Things to see and do in London

Lots of more cultured posters will offer alternative suggestions - what dates are you coming down?

The most amusing moment of the weekend was when we started saying stupid "London phrases" to people on the street in a sort of over pronounced careful Irish tourist way. For example "Excuse me "GUV'NOR"

It was quite funny.

I dunno. we were thirsty.

Waxy O'Connors is the on;y place I have ever taken cocaine.

The only place that was particularly nice was "The Clinic" bar, which was good enough. Can't remember where that was but there you go. I didn't see much of London really, didn't have enough money to do much besides drink and laze around watching tv.

I think I also went to Waxy O'Connors wiv Marcello. It holds grim memories for me for other reasons, that I had forgotten until I went in with him. I may be misremembering. I am the cat who walks by himself and all pubs are alike to me.

It's bank holiday weekend in London, and my lady has been a bit sad recently, under lots of stress with moving and work, etc. I want to take her out and do something fun and special in London, so that she will have nowt but fond memories of her adopted home. She has frequently asked if we can row a boat in a park somewhere. I fear that the weather on Monday may be bad, however. If not, where is best for rowing? The Serpentine? If it rains, what is something special and "nice" that we can do?

re raining: go to tate modern

My dog ate my homework, mr m!
(very poor "stevem IS a geography teacher joke)

Thanks, Mark ;).

I have an interview at Kingston University on the 24th, and because I'm a bus-using cheapskate that means I'll be in London from 7:05 till 23:45. Presumably dying when I get home at 10am the following day. I've really only passed through before, so what are the ILX recommendations on what I should do and where I should go? (Tastes: vaguely hipstery but up for anything, budget: as little as is possible.) Is there anything in the Kingston area itself worth seeing?

in the day kingston is mostly a shopping town. there are some lovely parks in the area + parts of the river but tbh i reckon you'd have more fun hopping on the fast train up to waterloo. prob depends on what time your interview is + where you catch your bus home though i guess.

there is SO MUCH you could do in London this is kind of hard to think about!

I will always recommend walking along the river, crossing bridges whenever you feel like it, as an excellent way to spend your time (Tate Britain to Tate Modern is quite a good stretch).

What time's your interview? If it's early then London is basically your oyster until 11pm, otherwise you might be a bit more constrained. Otherwise river/South Bank/Tate Modern is a good suggestion.

the last time i took a number 4 bus it occurred to me that between waterloo and angel it gives you a fantastic view. So you could do that, get off at Angel, wander through Clerkenwell, cross the Gray's Inn Road and and go to Lincoln's Inn to see Sir John Soane's Museum, then into Covent Garden or Bloomsbury, then... I don't know, it's all pretty good. The problem is sometimes you're a street away from something amazing and you don't know it and the street you're in feels dead and dull and empty-- I think of it like being in the margins of a page.

same view on 341, much quicker ride to angel :)

ok, no st pauls.

If it's a nice day then the river in both directions is lovely - Hampton Court one way, Richmond the other. I don't recall Kingston itself offering much, but Richmond's gorgeous and has a cracking big park. I love wandering aimlessly and tbh you could walk all the way to town from there and I'd find it terrific entertainment but ymmv.

All that said, train to London is probably still the way to go - it's only twenty minutes or so. You need to be more precise if you want useful suggestions though, I feel.

if it's a nice day and assuming you have the time i'd take a walk through richmond park then make your way over to angel, or shoreditch or dalston or something. use that as your starting point for exploring filthy east london. look at hipsters, drink in parks, see a band, eat some vietnamese or turkish food, wander round brick lane, whitechapel art gallery usually has some good stuff on, there's a good rockin' groovin' noisey jazz improv kinda night at a bar near there on some tuesdays.

all of this is especially true if the weather is good. when it's nice weather there are few places i'd rather be than this part of london.

unless you want to do sightseeing, in which case, see all of the above.

Kingston to Dalston is a LONG way!

takes about an hour from richmond? not too bad really.

also, fuck getting a bus in the morning. you doing a national express type thing? to victoria? i've been stuck there before and it's pretty cool just hanging out drinking coffee and reading through the night till the first bus leaves...

