Exploring Outskirts of London
Note: This post has been updated on September 30, 2023.
There are no shortage of things to do and see in London. Every time we come back, we find new areas to explore and new things to learn. Because of this, we have broken out our London post into several.
The below information is a complete guide of the best places to stay, the top rated places to dine and drink, and all there is to see and do in the lesser known parts of London. For transportation tips, as well as a summary of the history of this amazing city, please refer back to the London post.
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Where to Stay
While there are many areas to stay in, we have chosen the most popular to consider:
Chelsea
Knightsbridge
Where to Dine & Drink
There are a TON of great restaurants all around this massive city. However, the ones listed below are the very best the city has to offer in the most popular areas to dine. We’ve also included a few outstanding ones that fall in some of the more suburban areas that can’t be missed!
Belgravia Mews
Marcus
A high-end French restaurant in Belgravia Mews
Muse by Tom Aikens
A Michelin-starred restaurant with tasting menus, in Belgravia Mews
Pétrus by Gordon Ramsay
Gordon Ramsay's Modern French fine dining restaurant with a centrepiece glass-encased wine room.
Chelsea
Cadogan Arms
Modern British gastropub with darkwood interior and mounted stag antlers, plus upstairs pool room.
The Five Fields
Understated Modern British restaurant with fixed-price menu using rare herbs and seasonal produce.
Fitzrovia
Lore of the Land
A Guy Ritchie pub, Lore of the Land serves seasonal sharing plates, pints and premium spirits in a classic setting housing - a pub since 1829.
The Attendant
These ornate, underground urinals served the Victorian gentlemen of London. Now, they serve diners espresso, flat whites, and amazing breakfast. Walk down the stairs to take your seat at one of the full-size, porcelain urinals and sip your coffee among the most elite, historical toilets in Fitzrovia.
Originally built in the 1890s, these public toilets were closed in the 1960s. They sat boarded up for over 50 years before being reimagined as an upscale coffee bar.
The George
Popular 18th-century pub serving a menu of classic bar food, plus keg beers & cocktails.
Holborn
Ye Olde Mitre
A traditional 1547 real ale pub, tucked away in a small alleyway, with framed historical pictures.
Marylebone
The Wigmore
Elevated pub food & drinks in a stylish, retro-inspired space attached to the Langham Hotel
Millbank
The Morpeth Arms
Pub with views of MI6 over the river, 'haunted' former cell corridor and a spy-themed upstairs bar.
Nine Elms
Oxeye
Serving locally-sourced ingredients for upscale dishes.
Richmond
Hollyhock Cafe
From its cozy fire, hearty soups and hot water bottles in the wintertime, to its spectacular veranda overlooking the Thames in the summer, Hollyhock is in the perfect spot to enjoy the famous flower gardens.
Southwark
Turnips with Tomas Lidakevicius (Borough Market)
Refined, industrial-chic eatery serving farm-to-fork small plates & fixed-price tasting menus.
Waterloo/South Bank
Things to See & Do
Abbey Wood
Crossness Pumping Station
Ever seen a fancy sewer pumping station? The Crossness Pumping Station is a former sewage pumping station designed by the Metropolitan Board of Works' chief engineer, Sir Joseph Bazalgette, and architect, Charles Henry Driver. Constructed between 1859 and 1865, by William Webster, as part of Bazalgette's redevelopment of the London sewage system, it features spectacular ornamental cast ironwork.
At Crossness, the incoming liquid was raised some 30 - 40 feet by the application of four large steam-driven pumps. The engines were of enormous size and power. At 11 revolutions per minute, 6 tons of sewage, per stroke, per engine were pumped up into a 27-million gallon reservoir, and were released into the Thames during the ebbing tide. The steam required to power those engines was raised by 12 Cornish boilers with single "straight-through" flues, situated in the Boiler House to the south of the Engine House, and which consumed 5,000 tons of Welsh coal annually.
In 1882, a Royal Commission recommended that the solid matter in the sewage should be separated out, and that only the liquid portion remaining should be allowed to pass into the Thames (chemical engineer, William Webster, developed a system for the electrolytic purification of sewage shortly after this request). In 1891, sedimentation tanks were added to the works, and the sludge was carried by steam boats and dumped further out into the estuary, at sea.
By 1897, additional pumping capacity was needed, and four extra pumps operated by triple-expansion steam engines were installed in an extension, designed to fit in with Bazalgette's main engine house, to the north of the older building. Later, in 1899, a further increase in London's population necessitated an increase in the efficiency of the original Watt engines, and considerable alteration to their design was carried out by Goodfellow & Co of Hyde, Manchester. They were converted from simple to compound engines with the original single cylinders augmented by high and intermediate pressure cylinders. The additional steam required was provided by replacing the earlier Cornish boilers by more efficient Lancashire boilers, with double flues, and in 1901, the improved engines were fully working.
In 1913, the triple expansion steam engines were replaced by diesel engines, which are still to be seen in the triple expansion engine house. By 1956, the Watt-Goodfellow engines had been decommissioned and were left, with the rest of the ironwork, to rust and to vandals. It wasn’t until 1987 that a trust was formed to oversee the restoration work, which completed in 2013 and is now open to the public.
Barbican
Barbican Conservatory
The Barbican Conservatory is the second largest conservatory in London, located at the Barbican Centre. It houses more than 2,000 species of plants and trees, as well as terrapins and koi carp. The conservatory covers 23,000 square feet and is located on top of the theatre's fly tower.
Battersea
Brown Dog Statue
The Brown Dog affair was a political controversy about live animal testing (vivisection) that raged in Britain from 1903 until 1910. It involved the infiltration of University of London medical lectures by Swedish feminists, battles between medical students and the police, police protection for the statue of a dog, a libel trial at the Royal Courts of Justice, and the establishment of a Royal Commission to investigate the use of animals in experiments. The affair became a cause célèbre that divided the country.
The controversy was triggered by allegations that, in February 1903, William Bayliss of the Department of Physiology at University College London, performed an illegal animal experiment, before an audience of 60 medical students, on a brown terrier dog—adequately anaesthetized (according to Bayliss and his team; conscious and struggling, according to the Swedish activists). The procedure was condemned as cruel and unlawful by the National Anti-Vivisection Society. Outraged by the assault on his reputation, Bayliss, whose research on dogs led to the discovery of hormones, sued for libel and won.
Anti-vivisectionists commissioned a bronze statue of the dog as a memorial, unveiled on the Latchmere Recreation Ground in Battersea in 1906, but medical students were angered by its provocative plaque—"Men and women of England, how long shall these Things be?"—leading to frequent vandalism of the memorial and the need for a 24-hour police guard against the so-called anti-doggers. On December 10, 1907, hundreds of medical students marched through central London waving effigies of the brown dog on sticks, clashing with suffragettes, trade unionists and 300 police officers, one of a series of battles known as the Brown Dog riots.
In March 1910, tired of the controversy, Battersea Council sent four workers, accompanied by 120 police officers, to remove the statue under cover of darkness, after which it was reportedly melted down by the council's blacksmith, despite a 20,000-strong petition in its favor. A new statue of the brown dog, commissioned by anti-vivisection groups, was erected in Battersea Park in 1985.
Bloomsbury
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world, which documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present.
The museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the Anglo-Irish physician and scientist, Sir Hans Sloane. It first opened to the public in 1759, in Montagu House, on the site of the current building. The museum's expansion over the following 250 years was largely a result of British colonization and resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, or independent spin-offs - the first being the Natural History Museum in 1881.
By the last years of the 19th century, The British Museum's collections had increased to the extent that its building was no longer large enough. In 1895, the trustees purchased the 69 houses, surrounding the museum, with the intention of demolishing them and building around the west, north, and east sides of the museum. The first stage was the construction of the northern wing, beginning 1906. Expansions and renovations, as a result of growing collections, continue on, periodically, to this day.
In August 1984, workers cutting through a bog discovered the body of a man who was determined by scientists to have died between 2 B.C. and 199 A.D. The man’s skin, hair, and many of his internal organs had been preserved by the bog, left almost completely intact. He was about 25 years old when he died.
In-depth analysis has revealed that the man’s last meal included unleavened bread made from wheat and barley. Because investigations have been able to procure information on his health, appearance, and how he might have died, this find has allowed researchers to learn more about this person than any other prehistoric man found in the United Kingdom.
But, no matter what knowledge this find has supplied archeologists with, one thing is certain: Lindow Man suffered an extremely dreadful demise. He was struck on the head (twice, with a heavy object, such as an ax), and received a brutal blow in the back (perhaps from someone’s knee), which broke one of his ribs. Next, a cord was tied around his neck (which may have strangled him or broke his neck). Lastly, his throat was cut, and he was thrown face down into a pool in the bog.
