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LONDON

Europe | United Kingdom

300C FEATURE DESTINATION: London, England, United Kingdom

With a population of just under eight million, London is Europe’s largest city, spreading across an area of more than 620 square miles from its core on the River Thames. Ethnically it’s also Europe’s most diverse metropolis: around two hundred languages are spoken within its confines, and more than thirty percent of the population is made up of first, second- and third-generation immigrants. Despite Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish devolution, London still dominates the national horizon, too: this is where the country’s news and money are made, it’s where the central government resides and, as far as its inhabitants are concerned, provincial life begins beyond the circuit of the city’s orbital motorway. Londoners’ sense of superiority causes enormous resentment in the regions, yet it’s undeniable that the capital has a unique aura of excitement and success – in most walks of British life, if you want to get on you’ve got to do it in London.

For the visitor, too, London is a thrilling place – and since the beginning of the new millennium, the city has also been overtaken by an exceptionally buoyant mood. Thanks to the lottery and millennium-oriented funding frenzy of the last few years, virtually every one of London’s world-class museums, galleries and institutions has been reinvented, from the Royal Opera House to the British Museum. With the completion of the Tate Modern and the London Eye, the city can now boast the world’s largest modern art gallery and Ferris wheel; there’s also a new tube extension and the first new bridge to cross the Thames for over a hundred years. And after sixteen years of being the only major city in the world not to have its own governing body, London finally has its own elected mayor and assembly.

In the meantime, London’s traditional sights – Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Tower of London – continue to draw in millions of tourists every year. Monuments from the capital’s more glorious past are everywhere to be seen, from medieval banqueting halls and the great churches of Sir Christopher Wren to the eclectic Victorian architecture of the triumphalist British Empire. There is also much enjoyment to be had from the city’s quiet Georgian squares, the narrow alleyways of the City of London, the riverside walks, and the quirks of what is still identifiably a collection of villages. And even London’s traffic pollution – one of its worst problems – is offset by surprisingly large expanses of greenery: Hyde Park, Green Park and St James’s Park are all within a few minutes’ walk of the West End, while, further afield, you can enjoy the more expansive parklands of Hampstead Heath and Richmond Park.

You could spend days just shopping in London, too, hobnobbing with the upper classes in Harrods, or sampling the offbeat weekend markets of Portobello Road and Camden. The music, clubbing and gay/lesbian scenes are second to none, and mainstream arts are no less exciting, with regular opportunities to catch brilliant theatre companies, dance troupes, exhibitions and opera. Restaurants, these days, are an attraction, too. London has caught up with its European rivals, and offers a range from three-star Michelin establishments to low-cost, high-quality Indian curry houses. Meanwhile, the city’s pubs have heaps of atmosphere, especially away from the centre – and an exploration of the farther-flung communities is essential to get the complete picture of this dynamic metropolis

Introducing the City

Stretching for more than thirty miles at its broadest point, London is by far the largest city in Europe. The majority of its sights are situated to the north of the River Thames, which loops through the city from west to east. However, there is no single predominant focus of interest, for London has grown not through centralized planning but by a process of agglomeration – villages and urban developments that once surrounded the core are now lost within the amorphous mass of Greater London.

One of the few areas that you can easily explore on foot is Westminster and Whitehall , the city’s royal, political and ecclesiastical power base, where you’ll find the National Gallery and a host of other London landmarks, from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. The grand streets and squares of St James’s , Mayfair and Marylebone , to the north of Westminster, have been the playground of the rich since the Restoration, and now contain the city’s busiest shopping zones.

East of Piccadilly Circus, Soho and Covent Garden are also easy to walk around and form the heart of the West End entertainment district, containing the largest concentration of theatres, cinemas, clubs, flashy shops, cafés and restaurants. To the north lies the university quarter of Bloomsbury , home to the ever-popular British Museum, and the secluded quadrangles of Holborn’s Inns of Court, London’s legal heartland.

The City – the City of London, to give it its full title – is at one and the same time the most ancient and the most modern part of London. Settled since Roman times, it is now one of the world’s great financial centres, yet retains its share of historic sights, notably the Tower of London and a fine cache of Wren churches that includes St Paul’s Cathedral. Despite creeping trendification, the East End , to the east of the City, is not conventional tourist territory, but to ignore it entirely is to miss out a crucial element of contemporary London. Docklands is the converse of the down-at-heel East End, with the Canary Wharf tower, the country’s tallest building, epitomizing the pretensions of the Thatcherite dream.

Lambeth and Southwark comprise the small slice of central London that lies south of the Thames. The South Bank Centre, London’s little-loved concrete culture bunker, is enjoying a new lease of life thanks to its proximity to the new Tate Gallery of Modern Art in Bankside, which is linked to the City by a new pedestrian bridge.

The largest segment of greenery in central London is Hyde Park, which separates wealthy Kensington and Chelsea from the city centre. The museums of South Kensington – the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum – are a must; and if you have shopping on your agenda, you’ll want to check out the hive of plush stores in the vicinity of Harrods.

The capital’s most hectic weekend market takes place around Camden Lock in North London . Further out, in the literary suburbs of Hampstead and Highgate, there are unbeatable views across the city from half-wild Hampstead Heath, the favourite parkland of thousands of Londoners. The glory of South London is Greenwich, with its nautical associations, royal park and observatory (not to mention its Dome). Finally, there are plenty of rewarding day-trips along the Thames from Chiswick to Windsor , most notably Hampton Court Palace and Windsor Castle.

WHEN TO GO

Considering the temperateness of the English climate, it’s amazing how much mileage the locals get out of the subject – a two-day cold snap is discussed as if it were the onset of a new Ice Age, and a week in the upper 70s starts rumours of drought. The fact is that English summers rarely get hot and the winters don’t get very cold, though they’re often wet. The bottom line is that it’s impossible to say with any degree of certainty that the weather will be pleasant in any given month. May might be wet and grey one year and gloriously sunny the next, and the same goes for the autumnal months – November stands an equal chance of being crisp and clear or foggy and grim.

As far as crowds go, tourists stream into London pretty much all year round, with peak season from Easter to October, and the biggest crush in July and August, when you’ll need to book your accommodation well in advance. Costs, however, are pretty uniform year-round.

Climate

°F °C Rainfall AVERAGE DAILY AVERAGE DAILY AVERAGE MONTHLY INCHES MILLIMETRES
January 42 5 2.1 54
February 43 6 1.6 40
March 46 8 1.5 37
April 51 11 1.5 37
May 56 14 1.8 46
June 62 17 1.8 46
July 65 18 2.2 57
August 65 18 2.3 59
September 60 16 1.9 49
October 54 12 2.2 57
November 48 9 2.5 64
December 44 6 1.9 48

RED TAPE AND VISAS

Citizens of most European countries can enter the UK with just a passport; EU citizens can stay indefinitely, other Europeans can stay for up to three months. US, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand citizens can stay for up to six months, providing they have a return ticket and adequate funds to cover their stay. Citizens of most other countries require a visa, obtainable from the British consular or mission office in the country of application.

If you want to extend your visa, you should write, before the expiry date given on the endorsement in your passport, to: The Under Secretary of State, Home Office, Immigration and Nationality Dept, Lunar House, Wellesley Rd, Croydon CR9 2BY (tel 0870/606 7766, ), enclosing your passport or National Identity Card and form IS120 (if these were your entry documents).

British Embassies and High Commissions abroad

Australia British High Commission, Commonwealth Ave, Yarralumla, Canberra, ACT 2600 tel 02/6270 6666, .

Canada British High Commission, 80 Elgin St, Ottawa, ON K1P 5K7 tel 613/237-1530, .

Ireland 29 Merrion Rd, Dublin 4 tel 01/205 3700, .

New Zealand British High Commission, 44 Hill St, Wellington tel 04/924 2888, .

USA 3100 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20008 tel 202/588-6500, .

Customs

Since the inauguration of the EU Single Market, travellers coming into Britain directly from another EU country do not have to make a declaration to Customs at their place of entry. In other words, you can bring almost as many cigarettes and as much French wine or German beer into the country as you can carry. The guidance levels are 10 litres of spirits, 90 litres of wine and 110 litres of beer, which should suffice for anyone’s requirements – any more than this and you’ll have to provide proof that it’s for personal use only. The guidelines for tobacco are 800 cigarettes, 400 cigarillos, 200 cigars or 1kg of loose tobacco. If you’re travelling to or from a non-EU country, you can still buy duty-free goods, but within the EU, this perk no longer exists. The duty-free allowances are:

” Tobacco : 200 cigarettes; or 100 cigarillos; or 50 cigars; or 250 grammes of loose tobacco.

