London Souvenirs
 

A friend of mine is visiting the UK (London) and asked if I had any requests for souvenirs. Any ideas? I've never been there and I don't really know what would be good to bring back.

From Duty Free @ Heathrow - Harrod's orange/chocolate biscuits & their lemon biscuits

Extra strong teabags from Marks & Spencer

P.S., They go very well together for afternoon tea @ home. :)

Hard to say not knowing the price range, or if the friend is paying for the item or you are. Also, I'm assuming if the friend is bringing your souvenir back in his/her luggage, it needs to be small in size (diamond jewelry?). We are not into souvenir buying (seems great while there, but out of place at home!), but if you are talking about an inexpensive momento & not t-shirt/sweat shirt, here are some of our purchases -

For my brother & sister-in-law, we buy unique (but attractive) Christmas tree decorations. They enjoy them & none of them have cost more than 25 euros. We've never traveled during the Christmas season, but it seems many of the souvenir shops have such. In Windsor (day trip from London) we got them a tree decor in the shape, color (red), & decoration of the Queen's crown - about 10 pounds. In Murano (Venice area island), we bought an onsite-blown, colorful glass ball for hanging on the tree, and so forth.

For ourselves, we buy a small teddy bear dressed in the area style, such as, a gladiator bear in Rome, gondolier bear in Venice, British soldier bear in London at Westminster, & so forth. The bears are small enough to sit on a wall shelf in our home office, amid our hanging framed travel photos. These didn't cost more than 25 euros each.

Two exceptions to the above are (1) from The Netherlands, a Dutch blue & white style porcelin kitchen spoon rest, (2) from Santorini, a porcelin tile for sitting a hot kitchen pan & the tile has a map of the island on it.

Another idea, if you need a wall hanging, is for them to let you choose one of their trip photos & then if friend is paying, he/she have it framed for you.

Now, if you are talking costly & unique to UK, there are many such possibilities, I am sure. I'll let others tell you about them because I have no idea - we aren't shoppers either!

Julie

I really wanted to buy some " Mind The Gap" panties for my girlfriends

I love anything "mind the gap" but you probably have to have been there and heard the accent that goes along with it to really bring back the memories....

Please bring me back an Alexander McQueen coat from Brown's.

Pour la friend: you could always go to Odd Bins and pick up some Vin de Pays.

Thin

There's a lot of stuff you could buy online anyway:

http://www.ltmuseumshop.co.uk/

As practically everything is available online these days, it's getting harder and harder to find that special souvenir that can't be bought elsewhere, but in my experience I've found that things from Penhaligon's, Smythson's or Fortnum's always go down well.

If you give us an idea of budget and what you like, I'm sure the fodorites will have numerous suggestions.

I like the way Thin thinks, but if you're after a 'bargain', Oki Ni (www.oki-ni.com) currently has a lovely Alexander McQueen parka at the bargain price of £2,500 down from £4,999. Can't really go wrong with that...

Have her check out the museum shops. They have some lovely things and it support the running of the museums

mark and spencer's has almost everything - food - bags - gifts and amazing prices

Actually, I think English sweets (I suppose US Fodorites would say 'candy') make a fun gift, are small and easy to pack, and are representative of the culture. A Terry's Chocolate Orange springs to mind - this is an 'orange' made up of different segments of orange-scented chocolate, which is quite good quality chocolate too. It's wrapped in foil or something similar, and it's not that easy to get in other places. I think big supermarkets would sell these.

Lavandula

I prefer English crisps ( potato chips) to candy! So many flavors to chose from

We love Marks & Spencer and also the Twinings tea shop near the Strand

Lately I cheat and buy stuff before I go or after I get home! Try BBC catalog!

I love my mind the gap doormat

I think something with the tube theme "mind the gap" is a good idea, maybe a t-shirt or umbrella.

Always interesting to share ideas/suggestions -- but <i>just in case</i> anyone is posting to help the OP, she posted nearly 2 years ago.

I usually get one posh memento (often Staffordshire or Halcyon Days enamel boxes) and then cheaper tfl souvenir's/harrods keychains, etc. Tea, sweets, and plain chocolate digestive biscuits.

I've been buying some gifts to take home for various friends and family. I'm carrying them home with me so everything has to be small, light and unbreakable (and inexpensive). Here are a some of the things I've gotten so far:

- I like the museum gift shops so at the National Gallery I got packages of notes (Canaletto and Monet).
- At the V&A's Ballet Russe gift shop, I bought beautiful printed velvet long fingerless gloves and a wide bracelet.
- At Harrod's I bought a red passport case and a black make-up bag, both with the Harrod's logo. Also, a couple of Harrod's Bear Christmas ornaments for the godkids.
- I've bought a number of beautiful and inexpensive scarves at various shops.
- At Covent Garden (at the back in the corner) there's a man who does small hand-painted enamel jewellery. My littlest niece has an unusual first name and can never get anything with her name on it so I bought her a tiny flowered heart necklace, hand-painted for her. It takes about 10 minutes to get something done.
- At Spitalfields, I bought a few small leather pins shaped like roses, a leather-bound notebook for my artist friend to sketch in, and Scrabble tile cufflinks for her game-loving husband.
- One of my favourite gifts, for my teenage nieces, came from the bookshop at the British Library. They're small round brightly coloured pins (just 60 pence each) and they say things like OMG, ROTFL, LOL, etc. I thought they'd look cute on their bookbags.
- At the Wellcome Collection bookstore I bought a whole bunch of pretty post-it notes and little notebooks.

I haven't yet bought (but probably will) Fortnum & Mason tea for myself and for my sisters.

oops - nearly <u>1 year ago</u> . . .