Is Lindow Man proof of a 2,000-year-old homicide or a ritual killing? Some scientists have argued that this man might have been a victim of a human sacrifice carried out by druids.
Monopoly Life-sized
Monopoly Life-sized is an immersive, physical version of the world’s favorite family game, played on a 15m x 15m life-sized Monopoly board!
As a physical 4D experience you:
Move around the giant board completing challenge rooms to buy properties.
Compete against your friends and family in a 80-minute immersive game
Choose between four life-sized boards, including Luxury, Classic, City, and Classic: Own It All.
Brixton
David Bowie’s Childhood Home
Bowie’s childhood home is located at 40 Stansfield Road in a quaint Brixton, London neighborhood. This is where parents, John and Peggy, raised David Robert Jones (stage name: David Bowie) until he was six years old (which at that point, they moved to Bromley, Kent). His mother worked as a waitress and his father as a promotions officer.
The home was purchased in 2000 for £275,000 and can only be viewed from the sidewalk.
David Bowie Memorial
The David Bowie Memorial is actually graffiti artwork by Australian artist, James Cochran, who completed the portrait in 2013. It features Bowie, or alternatively, Ziggy Stardust, as he appears on the cover of his 1973 album, “Aladdin Sane”. Bowie explained that the vibrant lightning bolt across his face represented duality of the mind, and it remains a popular cultural image today.
TIP: If you can’t make a trip to the mural, maybe you can get your hands on a local bill. Brixton is known for having a local currency called the “Brixton Pound”, which launched in 2009. Bowie, Brixton’s most well-known resident, is featured on the B£10.
Camden Town
Camden Market
On March 30, 1974 a small weekly crafts market, that operated every Sunday near Camden Lock, developed into a large complex of markets. The markets, originally temporary stalls only, extended to a mixture of stalls and fixed premises.
Since 2014 most of the markets were acquired by Israeli billionaire, Teddy Sagi, who heavily developed them from stalls set up for the day, to permanent structures. In 2022, they were offered for sale, the owner hoping for a price of around £1.5 billion.
Camden Lock Market is situated by the Regent's Canal on a site formerly occupied by warehouses and other premises associated with the canal. By the early 1970s, the canal trade had ceased as a northern urban motorway was planned. In 1974, a temporary market was established, though two years later, when plans for the motorway were abandoned, the market became a well-known feature of Camden Town. This market is primarily known for crafts.
A small street market has operated on Inverness Street, since the late 19th century, mostly selling produce, rather than ready-to-eat food, until the 21st century. It started losing its traditional stalls once local supermarkets opened, a trend accelerated by the closing of a nearby bus stop, which facilitated access. By mid-2013, all the original stalls had been replaced by "touristy" stalls similar to those of the other markets, including fast food but not produce.
The Stables Market was owned by Bebo Kobo, Richard Caring, and Elliot Bernerd of Chelsfield Partners, until 2014 when it was sold for $685 million. The market is located in the historic former Pickfords stables and horse hospital, which served the horses pulling Pickford's distribution vans and barges along the canal. Many of the stalls and shops are set in large arches in railway viaducts.
It’s main focus is on household wares, such as furniture, but also houses stalls for more specific, modern clothing.
TIP: Don’t miss the Dr. Marten’s store - it’s been there for 173 years!
Charing Cross
Ben Franklin’s House
Benjamin Franklin House is a museum, in a terraced Georgian house, at 36 Craven Street, London, close to Trafalgar Square. It is the last-standing former residence of Benjamin Franklin, which dates from 1730. He lived and worked there for 16 years.
The house was renovated and restored in 1998, during which remains of 10 individuals were identified, consisting of numerous bones and bone fragments; six of them identified as possible children - all around 200 years old. Were they Franklins? No. William Hewson, a close friend of Franklin, was the one responsible for these remains, as he was an early anatomist, who lived in the house for two years and had been working in secret, since there were still legal issues in dissecting certain cadavers at the time. Franklin likely knew what Hewson was doing, but probably did not participate in the dissections.
What is now a museum, features the original floorboards, original ceilings, and original staircases, with relatively few later alterations. Artifacts in the house include a modern, playable replica glass harmonica, based on Franklin's design.
Lilliputian Police Station
Built in the 1920s, to serve as a watch-post and eye on Trafalgar Square (which has been a magnet for London’s protesters, rioters, and marchers), there’s only room for a single person.
In its heyday, the station was fully prepared for even the most passionate protests - it had a direct telephone line to Scotland Yard and castle-style slits in the walls to allow the single officer to keep an eye on any rioters. When the officer picked up the phone to call for backups, the light atop the tiny station would flash like a beacon, signaling to other nearby officers.
Sadly, if you peer through the windows these days, you won’t see a bored bobby—just lots and lots of mops. The station is now used as a storeroom for cleaners.
Little Compton Street
The grating island that divides Charing Cross Road, immediately north of the Old Compton Street intersection and pedestrian crossing, holds a big secret!
If you look down at the metal grate covering the island, you will see two tiled Victorian street names set into the wall below ground level. Bearing the faded name of “Little Compton Street”, it is a beguiling glimpse into a long lost road buried underneath the modern day streets of London.
The traffic island is to be found at the intersection of Charing Cross Road and Old Compton Street in Soho. Maps from the 1790s show Little Compton Street connecting Old and New Compton Streets, in between Greek and Crown streets. At that time, the street level was much lower, running at the height of the basements of today’s buildings. A public house called the “Coach and Horses” stood on the corner of what would have been a bustling corner of Soho. But, all of that came to an end in 1896 when the area was demolished for the building of the Charing Cross Road. The street level was raised and an office block eventually was built on the site of Little Compton Street, consigning it to history.
Little Compton was turned into a utility tunnel when Charing Cross Road was constructed. Today, all traces of this old secret London street have long gone, apart from two perfectly preserved road signs.
How to find it: Look for it between Molly Moggs pub and Salsa restaurant. Be keenly aware of traffic, as you will literally be in the middle of the road to get the best view.
Clapham
575 Wandsworth Road
575 Wandsworth Road was the home of Kenyan poet and civil servant, Khadambi Asalache, until his death in 2006. Following his death, he left it to the National Trust, which opened the house as a museum for pre-booked guided tours.
Asalache bought the "two-up two-down" Georgian terraced house in Wandsworth Road in 1981, paying less than the asking price of £31,000. The property was in a poor state of repair when he bought it, having previously been occupied by squatters. For 20 years, he decorated it internally with Moorish-influenced fretwork, which he cut by hand from discarded pine doors and wooden boxes. The intricate woodwork was augmented by illustrations of African wilderness, and his collection of 19th-century English lustreware.
The property was shown in World of Interiors in 1990, and in the Sunday Telegraph Magazine in 2000.
Clerkenwell
The Postal Museum
The Public Records Act of 1838 was the first step in organizing government archives, including the civil service department known then as ‘the Post Office’. This represents the beginnings of what is now “The Royal Mail Archive”. By 1896, a report, concerning the maintenance of Post Office records, had been produced and the first archivist was appointed. The Public Records Acts of 1958 and 1967 reinforced the need for the Post Office to keep, catalogue, and make its archive records available.
In 1966, the first National Postal Museum (NPM) was established, and was opened by the Queen on February 19, 1969, at the King Edward Building near St Paul's Cathedral. A collection of postal equipment, uniforms, vehicles and much more was developed over the years; far more than could be displayed in the small museum.
In 1998, the King Edward Building was sold, and the NPM closed. The collections were retained and the management of the museum and archive was combined. This was known as the Royal Mail Group, who decided to transfer the work of this heritage unit to an independent charitable trust, in light of the changing mail market and its own shift from public service to competitive business. This 'Postal Heritage Trust' came into being in April 2004, and was branded as the British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA).
In February 2016, the BPMA was renamed the Postal Museum, and began building a new museum which opened in 2017 in Clerkenwell, London, near to the Mount Pleasant Mail Centre. The museum was expected to cost £26 million to build, and consists of two sections.: 1. The Postal Museum has opened up to the public a 0.62 mi. stretch of track in London's Mail Rail, which was the world's first driverless electric railway. 2. The museum section, which includes a commemorative stamp that would have been used had Scotland won the 1978 FIFA World Cup, telegrams from the night that the Titanic sank, and an intercepted first edition of Ulysses (banned in the United Kingdom until 1936).
