oh2doula

Tate Modern is open until 10 pm on Friday and Saturday so considering visiting them in the evening. Is this a safe area to be walking in at 8 -10 pm? We will be coming from Piccadilly area on tube and then on to Pimlico after the museum. There are five in the group - three women (40ish, 21 and 19) two males ( 22 and 19). I am thinking with a group including males we should be fine but wanting to check.

Is ten even considered late? and yes I know crime can happen at any hour....

jent103

Totally fine. (with usual common sense caveats)

oh2doula

thanks!!

janisj

"<i>Is ten even considered late?</i>"

No

(Are you obsessing again? )

Once I attended at special performance of Romeo and Juliet at the Globe (next door to the Tate) on midsummer day when curtain was at <u>midnight</u> and we got out at 0300 - now, <i>that</i> was late. But my girlfriend and I still hiked quite a ways to catch a night bus.

From one of my OLD TRs: >><i>We took the tube to Tower Hill and wandered around St Katherine's Dock and had a drink. Then to the Tower at 9:30 for the Keys ceremony. I have been to this several times over the years, but this Yeoman Warder explained things in a lot more detail and made it more of an "event" that most. After the ceremony we walked across the bridge and wandered along the south bank. I got suggestions on this forum for late night places because we had time to kill before a special midnight performance at the Globe. I was headed to Tas - but a friend in London told me there is a new Pizza Express right next door to the Globe and that is where we ended up. BIG mistake. Not because there is anything wrong w/ Pizza Express, but I assume they had not planned for the crowds. We volunteered to sit in the lounge instead of at a dinner table when they said it would be quicker. We were only having dessert and Irish coffees - we got there about 10:45 and we almost missed curtain. It was chaos. Luckily the restaurant is literally just steps from the theatre.

I love Romeo and Juliet and this performance was really good. But sitting in the cold at 3 a.m. after the two lovers are dead and the priest goes on (and on) explaining what has just transpired -- I just wanted to YELL "enough already, We?re freezing out here - step it up a bit!" Just kidding, I was warmly dressed, but one forgets how protracted the end of the play is. We had great seats - bought last Feb. as soon as I heard about this performance. We rented cushions but not blankets - but most of the groundlings were drinking hot beverages and were wrapped up in the Globe's red blankets.

The play ended just before 3 a.m. and we headed out to Southwark Rd to catch a night bus to Victoria. But we missed one by about 5 minutes so we were prepared to wait 30 min til the next one. We did wait about 20 mins but then hailed the only available cab we saw the entire time (not too much traffic about at 3:30 in the morning). Walked in the door at 3:55. This was a loooooooong day but totally great, and our plans for Sunday were modest so we could sleep in.</i><<

. . . Totally safe . . .

PatrickLondon

I honestly can't think of any area tourists are likely to visit that is habitually unsafe, especially if, as in your case, you're travelling mob-handed, as it were. As stated above, you need the kind of awareness you'd use in any big city, in case of the opportunistic pickpocket, random drunks or people with an incomprehensible grievance against the world.

oh2doula

No I am not going to obsess about this one!!

My new obsession IS London Eye - do we go at 10 am and then take a bit later train to Cranbrook - 11:10 - 11:40 or 12:07.... OR do we do London Eye once we get back from Cranbrook - which would be after dark.....

It’s our last day and last trip we didn’t do London Eye and my daughter has never forgiven me. There is JUST so much to see and do and with two first timers it’s so hard to cut something and Janisj you KNOW I hit the ground running and we fit in quite a bit a day which is fine with all of us but even with that something’s have to be cut and then there is my whole OCD thing –


But we will use common sense and I feel comfortable being out after ten.

oh2doula

We are watching Ceremony of the Keys - can anyone recommend anything between National Gallery and Tower of London IF we need to kill time before the Ceremony?? I know to be there ON time.

I had read about Sherlock Holmes pub by Charing Cross.... anything closer to the Tower??

dorfan2

I visited (and enjoyed) the Minories Pub near Tower Hill in 2011. Here's the trip report mention:

"we ventured out and enjoyed a Thames cruise from Westminster Pier to Tower Pier and walked a few blocks up to the Minories pub for dinner. The interior was barrel-shaped - it was actually inside a tunnel under a bridge and you could hear the rumble when a car drove overhead. Very dark inside - thanks to a Fodors forum recommendation, I had a tiny key chain flashlight, and we were able to read the menus because of it. DH and myself had the breaded scampi (shrimp) which was very good"

The night we went to the C.O.T.K., we were forced (due to tube sta. closings on Sun. night) to take a longer route, which actually turned out great - I would recommend it if the weather is good:

"...to London Bridge station. From there it was a 15 min. walk to the Tower, which we actually enjoyed as we got to walk across the London Bridge at night and along the Thames to the Tower"

jamikins

The Cheshire Cheese pub is on Fleet St just by Ludgate Hill if you are walking or taking the bus http://www.pubs.com/main_site/pub_de...php?pub_id=154

There is also a pub called The Hung, Drawn and Quartered just a block or so from the Tower http://hung-drawn-and-quartered.co.uk/

BigRuss

I second the Minories pub. Don't remember it as quite so dark, but we went at lunch. Fish and chips were exceedingly good. I might be the one who recommended it (we went in '09, I couldn't remember the name, just that it was under the DLR).

oh2doula

thanks everybody - love the options

PatrickLondon

>> I couldn't remember the name, just that it was under the DLR<<

I thought it was called the Litten Tree, whenever I went past it, which is often enough, but it seems to be listed as The Minories:

http://www.fancyapint.com/Pub/1785
http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs...ies/Tower_Hill