissance painter Tintoretto, the god Jupiter places his illegitimate son, baby Hercules, at his wife’s breast. Juno says, “Wait a minute. That’s not my baby!” Her milk spurts upward, becoming the Milky Way.
Next seek out Northern Protestant art. Greek gods and Virgin Marys were out, and hometown folks and places were in. Highlights include Vermeer’s A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal and Rembrandt’s Belshazzar’s Feast. The museum’s outstanding Baroque collection includes Van Dyck’s Equestrian Portrait of Charles I, Velázquez’s The Rokeby Venus, and Caravaggio’s The Supper at Emmaus.
It’s no surprise that hometown painters get lots of space here. The reserved British were more comfortable cavorting with nature than with the lofty gods, as seen in Constable’s The Hay Wain and Turner’s The Fighting Téméraire.
Then, at the end of the 19th century, a new breed of artists burst out of the stuffy confines of the studio. They donned scarves and berets and set up their canvases in farmers’ fields or carried their notebooks into crowded cafés, dashing off quick sketches in order to catch a momentary...impression. Check out Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces such as Monet’s Gare St. Lazare and The Water-Lily Pond, Renoir’s The Skiff, Seurat’s Bathers at Asnières, and Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.
Put off by halls of 19th-century characters who meant nothing to me, I used to call this “as interesting as someone else’s yearbook.” But a selective walk through this 500-year-long Who’s Who of British history is quick and free, and puts faces on the story of England.
Some highlights: Henry VIII and wives; portraits of the “Virgin Queen” Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir Walter Raleigh; the only real-life portrait of William Shakespeare; Oliver Cromwell and Charles I with his head on; portraits by Gainsborough and Reynolds; the Romantics (William Blake, Lord Byron, William Wordsworth, and company); Queen Victoria and her era; and the present royal family, including the late Princess Diana.
The collection is well-described, not huge, and in historical sequence, from the 16th century on the second floor to today’s royal family on the ground floor.
Cost and Hours: Free, but suggested donation of £5, temporary (optional) exhibits extra, floor plan-£1; daily 10:00-18:00, Thu-Fri until 21:00, first and second floors open Mon at 11:00, last entry to special exhibits one hour before closing; audioguide-£3, no photos, basement café and top-floor view restaurant, entry 100 yards off Trafalgar Square (around the corner from National Gallery, opposite Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields), Tube: Charing Cross or Leicester Square, tel. 020/7306-0055, recorded info tel. 020/7312-2463, npg.org.uk.
The church, built in the 1720s with a Gothic spire atop a Greek-type temple, is an oasis of peace on wild and noisy Trafalgar Square. St. Martin cared for the poor. “In the fields” was where the first church stood on this spot (in the 13th century), between Westminster and The City. Stepping inside, you still feel a compassion for the needs of the people in this neighborhood—the church serves the homeless and houses a Chinese community center. The modern east window—with grillwork bent into the shape of a warped cross—was installed in 2008 to replace one damaged in World War II.
A freestanding glass pavilion to the left of the church serves as the entrance to the church’s underground areas. There you’ll find the concert ticket office, a gift shop, brass-rubbing center, and the recommended support-the-church Café in the Crypt.
Cost and Hours: Free, but donations welcome; hours vary but generally Mon-Fri 8:30-13:00 & 14:00-18:00, Sat 9:30-13:00 & 14:00-18:00, Sun 15:30-17:00; £3.50 audioguide at shop downstairs, Tube: Charing Cross, tel. 020/7766-1100, smitf.org.
Music: The church is famous for its concerts. Consider a free lunchtime concert (suggested £3 donation; Mon, Tue, and Fri at 13:00), an evening concert (£8-28, several nights a week at 19:30), or Wednesday night jazz at the Café in the Crypt (£5.50 or £9, at 20:00). See the church’s website for the concert schedule.
Although this square is slathered with neon billboards and tacky attractions (think of it as the Times Square of London), the surrounding streets are packed with great shopping opportunities and swimming with youth on the rampage.
Nearby Shaftesbury Avenue and Leicester Square teem with fun-seekers, theaters, Chinese restaurants, and street singers. To the northeast is London’s Chinatown and, beyond that, the funky Soho neighborhood (described next). And curling to the northwest from Piccadilly Circus is genteel Regent Street, lined with the city’s most exclusive shops.
North of Piccadilly, seedy Soho has become trendy—with many recommended restaurants—and is well worth a gawk. It’s the epicenter of London’s thriving, colorful youth scene, a fun and funky Sesame Street of urban diversity.
Soho is also London’s red light district (especially near Brewer and Berwick Streets), where “friendly models” wait in tiny rooms up dreary stairways, voluptuous con artists sell strip shows, and eager male tourists are frequently ripped off. But it’s easy to avoid trouble if you’re not looking for it. In fact, the sleazy joints share the block with respectable pubs and restaurants, and elderly couples stroll past neon signs that flash Licensed Sex Shop in Basement.
This large square teems with people and street performers—jugglers, sword swallowers, and guitar players. London’s buskers (including those in the Tube) are auditioned, licensed, and assigned times and places where they are allowed to perform.
The square’s centerpiece is a covered marketplace. A market has been here since medieval times, when it was the “convent” garden owned by Westminster Abbey. In the 1600s, it became a housing development with this courtyard as its center, done in the Palladian style by Inigo Jones. Today’s fine iron-and-glass structure was built in 1830 (when such buildings were all the Industrial Age rage) to house the stalls of what became London’s chief produce market. Covent Garden remained a produce market until 1973, when its venerable arcades were converted to boutiques, cafés, and antique shops. A market still thrives here today.
The “Actors’ Church” of St. Paul, the Royal Opera House, and the London Transport Museum (described next) all border the square, and theaters are nearby. The area is a people-watcher’s delight, with cigarette eaters, Punch-and-Judy acts, food that’s good for you (but not your wallet), trendy crafts, and row after row of boutique shops and market stalls. For better Covent Garden lunch deals, walk a block or two away from the eye of this touristic hurricane (check out the places north of the Tube station, along Endell and Neal streets).
This modern, well-presented museum, located right at Covent Garden, is fun for kids and thought-provoking for adults (if a bit overpriced). Whether you’re cursing or marveling at the buses and Tube, the growth of Europe’s third-biggest city (after Moscow and Istanbul) has been made possible by its public transit system.