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace Park
After the 1851 Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, Joseph Paxton appealed for the retention of The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, but the government decreed that the Palace be removed. Paxton formed the Crystal Palace Company to purchase the Hyde Park Crystal Palace for £70,000, as well as a new site at the summit of Sydenham Hill, in Kent, for the construction of an enlarged Crystal Palace, which cost a total of £1.3 million. The 389-acre site consisted of woodland, and the grounds of the mansion (known as Penge Place), owned by Paxton's friend and railway entrepreneur, Leo Schuster. This land, as enclosed in the early 19th century, previously made up the northern part of Penge Common - a large area of wood pasture, which abutted the Great North Wood. Between 1852 and 1854, an enlarged and redesigned Crystal Palace was rebuilt at the new site (Queen Victoria opened it in 1854), as well as the Crystal Palace Railway station. After that, they set to work on the extravagant gardens and sporting areas - the Crystal Palace Park Cricket Ground was created on the site in 1857, and in 1894, the two largest fountains were grassed over and the south basin was converted to a football stadium (it held FA Cup Finals for 20 years, from 1895 until 1914, and Crystal Palace F.C. also played their home games at the stadium from 1905 to 1915).
In 1911, the Festival of Empire was held at the park and the park was transformed with buildings designed to represent the British Empire (many of these buildings remained at the site until the 1940s). The park also housed one of the pioneer speedway tracks, which opened for business in 1928. The “Crystal Palace Glaziers” raced in the Southern and National Leagues up to 1933 when the promotion moved on to a track in New Cross. Three years later, in 1936, The Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire, though the grounds still lived on as they were used in pre-war days for motorcycle racing and, after the 1950s, for motorcar racing (The Crystal Palace Circuit). Large sections of the track layout still remain as access roads around the park. The circuit, itself, fell into disuse after the final race in 1972.
In 1964, the National Sports Centre (NSC) was built on the old football ground. In 2005, the Mayor of London and the London Development Agency (LDA) took control of the NSC as part of London's bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, and it is now managed by Greenwich Leisure on their behalf.
Euston
The Magic Circle
The Magic Circle was founded in 1905 after a meeting of 23 amateur and professional magicians, at London's Pinoli's Restaurant. At this founders meeting, chaired by Servais Le Roy, those present decided upon the name of the Society (it was initially felt that the name of the Society should be the “Martin Chapender Club”, in memory of the performer and founding member who had recently died at the age of 25. However, it was finally agreed that the name "Magic Circle", which shares the same initials as those of Martin Chapender, would be more appropriate).
The first official meeting was at the Green Man public house in Soho, but meetings were later in a room at St. George's Hall in Langham Place, where David Devant and John Nevil Maskelyne were regularly seen performing. Devant became the first president of The Magic Circle, and in 1906, Maskelyne edited the first issue of The Magic Circular magazine, a regular feature for members ever since.
The club was male-only until 1991, when more than 75% of members voted to admit women. As of 2010, there were around 80 female members.
You can book tours and shows through their website.
Farringdon
The Charterhouse
The London Charterhouse is a historic complex of buildings dating back to the 14th century. It was originally built as a Carthusian priory, founded in 1371, on the site of a Black Death burial ground. Following the priory's dissolution in 1537, it was rebuilt from 1545 onwards to become one of the great courtyard houses of Tudor London. In 1611, the property was bought by Thomas Sutton, a businessman, who established a school for the young and an almshouse for the old. The almshouse remains in occupation today, while the school was re-located in 1872 to Godalming, Surrey.
Hampstead
Freud Museum
The Freud Museum is dedicated to Sigmund Freud, located in the house where Freud lived with his family during the last year of his life. In 1938, after escaping Nazi annexation of Austria, he came to London, via Paris, and stayed for a short while at 39 Elsworthy Road before moving to 20 Maresfield Gardens, where the museum is situated. Although he died a year later in the same house, his daughter Anna Freud continued to stay there until her death in 1982. It was her wish that after her death, it be converted into a museum. It was opened to the public in July 1986.
Freud continued to work in London and it was here that he completed his 1939 book Moses and Monotheism. He also maintained his practice in this home and saw a number of his patients for analysis. The centerpiece of the museum is the couch brought from Berggasse 19, Vienna, on which his patients were asked to say whatever came to their mind without consciously selecting information, named “the free association technique” by him.
Hill Garden and Pergola
The Pergola is one of the hidden delights of Hampstead Heath. It overlooks West Heath, and was the dream of William H Lever, later Lord Leverhulme, a wealthy idealist, patron of the arts, architecture and landscape gardening; and Thomas Mawson, the celebrated landscape architect.
The Hill Garden is a beautiful, landscaped garden which was the private garden of a now demolished manor house.
Highgate
Highgate Cemetery
The original cemetery (the northwestern wooded area) was opened in 1839 as part of a plan to provide seven large, modern cemeteries (now known as the "Magnificent Seven") around the outside of central London. The inner-city cemeteries, mostly the graveyards attached to individual churches, had long been unable to cope with the number of burials and were seen as a hazard to health, as well as an undignified way to treat the dead.
On Monday May 20, 1839, Highgate (West) Cemetery was dedicated to St. James by the Right Reverend Charles James Blomfield, Lord Bishop of London. Fifteen acres were consecrated for the use of the Church of England, and two acres were set aside for Dissenters. Rights of burial were sold either for a limited period or in perpetuity.
Highgate, like the others of the Magnificent Seven, soon became a fashionable place for burials and was much admired and visited. The Victorian attitude to death and its presentation led to the creation of a wealth of Gothic tombs and buildings. In 1854, a further 19 acres to the south east of the original area, across Swains Lane, was bought to form the eastern part of the cemetery - this opened in 1860.
The cemetery is still in use today and is the “eternal home” to over 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves.
Holborn
Sir John Soane’s Museum
Sir John Soane's Museum is a house museum, located next to Lincoln's Inn Fields in Holborn, which was formerly the home of neo-classical architect, John Soane.
It holds many drawings and architectural models of Soane's projects and a large collection of paintings, sculptures, drawings, and antiquities that he acquired over many years. The museum was established during Soane's own lifetime by a private Act of Parliament in 1833, which took effect on his death in 1837. Soane engaged in this lengthy parliamentary campaign in order to disinherit his son, whom he disliked intensely. The act stipulated that on Soane's death, his house and collections would pass into the care of a board of trustees, acting on behalf of the nation, and that they would be preserved as nearly as possible, exactly in the state they were at his death. The museum's trustees remained completely independent, relying only on Soane's original endowment, until 1947. Since then, the museum has received an annual Grant-in-Aid from the British Government via the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Located in the Sepulchral Chamber, in the basement of Sir John Soane’s Museum, is a vast sarcophagus, built to entomb the Egyptian Pharaoh Seti I (died 1279 BC). Upon his death, Seti I was interred in a lavish tomb in the Valley of the Kings, within which this sarcophagus, containing his coffin and mummy, was originally housed.
The Sarcophagus was discovered in 1817 by Italian explorer, Giovanni Battista Belzoni. Formerly a circus strongman and irrigation engineer, this charismatic archaeologist led a series of expeditions in Egypt, the most successful of which was his discovery of the tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings. He had planned to sell the Sarcophagus to the British Museum, who declined to pay the £2,000 price. Sir John Soane, greatly interested in ancient artefacts, acted quickly and purchased the sarcophagus for his own collection. It was the most expensive object purchased by Soane, and was his most highly prized possession.
Soane held three evening receptions at the Museum after acquiring the sarcophagus, to celebrate its arrival, attended by some of the leading figures in British art and society.
Temple Bar Memorial Dragon
The dragon was created in 1880 by the sculptor Charles Bell Birch, who had been commissioned by the Royal family and government, to produce an ornate sculpture to surmount the pedestal marking of where the historic gates of the City of London were.
The Victorians were romanticists and consciously revived trends from earlier periods of history. As such, Birch chose the dragon as the subject of the sculpture because the beast had always been a culturally important symbol for the City of London and the English nation.
Dragons are creatures of heraldic significance and are prominent characters within English folklore, from the ancient Anglo-Saxon mythological stories, such as Beowulf, to the tale of Saint George the dragon slayer and patron saint of England.
This particular dragon also plays another important symbolic role. In keeping with the folkloric beliefs about the treasure-guarding instincts of these mythical beasts, the Temple Bar dragon serves a totemic purpose as a protective guardian of the treasures of London.
The First Public Drinking Fountain
It wasn’t until 1859 public drinking water became a “thing.” That’s when The Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association was established in London. Before its inception, private water companies monopolized the precious liquid, rarely providing enough of it, and what they did provide, was rarely drinkable. In 1854, it was also a little heavy on the cholera, as was discovered by John Snow when he traced the epidemic to what is now known as “The Broad Street Cholera Pump” (see earlier in this list for more on that).
