London At A Glance (2)

Oxford Street
London's not very prepossessing High Street, just north of Soho, lined with department stores and all the big names in retail.

Westminster and Whitehall
Just south of Trafalgar Square on the river stands the seat of central government in the UK: the sub-Venetian grandeur of Whitehall, the golden Victorian pinnacles of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, beside the crowning Gothic glory of Westminster Abbey.

Victoria, Belgravia and Pimlico
A bustling transport hub, Victoria disturbs the creamy stuccoed dignity of Belgravia and Pimlico. Highlights include Westminster Cathedral and the Brit art and Turners on the river at Tate Britain.

Knightsbridge, South Kensington and Hyde Park
West of Belgravia and almost as affluent, Knightsbridge and South Ken boast luxury shopping a go-go and three wonderful old museums - of Science, of Natural History, and of the decorative arts at the V&A - all on th edge of the city's most famous park.

Chelsa
South Kensingston's naughty neighour has grown out of its swinging, punk rock days to become a chi chi shopping strip along the King's Road backed up by a clutch of venerable visitor attractions.

Marylebone and Regent's Park
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson might still feel at home here, snooping round the Wallace Collection and glorious flower gardens of Regent's Park, or observing the animal antics in London Zoo. Less so perhaps in the new fashion parade of Marylebone High St.

Bloomsbury and Fitzovia
The academic heart of London: home to the British Museum and on the other side of the Tottenham Court Rd, the offices and playgrounds of London's advertising and media gurus.

Holborn and Clerkenwell
The most famous way through Holborn's courts of law was Fleet St. Once the busiest news mill in the world, it's all quiet now, though a buzz can still be heard in Clerkenwell, just across the Farringdon Rd.

London At A Glance (1)

Trafalgar Square
The centre of London. The pigeons banished and north side pedestrianized but here is the monumental hotch-potch heart of the beast, with Nelson on his column and the National Gallery to boot.

The Strand, Embankment and Aldwych
The main road between Westminster and the City, east out of the Square, where the admin office blocks of Empire sprang up after the 18th century, the first at Somerset House, overlooking the 19th century's great sanitary achievement: the Victoria Embankment.

Leicester Square and Chinatown
The diminutive showbiz epicentre of the West End boasts a statue of Shakespeare unfazed by the movie premieres all around, the theatrical first nights on Shaftesbury Avenue, the bookselling bonanza on Charing Cross Road and Chinese cuisine next door.

Soho
The West End's late-night party zone sleezily converts the film, music and TV frenzy here by day into some of the best restaurants, gay bars, cinemas and drinking clubs in the capitals.

Convent Garden
Just north of the Strand is a tourist honeypot: a sympathetic conversion of central London's beautiful old covered market into a boutique shopping mall with no traffic and a hint of culture.

Mayfair and Regent Street
West of Soho beyond the glorified sweep of big-name retailers on Regent Street, Mayfair remains the most moneyed, swanky and occasionally discreet home of haute couture, cuisine and hospitality.

Piccadilly and St. James's
The land that time forgot. Beyond the neon hoardings of Piccadilly Circus, Piccadilly heads wests with panache, freighted with Fortnum and Mason's, the Royal Academy and the Ritz, dividing Mayfair from the gentleman's clubland of St. James's and Buckingham Palace.

Planning Your Trip - Where To Go

London is a city often seen in a hurry. If time is very limited, then the one unmissable sight remains Tate Modern. Whatever your reaction to the contents or industrial style of this huge gallery of contemporary art, its position on the river puts it at the heart of the beast. In order to see as much of London as possible in a day, it’s best to avoid wasting time on public transport. Stick with the riverside walks instead. Thanks to the new footbridges, an easy three-mile (one hour) stroll takes in several of the major London sights. From Trafalgar Square, walk down Northumberland Avenue to the Embankment and cross over the Golden Jubilee footbridge to the South Bank. From the southern bridge there are great views of the London Eye, Big Ben and Houses of Parliament. Unless you want a closer look at the attractions of County Hall, turn left to walk along the river past the Royal Festival Hall to Waterloo Bridge. Here you can decide whether to walk on to Tate Modern and Shakespeare’s Globe before heading over the Millennium Footbridge to St. Paul’s, or to cross Waterloo Bridge (which gives some of the finest views of the City) and carry straight on through Covent Garden to find the British Museum and Smithfield or Shoreditch are close at hand for an evening’s entertainment. The British Museum is a short walk from the restaurants and bars of Soho and the West End.

Less energetic and just as rewarding perhaps would be to spend the mornings at Tate Modern, the afternoon at St. Paul’s, and the evening in a bar or restaurant somewhere near Smithfield. With an extra day, the half-hour skyride on offer at the London Eye is definitely worth the ticket price, although even with its sophisticated boarding system, precious time can still sometimes be lost in the queue.

Alternatively, the Great Court at the British Museum defies old-fashioned fustiness and casts the Museum’s frankly mind-boggling collection of antiquities in a new light. A visit here can also easily be combined with a taste of the peculiar small-scale charm and beauty of Sir John Soane’s Museum in Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

On a similar scale to the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington is an extraordinary neo-gothic shrine to art and design packed with innumerable marvelous things. Less aesthetic and more historical insights can be found either at the Imperial War Museum or the Tower of London. At the gateway to south London, the Imperial War Museum is the most disturbing, its compelling exhibition on the Holocaust putting the military hardware and World War memorabilia on display into perspective. The Tower on London, downriver near the splendid Tower Bridge, is a proper medieval castle, a very well-preserved relic riddled with stories of the pursuit and abuse of royal power.

With more time, essential destinations further afield are the venerable old Tate Britain on the river near Victoria, dedicated to the latest in British contemporary, modern and historical art including Turner’s dramatic oil paintings; the superhip bars, restaurants and shops of Notting Hill in the west; the loud and grungey music and market mecca of Camden or the views of the city from genteel Primrose Hill or Hampstead in the north; and the nightlife of Shoreditch to the east. Day trips south to the revamped Dulwich Picture Gallery or a river trip to Kew and Hampton Court also rank with the best that London has to offer.

London Travel - A Foot In The Door

Much to its own surprise, London is still one of the world’s great cities. Endlessly diverting and diverse, it provides no room for complacency but plenty of hope and admiration. And it largely has visitors to thank for the fact. The Romans were the first, sticking around long enough to establish a vital western trading post for their empire. Then the Normans made it the capital of the country they had conquered. Later, as London built its own empire, successive generations of British, European and global immigrants created a unique, expansive city on the banks of the little river Thames.

Neither ancient nor modern, with Beefeaters in the Tower, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly and trooping the colour. There may have been an attempt to banish pigeons from Trafalgar Square; and St Paul’s is being given a good bath; but Nelson still tops his column, the cathedral looms over the water, Westminster shimmers at dusk, the buses (although not routemasters) are still red and many of the cabs still black. But this London has been joined by another in a different spirit, with equally distinctive sights. They’ve been called New London: the London Eye, Tate Modern, the Millennium Bridge and even the ill-fated Millennium Dome. And just about every venerable museum and art gallery has enjoyed a designer makeover. Erudite and grand, while something of London stands still, it’s continually moving on.

A kind of quantum city. Boasting the busiest airport in the world, it’s a backward-looking, optimistic mongrel town, where dreams can turn sour or golden overnight. With magnificent trees, a tidal river and changeable weather, plus a thriving culture and driven soul, London is one of the most engaging and invigorating places on the planet.