” Alcohol : 2 litres of still wine plus 1 litre of drink over 22 percent alcohol, or 2 litres of alcoholic drinks not over 22 percent.

” Perfumes : 60ml of perfume plus 250ml of toilet water.

” Plus other goods to the value of £145.

There are import restrictions on a variety of articles and substances, from firearms to furs derived from endangered species, none of which should bother the average tourist. However, if you need any clarification on British import regulations, contact the Excise Contact Centre on 0845/010 9000, .

Most goods in Britain, with the chief exceptions of books and food, are subject to Value Added Tax (VAT), which increases the cost of an item by 17.5 percent (included in the marked price of goods). Visitors from non-EU countries can save a lot of money through the Retail Export Scheme (tax-free shopping), which allows a refund of VAT on goods to be taken out of the country. (Savings will usually be minimal for EU nationals because of the rates at which the goods will be taxed upon import to the home country.) Note that not all shops participate in this scheme (those doing so will display a sign to this effect) and that you cannot reclaim VAT charged on hotel bills or other services.

ARRIVAL

London’s international airports are all less than an hour from the city centre, and the city’s train and bus terminals are all pretty central, and have tube stations close at hand.

Airports

Flying into London, you’ll arrive at one of the capital’s five international airports : Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton or City Airport.

Heathrow , twelve miles west of the city, has four terminals, and two train/tube stations: one for terminals 1, 2 and 3, and a separate one for terminal 4. The high-speed Heathrow Express trains travel non-stop to Paddington Station (every 15min; 15-20min) for £12 each way or £22 return. A much cheaper alternative is to take the slow Piccadilly Underground line into central London (every 2-5min; 50min) for £3.50. If you plan to make several sightseeing journeys on your arrival day, buy a multi-zone One-Day Travelcard for £4.70. There is also Airbus #2, which runs from outside all four Heathrow terminals to several destinations in the city (every 30min; 1hr) and costs £7 single, £12 return. From midnight, you’ll have to take night bus #N97 to Trafalgar Square (every 30min; 1hr 10min) for a bargain £1.50. Taxis are plentiful, but cost at least £35 to central London, and take around an hour (longer in the rush hour).

Gatwick , thirty miles to the south, has two terminals, North and South, connected by a monorail. The non-stop Gatwick Express train runs day and night between the South Terminal and Victoria Station (every 15-30min; 30min) for £9.50. Other options include the Connex South Central service to Victoria (every 30min; 40min) for £8.20, or Thameslink to King’s Cross (every 15-30min; 50min) for £9.50. Airbus #5 runs from both terminals to Victoria Coach Station (hourly; 1hr 30min) and costs £8 single, £10 return. A taxi ride into central London will set you back £50 or more, and take at least an hour.

Stansted , London’s swankiest international airport, lies 34 miles northeast of the capital, and is served by the Stansted Express to Liverpool Street (every 15-30min; 45min), which costs £12 single, £22 return. Airbus #6 or #7 also runs to Victoria Coach Station (hourly; 1hr 15min), and costs £8 single, £10 return. A taxi into central London will cost £50 or more, and take at least an hour.

Luton airport (tel 01582/405100; www.london-luton.com) is roughly thirty miles north of the city centre, and mostly handles charter flights. Luton Airport Parkway station is connected by rail to King’s Cross and other stations in central London, with Thameslink running trains every fifteen minutes, plus one or two throughout the night; the journey takes thirty to forty minutes; the single fare is £9.50, returns are £16.90. Green Line (tel 0870/6087261) buses run approximately every hour from Luton to Victoria Station, taking around an hour and a half, and costing £7.50 single, £12 return. A taxi will cost in the region of £70 and take at least an hour from central London.

London’s smallest airport, City Airport , is situated in Docklands, nine miles east of central London. It handles European flights only, and is connected by shuttle bus with Canning Town (every 5min; 5min), and Canary Wharf (every 10min; 10min) for £2, plus Liverpool Street (every 10min; 25-35min) for £5. A taxi into central London will cost around £15 and take half an hour or so.

Train and Coach Stations

Eurostar trains arrive at Waterloo International , south of the river. Trains from the Channel ports arrive at Charing Cross or Victoria train stations; boat trains from Harwich arrive at Liverpool Street . Arriving by train from elsewhere in Britain, you’ll come into one of London’s numerous main-line stations, all of which have adjacent Underground stations linking into the city centre’s tube network. Coaches terminate at Victoria Coach Station , a couple of hundred yards south down Buckingham Palace Road from the train station and Underground.

CITY TRANSPORT

London’s transport network is among the most complex and expensive in the world. The London Transport (LT) travel information office , at Piccadilly Circus tube station (daily 9am-6pm), will provide free transport maps; there are other desks at Euston Station, Heathrow (terminals 1, 2 and 3), King’s Cross, Liverpool Street, Paddington and Victoria stations. There’s also a 24-hour phone line for transport information (tel 020/7222 1234), and a Web site giving real-time travel news ( www.londontransport.co.uk). If you can, avoid travelling during the rush hour (Mon-Fri 8-9.30am & 5-7pm) when tubes become unbearably crowded, and some buses become full to overflowing.

Travel Cards

To get the best value out of the transport system, buy a Travelcard . Available from machines and booths at all tube and train stations, and at some newsagents (look for the sticker), these are valid for the bus, tube, Docklands Light Railway, and suburban rail networks.

One-Day Travelcards , valid on weekdays from 9.30am and all day at weekends, cost £3.90 (central zones 1 and 2), rising to £4.70 for all zones (1-6, including Heathrow); the respective Weekend Travelcards , for unlimited travel on Saturday and Sunday, cost £5.80 for zones 1-2, and £7 for zones 1-6. If you need to travel before 9.30am on a weekday, but don’t need to use suburban trains, you can buy a One-Day LT Card , which costs from £5 (zones 1 and 2) to £7.50 (all zones). Weekly Travelcards are even more economical, beginning at £18.20 for zones 1 and 2; for these cards you need a photocard , available free of charge from tube and train stations on presentation of a passport-sized photo.

The Tube

The eleven different London Underground – or tube – lines cross much of the metropolis, although London south of the river is not very well covered. Each line has its own colour and name – all you need to know is which direction you’re travelling in: northbound, eastbound, southbound or westbound. Services operate from around 5.30am Monday to Saturday, and from 7.30am on Sundays, and end around midnight every day; you rarely have to wait more than five minutes for a train between central stations.

Tickets must be bought in advance from the machines or booths in station entrance halls; if you cannot produce a valid ticket, you will be charged an on-the-spot Penalty Fare of £10. A single journey in the central zone costs an unbelievable £1.50; a Carnet of ten tickets costs £11. If you’re intending to travel about a lot, however, a Travelcard is by far your best bet.

Buses

Tickets for all bus journeys within, to or from the central zone costs a flat fare of £1; journeys outside the central zone cost 70p. Normally you pay the driver on entering, but some routes are covered by older Routemaster buses, staffed by a conductor and with an open rear platform. Note that at request stops (easily recognizable by their red sign) you must stick your arm out to hail the bus you want. In addition to the Travelcards, a One-Day Bus Pass is also available and can be used before 9.30am; it costs £3 for zones 1 and 2.

Regular buses run between about 6am and midnight; night buses (prefixed with the letter “N”) operate outside this period. Night bus routes radiate out from Trafalgar Square at hourly intervals, more frequently on some routes and on Friday and Saturday nights. Fares are a flat £1.50 from central London; only weekly, monthly or yearly Travelcards are valid on these.

Suburban Trains

Large areas of London’s suburbs are best reached by the suburban train network (Travelcards valid). Wherever a sight can only be reached by overground train, we’ve indicated the nearest train station and the central terminus from which you must depart. If you’re planning to use the railway network a lot, you might want to purchase a Network Railcard , which is valid for a year, costs £20, and gives you up to 34 percent discount on fares to destinations in and around the southeast. To find out about a particular service, phone National Rail Enquiries on 8457/484950.

Taxis

If you’re in a group of three or more, London’s metered black cabs can be an economical way of getting around the centre – a ride from Euston to Victoria, for example, should cost around £10. A yellow light over the windscreen tells you if the cab is available – just stick your arm out to hail it. (If you want to book one in advance, call 020/7272 0272.)

Minicabs are less reliable than black cabs, but considerably cheaper, so you might want to take one back from a late-night club. Most minicabs are not metered, so always establish the fare beforehand. If you want to be certain of a woman driver, call Ladycabs (tel 020/7254 3501).

