21st century London. Need some tips

Old Feb 2nd, 2010, 09:46 AM
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 235
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
21st century London. Need some tips

Hi,

I'm thinking about doing some more travel in London, but since it's been a while since I spent much more than 24 hours in the city, I've been looking at guidebooks. It turns out I'm not interested in most of what they're writing about. I mean, I can find the museums myself, but I'm actually interested in experiencing more of contemporary London -- maybe immigrant neighborhoods, newer architecture, maybe a well-regarded avant-garde theater space or---- ???

The thing is, I don't really know where to find what I'm looking for, or maybe it doesn't exist. Maybe you could help if I told you what I'm not interested in:

Nothing to do with the royal family
No historic pubs
No shopping
No gardens
No WW2 monuments
No dangerous, hostile or prostitution neighborhoods.

I'm not really a sports fan, but I'm thinking maybe I should go to a sports event, or a sports pub. I'm also thinking I'd like to see that huge Hindu temple that's on the outskirts of town. Is it interesting to walk around strongly ethnic neighborhoods? Is there some cutting edge area of London?

One more question: Is the Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park just now certifiable lunatics, or do sometimes people who really are sane to rant against the system up on the platform? I'm thinking if it's the latter, I'd like to go.

Hope this isn't just babbling and somebody knows what I mean. I want to see the new London, not what little is left of the old one, especially when it's just there for tourists.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for helping if you can.
primeranoche is offline  
Old Feb 2nd, 2010, 09:48 AM
  #2  
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 12,582
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
ttt. So I see it in the morning. I have some ideas.....
Cholmondley_Warner is offline  
Old Feb 2nd, 2010, 10:19 AM
  #3  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 20,916
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I wouldn't say "What little is left of the old London", it's all a glorious muddle of old, new, historic and merely overlooked for a century or more, picturesque and dull, etc., etc.

Places where successive immigrations have come in don't, for the most part, alter the basic architecture and layout of the streets, of course. So one of the attractions of Brick Lane/Spitalfields is that you can see the inheritance of 18th century French Huguenots, 19th century Irish labourers, 19th and 20th century Jewish traders and craftsmen, 20th and 21st century Bengali traders and restaurateurs - and 21st century arty-crafty people from all over, in Spitalfields market. And up and down Bishopsgate are plenty of shiny office blocks.

Another suggestion would be Deptford High St, and if you can find it, not too far away is the Laban dance centre, which caused some architectural interest.
http://www.laban.org/building.phtml

But another point is that startling new buildings tend to be one-offs. The Swaminarayan Hindu temple in Neasden that you mention is marooned in the middle of very ordinary 20s and 30s housing like vast swathes of London. (It is worth a visit if you can).

http://www.mandir.org/

For ethnic mixtures, off the top of my head, Southall, Green Lanes or Stoke Newington might be another option, or around Kingsland Road or Mare St in Hackney.

I'm not the best person to talk about offbeat performance spaces, but one that comes to mind is Wilton's Music Hall in east London, which does all sorts: but, to continue my theme, it is an original Victorian music hall. It's awaiting restoration, so it looks interestingly decrepit.

http://www.wiltons.org.uk/
PatrickLondon is offline  
Old Feb 2nd, 2010, 11:08 AM
  #4  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 15,395
Likes: 0
Received 11 Likes on 4 Posts
Edgware Road has a distinct middle eastern flavor with people in various forms of non-western dress and many restaurants and shisha cafes where people sit outside and smoke water pipes.
Nikki is online now  
Old Feb 2nd, 2010, 11:16 AM
  #5  
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 5,606
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Great question. If you accidentally run into the royal family you can snub them.
stokebailey is offline  
Old Feb 2nd, 2010, 11:51 AM
  #6  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 235
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
PatrickLondon, thanks very much! I hear you about them not moving the architecture. In fact, while I was reading one of these guidebooks, I was thinking: "Do they really think I'm not going to notice that's Big Ben?" And it's not like if I'm walking past the Brompton Oratory I'm not going to go in. Or some creaky old pub. But listen, thanks for those tips!

Thanks, Nikki!

