Top Reasons to Go

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre: Catch a performance as a "groundling" (in the standing-room pit) while being caught up in a performance of one of the Bard's great plays in the recreated "Wooden O."

Tate Modern: One of the world's great shrines of contemporary and modern art, this branch of the Tate is served up in a spectacularly renovated electric turbine hall.

The London Dungeon: Did you ever imagine what a disembowelment looks like? Well, here's your chance to visit a real old-fashioned "chamber of horrors," which showcase tableaux depicting all forms of medieval torture. You'll be amazed how many children adore this place.

Borough Market: Arrive hungry and gorge your way through stalls of organic produce at London's oldest food market.

Golden Jubilee Bridges: Walk across the footbridge at dusk, then east along a fairy-light embankment toward the Oxo Tower.