Regulation and a movement of sorts, in favor of public access to water, led to the government finally being able to buy out the private water companies, and the first public baths and drinking fountains began popping up in Liverpool. Philanthropist Samuel Gurney saw this and built the first fountain on Holborn Hill, a simple granite basin attached to the gates of St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate Church. Keeping a close eye on standards, it was required by the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association that “no fountain be erected or promoted by the Association which shall not be so constructed as to ensure by filters, or other suitable means, the perfect purity and coldness of the water.” Soon, this fountain was serving 7,000 people a day, which prompted more than 85 fountains all over the city.
The Old Curiosity Shop
Tucked away among the buildings of London’s School for Economics is a small, wood-beamed shop. Dating from the 16th century, its sloping roof, overhanging second floor, and uneven Tudor gable, mark it as one of London’s oldest shops. Dwarfed and out of place, the little creaking shop, constructed from salvaged ship wood, survived not only the Great Fire of London in 1666, but the devastation of the Blitz.
Living in neighboring Bloomsbury, Charles Dickens visited the quaint shop on a number of occasions. Although the name was added after the novel was released, it is thought to have become the inspiration for his 1841 novel, The Old Curiosity Shop.
The story was originally serialized in 1840, in his weekly periodical, “Master Humphrey’s Clock”, along with “Barnaby Rudge”. The Old Curiosity Shop was so popular, legend has it that readers in New York, desperate to find out the conclusion, stormed the wharf of Lower Manhattan when the ship, bearing the last installment, docked.
The original shop, itself, started as a dairy, given as a present by King Charles II to one of his many mistresses. In the early 1970s, it was a bookstore specializing in Charles Dickens’s books. Hidden away on Portsmouth Street, just south of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the Old Curiosity Shop was most recently a retailer of high-end shoes, though sadly, it looks like it was vacated after nearly 500 hundred years of operation.
FUN FACT: About 600 ft. from this is the upsidedown world in front of the London School of Economics. It’s kind of trippy to look at.
Twinings Tea Shop (Flagship Store)
The Chinamen figures atop the Twinings tea shop doorway, at 216 Strand, have been sitting up there for about 300 years, in which time the cultural acceptability of such caricatures has lessened (as tea is more often associated with British gentry than with Chinese merchants).
As a young man, Thomas Twining apprenticed under an East India Company merchant, importing goods from exotic locales, coffee and tea in particular. Twining’s mercantile career began in 1706 when he opened a small storefront on a busy London thoroughfare called “the Strand”. He called it “Tom’s Coffee House”, and it soon became a popular gathering spot for fashionable aristocrats.
Despite his shop being dedicated to coffee, Twining soon garnered a reputation for having some of the finest tea blends in London. Within a decade, he ceased selling coffee entirely and almost exclusively sold dry packaged teas. This allowed women to partake in tea-drinking at home as coffee houses were traditionally male-only establishments. Twining expanded his business, opening up more shops, and eventually growing it into the tea empire it is today.
Though we think of Britain’s relationship to tea being as old as the nation itself, the drink had only been introduced in the 1660s by a Portuguese queen. With the expansion of East Indian trade and merchants, like Twining, tea quickly became the national beverage.
Today, Twinings is synonymous with the history of British tea. Over 300 years later, the original Twinings shop on the Strand is still in business. The Twinings logo, a simple, gold sign bearing the company name, has remained unchanged since 1787, making it the second oldest corporate logo still in use, behind that of Stella Artois, which was first introduced in 1366. In 1837, Queen Victoria granted the company a Royal Warrant, a merit which has given Twinings the honor of providing tea to the Royal family ever since.
NOTE: We wanted to go in but disappointingly, it has been completely modernized to a point that it looks like a Nespresso store. We chose to skip going in.
King's Cross
Charles Dickens Museum
The Charles Dickens Museum is an author's house museum at 48 Doughty Street in King's Cross. It occupies a typical Georgian terraced house, which was Charles Dickens's home from March 25, 1837 (a year after his marriage) to December 1839.
In the 19th century, it was an exclusive residential street and had gates at either end to restrict entry, and these were manned by porters. Charles Dickens and his wife, Catherine Dickens (née Hogarth), lived here with the eldest three of their 10 children, with the older two of Dickens's daughters, Mary Dickens and Kate Macready Dickens, being born in the house.
A new addition to the household was Dickens's younger brother, Frederick. Also, Catherine's 17-year-old sister, Mary, moved with them from Furnival's Inn to offer support to her married sister and brother (it was not unusual for a woman's unwed sister to live with and help a newly married couple). Dickens became very attached to Mary, and she died in his arms, after a brief illness, in 1837. She inspired characters in many of his books, with her death is fictionalized as the death of “Little Nell”.
Dickens had a three-year lease (at £80 a year) on the property, after which he moved to Devonshire Terrace. However, the two years that Dickens lived in the house were extremely productive. There, he completed The Pickwick Papers (1836), wrote the whole of Oliver Twist (1838) and Nicholas Nickleby (1838–39), and worked on Barnaby Rudge (1840–41).
The building at 48 Doughty Street was threatened with demolition in 1923, but was saved by the Dickens Fellowship, founded in 1902, who raised the mortgage and bought the property's freehold. The house was renovated and the Dickens House Museum was opened in 1925, under the direction of an independent trust, now a registered charity. The house was listed in 1954.
Platform 9 3/4 (King’s Cross Station)
King’s Cross is one of the city’s busiest locations with a train station that has been open since 1852, serving much of the country. Recent renovations have given a sleek, modern look to the station, though try to find the hidden tunnel with walls that light up with art.
But for many people around the world, King’s Cross is known best for something else: The station that Harry Potter uses to journey to Hogwarts. Now you can visit Platform 9 ¾ in real life, in King’s Cross railway station.
Pose beside a luggage trolley disappearing magically into the wall and have your photo taken to commemorate your wizarding journey forever!
The King’s Cross Ice Well
In Victorian times, ice was a rare commodity. It was used largely for the refrigeration of meat and dairy products, as well as in place of anaesthetic for many surgical procedures. Ice also became something of a luxury amongst those who could afford it, as drinks served with ice cubes stood as a testament to wealth and distinction.
The two Victorian ice wells, located behind King’s Cross Station, were constructed by the Italian-Swiss immigrant, Carlo Gatti. Arriving in London in 1847, Gatti was an entrepreneur who became famous as an ice cream manufacturer, importing his frozen ingredients from Norway, by way of ship and canal boat. At the time, most ice was harvested from frozen ponds and rivers and had to be stored in underground vaults to slow the thawing process.
It consisted of two conjoined wells, each with a depth of 42 ft. and measuring a diameter of 30 ft., which between them, were able to store many tons of natural ice. From here, Gatti formed something of an empire, supplying ice to clients far and wide across London. By the time he died in 1878, he was a millionaire.
The King’s Cross ice wells were in use until 1904, since artificial ice production was becoming more common, and Gatti’s legacy was rendered obsolete. The cellars were covered and forgotten for many years while the ice warehouse, itself, was converted into a horse and cart depot.
More recently, the building has been developed into the London Canal Museum. The ice wells beneath have been emptied, cleaned and lit, and can be viewed from a special observation platform. Additionally, once a year, the museum invites visitors to descend into the ice wells to experience the history of the site up close.
Kingston
Out of Order
In the historic town of Kingston upon Thames, now part of London, may lead curious visitors to a dozen phone boxes leaning against one another like a set of dominoes.
This art installation is known as “Out of Order”, by David Mach, and was installed in 1989. Over the years, these disused phone boxes were reportedly infested with rats and trash until they were restored. To celebrate its 30th anniversary, “Out of Order” was repainted, refurbished, and restored to its erstwhile glory.
How to find it: The installation can be found at the western end of Old London Road, near the Kingston Museum. The upright phone box is “out of order” as well, so don’t expect to be able to call.
Knightsbridge
Harrods
In 1824, at the age of 25, Charles Henry Harrod established a business at 228 Borough High Street in Southwark. He ran this business, variously listed as a draper, mercer, and a haberdasher, until at least 1831. During 1825, the business was listed as 'Harrod and Wicking, Linen Drapers, Retail', but this partnership was dissolved at the end of that year. His first grocery business appears to be as 'Harrod & Co. Grocers' at 163 Upper Whitecross Street, Clerkenwell, E.C.1., in 1832.