Boats

Boat services on the Thames still do not form part of an integrated public transport system, and Travelcards are not currently valid on the river. So for the moment at least, travelling by boat remains a leisure pastime and not really a commuting option. There are regular services between central London and Greenwich, and, in the summer, even as far upstream as Hampton Court. Timetables and services are complex, however; for a full list, pick up the Thames river services booklet from an LT travel information office, phone 020/7222 1234 or visit www.londontransport.co.uk.

EATING

Cafes and Snacks

This section covers cafés , coffee bars , ice-cream parlours and tearooms , all of which you’ll find open during the day for light snacks or just a drink. Some of them also provide full evening meals, and, as they make no pretence to being full-on restaurants, you can use them for an inexpensive or quick bite before going out to a theatre, cinema or club.

The listings here cover the full range, from unreconstructed workers cafés, where you can get traditional English breakfasts, fish and chips, pies and other calorific treats, to the refined salons of London’s top hotels, where you can enjoy an Afternoon Tea blowout .

Restaurants

London is a great place in which to eat out . You can sample more or less any kind of cuisine here, and, wherever you come from, you should find something new and quite possibly unique. Home to some of the best Cantonese restaurants in the whole of Europe, London is also a noted centre for Indian and Bangladeshi food, and has numerous French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Thai restaurants; and within all these cuisines, you can choose anything from simple meals to gourmet spreads. Traditional and modern British food is available all over town, and we’ve reviewed some of the best venues.

Another bonus is that there are plenty of places to eat around the main tourist drags of the West End: Soho has long been renowned for its eclectic and fashionable restaurants – and new eateries appear here every month – while Chinatown , on the other side of Shaftesbury Avenue, offers value-for-money eating right in the centre of town.

Many of the restaurants we’ve listed will be busy on most nights of the week, particularly on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and you’re best advised to reserve a table wherever you’re headed. The majority of places take major credit cards, such as Visa, MasterCard and Amex; in the listings, we’ve simply noted those that don’t.

As for prices , you can pay an awful lot for a meal in London, and if you’re used to North American portions, you’re not going to be particularly impressed by the volume in most places. In the listings, we’ve quoted the minimum you can get away with spending (assuming you don’t tip and don’t drink) and the amount you can expect to pay for a full blowout.

Service is discretionary at most restaurants, but many tend to take no chances, emblazoning their bills with reminders that “Service is NOT included”, or even including a ten to fifteen percent service charge on the bill (which they have to announce on the menu, by law). Normally you should, of course, pay service – it’s how most of the staff make up their wages – but make sure you check you’re not paying twice.

ENTERTAINMENT

Pubs and Bars

Pubs are one of England’s most enduring social institutions, and have outlived the church and marketplace as the focal points of communities, with London’s fringe theatre, alternative comedy and live-music scenes still largely pub-based. At their best, pubs can be as welcoming as their full name, “public house”, suggests, offering a fine range of drinks and filling food. At their worst, they’re dismal rooms with surly bar staff and rotten snacks. One thing you can be sure of, however, is that most pubs and bars remain smoke-filled places where drinking alcohol is the prime activity.

London’s great period of pub building took place in the Victorian era, to which many pubs still pay homage; genuine Victorian interiors, however, are increasingly difficult to find, as indeed are genuinely individual pubs. Chain pubs can now be found all over the capital: branches of All Bar One, Pitcher & Piano and the Slug & Lettuce are the most obvious, as they all share the chain name, whereas J.D. Wetherspoon pubs and the Firkin chain do at least vary theirs.

Pub food , on the whole, is a lunchtime affair, although “gastropubs”, which put more effort into their cooking, are increasingly offering meals in the evening, too. The traditional image of London pub food is dire – a pseudo “ploughman’s lunch” of bread and cheese, or a murky-looking pie and chips – but the last couple of decades have seen plenty of improvements. You can get a palatable lunchtime meal at many of the pubs we’ve listed in this section, and at a few of them you’re looking at cooking worthy of high restaurant-standard praise.
————————————————————————————————————————Standard pub opening hours are Mon-Sat 11am-11pm, Sun noon-10.30pm. Our listings only specify the exceptions. ————————————————————————————————————————
Though pubs may be constantly changing hands (and names), the quickest turnover is in bars , which go in and out of fashion with incredible speed. These are very different places to your average pub, catering to a somewhat cliquey, often youngish crowd, with designer interiors and drinks; they also tend to be more expensive – we’ve listed a fair few.

England’s licensing laws are likely to have changed by the time you read this, as after more than a century of draconian restrictions, the government has finally caved in and liberalized English opening hours. This should allow pubs and bars to stay open way beyond the standard 11pm last orders, so the times listed may well have changed significantly.

Live Music and Clubs

Don’t believe the Cool Britannia hype; London has had a bewilderingly large range of places to go after dark for the last twenty years. The live music scene remains extremely diverse, encompassing all variations of rock, blues, roots and world music; and although London’s jazz clubs aren’t on a par with those in the big American cities, there’s a highly individual scene of home-based artists, supplemented by top-name visiting players.

If you’re looking for dance music , then welcome to Europe’s party capital. After dark, London is thriving, with diverse scenes championing everything from hip-hop to house, techno to trance, samba to soca and drum’n’bass to R&B on virtually any night of the week. Venues once used exclusively by performing bands now pepper the week with club nights, and you often find dance sessions starting as soon as a band has stopped playing. Bear in mind that there’s sometimes an overlap between “live music venues” and “clubs” in the listings; we’ve indicated which places serve a double function.

The already relaxed attitude to late night bars has become more liberal in the recent years. So far, though, the main consequence of the restrictions on late night drinking laws has been the rapid growth and diversity of club-bars , places which are essentially bars, but cater for a clubby crowd – funky décor, DJs, late opening hours and ridiculously overpriced foreign beers.

The dance and club scene is, of course, pretty much in constant flux, with the hottest items constantly moving location, losing the plot or just cooling off. Weekly listings magazines like Time Out, DJ and 7 give up-to-date details of prices and access, plus previews and reviews.

Classical Music, Opera and Dance

With the South Bank, the Barbican and the Wigmore Hall offering year-round appearances by generally first-rank musicians and numerous smaller venues providing a stage for less established or more specialized performers, the capital should satisfy most devotees of classical music . What’s more, in the annual Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, London has one of Europe’s greatest, most democratic music festivals.

While the English National Opera quietly continues to try and demolish the elitist stereotypes of opera , the Royal Opera House continues to grab the headlines. After a long, costly and painful period of rebuilding and refurbishment, the ROH finally reopened at the end of 1999. Embarrassing technical hitches meant that part of the initial programme of events had to be cancelled, and ticket prices are still far too high, but the new Floral Hall development has generally been well-received.

The more modest economics of dance mean that you’ll often find ambitious work on offer, with several adventurous companies appearing sporadically, while fans of classicism can revel in the Royal Ballet – as accomplished a company as any in Europe.

Theatre, Comedy and Cinema

London has enjoyed a reputation for quality theatre since the time of Shakespeare, and despite the continuing prevalence of fail-safe blockbuster musicals and revenue-spinning star vehicles, the city still provides a platform for innovation. The comedy scene in London goes from strength to strength, so much so that the capital now boasts more comedy venues than any other city in the world, while comedians who have made the transition to television also stage shows in major theatres. Cinema is rather less healthy, for London’s repertory film theatres are a dying breed, edged out by the multiscreen complexes which show mainstream Hollywood fare some months behind America. There are a few excellent independent cinemas, though, including the National Film Theatre, which is the focus of the richly varied London Film Festival in November.

Current details of what’s on in all these areas can be found in a number of publications, the most comprehensive being the weekly Time Out. The Guardian ’s “The Guide” section (free with the paper on Saturdays) and Friday’s Evening Standard are other good sources.

KID’S LONDON

On first sight London seems a hostile place for children, with its crowds, incessant noise and intimidating traffic. English attitudes can be discouraging as well, particularly if you’ve experienced the more indulgent approach of the French or Italians – London’s restaurateurs, for example, tend to regard children and eating out as mutually exclusive concepts. Yet if you pick your place carefully, even central London can be a delight for the pint-sized, and it needn’t overly strain the parental pocket.

Covent Garden ’s buskers and jugglers provide no-cost entertainment in a car-free setting, and there’s always the chance of being plucked from the crowd to help out with a trick. Don’t underestimate the value of London’s public transport as a source of fun, either. The #11 double-decker from Victoria, for instance, will trundle you past the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square and the Strand on its way to St Paul’s Cathedral for 40p per child. The driverless Docklands Light Railway is another guaranteed source of amusement – grab a seat at the front of the train and pretend to be driver, then take a boat back to the centre of town from Greenwich.