*getting a bus at midnight

Given the choice between getting a bus through the night and potentially sleeping and hanging around Victoria bus station all night I'd probably plump for the former no matter how grim it is.

thank youss, this all sounds very good. Yeah, I'm arriving and leaving from Victoria, the two overnight bus journeys will, I know from experience, be brutal, so I'm looking to make this day as worthwhile as possible even if the interview is disastrous. The interview itself is at 2:30, would be better if it was early and I had the whole day free, but eyyy, I can work with that.

http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2011/05/12/late-night-openings-at-london-museums-this-weekend/

<3 London

i'd have a look at what exhibitions are currently on and pick something to your taste - london's best done on specifics rather than vague "go to that area, go to any old gallery" etc.

http://www.timeout.com/london/art/ is where i usually check these things

I'm looking for some off the beaten path things to do in London.

I'll be in town September 12-24. I've been to London several times before so I've done all the London-y things before; so now I am looking for more obscure things.

HOLLA BACK IF YOU HAVE SUGGESTIONS!

Horniman museum
The Brunel Museum at the Thames Tunnel
Walk the canal from Paddington to Southall
Visit the Seaside (Whitstable, Margate)

• This article was amended on 24 July 2012 to remove a section about mudlarking on the advice of English Heritage and other bodies which are concerned with the protection of the foreshore and London's archaeological heritage

Thank you N., I see the park/cemetary/etc featured in that crap film Closer is included in this list. Woohoo!!

def the horniman museum! an ilxor took me, it is really great.
go to the barbican if you've a couple of hours to kill, or especially on a sunny day. being there to kill time is kinda the best because it's just such a nice environment to be in, though there's a gallery and a library and a lot of music and theatre on as well.

electric avenue, and all the indoor markets, in brixton, too. it kinda looks like how london looks, to me, probably more than portobello road or w/e does.

So, now that Time Out has gutted its listings in the print version, and the website still seems horrible, where is good for London listings?

I've been getting gig listings by monitoring http://www.londonears.com/ and http://www.londongigs.net/ for a while now. Resident advisor does a better job of clubbing listings. I guess the main thing I miss is the art listings - is there anything like what Time Out used to have? I know we have a thread:

RFI: Current Art Exhibitions in London

but that seems to have died.

http://gallerygoers-schedule.blogspot.co.uk/ (HT to ledge)

For gigs I would turn to Last FM before either of those two:

http://www.last.fm/events/+place/United+Kingdom/London

Heathrow to Holborn is roughly 50 minutes on the Piccadilly so not hugely inconvenient, also interesting to see West London neighbourhoods on the way in, where the Tube is above ground.

also it will be 11am and i will be exhausted and in no hurry to get to a hotel room that isn't ready yet

If you buy a weekly Travelcard from a train station, you’ll be given a paper version of the Travelcard. There’s no deposit to worry about but they need a passport-sized photo to make you a free photocard.

Christ, life is never easy. This doesn't apply to the Travelcard on the Oyster, right? Putting a card on another card -- even New York hasn't managed anything that convoluted.

"travelcard" on the oyster is a skeuomorphism - it just means you've pre-paid for unlimited travel in whichever zones you've chosen.

"a paper version of the travelcard" is a card for travelling. a ticket. a pre-paid ticket unlimited travel in whichever zones you've chosen.

I don't think that helps - how tricky it is to describe concepts that you've never really had to think about

It's baffling, but honestly, just go to the underground station at Heathrow and buy an Oyster card and ask for a weekly Travelcard for zones 1 & 2 to be loaded onto it and put some additional cash on it at that stage which will cover you for the journey into central London and any straying outside zones 1 & 2 which you may do.

it's worth just getting an open return from the airport (paper ticket)

Don't get a paper ticket into London, it's twice the price of the Oyster fare. Get your Oyster card at Heathrow.

Ailsa otm.

ya but the return is discounted

IDK you're probably right

Hunterian is the absolute bomb. When I worked at GAFTA (which is right next to the John Soane museum) I used to nip through Lincoln's Inn Fields and spend my lunchhour looking at endless jars of rotting, pickled fetuses and syphilis-rotted penises. Heaven.

― Blue Collar Retail Assistant (Dwight Yorke), Monday, November 12, 2012

well there now

Finding pleasant ways to fill up a lunch hour can be tricky.

hardly popping over our way morbs?

which way? btw i will be sleeping in Fitzrovia/Bloomsbury, not KC

dublin!

Which is probably in zone 9, aye?

