apart from theatre/london eye/british museum do any other museums/sites/shopping centres open late(after 8pm)?
in paris the arc/eiffel/louvre/d orsay/cruises all open some evenings and this allowed me to spread my trip visits over a larger span of the week.
in london everything seems to close around 6 or 7, even the shops!!! thanks

Most of the museums have a late night during the week. Check out this website which lists links to many of the museums:

http://www.ukguide.org/london/museum.html

The site bettyk recommends is a bit user-unfriendly. Get the latest copy of Time Out, which lists opening hours. As bettyk says, all the major places have one or two nights open till around 9 (the BM doesn't open all its galleries late, BTW, though I believe all the Greatest Hits galleries do open late)

There are lots of evening cruises, all the time.

There's no simple rule about central London shop hours. Most posh places keep more or less bankers' hours, closing at 5.30 or 6. Some urban malls - like Whiteleys - stay open till 10 or even midnight, though many of the shops in them don't.

Theatres, restaurants, pubs, most book shops, clubs and the perpetual theatre of London's streets stay open as long as more or less anywhere else in the world. Most of us can think of many, many more interesting things to do at 9pm than buying our nickders at M+S.

your right flanneruk but i promised my wife that she could devote 50% of the 1 week trip to shopping.i thought this could be done at night after siteseeing.

I was toying with the idea of going on my own to see attractions during the day while she goes off to shop....anyone do this on holidays?I was thinking if i take a group tour at the musuem/site i wont feel that lonely.

Go to London to shop ! Why ? Is their made in China junk better than our made in China junk. By the sheer size of our economy it costs about 1/2 over here. But then she couldn't say she bought it in London. And the paperwork to get a VAT rebate a the airport... Ahh, don't forget the customs Duty when you return to the U.S......Shopping.....She can do that anywhere... You're in London... LOL

Umm...why not split up and do different things?

Split up, and let her go shopping. There aren't really any shops open after 8 pm.

London is a great city for shopping, and I certainly understand your wife for wanting to do just that!

chrisp--I hate shopping, but I can understand people going to London to shop. You can--gasp--get different things than you would in the US. If it was just about price, we would all do all of our shopping at Wal-Mart.