Museums

Lots of London’s museums will appeal to children. Below are those that are primarily geared towards entertaining and/or educating children – some are covered in the main part of our guide, and are cross-referenced accordingly. Most offer child-oriented programmes of workshops, educational story trails, special shows and suchlike during the school holidays. Time Out has listings of kids’ events, and also produces Kids Out, a monthly listings magazine for those with children.

Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood

Cambridge Heath Rd, E2 tel 020/8983 5200; www.vam.ac.uk. Tube: Bethnal Green. Daily except Fri 10am-5.50pm; free.

Best known for its collection of historic dolls’ houses, the museum also has a few buttons to press, and lots of weekend/holiday events and activities.

Horniman Museum

London Rd, SE23 tel 020/8699 1872; www.horniman.ac.uk. Tube: Forest Hill train station, from Victoria or London Bridge. Mon-Sat 10.30am-5.30pm, Sun 2-5.30pm; free.

An ethnographic museum, but with lots to interest kids, including an aquarium, a natural history section and lovely grounds.

Kew Bridge Steam Museum

Green Dragon Lane, Brentford, TW8. tel 020/8568 4757; www.kbsm.org.uk. Kew Bridge train station from Waterloo, or bus #237 or #267 from Gunnersbury tube station. Daily 11am-5pm; Mon-Fri adults £3, children £1; Sat & Sun adults £4, children £2.

Best visited at weekends, when the beam engines are in steam and the miniature steam railway is in operation.

Legoland

Windsor, Berkshire tel 0870/504 0404; www.legoland.co.uk. Windsor & Eton Central, from Paddington (change at Slough), or Windsor & Eton Riverside, from Waterloo. Daily 10am-6pm or dusk; adults £17.50, children £14.50.

Very expensive but enjoyable and relatively tasteful theme park with gentle rides – perfect for five- to eight-year-olds.

London Aquarium

County Hall, SE1 tel 020/7967 8000; www.londonaquarium.co.uk. Tube: Westminster or Waterloo. Daily 10am-6pm or later; adults £8.50, children £5.

London’s largest aquarium is situated on the South Bank, and is very popular with kids, especially the bit where they get to stroke the (non-sting) rays.

London Zoo

Regent’s Park, NW1 tel 020/7722 3333; www.londonzoo.co.uk. Bus #274 from Camden Town or Baker Street tube station. Daily: March-Oct 10am-5.30pm; Nov-Feb 10am-4pm; adults £9, children £7.

Architecturally interesting inner-city zoo which has recently opened its new Web of Life building, as part of a drive to redefine itself as eco-conscious.

Natural History Museum

Cromwell Rd, SW7 tel 020/7942 5000; www.nhm.ac.uk. Tube: South Kensington. Mon-Sat 10am-5.50pm, Sun 11am-5.50pm; adults £7.50, children: Mon-Fri all free after 4.30pm, Sat & Sun all free after 5pm.

Dinosaurs, stuffed animals, live ants, a “rainforest”, an earthquake simulator and lots of rocks, fossils, crystals and gems.

Pollock’s Toy Museum

1 Scala St, W1 tel 020/7636 3452; www.pollocks.cwc.net. Tube: Goodge Street. Mon-Sat 10am-5pm; adults £3, children £1.50.

Housed above a toy shop, the museum’s impressive toy collection includes a fine example of the Victorian paper theatres sold by Benjamin Pollock.

Ragged School Museum

Copperfield Rd, E3 tel 020/8980 6405; www.ics-london.co.uk/rsm. Tube: Mile End. Wed & Thurs 10am-5pm, first Sun in month 2-5pm; free.

The reconstructed Victorian schoolroom here makes kids realize what an easy life they have these days.

Science Museum

Exhibition Rd, SW7 tel 020/7942 4455; www.nmsi.ac.uk. Tube: South Kensington. Daily 10am-6pm; adults £6.95, children free; all free after 4.30pm.

More and more hands-on galleries aimed at kids are being introduced, and there are excellent daily demonstrations, plus a totally revamped transport wing.

Syon

Syon Park, Brentford, Middlesex tel 020/8560 7272. Bus #237 or #267 from Gunnersbury Tube.

Good place for a day out, with the Butterfly House, an Aquatic House full of fish, reptiles and amphibians, plus a miniature steam railway in the house’s lovely gardens. Snakes and Ladders, an indoor childrens’ play area with impressive apparatus, is also in the park (tel 020/8847 0946; daily 10am-6pm; adults free, under 5’s £3.55, over 5’s £4.65, with reductions on weekdays).

Theatre

Numerous London theatres put on kids’ shows at the weekend – for full listings, see Time Out – but there are one or two venues that are almost entirely child-centred. Ticket prices hover around the £5 mark for children and adults alike, unless the show is at a West End theatre, in which case you’re looking at more like £15 and upwards.

Little Angel Theatre

14 Dagmar Passage, off Cross St, N1 tel 020/7226 1787. Tube: Angel or Highbury & Islington.

London’s only permanent puppet theatre, with shows on Saturdays and Sundays at 11am and 3pm; the mornings are for three- to six-year-olds, the afternoons for older kids. Additional shows during the holidays and occasionally in the evenings.

Polka Theatre

240 The Broadway, SW19 tel 020/8543 4888; www.polkatheatre.com. Tube: Wimbledon or South Wimbledon.

A specially designed junior arts centre aimed at kids aged up to around twelve, with two theatres, a playground, a café and a toy shop. Storytellers, puppeteers and mimes make regular appearances.

Puppet Theatre Barge

Little Venice, Blomfield Rd, W9 tel 020/7249 6876 or 0836/202745; www.movingstage.co.uk. Tube: Warwick Avenue.

Wonderfully imaginative marionette shows on a fifty-seater barge moored in Little Venice from November to May, then at various points along the Thames (including Richmond). Shows usually start at 3pm at weekends and in the holidays.

Unicorn Theatre

Tel 020/7700 0702; www.unicorntheatre.com.

The Unicorn is the oldest professional children’s theatre in London, and is currently performing in several venues across the capital, including the Pleasance Theatre, off the Caledonian Road, N1. Shows run the gamut from mime and puppetry to traditional plays .

Parks and City Farms

Central London has plenty of green spaces , such as Hyde Park, which has playgrounds and ample room for general mayhem, as well as a diverting array of city wildlife. If you want something more unusual than ducks and squirrels, though, head for one of London’s city farms .

Battersea Park

Albert Bridge Rd, SW11 tel 020/8871 7540 (zoo) or 8871 6374 (playground). Battersea Park or Queenstown Road train station, from Victoria. Zoo: Easter-Sept daily 10am-5pm; Oct-Easter Sat & Sun 11am-3pm; adults £1.80, children 90p. Adventure playground: term time Tues-Fri 3.30-7pm; holidays & weekends 11am-6pm; free.

A children’s zoo with monkeys, reptiles, birds, otters and mongooses; challenging adventure playground and lots of open space. Every August, the free “Teddy Bears’ Picnic” draws thousands of children and their plush pals.

Coram’s Fields

93 Guilford St, WC1 tel 020/7837 6138. Tube: Russell Square. Daily 9am-dusk/8pm; free.

Ducks, sheep, pigs, rabbits, goats and chickens, plus a large free playground with slides and swings. Adults admitted only if accompanied by a child.

Hampstead Heath

Info centre by Lido, NW3. Wed-Fri 1-5pm Sat & Sun 10am-5pm; tel 020/7485 4491. Tube: Hampstead, or Gospel Oak or Hampstead Heath train stations. Open daily 24hr.

Nine hundred acres of grassland and woodland, with superb views of the city. Excellent kite-flying, birdwatching and swimming potential too.

Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens

W8 tel 020/7298 2100; www.royalparks.co.uk. Tube: High Street Kensington or Lancaster Gate. Daily dawn-dusk.

Hyde Park is central London’s main open space; in Kensington Gardens, adjoining its western side, you can find the famous Peter Pan statue (near the Long Water), a playground and a pond that’s perfect for toy boat sailing.

Kew Gardens

Richmond, Surrey tel 020/8332 5000; www.kew.org. Tube: Kew Gardens. Daily 9.30am to 7.30pm or dusk; adults £5, children £2.50.

You have to pay a hefty entry fee to get into the Royal Botanical Gardens, but they are fun for kids and adults. There’s lots of green space, wildfowl, and some great glasshouses, one of which has an aquarium.

Mudchute City Farm

Pier St, E14 tel 020/7515 5901. Mudchute or Island Gardens DLR. Daily 9am-5pm; free.