After you enter, take the elevator up to the top floor...and the year 1800, when horse-drawn vehicles ruled the road. Next, you descend to the first floor and the world’s first underground Metro system, which used steam-powered locomotives (the Circle Line, c. 1865). On the ground floor, horses and trains are replaced by motorized vehicles (cars, taxis, double-decker buses, streetcars), resulting in 20th-century congestion. How to deal with it? In 2003, car drivers in London were slapped with a congestion charge, and today, a half-billion people ride the Tube every year.
Cost and Hours: £15, ticket good for one year, kids under 16 free, Sat-Thu 10:00-18:00, Fri 11:00-18:00, last entry 45 minutes before closing, pleasant upstairs café with Covent Garden view, in southeast corner of Covent Garden courtyard, Tube: Covent Garden, switchboard tel. 020/7379-6344, recorded info tel. 020/7565-7299, ltmuseum.co.uk.
While less impressive than the National Gallery, this wonderful and compact collection of paintings is still a joy. The gallery is part of the Courtauld Institute of Art, and the thoughtful description of each piece of art reminds visitors that the gallery is still used for teaching. You’ll see medieval European paintings and works by Rubens, the Impressionists (Manet, Monet, and Degas), Post-Impressionists (such as Cézanne and an intense Van Gogh self-portrait), and more. Besides the permanent collection, a quality selection of loaners and temporary exhibits are often included in the entry fee. The gallery is located within the grand Somerset House; enjoy the riverside eateries and the courtyard featuring a playful fountain.
Cost and Hours: £6 (£3 on Mon); open daily 10:00-18:00, last entry 30 minutes before closing, occasionally open Thu until 21:00—check website, café, at Somerset House along the Strand, Tube: Temple or Covent Garden, recorded info tel. 020/7848-2526, shop tel. 020/7848-2579, courtauld.ac.uk.
Three palace sights require admission: the State Rooms (Aug-Sept only), Queen’s Gallery, and Royal Mews. You can pay for each separately, or buy a combo-ticket. A combo-ticket for £32 admits you to all three sights; a cheaper version for £16 covers the Queen’s Gallery and Royal Mews. Many tourists are more interested in the Changing of the Guard, which costs nothing at all to view.
This lavish home has been Britain’s royal residence since 1837. When the Queen’s at home, the royal standard flies (a red, yellow, and blue flag); otherwise, the Union Jack flaps in the wind. The Queen opens her palace to the public—but only in August and September, when she’s out of town.
Cost and Hours: £19 for lavish State Rooms and throne room, includes audioguide; Aug-Sept only, daily 9:30-18:30, until 19:00 in Aug, last admission 16:45 in Aug, 15:45 in Sept; limited to 8,000 visitors a day by timed entry; come early to the palace’s Visitor Entrance (opens 9:15), or book ahead in person, by phone, or online (£2.50 extra); Tube: Victoria, tel. 020/7766-7300, royalcollection.org.uk.
A small sampling of Queen Elizabeth’s personal collection of art is on display in five rooms in a wing adjoining the palace. Her 7,000 paintings, one of the largest private art collections in the world, are actually a series of collections, which have been built upon by each successive monarch since the 16th century. The Queen rotates the paintings, enjoying some privately in her many palatial residences while sharing others with her subjects in public galleries in Edinburgh and London. The exhibits change two or three times a year and are lovingly described by the included audioguide.
Because the gallery is small and security is tight (involving lines), I’d suggest visiting this gallery only if you’re a patient art lover interested in the current exhibit.
Cost and Hours: £9.25 but can change depending on exhibit, combo-ticket with Royal Mews saves about £2, daily 10:00-17:30, opens at 9:30 Aug-Sept, last entry one hour before closing, Tube: Victoria, tel. 020/7766-7301—but Her Majesty rarely answers. Men shouldn’t miss the mahogany-trimmed urinals.
Located to the left of Buckingham Palace, the Queen’s working stables are open to visitors. The visit is likely to be disappointing unless you follow the included audioguide or the hourly guided tour (April-Oct only, 45 minutes), in which case it’s fairly entertaining—especially if you’re interested in horses and/or royalty. You’ll see a few of the Queen’s 30 horses, a fancy car, and a bunch of old carriages, finishing with the Gold State Coach (c. 1760, 4 tons, 4 mph). Queen Victoria said absolutely no cars. When she died, in 1901, the mews got its first Daimler. Today, along with the hay-eating transport, the stable is home to five Bentleys and Rolls-Royce Phantoms, with one on display.
Cost and Hours: £8.50, combo-ticket with Queen’s Gallery saves about £2, April-Oct daily 10:00-17:00, Nov-March Mon-Sat 10:00-16:00, closed Sun, last entry 45 minutes before closing, guided tours on the hour in summer, Buckingham Palace Road, Tube: Victoria, tel. 020/7766-7302.
This is the spectacle every visitor to London has to see at least once: stone-faced, red-coated, bearskin-hatted guards changing posts with much fanfare, in an hour-long ceremony accompanied by a brass band.
It’s 11:00 at Buckingham Palace, and the on-duty guards (the “Queen’s Guard”) are ready to finish their shift. Nearby at St. James’s Palace (a half-mile northeast), a second set of guards is also ready for a break. Meanwhile, fresh replacement guards (the “New Guard”) gather for a review and inspection at Wellington Barracks, 500 yards east of the palace (on Birdcage Walk).
At 11:15, the tired St. James’s guards head out to the Mall, and then take a right turn for Buckingham Palace. At 11:30, the replacement troops, led by the band, also head for Buckingham Palace. Meanwhile, a fourth group—the Horse Guard—passes by along the Mall on its way back to Hyde Park Corner from its own changing-of-the-guard ceremony on Whitehall (which just took place at Horse Guards Parade at 11:00, or 10:00 on Sun).
At 11:45, the tired and fresh guards converge on Buckingham Palace in a perfect storm of Red Coat pageantry. Everyone parades around, the guard changes (passing the regimental flag, or “colour”) with much shouting, the band plays a happy little concert, and then they march out. At noon, two bands escort two detachments of guards away: the tired guards to Wellington Barracks and the fresh guards to St. James’s Palace. As the fresh guards set up at St. James’s Palace and the tired ones dress down at the barracks, the tourists disperse.
Cost and Hours: Free, daily May-July at 11:30, every other day Aug-April, no ceremony in very wet weather; exact schedule subject to change—call 020/7766-7300 for the day’s plan, or check royalcollection.org.uk; Buckingham Palace, Tube: Victoria, St. James’s Park, or Green Park. Or hop into a big black taxi and say, “Buck House, please.”
