lesm

Wow, had no idea this post would strike such interesting banter. It's obvious that the world is full of differing opinions. I appreciate everyones thoughts. And just to clarify for those who were a bit judgemental after reading my question...I was just curious if there was something similar to Lincoln Park...I wasn't intending to spend an entire trip in a "monocultural ghetto" as Cotswold so kindly pointed out. I am excited to see the sites, museums, neighboorhoods, and mingle with a diversified crowd.

THANKS EVERYONE!

lesm

PM, Really appreciate your input and candor. After reading the first few posts here, I felt as though I had been beaten up in a fight. I very much appreciate you looking out for me...and you are correct...I won't be roaming the streets of london searching for trendy hookers. I can definitely appreciate your point of view, being that you are in the entertainment industry. Sounds like you have a very good pulse on these types of things.

flygirl

neat thread, think I'll top it for future visits!

ben_haines_london

I think PM Goose’s up-and-coming area just north of Covent Garden is Neal’s Yard. It is almost too small to make an area of itself. But next to London Bridge station is Borough Market, a little larger, and rising fast in the world, deservedly so, as it brings us delicat Essen that we did not know yen years ago.
Ben Haines, London
[email protected]

Neopolitan

I think the funny thing about all this banter is that lesm used Lincoln Park as a sort of guide and people started assuming it was somehow a "monocultural" vacuum. Like any other area anywhere, not everyone who lives in Lincoln Park is the same age, the same background, has the same type job, or even the same amount of money. Nor are all the restaurants and shops there exactly alike. To suggest that similar areas wouldn't exist in other cities of the world is pure foolishness. Meanwhile I can say that having rented a flat on Floral Street in Covent Garden for quite a few years, I've seen a rather gradual change to where the shops on our street, the surrounding apartments, the neighboring pubs and restaurants, and the crowd at the neighborhood Tesco, could easily pass for the typical Lincoln Park "stereotype". And yes, I've rented and stayed in Lincoln Park for a personal comparison.

BTilke

Yes, I wonder why some posters found it impossible to answer the question without tossing a few gratuitous insults at both the OP and his neighborhood.
Google "trendy London" and you get more than 23,000+ hits, including many from supposedly savvy British sources like TimeOut, which described one bar as "a mix of businessmen and trendy London types winding down after the working day."

m_kingdom2

""a mix of businessmen and trendy London types winding down after the working day."

Sounds like hell!

Neopolitan

hmmm. Also sounds like a typical evening at the Cigar bar at Claridges.

PatrickLondon

Hip and trendy? Claridges? Surely they'd rather DIE..

m_kingdom2

Sadly it does, well most of the time anyway. The drinks and service are still good, oh, and there are never any "trendy types" there, certainly not what I call "trendy".

However, bars in London improve markedly in the small hours, before closing time one should always order one last drink and make it last as long as possible! Everyone will vanish and the bar is yours and the company you are with.

But the description provided by TimeOut to me refers to the dreadful sort of chain bar "All Bar One" rather than something more upmarket.

Neopolitan

"and there are never any "trendy types" there, certainly not what I call "trendy"

Then I stand corrected. Previously I had gotten the impression that you go there. My mistake.

m_kingdom2

"Trendy" people follow trends, and have no style of their own.

I am not a sheep!

BTilke

Actually, the bar as described above was the Millbank Lounge. Definitely not a chain. But it does show that there are plenty of Brits--including those writing for TimeOut's guide to dining, which has been recommended here over and over--do indeed use the word trendy.

m_kingdom2

I'd never ever use TimeOut for anything where an opinion is to be sought. It's fine for listing events etc. but when it comes to a bar, a nightclub, a restaurant, it has no idea what it is talking about on the whole.

None of the best bars, nor clubs, nor restaurants in London could ever be described as trendy. Trendy is something in Hoxton, in The City, something which needn't exist as far as I am concerned. I suppose that restaurants are a safer bet as one goes by the food, but then I suppose TimeOut has a thing for gastro pubs...oh well!

Better than any guide: ask the people on this forum!

Neopolitan

Once again, there must be a language barrier between the Yanks and the Brits.
Merriam-Webster gives two definitions of trendy. One is simply "fashionable". The other, often with more negative connotations is "marked by ephemeral, superficial, or faddish appeal or taste".

It is kind of hard to believe there are no places in London that are neither fashionable, nor marked by faddish appeal or taste.

Many posts here talk about the "only place to currently buy" things or "anyone who is anyone wouldn't go there" and some have recently referred to specific London neighborhoods as "up and coming" and "having arrived". (sound familiar, anyone) If these aren't indications of trendy, I guess we do have different definitions on opposite sides of the pond.

Neopolitan

So one can only go to the flagship store of a designer shop rather than one of the branches that doesn't have the "absolute latest" designs because that's where you can select your own style rather than being a sheep? Now I'm really confused. We must have different definitions of sheep also.

m_kingdom2

It's how you wear an outfit, not where you buy it that matters. Wearing head-to-toe of one designer is a sheep as you've turned yourself into a "themepark", but mixing, and matching and creating your own style is what defines you.

PatrickLondon

I think it's one of those declension/condescension things, e.g.,

I am hip
You are trendy
They are people who merely think they are.

MissZiegfeld

Neal's Yard is almost too small to be considered a neighborhood..perhaps the poster was referring to Bloomsbury as the neighborhood north of Covent Garden? There's a university there so lots of folks in their 20's..it's a nice area and a convenient one (I've stayed there a few times), but I would never call it "trendy". I think Chelsea might be the closest match for what this poster is looking for. The area around Sloane Sq. perhaps?