Covering some 35 acres, this is London’s largest city farm, with barnyard animals, llamas, a pets’ corner and a café.

Richmond Park

Richmond, Surrey tel 020/8948 3209; www.royalparks.co.uk. Tube: Richmond, or Richmond train station from Waterloo. Daily 8am-dusk; free.

A fabulous stretch of countryside, with opportunities for duck-feeding, deer-spotting, mushroom hunting and cycling.

Shops

Benjamin Pollock’s Toy Shop

44 Covent Garden Apple Market, WC2 tel 020/7379 7866; www.pollocks.cwc.net. Tube: Covent Garden. Mon-Sat 10.30am-6pm.

An old-fashioned outlet selling puppets, traditional teddies and dolls, as well as charming model theatres complete with cut-out sets, props and tiny actors.

Children’s Book Centre

237 Kensington High St, W8 tel 020/7937 7497; www.childrensbookcentre.co.uk. Tube: Kensington High Street. Mon, Wed, Fri & Sat 9.30am-6.30pm, Tues 9.30am-6pm, Thurs 9.30am-7pm, Sun noon-6pm.

Immense bookshop just for kids, where classic yarns nestle with the best in contemporary adolescent fiction.

Davenport’s Magic Shop

Charing Cross Shopping Arcade, WC2 tel 020/7836 0408. Tube: Charing Cross or Embankment. Mon-Fri 9.30am-5.30pm, Sat 10.15am-4.30pm.

London’s oldest magic shop sells tricks for the professional and the infant amateur.

Electronics Boutique

100 Oxford St, W1 tel 020/7637 7911. Tube: Tottenham Court Road. Mon-Sat 9.30am-9pm, Sun noon-6pm.

All the latest computer games to excite the goggle-eyed enthusiast, plus more traditional board games.

Eric Snook’s Toyshop

32 Covent Garden Market, WC2 tel 020/7379 7681. Tube: Covent Garden. Mon-Sat 10am-7pm, Sun 11am-6pm.

Eschewing movie merchandise and cheap tat, this shop sells only the most tasteful, meticulously crafted playthings.

Hamleys

188 Regent St, W1 tel 020/7494 2000; www.hamleys.com. Tube: Oxford Circus. Mon-Fri 10am-8pm, Sat 9.30am-8pm, Sun noon-6pm.

The most celebrated toy shop on the planet, multistorey Hamleys is bursting with childish delights – from the humble Slinky to scaled-down petrol-driven Porsches. A smaller branch in Covent Garden Piazza gives a taste of what’s on offer at the real thing.

Skate Attack

95 Highgate Rd, NW5 tel 020/7267 6961; www.skateattack.com. Tube: Tufnell Park. Mon-Fri 9.30am-6pm, Sat 9am-6pm, Sun 10am-1.30pm.

Europe’s largest retailer of roller skates, rollerblades and equipment. Roller rental, with protective equipment, is £10 a day, £15 a weekend or £20 a week, plus £100 deposit

HISTORY

Roman Londinium

There is evidence of scattered Celtic settlements along the Thames, but no firm proof that central London was permanently settled by the Celts before the arrival of the Romans in 43 AD. Although the Romans’ principal settlement was at Camulodunum (Colchester) to the northeast, Londinium (London) was established as a permanent military camp, and became an important hub of the Roman road system.

In 60 AD, when the Iceni tribe rose up against the invaders under their queen Boudicca (or Boadicea), Londinium was burned to the ground, along with Camulodunum. According to roman the Roman historian, Tacitus, the inhabitants were “massacred, hanged, burned and crucified”, but the Iceni were eventually defeated and Boudicca committed suicide. In the aftermath, Londinium emerged as the new commercial and administrative (though not military) capital of Britannia , and was endowed with an imposing basilica and forum, a governor’s palace, temples, bathhouses and an amphitheatre. To protect against further attacks, fortifications were built, three miles long, fifteen feet high and eight feet thick.

Saxon Lundenwic and the Danes

By the fourth century, the Roman Empire was on its last legs, and the Romans officially abandoned the city in 410 AD (when Rome was sacked by the Visigoths), leaving the country – and Londinium – at the mercy of marauding Saxon pirates. The Saxon invaders, who controlled most of southern England by the sixth century, appear to have settled, initially at least, to the west of the Roman city.

In 841 and 851 London suffered Danish Viking attacks, and it may have been in response to these raids that the Anglo-Saxons decided to reoccupy the walled Roman city. After numerous sporadic attacks, and the odd extended sojourn, the Danish leader Cnut (or Canute), became King of All England in 1016, and made London the national capital, a position it has held ever since.

Danish rule only lasted 26 years, and with the accession of Edward the Confessor (1042-66), the court and church moved upstream to Thorney Island. Here Edward built a splendid new palace so that he could oversee construction of his “West Minster” (later to become Westminster Abbey). Thus it was Edward who was responsible for the geographical separation of power, with royal government based in Westminster , and commerce centred upstream in the City of London .

From 1066 to the Black Death

On his deathbed, the celibate Edward appointed Harold, Earl of Wessex, as his successor. Having crowned himself in the new Abbey – establishing a tradition that continues to his day – Harold was defeated by William of Normandy (William the Conqueror) and his invading army at the Battle of Hastings. On Christmas Day, 1066, William crowned himself king in Westminster Abbey. The new king granted the City numerous privileges, and, as an insurance policy, also constructed three defensive towers, one of which survives as the nucleus of the Tower of London.

Over the next few centuries, the City waged a continuous struggle with the monarchy for a degree of self-government and independence. In the Magna Carta of 1215, for instance, London was granted the right to elect its own sheriff, or Lord Mayor . However, in 1348, the city was hit by the worst natural disaster in its entire history – the arrival of the Europe-wide bubonic plague outbreak known as the Black Death . This disease, carried by black rats, and transmitted to humans by flea bites, wiped out something like half the capital’s population in the space of two years.

Tudor London

Under the Tudor royal family , London’s population, which had remained constant at around 50,000 since the Black Death, increased dramatically, trebling in size during the course of the century.

The most crucial development of the sixteenth century was the English Reformation , the separation of the English Church from Rome. A far-reaching consequence of this split was Henry’s Dissolution of the Monasteries , begun in 1536 in order to bump up the royal coffers. The Dissolution changed the entire fabric of the city: previously dominated by its religious institutions, London’s property market was suddenly flooded with confiscated estates, which were quickly snapped up and redeveloped by the Tudor nobility.

Henry VIII may have kickstarted the English Reformation, but he was a religious conservative, and in the last ten years of his reign he executed as many Protestants as Catholics. Henry’s sickly son, Edward VI (1547-53), however, pursued an even more staunchly anti-Catholic policy. By the end of his reign, London’s churches had lost their altars, their paintings, their relics and virtually all their statuary. Following Edward’s death, the religious pendulum swung the other way with the accession of ” Bloody Mary ” (1553-58). This time, it was Protestants who were martyred with abandon at Tyburn and Smithfield.

Despite all the religious strife, the Tudor economy remained in good health, reaching its height in the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603). London’s commercial success was epitomized by the millionaire merchant Thomas Gresham, who erected the Royal Exchange in 1572, establishing London as the premier world trade market. The 45 years of Elizabeth’s reign also witnessed the efflorescence of a specifically English Renaissance , especially in the field of literature, which reached its apogee in the brilliant careers of Christopher Marlowe , Ben Jonson and William Shakespeare , whose plays were performed in the theatres of Southwark, the city’s entertainment district.

Stuart London

In 1603, James VI of Scotland became James I of England (1603-25), thereby uniting the two crowns and marking the beginning of the Stuart dynasty . His intention of exercising religious tolerance was thwarted by the public outrage that followed the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, when Guy Fawkes, in cahoots with a group of Catholic conspirators, was discovered attempting to blow up the king at the state opening of Parliament.

Under James’s successor, Charles I (1625-49), the animosity between Crown and Parliament culminated in full-blown Civil War . London was the key to victory for both sides, and as a Parliamentarian stronghold it came under attack from Royalist forces almost immediately. However, having defeated the Parliamentary forces to the west of London in 1642, Charles hesitated and withdrew to Reading, thus missing his greatest chance of victory. After a series of defeats in 1645, Charles surrendered to the Scots, who handed him over to Parliament. Eventually, in January 1649, the king was tried and executed in Whitehall, and England became a Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell. London found itself in the grip of the Puritans’ zealous laws, which closed down all theatres, enforced observance of the Sabbath, and banned the celebration of Christmas, which was considered a papist superstition.