Sightseeing Strategies: Most tourists just show up and get lost in the crowds, but those who know the drill will enjoy the event more. The action takes place in stages over the course of an hour, at several different locations. The main event is in the forecourt right in front of Buckingham Palace (between Buckingham Palace and the fence) from 11:30 to 12:00. To see it close up, you’ll need to get here no later than 10:30 to get a place right next to the fence.
But there’s plenty of pageantry elsewhere. Get out your map and strategize. You could see the guards mobilizing at Wellington Barracks or St. James’s Palace (11:00-11:15). Or watch them parade with bands down The Mall and Spur Road (11:15-11:30). After the ceremony at Buckingham Palace is over (and many tourists have gotten bored and gone home), the parades march back along those same streets (12:10).
Pick one event and find a good, unobstructed place from which to view it. The key is to get either right up front along the road or fence, or find some raised elevation to stand or sit on—a balustrade or a curb—so you can see over people’s heads.
If you get there too late to score a premium spot right along the fence, head for the high ground on the circular Victoria Memorial, which provides the best overall view (come before 11:00 to get a place). From the memorial, you have good (if more distant) views of the palace as well as the arriving and departing parades along The Mall and Spur Road. The actual Changing of the Guard in front of the palace is a nonevent. It is interesting, however, to see nearly every tourist in London gathered in one place at the same time.
If you arrive too late to get any good spot at all, or you just don’t feel like jostling for a view, stroll down to St. James’s Palace and wait near the corner for a great photo-op. At about 12:15, the parade marches up The Mall to the palace and performs a smaller changing ceremony—with almost no crowds. Afterward, stroll through nearby St. James’s Park.
Simply put, this is the greatest chronicle of civilization...anywhere. A visit here is like taking a long hike through Encyclopedia Britannica National Park. While the vast British Museum wraps around its Great Court (the huge entrance hall), the most popular sections of the museum fill the ground floor: Egyptian, Assyrian, and ancient Greek, with the famous frieze sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens. The museum’s stately Reading Room—famous as the place where Karl Marx hung out while formulating his ideas on communism and writing Das Kapital—sometimes hosts special exhibits.
Cost and Hours: Free but a £5 donation requested, temporary exhibits usually extra (and with timed ticket); daily 10:00-17:30, Fri until 20:30 (selected galleries only), least crowded weekday late afternoons; multimedia guide—£5, free Rick Steves audio tour available—see here, Great Russell Street, Tube: Tottenham Court Road, general info tel. 020/7323-8000, ticket desk tel. 020/7323-8181, collection questions tel. 020/7323-8838, britishmuseum.org.
Information: Information desks offer a £1 basic map or £2 version highlighting important pieces, but neither is essential; the Visitor’s Guide (£3.50) offers 15 different tours and skimpy text. General info tel. 020/7323-8000, ticket desk tel. 020/7323-8181, collection questions tel. 020/7323-8838, britishmuseum.org.
Tours: Free 30-minute eyeOpener tours are led by volunteers, who focus on select rooms (daily 11:00-15:45, generally every 15 minutes). Free 45-minute gallery talks on specific subjects are offered Tue-Sat at 13:15; a free 20-minute highlights tour is available on Friday evening. The £5 multimedia guide offers dial-up audio commentary and video on 200 objects, as well as several theme tours (must leave photo ID). There’s also a fun children’s audioguide (£3.50).
Visiting the Museum: From the Great Court, doorways lead to all wings. Huge winged lions (which guarded an Assyrian palace 800 years before Christ) now guard these great galleries. For a brief tour, connect these ancient dots:
Start with the Egyptian section. Wander from the Rosetta Stone past the many statues. At the end of the hall, climb the stairs to mummy land.
Back at the winged lions, explore the dark, violent, and mysterious Assyrian rooms. The Nimrud Gallery is lined with royal propaganda reliefs and wounded lions (from the ninth century B.C.).
The most modern of the ancient art fills the Greek section. Find Room 11, behind the winged lions, and start your walk through Greek art history with the simple and primitive Cycladic fertility figures. Later, painted vases show a culture really into partying. The finale is the Parthenon Sculptures (the so-called Elgin Marbles). The much-wrangled-over bits of the Athenian Parthenon (from about 450 B.C.) are even more impressive than they look. To best appreciate these ancient carvings, use the multimedia guide (described earlier).
Be sure to venture upstairs to see artifacts from Roman Britain that surpass anything you’ll see at Hadrian’s Wall or elsewhere in Britain. Nearby, the Dark Age Britain exhibits offer a worthwhile peek at that bleak era; look for the Sutton Hoo Burial Ship artifacts from a seventh-century royal burial on the east coast of England (Room 41). A rare Michelangelo cartoon (preliminary sketch) is in Room 90.
The British Empire built its greatest monuments out of paper; it’s through literature that England has made her lasting contribution to history and the arts. Here, in just two rooms, are the literary treasures of Western civilization, from early Bibles, to the Magna Carta, to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. You’ll see the Lindisfarne Gospels transcribed on an illuminated manuscript, as well as Beatles lyrics scrawled on the back of a greeting card. Pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook show his powerful curiosity, his genius for invention, and his famous backward and inside-out handwriting, which makes sense only if you know Italian and have a mirror. A Beowulf manuscript from A.D. 1000, The Canterbury Tales, and Shakespeare’s First Folio also reside here. (If the First Folio is not out, the library should have other Shakespeare items on display.)
Exhibits change often, and many of the museum’s old, fragile manuscripts need to “rest” periodically in order to stay well-preserved. If your heart’s set on seeing that one particular rare Dickens book or letter penned by Gandhi, call ahead to make sure it’s on display.
Cost and Hours: Free, but £5 suggested donation, admission charged for some (optional) temporary exhibits; Mon-Fri 9:30-18:00, Tue until 20:00, Sat 9:30-17:00, Sun 11:00-17:00; 96 Euston Road, Tube: King’s Cross St. Pancras or Euston, tel. 019/3754-6060 or 020/7412-7676, bl.uk.
Tours: While the British Library doesn’t offer an audioguide or guided tours of the permanent collection, you can download a free Rick Steves audio tour that describes its highlights (see here). Guided tours are offered of the building itself—the archives and reading rooms.
Sir Richard Wallace’s fine collection of 17th-century Dutch Masters, 18th-century French Rococo, medieval armor, and assorted aristocratic fancies fills the sumptuously furnished Hertford House on Manchester Square. From the rough and intimate Dutch lifescapes of Jan Steen to the pink-cheeked Rococo fantasies of François Boucher, a wander through this little-visited mansion makes you nostalgic for the days of the empire. While this collection would be a big deal in a mid-sized city, it’s small potatoes here in London...but enjoyable nevertheless.
