Having trouble finding a quiet picnic spot in London, courtesy of lockdown and with restaurants off the menu? We all know the usual al fresco hangouts: Regent’s, Hyde Park, Richmond and St James’s Parks, as well as Hampstead Heath, Primrose Hill and Kew Gardens. But there are also plenty of smaller or more unusual green
Oh, give me a good book about London history any day of the week. There’s nothing like it for peeling back the layers of the city and for taking a jaunt into London’s past sights, smells and sounds. The “magic lantern” has always fascinated writers, readers and historians, and for those of us who like
Eltham Palace is one of London’s unique gems, a historic venue where Art Deco London is living it up with its medieval ancestors. Imagine a hotsy-totsy sleepover with both Henry VIII and Hercule Poirot. You have a coupe de champagne in one hand, and the ivories tinker away in the background. A lemur called Mah-Jongg
I asked some of London’s top bloggers to come up with that one place that should be on every visitor’s radar – a must-see London gem. Imagine you only had half a day to spare in the city…here’s a curated list from those in the London know. I hope you enjoy jaunting around the city
Ever wondered where those badly-behaved royals would meet up with their lovers for a secret rendez-vous? Or where they met for the first time? Throughout British history, members of the royal family have had liaisons, some dangereuses, some carried out in secret and others, the cause célèbre of the day. Let’s look at some British
Chances are, you’ve never heard of the Berners Street Hoax, one of the world’s biggest pranks and one which brought Georgian London to a virtual standstill. Concocted by Theodore Hook who was a celebrity of the time, it was designed to show that any old London house could become the most talked-about address in town
Most people think the Savoy Hotel was built by a hotelier. It wasn’t. Richard D’Oyly Carte was a theatre impresario who needed a place for his opera-going audience to sleep. That distinction matters — because it explains everything about the man, his money, and the monument he left in central London. D’Oyly Carte died in
You know the bear. But do you know the street where his creator sat down and wrote the first line? Most literary tours skip the London part entirely — they jump straight to Ashdown Forest in Sussex. That misses the point. A.A. Milne wrote Winnie-the-Pooh in a house on Mallord Street, Chelsea, while his son
I have a real loathing of places which refer to themselves as London’s “best-kept secret,” but Sticky Mango actually deserves the accolade. It’s not wedged into Southbank’s busy arteries which overflow with humdrum chain restaurants. Instead, this Waterloo outpost is quietly but conveniently located on Coin Street, close to the Old Vic, the National Theatre
You’ve got 12 hours in Covent Garden. Maybe you’re a tourist with a tight London itinerary. Maybe you’re a local who’s walked through the piazza a hundred times and never stopped. Either way, the question is the same: how do you spend one day here without wasting money on overpriced street performers and souvenir tat?