In 1660, the city gave an ecstatic reception to Charles II (1660-85) when he arrived in the capital to announce the Restoration of the monarchy, and the “Merry Monarch” immediately caught the mood of the public by opening up the theatres and concert halls. However, the good times that rolled came to an abrupt end with the onset of the Great Plague of 1665, which claimed 100,000 lives. The following year, London had to contend with yet another disaster, the Great Fire . Some eighty percent of the City was razed to the ground; the death toll didn’t reach double figures, but more than 100,000 were left homeless.

Within five years, 9000 houses had been rebuilt with bricks and mortar (timber was banned), and fifty years later, Christopher Wren had almost single-handedly rebuilt all the City churches and completed the world’s first Protestant cathedral, St Paul’s . The Great Rebuilding , as it was known, was one of London’s remarkable achievements, and extinguished virtually all traces of the medieval city.

Georgian London

With the accession of George I (1714-27), the first of the Hanoverian dynasty, London’s expansion continued unabated. The shops of the newly developed West End stocked the most fashionable goods in the country, the volume of trade more than tripled, and London’s growing population – it was by now the world’s largest city, with a population approaching one million – created a huge market, as well as fuelling a building boom.

Wealthy though London was, it was also experiencing the worst mortality rates since records began. Disease was rife, but the real killer was gin . It’s difficult to exaggerate the effects of the gin-drinking orgy which took place among the poor between 1720 and 1751. At its height, gin consumption was averaging two pints a week, and the burial rate exceeded the baptism rate by more than two to one. Eventually, in the face of huge vested interests, the government passed an act that restricted gin retailing and halted the epidemic.

Policing the metropolis was also an increasing preoccupation for the government, who introduced capital punishment for the most minor misdemeanours. Nevertheless, crime continued unabated throughout the eighteenth century, the prison population swelled, transportations to the colonies began, and 1200 Londoners were hanged at Tyburn’s gallows. Rioting became an ever-more popular form of protest among the poorer classes in London, the most serious insurrection being the Gordon Riots of 1780, when up to 50,000 Londoners went on a five-day rampage through the city.

The Nineteenth Century

The nineteenth century witnessed the emergence of London as the capital of an empire that stretched across the globe. The city’s population grew from just over one million in 1801 to nearly seven million by 1901. The world’s largest enclosed dock system was built in the marshes to the east of the City, and the world’s first public transport network was created, with horse-buses, trains, trams and an underground railway. Industrialization , however, brought pollution and overcrowding, especially in the slums of the East End; smallpox, measles, scarlet fever and cholera killed thousands of working-class families. It is this era of slum-life, and huge social divides, that Dickens evoked in his novels.

The accession of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) coincided with a period in which the country’s international standing reached unprecedented heights, and as a result Victoria became as much a national icon as Elizabeth I had been. The spirit of the era was perhaps best embodied by the Great Exhibition of 1851, a display of manufacturing achievements from all over the world, which took place in the Crystal Palace erected in Hyde Park.

Local government arrived in 1855 with the establishment of the Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW), followed in 1888 by the directly-elected London County Council (LCC). The achievements of the MBW and the LCC were immense, in particular those of its chief engineer, Joseph Bazalgette, who helped create an underground sewer system (much of it still in use), and greatly improved transport routes.

While half of London struggled to make ends meet, the other half enjoyed the fruits of the richest nation in the world. Luxury establishments such as the Ritz and Harrods belong to this period, personified by the dissolute Prince of Wales, later Edward VII (1901-10). For the masses, too, there were new entertainments to be enjoyed: music halls boomed and public houses prospered. The first “Test” cricket match between England and Australia took place in 1880 at the Kennington Oval, and during the following 25 years, nearly all of London’s professional football clubs were founded.

From Worldwar I to World War II

During World War I (1914-18), London experienced its first aerial attacks, with Zeppelin raids leaving some 650 dead, but these were minor casualties in the context of a war that destroyed millions of lives and eradicated whatever remained of the majority’s respect for the ruling classes.

Between the wars, London’s population increased further still, reaching close to nine million by 1939. In contrast to the nineteenth century, however, there was a marked shift in population out into the suburbs . After the boom of the “Swinging Twenties”, the economy collapsed with the crash of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929. The arrival of the Jarrow Hunger March, the most famous protest of the Depression years, shocked London in 1936, the year in which thousands of British fascists tried to march through the predominantly Jewish East End, only to be stopped in the so-called Battle of Cable Street .

London was more or less unprepared for the aerial bombardments of World War II (1939-45). The bombing campaign, known as the Blitz , began on September 7, 1940, and continued for 57 consecutive nights. Further carnage was caused towards the end of the war by the pilotless V1 “doodlebugs” and V2 rockets, which caused another 20,000 casualties. In total, 30,000 civilians lost their lives in the bombing of London, with 50,000 injured and some 130,000 houses destroyed.

Postwar London

To lift the country out of its postwar gloom, the Festival of Britain was staged in 1951 on derelict land on the south bank of the Thames, a site that was eventually transformed into the South Bank Arts Centre . Londoners turned up at this technological funfair in their thousands, but at the same time, many were abandoning the city for good, starting a slow process of population decline that has continued ever since. The consequent labour shortage was made good by mass immigration from the former colonies, in particular the Indian subcontinent and the West Indies. The newcomers, a large percentage of whom settled in London, were given small welcome, and within ten years were subjected to race riots, which broke out in Notting Hill in 1958.

The riots are thought to have been carried out, for the most part, by Teddy Boys , working-class lads from London’s slum areas and new housing estates, who formed the city’s first postwar youth cult. Subsequent cults, and their accompanying music, helped turn London into the epicentre of the so-called Swinging Sixties , the Teddy Boys being usurped in the early 1960s by the Mods , whose sharp suits came from London’s Carnaby Street. Fashion hit London in a big way, and – thanks to the likes of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Twiggy – London was proclaimed the hippest city on the planet on the front pages of Time magazine.

Thatcherite London

In 1979, Margaret Thatcher won the general election for the Conservative Party, and the country and the capital would never be quite the same again. The Conservatives were to remain in power for seventeen years, steering the country into a period of ever-greater social polarization. While taxation policies and easy credit fuelled a consumer boom for the professional classes (the “yuppies” of the 1980s), a calamitous number of people ended up trapped in long-term unemployment. The Brixton riots of 1981 and 1985, and the Tottenham riot of 1985, were reminders of the price of such divisive policies, and of the feeling of social exclusion rife among the city’s black youth.

Nationally, the opposition Labour Party went into sharp decline, but in the GLC (successor to the LCC), the party won a narrow victory, led by the radical Ken Livingstone , or “Red Ken” as the tabloids dubbed him. Under Livingstone, the GLC poured money into projects among London’s ethnic minorities, into the arts, and most famously into a subsidized fares policy for public transport. Such schemes endeared Livingstone to the hearts of many Londoners, but it was too much for Thatcher, who abolished the GLC in 1986, leaving London as the only European capital without a citywide elected body.

Abolition exacerbated tensions between the poorer and richer boroughs of the city. For the first time since the Victorian era, homelessness returned to London in a big way, with the underside of Waterloo Bridge transformed into a “Cardboard City” sheltering up to 2000 vagrants. At the same time, the so-called ” Big Bang ” took place, abolishing a whole range of restrictive practices on the Stock Exchange and fuelling the building boom in the reclaimed Docklands, the most visible legacy of Thatcherism. Stocks and shares headed into the stratosphere, and shortly after, they inevitably crashed, ushering in a recession that dragged on for the best part of the next ten years.

Millenium London

On the surface at least, twenty-first century London has come a long way since the bleak Thatcher years. Redevelopment has begun again apace, partly fuelled by money from the National Lottery, which has funded a series of prestigious new millennium projects that have changed the face of the city. A new pedestrian bridge now spans the Thames, leading to the new Tate Modern gallery, spectacularly housed in a converted power station. Numerous other national institutions have transformed themselves, too; among them the British Museum, the Royal Opera House, the Science Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the National Maritime Museum. And last, but not least, there’s the controversial Millennium Dome, built and stuffed full of gadgetry for £750 million, but which has yet to achieve the sort of success predicted by its backers.

The most significant political development for London has been the creation of the new Greater London Assembly (GLA), along with an American-style Mayor of London , both elected by popular mandate. The New Labour government, which came to power on a wave of enthusiasm in 1997, did everything they could to prevent the election of the former GLC leader Ken Livingstone. Yet despite being forced to leave the Labour Party and run as an independent, Livingstone won a resounding victory in the elections of May 2000. It remains to be seen whether Ken can make any impact on the biggest problems facing the capital: transport, crime and racism within the Metropolitan Police Force.