In 1834, in London's East End, he established a wholesale grocery, in Stepney, at 4 Cable Street, with a special interest in tea. Attempting to capitalize on trade during the Great Exhibition of 1851, in nearby Hyde Park, in 1849, Harrod took over a small shop in the district of Brompton, on the site of the current store. Beginning in a single room, employing two assistants and a messenger boy, Harrod's son Charles Digby Harrod built the business into a thriving retail operation selling medicines, perfumes, stationery, fruits, and vegetables. By 1881, it had acquired the adjoining buildings, and employed 100 people, though two years later, it burned down in December of 1883. Remarkably, Charles Harrod fulfilled all of his commitments to his customers to make Christmas deliveries that year, and made a record profit in the process. In short order, a new building was built on the same site, and soon, Harrods extended credit for the first time to its best customers (among them: Oscar Wilde, Lillie Langtry, Ellen Terry, Charlie Chaplin, Noël Coward, Gertrude Lawrence, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, Sigmund Freud, A. A. Milne, and many members of the British Royal Family).
In 1889, a chance meeting in London with businessman, Edgar Cohen, eventually led to Charles Harrod selling his interest in the store for £120,000 (equivalent to £14,110,759 in 2021), via a stock market flotation. The new company was called “Harrod's Stores Limited”. On November 16, 1898, Harrods debuted England's first "moving staircase" (escalator) in their Brompton Road stores (the device was actually a woven leather conveyor belt-like unit with a mahogany and "silver plate-glass" balustrade, and nervous customers were offered brandy at the top to revive them after their 'ordeal').
In 1959, the department store was acquired by House of Fraser, which in turn, was purchased by the Fayed brothers in 1985. In 1994, Harrods was moved out of the House of Fraser Group to remain a private company prior to the group's relisting on the London Stock Exchange.
In 2010, Harrods was sold to Qatar Holdings, the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar.
Fun facts: 1. Beatrix Potter frequented the store from the age of 17. First published in 1902, her children’s book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, was soon on sale in Harrods, accompanied by the world's first licensed character, a Peter Rabbit soft toy (Peter and toys of other Potter characters appeared in Harrods catalogues from 1910). 2. In 1921, Milne bought the 18-inch Alpha Farnell teddy bear from Harrods, for his son Christopher Robin Milne, who would name it Edward, then Winnie, becoming the basis for Winnie-the-Pooh.
Marylebone
Madame Tussauds is a wax museum, founded in 1835, by French wax sculptor, Marie Tussaud, in London, spawning similar museums in major cities around the world. While it used to be spelled as "Madame Tussaud's", the apostrophe is no longer used.
Marie Tussaud was born as Marie Grosholtz, in 1761, in Strasbourg, France. Her mother worked for Philippe Curtius in Bern, Switzerland, who was a physician skilled in wax modeling. Curtius taught Tussaud the art of wax modeling, beginning when she was a child. He moved to Paris and took his young apprentice, then, only 6 years old, with him.
Grosholtz created her first wax sculpture in 1777 of Voltaire. At the age of 17, she became the art tutor to Madame Elizabeth, the sister of King Louis XVI of France, at the Palace of Versailles. During the French Revolution, she was imprisoned for three months and awaiting execution, but was released after the intervention of an influential friend. During the Revolution, she made models of many prominent victims.
Grosholtz inherited Curtius's vast collection of wax models, following his death in 1794. For the next 33 years, she travelled around Europe with a touring show from the collection. She married Francois Tussaud in 1795 and took his surname, thereby renaming her show as Madame Tussaud's. In 1802, she accepted an invitation from Paul Philidor, a lantern and phantasmagoria pioneer, to exhibit her work alongside his show at the Lyceum Theatre, in London. She did not fare particularly well financially, with Philidor taking half of her profits.
Because of the Napoleonic Wars, she was unable to return to France, so she traveled throughout Great Britain and Ireland exhibiting her collection. From 1831, she took a series of short leases on the upper floor of "Baker Street Bazaar" (on the west side of Baker Street, Dorset Street, and King Street in London), and by 1835, settled into the space and opened a museum. One of the main attractions of her museum was the “Chamber of Horrors” (the name is often credited to a contributor to Punch in 1845, but Tussaud appears to have originated it herself, using it in advertising as early as 1843). This part of the exhibition included victims of the French Revolution and newly created figures of murderers and other criminals. Famous people were then added, including Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Henry VIII, and Queen Victoria.
Some sculptures still exist that were made by Marie Tussaud, herself. The gallery originally contained some 400 different figures, but fire damage in 1925, coupled with bombs during the Blitz on London in 1941, severely damaged most of such older models. The casts, themselves, have survived, allowing the historical waxworks to be remade, and these can be seen in the museum's history exhibit. The oldest figure on display is that of Madame du Barry, the work of Curtius, from 1765, and part of the waxworks left to Grosholtz at his death. Other faces from the time of Tussaud include Robespierre and George III. In 1842, she made a self-portrait, which is now on display at the entrance of her museum. She died in her sleep in London on April 16, 1850.
By 1883, the restricted space and rising cost of the Baker Street site prompted her grandson, Joseph Randall, to commission construction of a building at the museum's current location on Marylebone Road. The new exhibition galleries were opened on July 14, 1884 and were a great success. But, Randall had bought out his cousin Louisa's half share in the business in 1881, and that, plus the building costs, resulted in his having too little capital. He formed a limited company in 1888 to attract fresh capital, but it had to be dissolved after disagreements between the family shareholders. In February 1889, Tussauds was sold to a group of businessmen, led by Edwin Josiah Poyser.
In 2005, Madame Tussauds was sold to Dubai International Capital for $1.5bn. Two years later, The Blackstone Group purchased The Tussauds Group from them for $1.9 billion - the company was then merged with Blackstone's Merlin Entertainments and operation of Madame Tussauds was taken over by Merlin. After the Tussauds acquisition, Dubai International Capital gained 20% of Merlin Entertainment.
On July 17, 2007, as part of the financing for the Tussauds deal, Merlin sold the freehold of Madame Tussauds to private investor, Nick Leslau, and his investment firm, Prestbury, under a sale and leaseback agreement. Although the attraction sites are owned by Prestbury, they are operated by Merlin, based on a renewable 35-year lease.
Fun facts: The first wax sculpture of a young Winston Churchill was made in 1908 - a total of ten have been made since. The first overseas branch of Madame Tussauds was opened in Amsterdam in 1970.
OUR EXPERIENCE: We have been to these wax museums before, all over the world, and this was the first time we went on an actual ride AND were treated to a 4D Marvel experience. It was so incredible and worth the price tag!
TIP: Order your tickets online for a huge discount! It's an even bigger discount if you go Tuesday - Thursday!
Pink Floyd Plaque
This Regent Street plaque marks the spot where architecture students Nick Mason, Roger Waters, and Richard Wright first met and played music together. With the later addition of original frontman Syd Barrett, this foursome would evolve into the iconic Pink Floyd, one of the most successful British rock bands of all time.
Surviving founding members, Mason and Waters, unveiled this black heritage plate on May 28, 2015, to celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary. Permanently affixed to the wall of London’s University of Westminster (formerly Regent Street Polytechnic), it marks the place where the pair, together with the late Wright, formed the group.
Mason, Waters and Wright, playing drums, bass guitar, and keyboards respectively, first performed together in 1963 as Sigma 6. The group also performed under the name the “Meggadeaths”. The band rehearsed in the basement common room at the polytechnic and performed at student parties.
In September 1963, they were joined by Barrett, an art student/singer/songwriter/guitarist. After several further name changes, the band finally settled on the name the “Tea Set”. However, during 1965, having discovered a second band shared the same name, they became known as “Pink Floyd Sound”, which was abbreviated down to “Pink Floyd” in early 1966. It is commonly believed that Barrett named the band after Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, two of his favorite Carolina Blues musicians. Guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour joined the band in 1967, with Barrett departing in 1968, due to his deteriorating mental health.
During a 2015 interview, Waters said he and Mason were “enormously privileged” to have this plaque erected in their honor. When asked about their student days, Mason reminisced about spending his student grant on curry while Waters remarked he spent his on bass guitars.
Where to find: The plaque is on the University of Westminster building on Regent Street located between Oxford Circus and the BBC headquarters.
Selfridges
The basis of Harry Gordon Selfridge's success was his relentlessly innovative marketing, which was elaborately expressed in his Oxford Street store. Originally from America, Selfridge attempted to dismantle the idea that consumerism was strictly an American phenomenon. He tried to make shopping a fun adventure and a form of leisure instead of a chore, transforming the department store into a social and cultural landmark that provided women with a public space in which they could be comfortable and legitimately indulge themselves. Emphasizing the importance of creating a welcoming environment, he placed merchandise on display so customers could examine it, moved the highly profitable perfume counter front-and-center on the ground floor, and established policies that made it safe and easy for customers to shop. These techniques have been adopted by modern department stores around the world.
