Covent Garden The heart of the West End, and home to many West End Theatres, shopping, restaurants, bars, heritage and history.
Covent Garden tube station does get very busy in summer afternoons and evening so we do suggest you travel to Holborn on the Central Line and walk a few minutes to Covent Garden.
Things to look out for in Covent Garden and the surrounding area:
- Somerset House - In the summer months 55 fountains dance in the courtyard, and in winter it becomes one of London's favourite ice rinks
- National Gallery – next to Trafalgar Square
- National Portrait Gallery
- Royal Opera House - originally built in 1858
- The Piazza - home to some fantastic free street theatre
- Theatre Museum
- London Transport Museum
- Covent Garden Market
London Shopping
Oxford street is probably London’s most famous – and there are some great department stores ( Selfridges). Regent Street – home to the oldest toy shop in the World - Hamleys, celebrating its 250th birthday!. Opposite is the Apple store. Harrods is probably the most famous retail store in the World but if also try the designer stores in Neal Street nearby, and Seven Dials.
London Markets
Portobello Road – Saturdays (Notting Hill area of west London)
You can buy almost anything here; curios, antiques, old records, strange clothes and some outstanding hot food.This area has been used many times as a filming location, most notably in the film Notting Hill (Hugh Grant & Julia Roberts).
- Borough Market - Thursday, Friday and Saturday – A food lover's paradise. You will find fresh cheeses, meats, organic produce and cooked specialities from all over the world.
- Camden Market - Saturday and Sunday. Gothic clothing and music lovers will enjoy browsing in the stores, while the fresh food on offer can take you across continents in the blink of an eye.
- Covent Garden Market - open every day - The shops inside are more boutique than market stall, but there is still a vibrant atmosphere at any time of the day. When you've had enough of the shops you can enjoy the World class street entertainment
- Brick Lane Market – Sundays - Brick Lane is now one of the trendiest streets in London. The market has clothing bric-a-brac, art and trinkets from around the world. This is the heart of Indian and Bangladeshi cuisine so plenty of curry options. Also visit the nearby Columbia Road flower market and Petticoat Lane market.
Leicester Square Most famous for hosting London film premiere’s. The heart of London’s cinema world. Get a caricature done, watch the street entertainment, take in a movie, eat and drink. Some of London’s most famous nightclubs are here: The Hippodrome is now an upmarket casino. For clubbing try Storm for funky house, dirty house, twisted pop, RnB and Hip Hop. Our favourite is Sound on 3 floors playing everything from RnB, Club Classics, commercial chart, electro and indie remix.
Close by is London’s Chinatown and neighbouring Soho. Still a hugely fashionable area of London, Soho really comes alive in the evenings. Soho is an artistic and entertainment area with a large number of gay bars and some clubs centred around Old Compton Street, Dean Street and Greek Street.
Piccadilly Circus
The Bright lights of Piccadilly Circus. Connecting Haymarket, Leicester Square, Regent Street Piccadilly (hoe to The Ritz Hotel) and Shaftesbury Avenue – hope to The West End theatres. Circus is “Circle” in Latin and basically it’s a very big and busy roundabout right in the heart of London! Along Piccadilly is Green Park and a short walk will take you to Buckingham Palace & St James’ Park.