BEST OF LONDON

Highgate Cemetery
The leafy and tranquil Highgate Cemetery is the ultimate Victorian Valhalla, famous as the resting-place of Karl Marx.

Kew Gardens
Without doubt the world’s most perfect botanical gardens, the expansive Kew Gardens is part royal pleasure garden, part research institute. The curvaceous, dripping hot Palm House is the focal point.

Westminster Abbey
London’s finest Gothic monument, Westminster Abbey, has been a coronation venue for nearly a millennium and is the burial-place of poets, politicians and royalty.

Docklands Light Railway
Take the driverless Docklands Light Railway for a bird’s-eye view of the Docklands development, finishing up with a great view across the Thames to Greenwich.

Lunchtime in Chinatown
London is renowned for its multicultural cuisine. Chinatown, right at the heart of the city, has the full spectrum of restaurants and cafés. Go for dim sum at lunchtime – picking at will from trollies piled high with mouthwatering nibbles.

Victoria and Albert Museum
Free admission is a thing of the past, but this is an applied arts collection with something for everyone: from Raphael’s Cartoons to a sofa based on Mae West’s lips.

Old London Double Deckers
The #11 bus will take you from the House of Parliament and Westminster Abbey, up Whitehall, round Trafalgar Square, up the Strand and down Fleet Street and deposit you outside St Paul’s Cathedral.

Harrods
London’s most famous department store is also the city’s third biggest tourist attraction. Though you can buy most things more cheaply elsewhere if you can do without the famous green carrier bag, the food halls are a work of art, and the building itself is a landmark.

Tower of London
Entrance charges to the Tower of London are extortionate, but there’s something for everyone: the crown jewels, Beefeaters, torture instruments and a millennium’s worth of blood-curdling history.

Spitalfields Market
Visit the old Spitalfields fruit and vegetable market at the edge of the East End on a Sunday and you’ll find London’s finest organic market, craft stalls, a miniature railway and lots of stands with delicious food.

INFORMATION

The London Tourist Board (LTB; www.londontown.com) has a desk in the arrivals section of Heathrow Terminal 3 (daily 6am-11pm), and another in the Underground station concourse for Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 and 3 (daily 8am-6pm), but the main central office is in the forecourt of Victoria Station (Easter-April Mon-Sat 8am-7pm, Sun 8am-6pm; May Mon-Sat 8am-8pm, Sun 8am-6pm; June-Sept Mon-Sat 8am-10pm, Sun 8am-7pm; Oct-Easter daily 8am-7pm). Other centrally located offices can be found near Piccadilly Circus in the British Visitor Centre ( www.visitbritain.com), 1 Regent St (June-Oct Mon 9.30am-6.30pm, Tues-Fri 9am-6.30pm, Sat & Sun 9am-5pm; Nov-May same times except Sat & Sun 10am-4pm), in the arrivals hall of Waterloo International (daily 8.30am-10.30pm), and in Liverpool Street Underground station (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, Sat & Sun 8.45am-5.30pm).

Individual boroughs also run tourist offices at various prime locations. The two most central ones are on the south side of St Paul’s Cathedral (April-Sept daily 9.30am-5pm, Oct-March Mon-Fri 9.30am-5pm, Sat 9.30am-12.30pm; tel 020/7332 1456; www.cityoflondon.gov.uk), and at the south end of London Bridge (Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 10.30am- 5.30pm; tel 020/7403 8299; www.southwark.gov.uk). The above offices will answer phone enquiries ; LTB can only offer Visitorcall (tel 0839/123456), a spread of pre-recorded phone announcements – these are a very poor service, and the calls are charged at an exorbitant rate.

Most of the above offices hand out a useful reference map of central London, plus plans of the public transport systems, but to find your way around every cranny of the city you need to invest in either an A-Z Atlas or a Nicholson Streetfinder, both of which have a street index covering every street in the capital; you can get them at most bookshops and newsagents for under £5. The only comprehensive and critical weekly listings magazine is Time Out, which costs £1.95 and comes out every Tuesday afternoon. In it you’ll find details of all the latest exhibitions, shows, films, music, sport, guided walks and events in and around the capital.

The Gosee Card and London Pass

For the really serious museum addict, the GoSee Card gives you entry into around twenty museums and galleries, from the Design Museum and the Hayward Gallery to the National Maritime Museum and Shakespeare’s Globe Museum. The three-day card costs £16 (though this gives you too little time to visit all the above); the seven-day card costs £26. Even better value is the Family Card, which covers two adults and up to four children and costs £32 for three days or £50 for seven. The cards are available from any of the above museums or galleries, and at LTB and LT offices; for more information, phone 020/7923 0807 or visit www.london-gosee.com.

An alternative to the GoSee Card is the new London Pass , which not only gives you entry to a whole range of attractions from the London Aquarium and Buckingham Palace to St Paul’s Cathedral and Windsor Castle, but also throws in an all-zone Travelcard, £5 worth of free phone calls and various other perks and incentives. The pass costs £22 for one day, £49 for three days, and £79 for six days. However, the London Pass is currently in its infancy, more sights need to be added to its portfolio if it’s going to compete for value with the GoSee Card. The London Pass can be bought over the phone (tel 0870/242 9988) or on the Internet ( www.londonpass.com).

GUIDED TOURS

Sightseeing bus tours are run by several rival companies, their open-top double-deckers setting off every thirty minutes from Victoria station, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly, and other tourist spots. Tours take roughly ninety minutes (though you can hop on and off as often as you like) and cost around £12. Alternatively, you can hop aboard one of the bright yellow World War II amphibious vehicles used by Frog Tours (tel 20/7928 3132; www.frogtours.com) for a combined bus and boat tour . After fifty minutes driving round the usual sights, you plunge into the river and go on a half-hour cruise. Tours set off every half-hour from behind County Hall, from 10am to dusk, with tickets costing £13. Another money-saving option is to skip the commentary by hopping on a real London bus – the #11 from Victoria will take you past Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, up Whitehall, round Trafalgar Square, along the Strand and on to St Paul’s Cathedral.

Walking tours are infinitely more appealing, mixing solid historical facts with juicy anecdotes in the company of a local specialist. Walks on offer range from a literary pub crawl round Bloomsbury to a tour of places associated with the Beatles. Tours tend to cost £4-5 and usually take two hours. To find out what’s on offer for the week, check in the “Around Town” section of Time Out. The widest range of walks on offer are run by Original London (tel 020/7624 3978).

BOOKS

Given the enormous number of books on London, our list is necessarily a very selective one. The recommendations we’ve made are in print and in paperback. Publishers are detailed with the British publisher first, separated by an oblique slash from the US publisher, in cases where both exist. Where books are published in only one of these countries, UK or US follows the publisher’s name; where the book is published by the same company in both countries, the name of the company appears just once. UP designates University Press. If you want to find the cheapest copy to buy online, try www.bookbrain.co.uk.

Travel Journals and Memoirs

James Boswell , London Journal (Edinburgh UP). Boswell’s diary, written in 1762-3 when he was lodging in Downing Street, is remarkably candid about his frequent dealings with the city’s prostitutes, and a fascinating insight into eighteenth-century life.

John Evelyn , The Diary of John Evelyn (Oxford UP/Boydell & Brewer). In contrast to his contemporary, Pepys, Evelyn gives away very little of his personal life, but his diaries cover a much greater period of English history and a much wider range of topics.

George Orwell , Down and Out in Paris and London (Penguin). Orwell’s tramp’s-eye view of the 1930s, written from first-hand experience. The London section is particularly harrowing.

Samuel Pepys , The Shorter Pepys (Penguin); The Illustrated Pepys (Unwin/University of California). Pepys kept a voluminous diary while he was living in London from 1660 until 1669, recording the fall of the Commonwealth, the Restoration, the Great Plague and the Great Fire, as well as describing the daily life of the nation’s capital. The unabridged version is published in eleven volumes; Penguin’s Shorter Pepys is abridged though still massive; Unwin’s is made up of just the choicest extracts accompanied by contemporary illustrations.

Iain Sinclair , Lights Out for the Territory (Granta). Sinclair is one of the most original London writers of his generation. Lights Out – a series of ramblings across London starting in Hackney – is his most accessible yet.

History, Society and Politics

Angus Calder , The Myth of the Blitz (Pimlico, UK). A timely antidote to the backs-against-the-wall, “London can take it” tone of most books on this period. Calder dwells instead on the capital’s internees – Communists, conscientious objectors and “enemy aliens” – and the myth-making processes of the media of the day.