Stoke, I wouldn't snub them! Truth be told, I feel sorry for them. But I don't feel drawn to looking at their stuff.
primeranoche is offline  
Old Feb 2nd, 2010, 02:23 PM
  #7  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,037
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I've only been to London a couple of times so I'm not really an expert who can give you lots of help, but I know exactly where you are coming from.

Definitely check out Time Out London online, it can be a good resource for gallery exhibits and alternative theater schedules. The hardcopy guide book is good too, but the website has all the update listings info.

The City has some fantastic modern architecture, I also really like the architecture of the Docklands area.

I don't think Shoreditch/Hoxton count as cutting edge anymore but there are a lot of modern galleries, restaurants, and bars.

Camden Town is about as edgy as a pound of butter but it's fun to walk around, especially imo in the early morning before anything is open. I like the more northern strip up to Chalk Farm.

If you like graffiti of course there are Banksy's to be seen. Banksy map here: http://www.zeemaps.com/map.do?group=1571

And I haven't been yet but I've got both Brixton and Hackney on my list.
Apres_Londee is offline  
Old Feb 2nd, 2010, 02:29 PM
  #8  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,037
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Meant to post the link to Time Out:

http://www.timeout.com/london/
Apres_Londee is offline  
Old Feb 2nd, 2010, 03:33 PM
  #9  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 235
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Thanks, Apres-Londee! And thanks for the link.

One problem certainly is that the "cutting edge" is always moving. I'm not sure I like graffiti.

I'm also thinking about going for a long sit in the Houses of Parliament. Can one visit the London Stock Exchange? If I took a tour of Scotland Yard, I figure its got to be the "official story" -- but is it still telling? Like, are they bad at telling the story? Lol!

Anybody have an opinion about the Speaker's Corner?
primeranoche is offline  
Old Feb 2nd, 2010, 05:06 PM
  #10  
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 5,606
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
You don't have to be rude to the royal family if they cross your path, primera. Just pretend to see something on the other side of the street, or bend down to tie your shoe.

It's worth going to Speaker's Corner just to see what it's all about. Predominantly religious messages, but there might be some interesting political ranting.
stokebailey is offline  
Old Feb 2nd, 2010, 05:09 PM
  #11  
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 5,606
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
PS: The flow of humanity, very 21st C, is the most interesting thing about London.
stokebailey is offline  
Old Feb 2nd, 2010, 06:02 PM
  #12  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 235
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I would never be rude to them! I told you! I don't mind them personally at all! (Except Elizabeth and Philip. They're awful!)

I agree with you about the flow of humanity, especially globalized humanity. But in London, you know that gets steered out of the tourist areas. I was wondering if there is something to learn by going to neighborhoods where Hong Kong people or African people have flowed in. (I'm making that up. Just asking.)

I know that in some sense it's silly to ask "Where do you go to see today's London?"

Like, duh! Just go!

But I think if somebody visited me in San Francisco, or New York, and said:

"I want to see today's city, how it's working itself out, not the San Francisco of New York that's iconic fantasy and about yesterday" -- I'd kind of know where to take them. Just like I'd know where to take them if they said the opposite.

Yeah. I should just go to Speaker's Corner. I hope it's not all religious rants, or spaceship rants.
primeranoche is offline  
Old Feb 2nd, 2010, 11:18 PM
  #13  
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Posts: 17,268
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
"I'm also thinking about going for a long sit in the Houses of Parliament."
Visitors to Britan can queue up for debates (or just walk in if it's a particularly boring subject). If there isn't a debate on, non-residents may only go on a set tour during part of the summer recess

"Can one visit the London Stock Exchange?"
What's to visit? Nothing happens at the Exchange, which is just an office building. Trading is all electronic. All that histrionic bell-ringing, flag-waving, self-congratulatory nonsense they get up to in New York was phased out decades (seriously) ago

If I took a tour of Scotland Yard, I figure its got to be the "official story" -- but is it still telling? Like, are they bad at telling the story?"
It's the operational centre of a police force. It's not a tourist attraction

"Anybody have an opinion about the Speaker's Corner?"
Crap. Interesting if you're from a country like China where freee speech is a novelty. Read tabloid newspapers, listen to radio phone ins. Anything but get involved with the tossers at Speakers Corner.