Cost and Hours: Free, daily 10:00-17:00, audioguide-£3, free guided tours or lectures almost daily—call to confirm times, just north of Oxford Street on Manchester Square, Tube: Bond Street. Tel. 020/7563-9500, wallacecollection.org.
This waxtravaganza is gimmicky, crass, and crazily expensive, but dang fun...a hit with the kind of tourists who skip the British Museum. The original Madame Tussaud did wax casts of heads lopped off during the French Revolution (such as Marie-Antoinette’s). She took her show on the road and ended up in London in 1835. Now it’s all about squeezing Tom Cruise’s bum, gambling with George Clooney, and partying with Beyoncé and Brangelina. In addition to posing with all the eerily realistic wax dummies—from Johnny Depp to Barack Obama to the Beatles—you’ll have the chance to tour a hokey haunted-house exhibit; learn how they created this waxy army; hop on a people-mover and cruise through a kid-pleasing “Spirit of London” time trip; and visit with Spider-Man, the Hulk, and other Marvel superheroes. A nine-minute “4-D” show features a 3-D movie heightened by wind, “back ticklers,” and other special effects.
Cost: £30, 10 percent discount and no waiting in line if you buy tickets on their website (also consider combo-deal with London Eye, sold cheaper online), £25.50 Fast Track ticket (see here), often even bigger discount—up to 50 percent—if you get “Late Saver” ticket online for visits later in the day. Kids also get a discount of about £4, and those under 5 are free.
Hours: Mid-July-Aug and school holidays daily 9:00-19:00, Sept-mid-July Mon-Fri 9:30-17:30, Sat-Sun 9:00-18:00, these are last entry times—place stays open roughly two hours later; Marylebone Road, Tube: Baker Street, tel. 0871-894-3000, madametussauds.com.
Crowd-Beating Tips: This popular attraction can be swamped with people. To avoid the ticket line, buy a Fast Track ticket or reserve online. If you wait to buy tickets at the attraction, you’ll discover that the ticket-buying line twists endlessly once inside the door (believe the posted signs warning you how long the wait will be—an hour or more is not unusual at busy times). If you buy your tickets at the door, try to arrive after 15:00—a smart move even with advance tickets, as the crowds inside thin out later in the day.
Architects love this quirky place, as do fans of interior decor and eclectic knickknacks. Tour this furnished home on a bird-chirping square and see 19th-century chairs, lamps, and carpets, wood-paneled nooks and crannies, and stained-glass skylights. The townhouse is cluttered with Soane’s (and his wife’s) collection of ancient relics, curios, and famous paintings, including Hogarth’s series on The Rake’s Progress (read the fun plot) and several excellent Canalettos. In 1833, just before his death, Soane established his house as a museum, stipulating that it be kept as nearly as possible in the state he left it. If he visited today, he’d be entirely satisfied. You’ll leave wishing you’d known the man.
Cost and Hours: Free, but donations much appreciated, Tue-Sat 10:00-17:00, open and candlelit the first Tue of the month 18:00-21:00, closed Sun-Mon, last entry 30 minutes before closing, long entry lines on Sat and first Tue, good £1 brochure, £10 guided tour Sat at 11:00, free downloadable audio tours on their website, 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, quarter-mile southeast of British Museum, Tube: Holborn, tel. 020/7405-2107, soane.org.
When Londoners say “The City,” they mean the one-square-mile business center in East London that 2,000 years ago was Roman Londinium. The outline of the Roman city walls can still be seen in the arc of roads from Blackfriars Bridge to Tower Bridge. Within The City are 23 churches designed by Sir Christopher Wren, mostly just ornamentation around St. Paul’s Cathedral. Today, while home to only 7,000 residents, The City thrives with nearly 300,000 office workers coming and going daily. It’s a fascinating district to wander on weekdays, but since almost nobody actually lives there, it’s dull in the evenings and on Saturday and Sunday.
You can download a free Rick Steves audio tour of The City, which peels back the many layers of history in this oldest part of London (see here).
Sir Christopher Wren’s most famous church is the great St. Paul’s, its elaborate interior capped by a 365-foot dome. There’s been a church on this spot since 604. After the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed the old cathedral, Wren created this Baroque masterpiece. And since World War II, St. Paul’s has been Britain’s symbol of resilience. Despite 57 nights of bombing, the Nazis failed to destroy the cathedral, thanks to the St. Paul’s volunteer fire watchmen, who stayed on the dome.
Cost and Hours: £16, includes church entry, dome climb, crypt, tour, and audioguide; Mon-Sat 8:30-16:30, last entry for sightseeing 16:00 (dome opens at 9:30, last entry at 16:15), closed Sun except for worship, sometimes closed for special events, no photos, café and restaurant in crypt, Tube: St. Paul’s.
Music and Services: If interested, check the website for worship times the day of your visit. Communion is generally Mon-Sat at 8:00 and 12:30. On Sunday, services are held at 8:00, 10:15 (Matins), 11:30 (sung Eucharist), 15:15 (evensong), and 18:00. The rest of the week, evensong is at 17:00 Tue-Sat (not Mon). If you come 20 minutes early for evensong worship (under the dome), you may be able to grab a big wooden stall in the choir, next to the singers. On some Sundays, there’s a free organ recital at 16:45.
Information: Admission includes an audioguide as well as a 1.5-hour guided tour (Mon-Sat at 10:00, 11:00, 13:00, and 14:00; confirm schedule at church or call 020/7246-8357). Free 15-minute talks are offered throughout the day, and a stand-up, wrap-around film program titled Oculus: An Eye into St. Paul’s gives some historical background and shows the view from atop the dome (find it near Nelson’s tomb). You can also download a free Rick Steves audio tour of St. Paul’s (see here). Recorded info tel. 020/7236-4128, reception tel. 020/7246-8350, stpauls.co.uk.
Visiting the Cathedral: Inside, this big church feels big. At 515 feet long and 250 feet wide, it’s Europe’s fourth largest, after Rome (St. Peter’s), Sevilla, and Milan. The spaciousness is accentuated by the relative lack of decoration. The simple, cream-colored ceiling and the clear glass in the windows light everything evenly.
There are many legends buried here: Horatio Nelson, who wore down Napoleon; the Duke of Wellington, who finished Napoleon off; and even Charles Cornwallis, who was finished off by George Washington at Yorktown. Often the site of historic funerals (Queen Victoria and Winston Churchill), St. Paul’s most famous ceremony was a wedding—when Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.
