london things to do; not often mentioned
 

after coming back from spending 11 days in london i have a few recommendations. things i might not have seen mentioned on these forums

reserve tickets to buckingham palace early online. that is the only thing we could not see because we didnt plan in advance. i have heard the faberge eggs are very nice to see....

churchills war room museum was incredible...walked right into the museum
i loved touring parliament, including house of lords and house of commons.
open air theatre at regents park was a highlight...reserved in advance

loved staying at a rented flat in mayfair....great location easy to walk everywhere....
st pancras renaissance hotel incredible just a little far from the center of things....the building is amazing....

go to the 5th floor of harvey nichols to see all the food .... and walk thru fordham and mason especially the stationary dept...amazing items ...

egyptian wing of the british museum was amazing

hi alane,

Could you offer some details? Do you have the link to the flat?

Did you stay at both a flat and hotel?

Thanks.

I agree the Huses of Paliment were fantastic. A group of us are friends with a woman that has a friend who is a member of Parliment so we got a really exceptional tour into placesnot open to the public.

Another thing a lot of people pass on is the zoo. :ondon has a great one and you can walk along the nearby canal

I've not been able to purchase ticket to Buckingham Palace on line - they are sold out. Considering to join a tour who can give us ticket to enter the Palace.

scotlib...... check out regentsuites.com we did a weekly rental at the flat then moved to the hotel becasue the flat was rented.

buckingham palace also gives out daily tickets each morning at 10 am or call them as soon as you get there...maybe they will have something

Alane, thanks for the suggestions. I would like to add THE WALLACE COLLECTION. To quote from my recent TR:

"My destination was THE WALLACE COLLECTION, Manchester Square off Oxford Street not far from Marble Arch. I took the wrong bus whose terminus was Oxford Circle, so I trudged to my destination up Oxford Street with hood up and umbrella open. The museum is housed in HEREFORD HOUSE, the ducal residence of the 4th Marquess of Hereford, art collector extraordinaire and his illegitimate son Richard Wallace who bequeathed the collection and property to the nation around 1900. Admission is free – donations gratefully accepted.


I am at a loss to describe their treasures of 18th century French paintings, porcelain, furniture, bibelots, medieval and Renaissance works, and “the finest collections of princely arms and armour in Britain.” Their website – wallacecollection.org – gives an excellent overview of the mansion and its holdings. I arrived just in time for a tour conducted by charming docent who obviously was also fluent in French. The 4th Marquess and his son Richard Wallace spent a good deal of their lives in Paris where they collected madly – presumably many of their finds were plentiful and cheap (all things being relative) in the years following the French Revolution. The Hereford wealth was derived from landholdings in England and Ireland.


To name just a few gems: the magnificent staircase balustrade designed with motifs popular in the reign of Louis XV, Frogonard’s THE SWING (1767 iconic image for the Wallace Collection), Frans Hals THE LAUGHING CAVALIER (1624), and American painter Thomas Sully’s flattering portrait of the young QUEEN ELIZABETH (1838). Not sure why the latter work is not in Buckingham Palace. Obviously, the Marquess and Mr. Wallace were well connected. According to the terms of their bequest, no item in the collection can be sold or loaned. The Wallace Collection facility has added a lovely dining room in the covered courtyard in the rear which was filled to capacity the day I visited."

Good lunch terracetoo at the Wallace Collection on a pretty

Avalon, glad you enjoyed your lunch at the WALLACE COLLECTION. It looked good to me but I had just had one of those big English breakfasts at my hotel :)

You could have a look at this, it's Time Out's guide to upcoming
London events:

http://www.timeout.com/london/featur...P=londonevents

(Time Out are a pretty trustworthy source of London info by all accounts).

And the Wallace Collection is absolutely brilliant btw, although I haven't had lunch there yet!

Anyone looking for new ideas might find something in this list:
http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/20...ions-2010.html

PatrickLondon, thanks for the site. So many places to visit that I have never heard of like HAM HOUSE and DEEN CITY FARM. One could spend a life time checking out these destinations.

Another quirky site with London happenings is tiredoflondontiredof life.com which has links to other London blogs.

dnto3, another WALLACE COLLECTION fan, eh? I am not a shopper but I really enjoyed their gift shop too - classy stuff.

Thank you so much. We are planning a trip within the month. I will keep your suggestions in mind

I also suggest the Sir John Soane's museum. Especially if you like architectural decoration and/or Hogarth. They have some of the rooms he and his family lived in open (they are in the middle of a massive project to open more rooms). My favorite was seeing the Hogarth original paintings of "A Rake's Progress" and "The Election."

Oh, and if you are fan of Churchill and Roosevelt, you can sit with them on a bench at the corner of Bond St. and Grafton, and have someone take your picture.

NAd do not miss out on Borough Markey on SOuthbank fridys and saaaturdays we go to loNodn 2 time a year for h elast 40m years and hve never misssed ir since we discovered it! DO not miss the Nationsl POrtriat Gallery! Or Imperial War Museum my favorite

Taking a walk along the South side of the River Thames is a good idea.

It is comparatively cheap and there's plenty to see.

There's the London Eye, then the South Bank, Shakespeare's Globe and the Tate Modern.

If you have the energy then along to City Hall and the Tower Bridge, it is a pleasant walk along the river, with many nice Pubs on route.

A good guide, if you have the iphone, is the riverside app, with maps and details of sights, etc

http://www.riversidelondonapp.com/