Still thinking about more useful suggestions
flanneruk is offline  
Old Feb 3rd, 2010, 01:59 AM
  #14  
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 616
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Regarding avant garde theatre, the Soho Theatre and Sadler's Wells often have a pretty interesting line-up (some of which strays into the avant garde).

If you're after full-on performance art, Time Out will be your best friend as there are so many tiny venues scattered across London that it's really the only way to be sure of catching something that you might want to see.

A 'cutting edge' area of London doesn't really exist unfortunately. There are pockets of interest all over the city but there's not really a single area you can go to get that feeling. As Apres_Londee says, Shoreditch/Hoxton is no longer cutting edge but the identikit folk that live there (skinny jeans, fixed-gear bikes and French bulldogs as accessories) would have you believe otherwise.

There are definitely some interesting bars/restaurants in the area but be prepared to assessed from head-to-toe any time you go into one.

If you want to see "how the city's working itself out", head over to Hackney/Dalston/Victoria Park and classes and types of people living cheek-by-jowl as developers/trustafarians move in and buy up buildings next to council housing and businesses that have been in the same location for decades.
Jay_G is offline  
Old Feb 3rd, 2010, 01:59 AM
  #15  
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 12,188
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
> I'm actually interested in experiencing more of contemporary London -- maybe immigrant neighborhoods, newer architecture, maybe a well-regarded avant-garde theater space or---- ???

Immigrant neighborhoods - Brixton (Caribbeans), Brick Lane (Bangladeshi), Vauxhall (Portuguese), and otherwise scattered all over London and beyond

Newer architecture - Canary Wharf, Docklands, various London buildings even in the centre

Well-regarded avant-garde theater space - It's not really avant-garde, but I like the National Theatre and its (I think) three stages. It's more the production that is avant-garde than the space, I think, so use various sources to find such productions. I have been to interesting (if amateurish, not badly, though) productions in Hampstead and Richmond, although I guess Shaw in the latter case is not exactly avant-garde.

I think you would like the Time Out guidebook to London, for starters.

If it helps, even without specifically avoiding them, I'm sure I do not ever spend more than 5-10% of my London trips on any of your undesired sights or places: "Nothing to do with the royal family No historic pubs No shopping No gardens No WW2 monuments No dangerous, hostile or prostitution neighborhoods." So the odds of you actually doing these things if you are trying to avoid them must be nil.
WillTravel is offline  
Old Feb 3rd, 2010, 04:40 AM
  #16  
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 12,582
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
If I took a tour of Scotland Yard, I figure its got to be the "official story" -- but is it still telling? Like, are they bad at telling the story?">>>>

It's a 1960s concrete office block with smelly drains and a rubbish canteen (called Peelers would you believe) and mental lifts that just take you where they think you should go, no matter what button you push. They even closed The Tank (the bar)

You can't go in. It's the HQ of the Met and is surrounded by armed police and all sorts of anti bomb stuff. They don't like you even taking photos of anything other than the rotating sign.

Hang around the Yard and you'll get a tug (and not the good kind)

But in all honesty you're missing nowt. A trip around an insurance company would be as much fun.
Cholmondley_Warner is offline  
Old Feb 3rd, 2010, 04:51 AM
  #17  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 20,916
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
BBC tours?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tours/
PatrickLondon is offline  
Old Feb 3rd, 2010, 05:26 AM
  #18  
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 10,255
Likes: 0
Received 3 Likes on 1 Post
Don't know if you'd call it avant-garde, but the Royal Court Theater showcases new writing and acting talents.
Fra_Diavolo is online now  
Old Feb 3rd, 2010, 06:46 AM
  #19  
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 5,606
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I'd think being in a radio audience would be fun.
stokebailey is offline  
Old Feb 3rd, 2010, 06:54 AM
  #20  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 20,916
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
>>I'd think being in a radio audience would be fun.
PatrickLondon is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information -