During your visit, you can climb the dome for a great city view and have some fun in the Whispering Gallery. Whisper sweet nothings into the wall, and your partner (and anyone else) standing far away can hear you. For best effects, try whispering (not talking) with your mouth close to the wall, while your partner stands a few dozen yards away with his or her ear to the wall. The crypt (included with admission) is a world of historic bones and interesting cathedral models.
To view the British legal system in action—lawyers in little blond wigs speaking legalese with an upper-crust accent—spend a few minutes in the visitors’ gallery at the Old Bailey, called the “Central Criminal Court.” Don’t enter under the dome; continue down the block about halfway to the modern part of the building—the entry is at Warwick Passage.
Cost and Hours: Free, generally Mon-Fri 9:45-13:00 & 14:00-16:00 depending on caseload, last entry at 15:40 but often closes an hour or so earlier, closed Sat-Sun, fewer cases in Aug; no kids under 14; no bags, mobile phones, cameras, iPods, or food, but small purses OK; you can check bags at the Capable Travel agency just down the street at Old Bailey 4—£5/bag, £1 per phone or camera; 2 blocks northwest of St. Paul’s on Old Bailey Street, follow signs to public entrance, Tube: St. Paul’s, tel. 020/7248-3277.
This museum tells the fascinating story of London, taking you on a walk from its pre-Roman beginnings to the present. It features London’s distinguished citizens through history—from Neanderthals, to Romans, to Elizabethans, to Victorians, to Mods, to today. The museum’s displays are chronological, spacious, and informative without being overwhelming. Scale models and costumes help you visualize everyday life in the city at different periods. In the last room, you’ll see the museum’s prized possession: the Lord Mayor’s Coach, a golden carriage pulled by six white horses, looking as if it had pranced right out of the pages of Cinderella. There are enough whiz-bang multimedia displays (including the Plague and the Great Fire) to spice up otherwise humdrum artifacts. This regular stop for the local school kids gives the best overview of London history in town.
Cost and Hours: Free, daily 10:00-18:00, galleries shut down 30 minutes before closing, see the day’s events board for special talks and tours, café, £1 lockers, on London Wall at Aldersgate Street, Tube: Barbican or St. Paul’s plus a five-minute walk, tel. 020/7001-9844, museumoflondon.org.uk.
Wren’s 202-foot-tall tribute to London’s Great Fire was restored a few years ago. Climb the 331 steps inside the column for a view of The City that is still monumental.
Cost and Hours: £3, daily 9:30-18:00, until 17:30 Oct-March, last entry 30 minutes before closing, junction of Monument Street and Fish Street Hill, Tube: Monument, tel. 020/7626-2717, themonument.info.
The Tower has served as a castle in wartime, a king’s residence in peacetime, and, most notoriously, as the prison and execution site of rebels. You can see the crown jewels, take a witty Beefeater tour, and ponder the executioner’s block that dispensed with Anne Boleyn, Sir Thomas More, and troublesome heirs to the throne.
Cost and Hours: £22, family-£57 (both prices include a 10 percent optional donation), entry fee includes Beefeater tour (described later); March-Oct Tue-Sat 9:00-17:30, Sun-Mon 10:00-17:30; Nov-Feb Tue-Sat 9:00-16:30, Sun-Mon 10:00-16:30; last entry 30 minutes before closing; skippable audioguide-£4, Tube: Tower Hill, switchboard tel. 0844-482-7777, hrp.org.uk.
Advance Tickets: To avoid the long ticket-buying lines at the Tower, buy your ticket at the Trader’s Gate gift shop, located down the steps from the Tower Hill Tube stop (tickets here are generally slightly cheaper than at the gate; similar, discounted Fast Track tickets are sold at various locations (such as travel agencies) throughout London. You can also buy tickets, with credit card only, at the Tower Welcome Centre to the left of the normal ticket lines—though on busy days, it can be crowded here as well. It’s easy to book online (hrp.org.uk, £1 discount, no fee) or by phone (tel. 0844-482-7799 within UK or tel. 011-44-20-3166-6000 from the US; £2 fee), then pick up your tickets at the Tower.
More Crowd-Beating Tips: It’s most crowded in summer, on weekends (especially Sundays), and during school holidays. Any time of year, the line for the crown jewels—the best on earth—can be just as long as the line for tickets. For fewer crowds, arrive before 10:00 and go straight for the jewels. Alternatively, arrive in the afternoon, tour the rest of the Tower first, and see the jewels an hour before closing time, when crowds die down.
Yeoman Warder (Beefeater) Tours: Today, while the Tower’s military purpose is history, it’s still home to the Beefeaters—the 35 Yeoman Warders and their families. (The original duty of the Yeoman Warders was to guard the Tower, its prisoners, and the jewels.) The free, worthwhile, one-hour Beefeater tours leave every 30 minutes from inside the gate (first tour at 10:00, last one at 15:30—or 14:30 in Nov-Feb). The boisterous Beefeaters are great entertainers, and their historical talks include lots of bloody anecdotes and corny jokes.
Sunday Worship: For a refreshingly different Tower experience, come on Sunday morning, when visitors are welcome on the grounds for free to worship in the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula. You get in without the lines, but you can only see the chapel—no sightseeing (9:15 Communion or 11:00 service with fine choral music, meet at west gate 30 minutes early, dress for church, may be closed for ceremonies—call ahead).
Visiting the Tower: William I, still getting used to his new title of “the Conqueror,” built the stone “White Tower” (1077-1097) to keep the Londoners in line. The Tower also served as an effective lookout for seeing invaders coming up the Thames. His successors enlarged it to its present 18-acre size. Because of the security it provided, it has served over the centuries as the Royal Mint, the Royal Jewel House, and as a prison and execution site.
The Tower’s hard stone and glittering jewels represent the ultimate power of the monarch. The crown jewels include the world’s largest cut diamond—the 530-carat Star of Africa—placed in the royal scepter. When Queen Elizabeth II opens Parliament, she checks out the Imperial State Crown with its 3,733 jewels, including Elizabeth I’s pearl earrings.
You’ll find more bloody history per square inch in this original tower of power than anywhere else in Britain, though the actual execution site (in the courtyard) looks just like a lawn. Not all prisoners died at the block—Richard III supposedly ordered two teenage princes strangled in their prison cells because they were a threat to his throne.
The iconic Tower Bridge (often mistakenly called London Bridge) has been recently painted and restored. The hydraulically powered drawbridge was built in 1894 to accommodate the growing East End. While fully modern, its design was a retro Neo-Gothic look.