Selfridge attracted shoppers with educational and scientific exhibits and was, himself, interested in education and science, believing that the displays would introduce potential new customers to Selfridges and thus, generate both immediate and long-term sales.
In 1909, after the first cross-Channel flight, Louis Blériot's monoplane was put on display at Selfridges, where it was seen by 12,000 people. John Logie Baird made the first public demonstration of moving silhouette images by television from the first floor of Selfridges from April 1-27, 1925.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the roof of the store hosted terraced gardens, cafes, a mini golf course, and an all-girl gun club. The roof, with its extensive views across London, was a common place for strolling after a shopping trip and was often used for fashion shows. During the WW II, The store's basement was used as an air-raid shelter and during raids, employees were usually on the lookout for incendiary bombs and took watch in turns.
A Milne-Shaw seismograph was set up on the Oxford Street store's third floor in 1932, attached to one of the building's main stanchions, where it remained unaffected by traffic or shoppers. It successfully recorded the Belgian earthquake of June 11, 1938, which was also felt in London. In 1947, it was given to the British Museum. The huge SIGSALY scrambling apparatus, by which transatlantic conferences, between American and British officials (most notably Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt), were secured against eavesdropping, was housed in the basement from 1943 on, with extension to the Cabinet War Rooms about a mile away.
In 1926, Selfridges set up the Selfridge Provincial Stores company, which had expanded over the years, to include 16 provincial stores, but these were sold to the John Lewis Partnership in 1940. The Liverpool-based Lewis's chain of department stores acquired the remaining Oxford Street Shop in 1951, expanding the brand by adding Moultons of Ilford. In 1965, the business was purchased by the Sears Group, owned by Charles Clore. Under the Sears group, branches in Ilford and Oxford opened, with the latter remaining Selfridges until 1986, when Sears rebranded it as a Lewis's store. In 1990, Sears Holdings split Selfridges from Lewis's and placed Lewis's in administration a year later. In March 1998, Selfridges acquired its current logo, in-tandem with the opening of the Manchester Trafford Centre store and Selfridges' demerger from Sears.
In September 1998, Selfridges began expanding to other parts of the UK with large department stores however, the Weston family put the Selfridges business up for auction in July 2021, with an estimated value of £4 billion. On December 24, 2021, it was announced that the majority of Selfridges Group had been sold to a joint venture, between Thai conglomerate Central Group and the Austrian Signa Holdings, for around $5.37 billion. The acquisition was completed on August 23, 2022.
Sherlock Holmes Museum
Opened in 1990, the Sherlock Holmes Museum is a privately run museum on Baker Street, dedicated to the famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes. It is the world's first museum, dedicated to the literary character and bears the number 221B, by permission of the City of Westminster (although it lies between numbers 237 and 241, near the north end of Baker Street in central London, close to Regent's Park).
The Georgian town house, which the museum occupies as "221B Baker Street", was built in 1815, and was formerly used as a boarding house from 1860 to 1936. The current museum covers the period of 1881 to 1904 when the stories describe Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, residing there as tenants of Mrs Hudson. The museum features exhibits items from several different adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, and recreations of scenes from the 1984 Granada Television series, Sherlock Holmes.
Fun fact: The address, 221B, was the subject of a protracted dispute between the museum and the nearby Abbey National building. Since the 1930s, the Royal Mail had been delivering mail, addressed to Sherlock Holmes, to the Abbey National Bank, who had to employ a special secretary to deal with such correspondence. The museum went through several appeals for such mail to be delivered to it, on the grounds that it was the most appropriate organization to respond to the mail, rather than the bank, whose primary business was to lend money out on interest. Although these initiatives were all unsuccessful, the issue was finally resolved in 2002 when Abbey National vacated its headquarters after 70 years.
TIP: There were so many reviews, saying it’s not worth the price of admission for just a few minutes to see a few staged floors. Our suggestion, it’s best skipped like we had done.
Swingers Crazy Golf - West End
Swingers started in 2014 as а five month pop-up in a leaky warehouse, in London’s Shoreditch, when founders Matt Grech-Smith and Jeremy Simmonds wanted to test out whether a venue that combined crazy golf with cocktails and street food could be a success. News of the pop-up went viral and the tickets sold out instantly, convincing Matt and Jeremy that Swingers needed to find a permanent home!
The first permanent Swingers location opened in the City of London in May 2016 and was a hit from the start. British GQ called it “London’s new Friday night” and “One of the 60 best things in the world”, as well as nominating it for “Best Experience” at the GQ Food & Drink Awards.
Swingers West End, their second London venue, followed in 2018, in the former BHS flagship store at Oxford Circus, London.
Swingers opened their first US site in Washington DC in June 2021 and their next site, in Manhattan, New York City, opened in June 2022. The third US venue, Swingers Navy Yard, opened in March 2023, and there are a number of additional US openings slated for 2023 and 2024 - to be announced soon.
Tyburn Tree Marker
Today, a small stone marker in the pavement is the only reminder that this was the site of London’s public hangings for nearly 600 years.
The Tyburn Tree was not a tree at all, but rather, a wooden gallows where felons were executed in front of crowds that could number in the thousands. The “tree” was a triangular-shaped scaffold with three beams, able to hang up to 24 people at once.
The first recorded execution at the site dates as far back as 1196, but the wooden gallows weren’t built until 1571. The strange structure became known as the “Tyburn Tree”, and was given many nicknames, such as the “Triple Tree” or “The Deadly Never Green Tyburn Tree.”
Public hangings were a popular spectacle in the Middle Ages, and huge throngs of people came to watch criminals “dance the Tyburn jig,” as it was sometimes called. The prisoners would traditionally say a few words before their death, often speaking out against the political powers of the day. This tradition evolved into Speaker’s Corner, which served as a place for public debate and radical ideas in the city, and is still located nearby.
In 1783, the site of executions was moved to Newgate Prison, and a circular stone marker was installed to commemorate where the infamous Tyburn Tree hanging gallows once stood.
Where to find: The marker is embedded in the pavement in the middle of the traffic island at the junction of Edgware Road and Bayswater Road.
Neasden
BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir
Built entirely using traditional methods and materials, the Swaminarayan mandir has been described as being Britain's first authentic Hindu temple. It was also Europe's first traditional Hindu stone temple, as distinct from converted secular buildings. It is a part of the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) organization and was inaugurated in 1995 by Pramukh Swami Maharaj. The temple complex also consists of a permanent exhibition entitled "Understanding Hinduism" and a cultural center housing an assembly hall, gymnasium, bookshop, and offices.
Spitalfields
Dennis Severs’ House
Dennis Severs' House in Folgate Street is a "still-life drama", created by Dennis Severs in 1979, who owned and lived in it until his death, in 1999. It was designed as a "historical imagination" of what life would have been like inside, for a family of Huguenot silk weavers, who fled in the middle of the night. He gradually recreated the rooms as a time capsule in the style of former centuries and can now be viewed by the public. Most say it’s like seeing a film set.
Spitalfields City Farm
Sited on a former railway goods depot, the farm was started in 1978 in response to local people’s wishes to convert wasteland into allotments, having lost theirs to developers. With a long tradition in the East End of backyard farming, it wasn’t long before chickens, rabbits, and geese appeared on the scene.
As the farm gained momentum and status, it began to attract local borough funding and was able to begin employing staff and developing links with the wider community.
In 1987, lack of revenue funding almost caused the farm to close. The farm has also been under regular threat from developers. Successive bids to various charitable trusts, companies, and public funding bodies, as well a strong local support have enabled the farm to continue and grow.
The farm gained charitable status in 1980, and has since developed into a project providing a wide range of activities and opportunities to the local community and visiting groups.
St. Johns Wood
Originally a nine-bedroom Georgian townhouse, built in 1831 on the footpath leading to Kilburn Abbey, the building was later converted to flats where the best-known resident was Maundy Gregory, who was famous (or infamous) for selling political honors.
In 1929, the Gramophone Company acquired the premises. The property benefited from a large garden behind the townhouse, which permitted a much larger building to be constructed to the rear. Three purpose-built studios were constructed, and the existing house was adapted for use as administration offices. In 1934, the inventor of stereo sound, Alan Blumlein, recorded Mozart's Jupiter Symphony, which was conducted by Thomas Beecham at the studios.
The neighboring house is also owned by the studio and is used to accommodate musicians. During the mid-20th century, the studio was extensively used by British conductor, Sir Malcolm Sargent, whose house was located near the studio building.
The Gramophone Company merged with Columbia Graphophone Company to form Electric and Musical Industries (EMI) in 1931, and the studios later became known as EMI Recording Studios.
In 1958, Studio Two at EMI became a center for rock and roll music when Cliff Richard and the Drifters (later Cliff Richard and the Shadows) recorded "Move It" there.
