London between flights
 

Will be taking the express into London between flights (5 hours total). What's near Paddington Station? or is something better a short tube or walk?

Folk have recommended a walk in Hyde Park across to South Kensington & return by Tube, but 5 hours is in my mind tight for that sort of thing as it can easily take an hour just to get out of LHR

And that's assuming your luggage is checked through & you have your boarding card for the next flight. If you don't take another hour out of that, then there's the little matter of getting through security when you return to LHR

If you've got your boarding pass in hand and your luggage is checked, you need to be at Paddington 1½ hours before your flight departs at H-hour.

So if you can get out of Heathrow by H-4, you'll have 2 hours to see a little corner of London.

Here's a map of buses from Paddington: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/buses/spiders/pdf/paddington.pdf

The #36 and 436 will take you to Hyde Park Corner, a short walk to Buckingham Palace. #15 and 23 go to Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. Or how about a #7 to the British Museum? Baker Street is just up the road on a #27 or 205. All of these are within 10-15 minutes of Paddington. A one-day Bus Pass will get you all you can eat for £3.50

A geographical map is here:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/buses/pdfdocs/centlond.pdf

<i>But at my back I always hear / Time's wing&egrave;d chariot hurrying near...</i>

Forgot to mention: Heathrow Express sells a round-trip ticket valid from 13:00 to midnight for &pound;16.

Thank you folks! Robespierre, your info and links are very helpful. Luggage will be checked through and should have boarding pass in hand. My favorite is the British Museum- but that may be a bit chancey as it is too interesting to leave on time! So I may opt for something else closer to Paddington.

There's very little of great interest immediately close to Paddington. There's the penicillin museum at St Mary's hospital, next door to the station. If you just want to get fresh air into your lungs, follow the signs to the M+S head office at platform 9 and you end up, five minutes later, at a canalside office complex.

Keep on along this canal tow path for 300 miles and you'll end up in Liverpool. This may be unrealistic in the hour or two you've got, but walk on for ten minutes and you're in Little Venice - a Regency-era (actually I think it was Willhelmine, but let's not be pedantic) villa compex around the canal. Quite charming, generally hardly worth more than a quick detour, but a huge contrast to 24 hours cooped up in a cigar tube.

Third alternative (yes, I know): download a map of the area from www.multimap.co.uk and follow it for the seven minutes from the station to Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park. Just a big park. But again, a break from the airport claustrophobia.

In the time you've got I wouldn't go any further. You probably haven't got time to get the tube from Heathrow to the South Ken museum complex, which is the other short layover option that involves central London.

Personally, BTW, I'd get the Heathrow Connect from the airport to Southall, see the temple and have a decent South Asian lunch.

My favourite Central London map is this one

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/buses/pdfdocs/centlond.pdf

As you can see Paddington (top left) is a tadge out of the way for major attractions

Mine as well (see above). It's available on paper at any Tube station ticket office.

Have you considered visiting Windsor--a relatively short taxi ride from Heathrow--as an alternative to going into London?

Windsor sounds like a good idea. Do you know what a taxi might cost and how much time I should allow?