You can tour the bridge at the Tower Bridge Exhibition, with a history display and a peek at the Victorian engine room that lifts the span. It’s overpriced at £8, though the city views from the walkways are spectacular (daily 10:00-18:00 in summer, 9:30-17:30 in winter, last entry 30 minutes before closing, enter at the northwest tower, Tube: Tower Hill, tel. 020/7403-3761, towerbridge.org.uk).
The bridge is most interesting when the drawbridge lifts to let ships pass, as it does a thousand times a year, but it’s best viewed from outside the museum. For the bridge-lifting schedule, check the website or call (see above for contact info).
Nearby: The best remaining bit of London’s Roman Wall is just north of the Tower (at the Tower Hill Tube station). The chic St. Katharine Dock, just east of Tower Bridge, has private yachts, mod shops, the recommended medieval banquet, and the classic Dickens Inn, fun for a drink or pub lunch. Across the bridge, on the South Bank, is the upscale Butlers Wharf area, as well as City Hall, museums, the Jubilee Walkway, and, towering overhead, The Shard. Or you can head north to Liverpool Street Station, and stroll London’s East End (described next).
The East End has a long history as London’s poorer side of town—even in medieval times. These days, it still lacks the posh refinement of the West End—but the area just beyond Liverpool Street Station is now one of London’s hippest, most fun spots. It boasts a colorful mix of bustling markets, late-night dance clubs, the Bangladeshi ghetto (called “Banglatown”), and tenements of Jack the Ripper’s London, all in the shadow of glittering new skyscrapers. Head up Brick Lane for a meal in “the curry capital of Europe,” or check out the former Truman Brewery, which now houses a Sunday market, cool shops, and Café 1001 (good coffee). This neighborhood is best on Sunday afternoons, when the Spitalfields, Petticoat Lane, and Backyard markets thrive.
This low-key but well-organized museum—housed in an 18th-century almshouse—is located north of Liverpool Street Station in the hip Shoreditch area. Its displays give a historical overview of the “middling sort” (middle class), as seen through the prism of home decor. Walk past 11 English living rooms, furnished and decorated in styles from 1600 to 2000, then descend the circular stairs to see changing exhibits. In summer, explore the fragrant herb garden.
Cost and Hours: Free, fees for (optional) special exhibits, Tue-Sat 10:00-17:00, Sun 12:00-17:00, closed Mon, garden open April-Oct, 136 Kingsland Road, tel. 020/7739-9893, geffrye-museum.org.uk.
Getting There: Take the Tube to Liverpool Street, then ride the bus 10 minutes north (bus #149 or #242—leave station through Bishopsgate exit and head left a few steps to find stop; hop off at the Hoxton Station stop, just after passing the brick museum on the right). Or take the East London line on the Overground to the Hoxton stop, which is right next to the museum (Tube tickets and Oyster cards also valid on Overground).
▲Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret
The South Bank of the Thames is a thriving arts and cultural center, tied together by the riverfront Jubilee Walkway.
This riverside path is a popular, pub-crawling pedestrian promenade that stretches all along the South Bank, offering grand views of the Houses of Parliament and St. Paul’s. On a sunny day, this is the place to see Londoners out strolling. The Walkway hugs the river except just east of London Bridge, where it cuts inland for a couple of blocks. It was recently expanded into a 60-mile “Greenway” circling the city, including the 2012 Olympics site.
This giant Ferris wheel, towering above London opposite Big Ben, is one of the world’s highest observational wheels and London’s answer to the Eiffel Tower. Riding it is a memorable experience, even though London doesn’t have much of a skyline, and the price is borderline outrageous. Whether you ride or not, the wheel is a sight to behold.
The experience starts with a brief (four-minute) and engaging show combining a 3-D movie with wind and water effects. Then it’s time to spin around the Eye. Designed like a giant bicycle wheel, it’s a pan-European undertaking: British steel and Dutch engineering, with Czech, German, French, and Italian mechanical parts. It’s also very “green,” running extremely efficiently and virtually silently. Twenty-five people ride in each of its 32 air-conditioned capsules for the 30-minute rotation (you go around only once). Each capsule has a bench, but most people stand. From the top of this 443-foot-high wheel—the second-highest public viewpoint in the city—even Big Ben looks small.
Cost: £19, family ticket available, about 10 percent cheaper if bought online. Buy tickets in advance at londoneye.com, by calling 0870-500-0600, or in person at the box office (in the corner of the County Hall building nearest the Eye). Combo-tickets that also cover Madame Tussauds Waxworks cost roughly twice as much (also cheaper online).
Hours: Daily April-June 10:00-21:00, July-Aug 10:00-21:30, Sept-March 10:00-20:30, these are last-ascent times, closed Dec 25 and a few days in Jan for annual maintenance, Tube: Waterloo or Westminster. Thames boats come and go from Waterloo Pier at the foot of the wheel.
Crowd-Beating Tips: The London Eye is busiest between 11:00 and 17:00, especially on weekends year-round and every day in July and August. When it’s crowded, you might have to wait up to 30 minutes to buy your ticket, then another 30-45 minutes to board your capsule. If you plan to visit during a busy time, call ahead or go online to pre-book your ticket. Once at the sight, you punch your confirmation code into the automated machine in the ticket office (otherwise, you can pick up your ticket in the short “Groups and Ticket Collection” line at desk #5). Even if you pre-reserve, you still have to wait a bit to board the wheel. You can pay an extra £7-10 for a Fast Track ticket that lets you jump the queue, but the time you save is probably not worth the expense.
This impressive museum covers the wars of the last century—from World War I biplanes, to the rise of fascism, to Montgomery’s Africa campaign tank, to the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and terrorism. Rather than glorify war, the museum does its best to shine a light on the 100 million deaths of the 20th century. It shows everyday life for people back home and never neglects the human side of one of civilization’s more uncivilized, persistent traits.
Allow plenty of time, as this powerful museum—with lots of artifacts and video clips—can be engrossing. The highlights are the new WWI galleries and the WWII area, the “Secret War” section, and the Holocaust exhibit. War wonks love the place, as do general history buffs who enjoy patiently reading displays. For the rest, there are enough interactive experiences and multimedia exhibits and submarines for the kids to climb in to keep it interesting.
Cost and Hours: Free, daily 10:00-18:00, last entry 17:45, temporary exhibits extra, audioguide-£3.50, guided tours usually Sat-Sun at 11:30 and 13:30—confirm at info desk, Tube: Lambeth North or Elephant and Castle; buses #3, #12, and #159 come here from Westminster area; tel. 020/7416-5000, iwm.org.uk.