EMI was also closely associated with the Beatles, who recorded almost all of their albums and hits there, between 1962 and 1970, using the four-track REDD mixing console designed by Peter K. Burkowitz. The Beatles named their 1969 album, “Abbey Road”. Iain Macmillan took the album's cover photograph, outside the studios, with the result that the nearby zebra crossing became a place of pilgrimage for Beatles fans. It has been a tradition for visitors to pay homage to the band by writing on the wall, in front of the building, even though it is painted over every three months.
After becoming the studio's general manager in 1974, Ken Townsend began a rebranding effort to capitalize on the studio's connection with the Beatles. To emphasize the studio's independence, Townsend commissioned artist Alan Brown to design a unique logo and in 1976, the facility officially changed names from EMI Studios to Abbey Road Studios.
Fun fact for Disney fans: From 1966 to 1971, the Walt Disney Music Company recorded vocals, instrumentals, narration and dialogue for over a dozen albums at Abbey Road, for U.S. and international release, including The Aristocats, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Doctor Dolittle, Heidi and The Wizard of Oz. Most of the sessions, including The Mike Sammes Singers, who backed up The Beatles on "I Am the Walrus" and "Good Night."
In 1979, EMI commissioned the British jazz fusion band Morrissey-Mullen to record Britain's first digitally recorded single record at Abbey Road Studios. In 1980, the studio got its start in the film scoring business when Anvil Post Production formed a partnership with the studio, called Anvil-Abbey Road Screen Sound. The partnership started when Anvil was left without a scoring stage, when Denham Studios were demolished. It ended in 1984 when EMI merged with Thorn Electrical Industries to become Thorn EMI, though Abbey Road's success in the scoring business continued after the partnership ended.
From July 18 - September 11, 1983, the public had a rare opportunity to see inside the Studio Two room, where the Beatles made most of their records. While a new mixing console was being installed in the control room, the studio was used to host a video presentation called, “The Beatles at Abbey Road”. The soundtrack to the video had a number of recordings that were not made commercially available until the release of “The Beatles Anthology” project over a decade later.
In September 2012, with the takeover of EMI, the studio became the property of Universal Music. It was not one of the entities that were sold to Warner Music, as part of Parlophone, and instead, the control of Abbey Road Studios Ltd. was transferred to Virgin Records.
London Zoo
Opened on April 27, 1828, the London Zoo is the world's oldest scientific zoo, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for scientific study. In 1831, the animals of the Tower of London menagerie were transferred to the zoo's collection. It was opened to the public in 1847. As of Dec 2022, it houses a collection of 14,926 individuals, making it one of the largest collections in the United Kingdom.
Queen Mary’s Rose Gardens
In the Disney Classic, “101 Dalmatians”, the hero Pongo is bored of his bachelor life and looks out for a mate for himself and his owner Roger. When he spots his dream mate Perdita and her owner Anita, he plays Cupid and drags Roger to the park to orchestrate a meeting with the two women. This “chance” encounter takes place in a real place: the romantic setting of the Queen Mary’s Garden in Regent’s Park.
Aside from its charming literary debut, the historic garden has the largest collection of roses in the city, with around 12,000 roses of 400 different varieties growing there. Named after the wife of King George V, the beautiful garden was opened to the public in 1932, and completed by the park superintendent in 1934.
Tower Hill
Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge is a combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894. It crosses the River Thames, close to the Tower of London, and is one of five London bridges owned and maintained by the Bridge House Estates - a charitable trust founded in 1282. The bridge was constructed to give better access to the East End of London, which had expanded its commercial potential in the 19th century. The bridge was opened by Edward, Prince of Wales and Alexandra, Princess of Wales, in 1894.
The bridge is 800 feet in length and consists of two 213-foot bridge towers, connected at the upper level by two horizontal walkways, and a central pair of bascules that can open to allow shipping. Originally hydraulically powered, the operating mechanism was converted to an electro-hydraulic system in 1972.
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separated from the eastern edge of the square mile of the City of London by the open space known as Tower Hill. It was founded toward the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078 and was a resented symbol of oppression, inflicted upon London by the new Norman ruling class. The castle was also used as a prison from 1100 until 1952, although that was not its primary purpose. A grand palace early in its history, it served as a royal residence. As a whole, the Tower is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat. There were several phases of expansion, mainly under kings Richard I, Henry III, and Edward I in the 12th and 13th centuries. The general layout, established by the late 13th century, remains, despite later activity on the site.
The Tower of London has played a prominent role in English history. It was besieged several times, and controlling it has been important to controlling the country. The Tower has served variously as an armory, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a public record office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of England. From the early 14th century until the reign of Charles II in the 17th century, a procession would be led from the Tower to Westminster Abbey on the coronation of a monarch. In the absence of the monarch, the Constable of the Tower is in charge of the castle. This was a powerful and trusted position in the medieval period. In the late 15th century, the Princes in the Tower were housed at the castle when they mysteriously disappeared, presumed murdered. Under the Tudors, the Tower was used less as a royal residence, and despite attempts to refortify and repair the castle, its defenses lagged behind developments to deal with artillery.
The zenith of the castle's use as a prison was the 16th and 17th centuries, when many figures who had fallen into disgrace, such as Elizabeth I (before she became queen), Sir Walter Raleigh, and Elizabeth Throckmorton, were held within its walls.
Executions were more commonly held on the notorious Tower Hill to the north of the castle, with 112 occurring there over a 400-year period. In the latter half of the 19th century, institutions, such as the Royal Mint, moved out of the castle to other locations, leaving many buildings empty. Anthony Salvin and John Taylor took the opportunity to restore the Tower to what was felt to be its medieval appearance, clearing out many of the vacant post-medieval structures.
In the First and Second World Wars, the Tower was again used as a prison and witnessed the executions of 12 men for espionage. After the Second World War, damage caused during the Blitz was repaired, and the castle reopened to the public. Today, the Tower of London is one of the country's most popular tourist attractions. Under the ceremonial charge of the Constable of the Tower, operated by the Resident Governor of the Tower of London and Keeper of the Jewel House, and guarded by the Yeomen Warders, the property is cared for by the charity Historic Royal Palaces and is protected as a World Heritage Site.
This particular ax was last recorded as being used in 1747 for the execution of the Scottish Baron and Jacobite Lord Simon Fraser of Lovat, who, as a Highlander, fought against the Hanoverian forces during the battle of Culloden. Fraser, upon surrendering, was imprisoned at the Tower of London, where he was later sentenced to death for treason.
Fraser apparently took the death sentence in stride and was even able to maintain a dark sense of humor about the whole situation, right up until the moment of his death. While standing on the public platform waiting for his execution, he apparently mocked the executioner and laughed heartily at the irony of a commotion that had broken out among the crowd below as a wooden viewing stand collapsed, killing nine of the hundreds of spectators who had gathered to jeer and watch his own death.
After hours, the Tower of London belongs to the few dozen families that live within the castle, and the iconically outfitted Yeoman guards head to the private pub that’s tucked in the fortress wall.
The super-exclusive Yeoman Warders Club is only open to the 37 members (and their guests) of the Yeomen Warder of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Member of the Sovereign’s Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary. Or as they are (mercifully) more commonly known, Beefeaters.
There used to be many bars within the Tower walls, but only this one remains. It’s now called “The Keys”, though the original name is still displayed on the wooden door. The pub is 150 years old and about the size of a tennis court. Inside, it’s decorated with red leather benches and grim paraphernalia from the Tower’s past. The Yeoman Gaoler’s axe hangs on the wall above a plaque that used to mark the execution site, and the signature of a Nazi officer, that was briefly imprisoned at the Tower, is encased and on display.
Beefeaters take turns working the bar, which serves locally brewed “Yeoman 1485” and “Beefeater Bitter” on tap, plus, of course, plenty of Beefeater gin. There’s a row of silver tankards lining one wall that are used in the swearing-in ritual for new recruits. The new members drink port from the tankards and the guards utter a long-held superstitious toast: “May you never die a Yeoman warder.”
NOTE: The pub is private and off limits unless you are invited by a member of the Yeoman Warders. It has been open to the public only once a year, during the London Open House weekend.
Wilton’s Music Hall
Wilton's is a unique building, comprising of a mid-19th century grand music hall attached to an 18th century terrace of three houses and a pub. Originally an alehouse, dating from 1743, it may well have served the Scandinavian sea captains and wealthy merchants who lived in neighboring Wellclose Square. From 1826, it was also known as “The Mahogany Bar”, reputedly because the landlord was the first to install a mahogany bar and fittings in his pub. In 1839, a concert room was built behind the pub and in 1843, it was licensed for a short time as “The Albion Saloon” - a saloon theatre, legally permitted to put on full-length plays. John Wilton bought the business in 1850, enlarged the concert room three years later, and replaced it with his 'Magnificent New Music Hall' in 1859.