Also, meant to thank Matt & imago for Blackheath recommendations - we ended up just staying in central London and heading straight for Blackheath Halls, then heading straight back again.

looking fwd to creeping thru this Peeping Tom location...

http://www.urban75.org/blog/newman-passage-fitrovia-a-walk-into-londons-past/

x-post

...then heading straight back again

not exactly selling the delights of Blackheath to me.

anyone been to this at Barbican?

http://www.urban75.org/blog/wonderful-welsh-surrealism-with-bedwyr-williams-the-gulch-at-the-barbican-curve-london/

xp
"...a prostitute being picked up a punter in the passage (try saying that after a few beers)"

Pints! After a few pints!

i think that blog is by an American

He's a dreadlocked welsh guy who lives in Brixton and is the drummer with the reformed Monochrome Set.

anyone been to this at Barbican?

http://www.urban75.org/blog/wonderful-welsh-surrealism-with-bedwyr-williams-the-gulch-at-the-barbican-curve-london/

It's OK - worth a look if you happen to be in the Barbican already or maybe within 15 minutes walk, not worth it otherwise (imo).

shit, i'm going to need an outlet adapter to plug in my laptop, aren't i?

not exactly selling the delights of Blackheath to me.

I'm sure it's lovely, but time was at a premium so we decided to do more touristing and less drinking. Sorry, Blackheath :-(

hey kids, my dance card is filling up rapidly if you wan to FAP with me... Sunday and Tuesday eves seem the best options.

Sunday is good for me (can't do tuesday).

How about the Lamb & Flag? http://www.lambandflagcoventgarden.co.uk/

i think that could/should work. I will be at the BM with a Mancunian friend i haven't seen in a dozen years, so i don't want to ditch him too early, not before 5 (if he doesn't want to come along). But otherwise no problems. I suspect I'll be out with plax(ico) on Tuesday, and eventually at the Lexington, so perhaps there'll be two noncompulsory options...

(remember my daily plans are usu etched in stone by 9am bcz no mobile phone/texts/online etc)

Ok then I'll be there by 6pm. If the plans change update this thread tomorrow morning and I'll out for that.

I'll be having this book on the table: https://www.faber.co.uk/9780571289264-gottfried-benn-impromptus.html

I will be with you in spirit!

i will aim for 6, no later than 6:30, ok?

ok, see you then.

Bah my "oh Christ what happened to my weekend" is kicking in earlier than usual - xyzzzz__, could you apologise for me? I'll be song on Tuesday.

*along

sure.

tuesday for me too

This was fun. Started with Castro, ended with Britpop memories. I recommend it :)

:D

I will be busy down Thameside til around 6ish Tuesday, so Lexington around 6:30 is fine for all? Look for the shivering elder in green jacket/black hoodie combo.

things to do and see in london = meet up with dr morbius (and andrew farrell) at the lexington :)

And fuck losing lose a hat on the way back! But the company was excellent.

sorry for your hat. i got into the show, though.

Awesome!

:)

friend's coming up to london, and i'm trying to decide what to do. current toss-up between Ally Pally to Victoria station walk (it's more park than street, plus i know where the pubs are), but also toying with the idea of doing the situationist thing and getting a map of another city and using it to navigate london. i'm wondering which cities wd be appropriate. was thinking berlin (large) but that's boring because i know it already and it seems a bit unexotic. thought maybe Havana (this is after all about SMASHING the bonds of subliminal bourgeois ideology and false consciousness) but Havana's a port and that doesn't map well on to London.

Any thoughts or shd I take it to the guess the city thread? (I'm meeting friend at Charing X, which is handy for mapping in its sometime rule as arbitrary central point of London)

Delhi? It's large, not particularly well planned and has a big river through the middle.

thanks SV. ended up doing the Ally Pally to Victoria (only getting as far as Regent's Park) but Delhi an excellent suggestion and will plan and poss thread in new year.

Strong sense of the unreal about this new globular arena next to Stratford Westfield.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/mar/27/proposed-designs-revealed-for-msg-sphere-uk-largest-concert-arena-east-london

mewlingly credulous article there

https://ctl.s6img.com/society6/img/B7djm6j38xtd5JIbYdO_PIc2v2k/w_700/prints/~artwork/s6-original-art-uploads/society6/uploads/misc/3ebed0b0dffc4aadaadf491e9eeb4196/~~/akira-neo-tokyo-is-about-to-explode-prints.jpg

lol otm