These sights are in Southwark (SUTH-uck), the core of the tourist’s South Bank. Southwark was for centuries the place Londoners would go to escape the rules and decency of the city and let their hair down. Bearbaiting, brothels, rollicking pubs, and theater—you name the dream, and it could be fulfilled just across the Thames. A run-down warehouse district through the 20th century, it’s been gentrified with classy restaurants, office parks, pedestrian promenades, major sights (such as the Tate Modern and Shakespeare’s Globe), and a colorful collection of lesser sights. The area is easy on foot and a scenic—though circuitous—way to connect the Tower of London with St. Paul’s.
Dedicated in the spring of 2000, the striking museum across the river from St. Paul’s opened the new century with art from the previous one. Its powerhouse collection of Monet, Matisse, Dalí, Picasso, Warhol, and much more is displayed in a converted powerhouse.
The permanent collection is on levels 2 through 4. Paintings are arranged according to theme, not chronologically or by artist. Paintings by Picasso, for example, are scattered all over the building. Don’t just come to see the Old Masters of modernism. Push your mental envelope with more recent works by Pollock, Miró, Bacon, Picabia, Beuys, Twombly, and others.
Of equal interest are the many temporary exhibits featuring cutting-edge art. Each year, the main hall features a different monumental installation by a prominent artist—always one of the highlights of the art world. The Tate is constructing a new wing to the south, which will double the museum’s exhibition space. The new wing is opening bit by bit and, once it’s finished, the permanent exhibits will likely be rearranged, with some pieces moving to the new section.
Cost and Hours: Free, but £4 donation appreciated, fee for special exhibitions, open daily 10:00-18:00, Fri-Sat until 22:00, last entry to temporary exhibits 45 minutes before closing, especially crowded on weekend days (crowds thin out on Fri and Sat evenings), audioguide-£4, free 45-minute guided tours are offered about four times daily (ask for schedule at info desk), no photos beyond entrance hall, coffee shops and restaurant, tel. 020/7887-8888, tate.org.uk.
Getting There: Cross the Millennium Bridge from St. Paul’s; take the Tube to Southwark, London Bridge, or Mansion House and walk 10-15 minutes; or catch Thames Clippers’ Tate Boat ferry service from the Tate Britain (£5.50 one-way or £15 for day ticket, discounts with Travelcard or Oyster card, buy ticket at gallery desk or on board, departs every 40 minutes from 9:55 to 17:00, about 15 minutes, check schedule at tate.org.uk/visit/tate-boat).
The pedestrian bridge links St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Tate Modern across the Thames. This is London’s first new bridge in a century. When it first opened, the $25 million bridge wiggled when people walked on it, so it promptly closed for repairs; 20 months and $8 million later, it reopened. Nicknamed the “blade of light” for its sleek minimalist design (370 yards long, four yards wide, stainless steel with teak planks), its clever aerodynamic handrails deflect wind over the heads of pedestrians.
This replica of the original Globe Theatre was built, half-timbered and thatched, as it was in Shakespeare’s time. (This is the first thatched roof constructed in London since they were outlawed after the Great Fire of 1666.) The Globe originally accommodated 2,200 seated and another 1,000 standing. Today, slightly smaller and leaving space for reasonable aisles, the theater holds 800 seated and 600 groundlings. Its promoters brag that the theater melds “the three A’s”—actors, audience, and architecture—with each contributing to the play. The working theater hosts authentic performances of Shakespeare’s plays with actors in period costumes, modern interpretations of his works, and some works by other playwrights. For details on attending a play, see here.
Cost: £13.50, includes Exhibition, audioguide, and 40-minute tour of the Globe; tickets good all day; when the Globe theater is closed, you can tour the Exhibition only for £10, or take a guided tour of the nearby Rose Theatre (also £10, only available Sat afternoons).
Hours: The complex is open daily 9:00-17:00. Exhibition and tours: May-Sept—Globe tours offered mornings only with Rose Theatre tours some afternoons; Oct-April—Globe tours run all day, tours start every 15-30 minutes. Located on the South Bank directly across Thames over Southwark Bridge from St. Paul’s, Tube: Mansion House or London Bridge plus a 10-minute walk; tel. 020/7902-1400 or 020/7902-1500, shakespearesglobe.com.
Visiting the Globe: The complex has four parts: the Globe theater itself, the box office, a museum (the Exhibition), and the new Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (an indoor Jacobean theater). The Globe Exhibition ticket includes both a tour of the Globe theater and the Exhibition.
Exhibition: You browse on your own (with the included audioguide) through displays of Elizabethan-era costumes and makeup, music, script-printing, and special effects (the displays change). There are early folios and objects that were dug up on site. Videos and scale models help put Shakespearean theater within the context of the times. (The Globe opened one year after England mastered the seas by defeating the Spanish Armada. The debut play was Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.) You’ll also learn how they built the replica in modern times, using Elizabethan materials and techniques. Take advantage of the touch screens to delve into specific topics.
Theater: You must tour the theater at the time stamped on your ticket, but you can come back to the Exhibition museum afterward; tickets are good all day. A guide (usually an actor) leads you into the theater to see the stage and the various seating areas for the different classes of people. You take a seat and learn how the new Globe is similar to the old Globe (open-air performances, standing-room by the stage, no curtain) and how it’s different (female actors today, lights for night performances, concrete floor). It’s not a backstage tour—you don’t see dressing rooms or costume shops or sit in on rehearsals, though you may see workers building sets for a new production. You mostly sit and listen. The guides are energetic, theatrical, and knowledgeable, bringing the Elizabethan period to life.
When matinee performances are going on, you can’t tour the theater. But you can see the Exhibition museum, or possibly tour the nearby Rose Theatre (occasionally open and less interesting).
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse: The indoor Jacobean theater, which is attached to the back of the Globe complex, allows performances to continue through the winter. The intimate venue is horseshoe-shaped, seats fewer than 350, and is designed to use authentic candle-lighting for period performances. The repertoire focuses less on Shakespeare and more on the work of his contemporaries (Jonson, Marlow, Fletcher), as well as concerts. (For details on getting tickets, go to shakespearesglobe.com.) There may be tours of this new theater, but—as at the Globe itself—tours always come second to the performance schedule.
Eating: The Swan at the Globe café offers a sit-down restaurant (for lunch and dinner, reservations recommended, tel. 020/7928-9444), a drinks-and-plates bar, and a sandwich-and-coffee cart (daily 9:00-closing, depending on performance times).
