....Which may be why one recent poster was "Horrified" that she had inadvertently booked a visit during half term because the city would heaving. We all told her that was silly and she'd be fine - but I'm not sure she believed it....

There is a Fodors iphone app for London. It has a section "when not to go". It specifically mentions October half term, together with early August and the week before Christmas.

This may prove useful to the OP: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...ernet-hit.html

Excellent link sparkchaser ( and so very true!)

I'll also be making my own way around London itself......

Are there any good high tea places near the British Museum? We will most probably be walking after we visit the museum, so a place close by would be good. (that would be good for a days events right?)

Have breakfast, catch a taxi right to the door step of the museum, after about 3 hours or more, have some tea, then make way back to hotel and freshen up before dinner?

We actually call it Afternoon Tea, not High Tea.

Check out http://www.afternoontea.co.uk for reviews and ideas.

My favourite is Sanderson's Mad Hatter Tea just off Oxford St.

OOOh!!! That's exactly the website I needed. Thank you very much

I'm going to try out the Mad Hatter's Afternoon tea

and also go try afternoon tea in The Goring + visit the Queen's gallery

How do these two sound?

There's really no reason to have afternoon tea twice in one visit - it's honestly not that big a deal It's basically a pot of tea with a load of fancy little cakes and dainty sandwiches sold at enormous mark-ups, and put on mainly for overseas tourists and provincial grannies visiting London on a day out. Once you've seen one...

Well, Gordon, I agree about afternoon tea as a whole meal, but not about the scones and clotted cream part of afternoon tea. Can't get enough of them! Any more I just get coffee and a scone, often at the V&A so I can enjoy their gorgeous tea rooms.

You're probably right......Afternoon tea in London shouldn't be too different from Australia.

I will just visit the Mad Hatter's tea then, cus I do like Alice and Wonderland