London Royal Parks
There are 8 Royal Parks:
- St James’s Park
- The Green Park
- Hyde Park
- Kensington Gardens (Kensington Palace, one of The Royal Palaces)
- Richmond Park
- Greenwich Park (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich Observatory)
- The Regents Park (London Zoo)& Primrose Hill
- Bushey Park
Museums
Hundreds of museums to choose from. Here is a selection
- Natural History Museum - Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD
- Science Museum - Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London , SW7 2DD
- Victoria & Albert Museum - Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL
- British Museum - Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG
- Museum of London - 150 London Wall, London , EC2Y 5HN
- Tate Britain - Millbank, SW1P 4RG
- Tate Modern - Bankside, SE1 9TG
- Churchill Museum & Cabinet War Rooms - Clive Steps, King Charles Street, SW1A 2AQ
- London Transport Museum - 39 Wellington Street, Covent Garden, London , WC2E 7BB
- Imperial War Museum - Lambeth Road, London, SE1 6HZ
- Tower of London - HM Tower of London, London, EC3N 4AB
- Tower Bridge - Tower Bridge, London, SE1 2UP
http://discount-london-packages.blogspot.com/2010/06/10-free-museums-in-london-that-you.html
South Bank
The most famous attraction is The London Eye. After your flight head along the promenade of the South Bank when on summer days and weekends there will all types of street entertainment for your amusement. A stroll along the banks of the River Thames will take you to the London Aquarium Sea Life Centre, Tate Modern, London Dungeon and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, home to the Shakespeare’s Globe Exhibition which is the world’s largest exhibition devoted to Shakespeare and the London in which he lived and worked.
River Thames
Seeing London from the River gives you a completely different perspective of our city. Hop on and Hop River Cruise off at
- Westminster Pier ( Big Ben and Houses of Parliament)
- Tower of London Pier - Greenwich Pier
Take a RIB voyage to speed you along the Thames, or maybe a more leisurely lunch or evening dinner river cruise
Brick Lane
We think the East is worth a visit at night time where there is a more urban and Bohemian vibe in Shoreditch & Hoxton. Brick Lane is where Jack The Ripper committed some of his gruesome murders in 1888. The pub he is alleged to have met his victims still stands – Ten bells, but today the clientele are much more trendy and artistic. Brick Lane is now famous as a hub for the Bangladesh community but post war this would have been run down and an area associated with slums. Now Eastern & Western Cultures fuse together to create somewhere quite unique – and some incredible curry houses! For a pre curry drink try the Vibe Bar and 93 Feet East.
2010 Olympic Site
Stratford will be home to the 2012 Olympic Games. This is the biggest building project in Europe and this area is being regenerated and reformed. The games start on 27th July and finishes 12th August, with the Paralympics games following from 29 August to 9th September.
GreenwichGreenwich, a London 2010 venue, sits to the South of The River Thames and definitely worth a visit.
Best accessed via The Red Rover River Cruise the key sites are:
- The Old Royal Naval College - designed by Sir Christopher Wren and now home to the University of Greenwich and Trinity College of Music.
- National Maritime Museum
- The Greenwich Observatory which is most famous for the site of the prime meridian or 0 degrees longitude – and referred to as the home of time. Now here’s the technical bit if you’re interested! Latitude and Longitude are how ships are able to discover their whereabouts and therefore navigate safely around the seven seas. They are the lines drawn on any map. Latitude is measured base on the height of the sun, but longitude was measured by comparing the time shown on two clocks - one reset to keep showing local time and the other ticking away untouched and therefore calculating longitude – however at this time in history clocks were not accurate causing errors in navigation and potential shipwrecks. In 1675 King Charles II set up The Greenwich Observatory to create the authoritative time and therefore fixing longitude. However it wasn’t until 1884 when an International Meridian Conference in Washington that it was recommended that Greenwich should be adopted as the prime meridian. Learn the full and fascinating story at the Old Greenwich Royal Observatory at the top of Greenwich park – which also give you fantastic view of the Greenwich peninsula, home to the 02 Arena, and Canary Wharf which sits on the other side of the river Thames – once home to the London docks, and now a symbol of London’s stature as a major economic centre
- Cutty Sark – currently being restored. The Cutty Sark is the most famous tea clipper built and the only one to survive. Launched in 1869 she was the fastest ship in the money-spinning tea trade with China – a journey via the Cape of Good Hope pre the Suez Canal. Her last cargo of tea was carried in 1877 and from 1885 to 1895, her cargo was Australian wool sailing from Sydney to London and setting fastest records year after year.