places to avoid in london
Dec 3rd, 2002 | 10:14 AM
#2
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Mike-<BR>I don't think there are too many 'bad' areas in London that you would want to avoid. Ben Haines would have a better answer for this. The first time I went to London, we booked into this hole- I don't specifically remember the name- the Park Hotel or a variation of that- I will check and get back to you. Anyway, the place has cement dogs on either side of the front door. The room was filty, damp, and freezing. The en suite bathroom was horrible. We cancelled our booking after the first night and took a room at the Kensington Moathouse that we got through a booking agency there. Good luck!
Dec 3rd, 2002 | 10:40 AM
#3
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<BR>The area in front of Kings Cross station used to have prostitutes and drug pushers, but big numbers of police, and space taken by tunnellers, are cleaning it up. Nor were these unpleasant people any trouble to the thousands of passers-by.<BR><BR>Around London, some three miles from the centre, are big areas of social housing, ugly tower blocks on grubby grassland, where corner shops are closed and the police walk in pairs. You should avoid these, but then, you have no reason to go there.<BR><BR>Now we come to questions that are more about you than about London. One Fodors forum correspondent dislikes Charing Cross underground station because a few homeless people sleep there. Why this means stay away I do not know. Two years ago on the forum I recommended shopping visits to Brixton, and drew down a cascade of disapproval, which seemed to centre upon the fact that the area is strong in black people. But in fact there are no hotels there. An Englishman who works in the City (meaning the central business district) said he thought Americans would not like the fact that streets there (and in parts of Mayfair) are empty at night. To advise people on the grounds of what assumptions they might have, rather than of actual risk, seems to me odd.<BR><BR>The Metropolitan Police warn tourists of pickpockets active in all tourist areas, and that in central Soho you take a risk if you go to a cellar bar or upstairs bar with sexy dancing, as the bill might be huge, and heavies are there to see that you paid it. Places on ground level do not seem unsafe, and in any case your accommodation will not be in a disreputable dive. The site http://www.met.police.uk/tourist/index.htm, then Advice for Visitors, runs over current police advice, but naturally says nothing about areas, good or bad.<BR><BR>Please write if I can help further. Welcome to London.<BR><BR>Ben Haines<BR><BR>
Dec 7th, 2002 | 08:21 AM
#4
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Apart from the King's cross area, there aren't really any "bad areas" for tourist hotels in London. <BR><BR>Unlike the US, crime/debauchery aren't localised around certain blocks. Generally though as is common with most European countries, areas right around train stations can be slightly seedy and depressing.