While it seems illogical to have a huge wine museum in beer-loving London, Vinopolis makes a good case. Built over a Roman wine store and filling the massive vaults of an old wine warehouse, the museum offers interactive exhibits that give a light yet earnest history of wine to accompany your sips of various mediocre reds and whites, ports, and champagnes. A few varieties of spirits help keep it interesting. Your visit starts with a 15-minute wine-tasting lesson, then you’re let loose. Ticket prices vary according to how many virtual “tokens” you load onto a card, which you use to dispense your samples through their “enomatic” machines (most wines cost 1-4 tokens). Tapas-style snacks are available, in addition to the five restaurants on site. Booking ahead for Friday and Saturday nights is smart.
Cost and Hours: Self-guided tour options range from £27 (7 tokens) to £38 (16 tokens), also offer packages that include a meal, Wed 18:00-21:30, Thu-Fri 14:00-21:30, Sat 12:00-21:30, Sun 12:00-16:00, closed Mon-Tue, last entry 2 hours before closing, between Shakespeare’s Globe and Southwark Cathedral at 1 Bank End, Tube: London Bridge, tel. 020/7940-3000, vinopolis.co.uk.
Proudly the “original clink,” this was, until 1780, where law-abiding citizens threw Southwark troublemakers. Today, it’s a low-tech torture museum filling grotty old rooms with papier-mâché gore. Unfortunately, there’s little that seriously deals with the fascinating problem of law and order in Southwark, where 18th-century Londoners went for a good time.
Cost and Hours: Overpriced at £7.50; July-Sept daily 10:00-21:00; Oct-June Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00, Sat-Sun until 21:00, last entry 30 minutes before closing; 1 Clink Street, Tube: London Bridge, tel. 020/7403-0900, clink.co.uk.
This is a full-size replica of the 16th-century warship in which Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe from 1577 to 1580. Commanding the original ship (now long gone), Drake earned his reputation as history’s most successful pirate. This replica, however, has logged more than 100,000 miles, including a voyage around the world. While the ship is fun to see, its interior is not worth touring.
Cost and Hours: £6, daily 10:00-17:30, last entry at 16:45, sometimes closed for private events, Tube: London Bridge, ticket office just up Pickfords Wharf from the ship, tel. 020/7403-0123, goldenhinde.com.
While made a cathedral only in 1905, it’s been the neighborhood church since the 13th century, and comes with some interesting history. The enthusiastic docents give impromptu tours if you ask.
Cost and Hours: Free, but £4 donation requested (you’ll likely be approached about the donation, so be prepared with at least £1 or a simple “No”), daily 8:00-18:30—though only the back of the nave is open to discreet sightseers during frequent services, last entry 30 minutes before closing, £3.50 guidebook, no photos without permission (£2), Tube: London Bridge. Tel. 020/7367-6700, cathedral.southwark.anglican.org.
Music: The cathedral hosts evensong Sun at 15:00, Tue-Fri 17:30, Sat at 16:00; they also host organ recitals Mon at 13:00 and music recitals Tue at 15:15 (call or check website to confirm times of evensong and recitals).
Climb a tight and creaky wooden spiral staircase to a church attic where you’ll find a garret used to dry medicinal herbs, a fascinating exhibit on Victorian surgery, cases of well-described 19th-century medical paraphernalia, and a special look at “anesthesia, the defeat of pain.” Then you stumble upon Britain’s oldest operating theater, where limbs were sawed off way back in 1821.
Cost and Hours: £6.20, cash only, borrowable laminated descriptions, daily 10:30-16:45, closed Dec 15-Jan 5, £1 audioguide tries hard but is not quite worthwhile, 9a St. Thomas Street, Tube: London Bridge, tel. 020/7188-2679, thegarret.org.uk.
Rocketing dramatically 1,020 feet above the south end of the London Bridge, this recent addition to London’s skyline is by far the tallest building in Western Europe (for now). Designed by Renzo Piano (best known as the co-architect of Paris’ Pompidou Center), the glass-clad pyramid shimmers in the sun and its prickly top glows like the city’s nightlight after dark. Its uppermost floors are set aside as public viewing galleries, but the ticket price is as outrageously high as the building itself, especially given that it’s a bit far from London’s most exciting landmarks.
From the observation deck you’ve got great views of St. Paul’s, the Tower of London, Southwark Cathedral (straight down), and, in the distance, the 2012 Olympic stadium in one direction, and the Houses of Parliament in the other (find Buckingham Palace, just left of the Eye). On the clearest days, you can see 40 miles out. Even in bad weather it’s mesmerizing to watch the constant movement of the city’s transit system, which looks like a model-train set from this height.
Cost and Hours: £25 if booked at least a day in advance, £29 for same-day reservations, book as soon as you have reasonable chance of assuring decent weather, least crowded on weekday mornings, daily 9:00-22:00, last entry slot at 20:30, Tube: London Bridge—use London Bridge exit, tel. 0844-499-7111, theviewfromtheshard.com.
The last big-gun armored warship of World War II” clogs the Thames just upstream from the Tower Bridge. This huge vessel—now manned with wax sailors—thrills kids who always dreamed of sitting in a turret shooting off their imaginary guns. If you’re into WWII warships, this is the ultimate. Otherwise, it’s just lots of exercise with a nice view of the Tower Bridge.
Cost and Hours: £15 including 9 percent voluntary donation, includes audioguide, kids under 15 free, daily March-Oct 10:00-18:00, Nov-Feb 10:00-17:00, last entry one hour before closing, Tube: London Bridge, tel. 020/7940-6300, iwm.org.uk/visits/hms-belfast.
The glassy, egg-shaped building near the south end of Tower Bridge is London’s City Hall, designed by Sir Norman Foster, the architect who worked on London’s Millennium Bridge and Berlin’s Reichstag. Nicknamed “the Armadillo,” City Hall houses the office of London’s mayor—the blond, flamboyant, conservative former journalist and author Boris Johnson. He consults here with the Assembly representatives of the city’s 25 districts. An interior spiral ramp allows visitors to watch and hear the action below in the Assembly Chamber—ride the lift to floor 2 (the highest visitors can go) and spiral down. On the lower ground floor is a large aerial photograph of London and a handy cafeteria. Next to City Hall is the outdoor amphitheater called The Scoop (Tube: London Bridge, schedule at morelondon.com—click on “The Scoop at More London”).
Cost and Hours: Free, open to visitors Mon-Thu 8:30-18:00, Fri 8:30-17:30, closed Sat-Sun; Tube: London Bridge station plus 10-minute walk, or Tower Hill station plus 15-minute walk; tel. 020/7983-4000, london.gov.uk.