Wilton's was built by Jacob Maggs, on the same site as the former concert room of the Albion Saloon. The hall could accommodate 1500 people, most of whom were working-class. The bar was retained as the public entrance, and the hall was built in the area behind the existing block of houses. This was common practice at the time, as street frontage for music halls was very expensive. He furnished the hall with mirrors, chandeliers, and decorative paintwork, and installed the finest heating, lighting and ventilation systems of the day.
Madrigals, glees ,and excerpts from opera were at first, the most important part of the entertainment, along with the latest attractions from West End and provincial halls, circus, ballet and fairground. In the 30 years Wilton's was a music hall, many of the best-remembered acts of early popular entertainment performed here.
Wilton's passed into several ownerships during the 1870s before being destroyed by fire in 1877. An eight-year rebuild commenced that year, before the building was bought by the East End Mission of the Methodist Church. Towards the end of the 19th century, the East End had become notorious for extreme poverty and terrible living conditions.
During the Great Dock Strike of 1889, a soup kitchen was set up at The Mahogany Bar, feeding a thousand meals a day to the starving dockers' families. The Mission remained open for nearly 70 years through some of the most testing periods in East End history, including the 1936 Mosley March and the London Blitz in World War II.
The church ceased in 1956, and Wilton's briefly became a rag storage warehouse. After WWII, the area was subject to local authority compulsory purchase as part of the slum clearance schemes of the 1960s. The Methodists had to leave and Wilton's was scheduled for demolition, though a campaign was started to save the building with support from persons, such as Sir John Betjeman, Peter Sellers, and Spike Milligan.
The London Music Hall Trust was formed by solicitor Michael Shelton, to preserve it, but the GLC, under the leadership of Ken Livingstone, sold it to the Jacobs Island Company along with some surrounding land. However, they were able to persuade the local planning authority to make it a condition of development, of the surrounding land, that Jacobs Island Company donated the building to the Trust. The Trust was able to secure some £300,000 to make the building wind and watertight, and preserve it until 1999 when it was leased to Broomhill Opera Company, until 2004. Broomhill Opera produced two productions within the first 18 months, but then surrendered their lease to the Trust. Wilton's Music Hall Trust was then formed, and in 2001 the London Music Hall Trust donated the building to the new trust which has run it every since.
Wilton's reopened as a theatre and concert hall with a production of T. S. Eliot's, The Waste Land. In 1997, Frances Mayhew, former Managing and Artistic Director took over the building in 2004, having worked previously at Wilton's in the late 1990s as an intern. It was again derelict and in debt. In June 2007, the World Monuments Fund added the building to its list of the world's "100 most endangered sites".
Over the next decade, Frances Mayhew and her team restored the building with a program of arts and community activities, and the reinstatement of The Mahogany Bar. The profile grew and in 2012, due to donations from SITA Trust, the Foundation for Sport and the Arts and other trusts and individuals, enough money was raised – just over £1m – to carry out the first half of a Capital Project to repair the building. This first half repaired the auditorium and in 2013, with support of Heritage Lottery Fund and other donors, Wilton's was able to raise the £2.6 million needed to begin part two of the project to repair the houses, numbers 1–4 Graces Alley and 17 Wellclose Square, which make up Wilton’s front of house.
Today, the hall is used for performances and film and photo shoots. It is owned and managed by the Wilton's Music Hall Trust as an arts and heritage venue.
Walthamstow
God’s Own Junkyard
God’s Own Junkyard (GOJY) is a kaleidoscopic warehouse-maze of handmade neon signs. Curated by third-generation neon artisan, Marcus Bracey, GOJY serves many functions: free art gallery and Instagram bonanza for the public; dealer and recycler of signage for businesses; and prop shop for film and photo shoots.
The collection includes thousands of signs, props, and figures, all displayed within a single warehouse space. Cheerful emblems for diners and hotels wink from wall to wall. Every form of disreputable fun is represented in bright light, stacked from the floor and hung from the ceiling: cocktails, karaoke, rock ‘n’ roll, pinball, disco, casinos. Neon-trimmed religious images share space with lurid displays designed for, or inspired by, the retro carnal vice dens of old Soho.
NOTE: It’s only open to the public on weekends.
The Ancient House
Walthamstow’s Ancient House, built in 1435, was originally a hall house, centered around the titular hall - the largest space in the house where the fire was burnt and the main residents slept on the floor. It is known that the format of the house has changed gradually, but major restorations took place in 1934, and again from 2001-2002.
In 1934, some of its exposed brick outer walls were rebuilt. In particular, one was consciously arranged at an angle to give it the impression of Tudor brickwork. The early 21st-century works, included the installation of a plaque that brought attention to this fact. The building is currently divided into four dwellings.
NOTE: As a private dwelling, the house can only be viewed from the outside. Please be respectful of residents and parking spaces when visiting.
Waterloo
The London Eye (Millennium Wheel) is a cantilevered observation wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is Europe's tallest cantilevered observation wheel, and the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom with over 3 million visitors annually.
The structure is 443 ft. tall and the wheel has a diameter of 394 ft. When it opened to the public in 2000, it was the world's tallest Ferris wheel however, it is now surpassed by the 525 ft. Star of Nanchang in 2006, the 541 ft. Singapore Flyer in 2008, the 548 ft. High Roller in Las Vegas in 2014, the 820 ft. Ain Dubai in 2021, and the 459 ft. Sun of Moscow in 2022.
Supported by an A-frame on one side only, unlike these taller examples, the Eye is described by its operators as "the world's tallest cantilevered observation wheel". The Eye offered the highest public viewing point in London until it was superseded by the 804 ft. observation deck on the 72nd floor of The Shard in early 2013.
The London Eye adjoins the western end of Jubilee Gardens, on the South Bank of the River Thames between Westminster Bridge and Hungerford Bridge, beside County Hall, in the London Borough of Lambeth.
National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly-funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Royal Opera House.
Founded by Laurence Olivier in 1963, many well-known actors have performed at the National Theatre. Until 1976, the company was based at The Old Vic theatre in Waterloo. The current building is located next to the Thames in the South Bank area of central London. In addition to performances at the National Theatre building, the National Theatre tours productions at theatres across the United Kingdom, as well as other countries. It presents a varied program, including Shakespeare, other international classic dramas, and new plays by contemporary playwrights.
In June 2009, the theatre began National Theatre Live (NT Live), a program of simulcasts of live productions to cinemas, first in the United Kingdom and then internationally. The program began with a production of Phèdre, starring Helen Mirren, which was screened live in 70 cinemas across the UK. NT Live productions have since been broadcast to over 2,500 venues in 60 countries around the world. In November 2020, National Theatre at Home was announced. It is a video on-demand streaming service, specifically created for National Theatre Live recordings. Videos of plays are added every month, and can be "rented" for temporary viewing, or unlimited recordings can be watched through a monthly or yearly subscription program.
The London Dungeon
The London Dungeon was opened in 1974 by Annabel Geddes, originally as a wax exhibition of the horrifying history of the Tooley Street arches. Early characters included Boudica, Mary Tudor, and Thomas Becket, as well as had scenes from the Norman Conquest.
From the late 1980s to mid-1990s, it evolved to feature walkthrough theatrical shows, such as the Great Fire of London and Jack the Ripper, during which time it was owned by the Kunick Leisure Group. It was acquired by Vardon Attractions in 1992, which later became Merlin Entertainments, through a management buy out, led by Nick Varney. Merlin rebranded the Dungeon more as an interactive horror attraction, less historically-accurate and based around bad taste humor.
In 2013, the London Dungeon moved from its premises of 39 years in Tooley Street, to County Hall, South Bank, to be grouped with other Merlin-owned attractions, such as the London Eye. It is located directly opposite the Houses of Parliament – the same buildings Guy Fawkes tried to blow up with gunpowder in 1605. The move brought the opportunity to reinvigorate the Dungeon; the rebuild took an entire year and a budget of £20 million.
It now features 19 shows, 20 actors, and 2 rides. Visitors are taken on a journey through 1000 years of London's history where they meet actors performing as some of London's most infamous characters, including Jack the Ripper and Sweeney Todd. The Dungeon's shows are staged on theatrical sets with special effects. The show incorporates events, such as the “Black Death” and the “Gunpowder Plot”, and includes characters such as "The Torturer", "The Plague Doctor", and "The Judge". Guests are encouraged to participate in the shows. The experience also includes a "drop ride to doom", a free-fall ride staged as a public hanging.