Roy Porter , London: A Social History (Penguin/Harvard UP). This immensely readable history is one of the best books on London published since the war. It’s particularly strong on the continuing saga of London’s local government, and includes an impassioned critique of the damage done by Mrs Thatcher’s administration.

Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert , The London Encyclopaedia (Papermac/St Martin’s Press). More than 1000 pages of concisely presented information on London past and present, accompanied by the odd illustration. The most fascinating book on the capital.

Art, Architecture and Archelogy

Felix Barker and Ralph Hyde , London As It Might Have Been (John Murray). A richly illustrated book on the weird and wonderful plans that never quite made it from the drawing board.

Samantha Hardingham , London: A Guide to Recent Architecture (Ellipsis/ Knickerbocker Press). Wonderful pocket guide to the architecture of the last ten years or so, with a knowledgeable, critical text and plenty of black-and-white photos.

Niklaus Pevsner and others , The Buildings of England (Penguin). Magisterial series, started by Pevsner to which others have added, inserting newer buildings but generally respecting the founder’s personal tone. The latest of the London volumes (there are now five in the series) is a paperback edition devoted to London Docklands.

Richard Trench and Ellis Hillman , London under London (John Murray). Fascinating book revealing the secrets of every aspect of the capital’s subterranean history, from the lost rivers of the underground to the gas and water systems.

London in Fiction

Peter Ackroyd , English Music (Penguin, UK); Hawksmoor (Penguin, UK); The House of Doctor Dee (Penguin, UK); The Great Fire of London (Penguin, UK); Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem (Minerva, UK). Ackroyd’s novels are all based on arcane aspects of London, wrapped into thriller-like narratives, and conjuring up kaleidoscopic visions of various ages of English culture. Hawskmoor, about the great church architect, is the most popular and enjoyable.

Martin Amis , London Fields (Vintage/Random House). “Ferociously witty, scabrously scatological and balefully satirical”, it says on the back cover, though many regard Amis Jnr’s observation of lowlife London as pretentious drivel, written by a man who lives in comfortable Notting Hill.

Anthony Burgess , A Dead Man in Deptford (Vintage, UK). Playwright Christopher Marlowe’s unexplained murder in a tavern in Deptford provides the background for this historical novel, which brims over with Elizabethan life.

Angela Carter , The Magic Toyshop (Virago, UK). Carter’s most celebrated novel, about a provincial woman moving to London.

G.K. Chesterton , The Napoleon of Notting Hill (Wordsworth). Written in 1904 but set eighty years in the future, in a London divided into squabbling independent boroughs – something prophetic there – and ruled by royalty selected on a rotational basis.

Liza Cody , Bucket Nut; Monkey Wrench; Musclebound (all Bloomsbury, UK). Feisty, would-be female wrestler of uncertain sexuality, with a big mouth, in thrillers set in lowlife London.

Joseph Conrad , The Secret Agent (Penguin). Conrad’s wonderful spy story based on the botched anarchist bombing of Greenwich Observatory in 1894, exposing the hypocrisies of both the police and the anarchists.

Charles Dickens , Bleak House; A Christmas Tale; Little Dorritt; Oliver Twist (all Penguin). The descriptions in Dickens’ London-based novels have become the clichés of the Victorian city: the fog, the slums and the stinking river. Little Dorritt is set mostly in the Borough and contains some of his most trenchant pieces of social analysis; much of Bleak House is set around the Inns of Court that Dickens knew so well.

Arthur Conan Doyle , The Complete Sherlock Holmes (Penguin). Deer-stalkered sleuth Sherlock Holmes and dependable sidekick Dr Watson penetrate all levels of Victorian London, from Limehouse opium dens to millionaires’ pads. A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four are set entirely in the capital.

Graham Greene , The Human Factor; It’s a Battlefield; The Ministry of Fear; The End of the Affair (all Penguin). Greene’s London novels are all fairly bleak, ranging from The Human Factor, which probes the underworld of the city’s spies, to The Ministry of Fear, which is set during the Blitz.

Nick Hornby , High Fidelity (Indigo/Riverhead). Hornby’s extraordinarily successful second book focuses on the loves and life of a thirty-something bloke who lives near the Arsenal & rather like Hornby himself.

Hanif Kureishi , The Buddha of Suburbia; The Black Album; Love in a Blue Time (all Faber & Faber). The Buddha of Suburbia is a raunchy account of life as an Anglo-Asian in late 1960s suburbia, and the art scene of the 70s. The Black Album is a thriller set in London in 1989, while Love in a Blue Time is a set of short stories set in 1990s London.

Jack London , The People of the Abyss (Pluto Press). London’s classic London novel.

Timothy Mo , Sour Sweet (Vintage). Very funny and very sad story of a newly arrived Chinese family struggling to understand the English way of life in the Sixties, written with great insight by Mo, who is himself of mixed parentage.

Iris Murdoch , Under the Net; The Black Prince; An Accidental Man; Bruno’s Dream; The Green Knight (all Penguin). Under the Net was Murdoch’s first, funniest, and arguably her best novel, centred on a hack writer living in London. Many of her subsequent novels are set in various parts of middle-class London and span several decades of the second half of the twentieth century. The Green Knight, her last novel, is a strange fable mixing medieval and modern London, with lashings of the Bible and attempted fratricide.

George Orwell , Keep the Aspidistra Flying (Penguin). Orwell’s 1930s critique of Mammon is equally critical of its chief protagonist, whose attempt to rebel against the system only condemns him to poverty, working in a London bookshop and freezing his evenings away in a miserable rented room.

Edward Rutherford , London (Arrow/Fawcett). A big, big novel which stretches from Roman times to the present and deals with the most dramatic moments of London’s history. Masses of historical detail woven in with the story of several families.

Iain Sinclair , White Chappell, Scarlet Tracings (Granta, UK); Downriver (Vintage, UK); Radon Daughters (Granta, UK). Sinclair’s idiosyncratic and richly textured novels are a strange mix of Hogarthian caricature, New Age mysticism and conspiracy-theory rant. Deeply offensive and highly recommended.

P.G. Wodehouse , Jeeves Omnibus (Hutchinson, UK). Bertie Wooster and his stalwart butler, Jeeves, were based in Mayfair, and many of their exploits take place with London showgirls, and in the Drones gentlemen’s club.

Virginia Woolf , Mrs Dalloway (Penguin). Woolf’s novel relates the thoughts of a London society hostess and a shell-shocked war veteran, with her “stream of consciousness” style in full flow.

LONDON BY BALLOON

If the London Eye hasn’t given you enough of a lift, you can go even higher, to over 500ft (weather permitting) in the hot-air balloon situated behind Vauxhall tube station in Spring Gardens. Though the Skyview Balloon (daily 10am-dusk; £9.95; www.skyviewballooning.com) is the largest tethered helium balloon in the world, it remains to be seen whether it can withstand the competition from the wheel.

GALLERIES

GALLERIES READ IT HERE

The vast permanent collections of the National Gallery and the two Tates, the fascinating miscellanies of the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the select holdings of such institutions as the Courtauld and the Wallace Collection make London one of the world’s great repositories of Western art. However, the city is also a dynamic creative centre, with young British artists such as Rachel Whiteread, Sarah Lucas and Steve McQueen maintaining the momentum established by the likes of Hockney, Caro, Auerbach and Freud.

In the environs of Cork Street, behind the Royal Academy, you’ll find various commercial galleries showing the best of what’s being produced in the studios of Britain and further afield, while numerous other private showcases are scattered all over London, from the superb Saatchi Gallery in St John’s Wood to the consistently challenging space run by Flowers East over in the East End.

London fails to compete with Berlin, Paris and New York in only one respect – it doesn’t have a designated exhibition space good enough to handle the blockbuster shows. Nevertheless, at any time of the year, London’s public galleries will be offering at least one absorbing exhibition, on anything from the art of the apocalypse to Soviet supremacists.

Annual fixtures include the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition , when hordes of amateur artists enter their efforts for sale, and November’s controversial Turner Prize , devoted to new British work, which is preceded by a month-long display of work by the shortlisted artists at the Tate. More exciting than these, however, are the art school degree shows in late May and June, when the current crop of student talent puts its work on display. Pick up a copy of Time Out in mid-May for the times and locations of the student shows.

Permanent Collections

Below is a list of London’s principal permanent art collections, with a brief summary of their strengths.

British Museum

Great Russell St, WC1 tel 020/7636 1555; www.british-museum.ac.uk. Tube: Russell Square or Tottenham Court Road.

The BM owns a stupendous collection of drawings and prints, a small sample of which is always on show in room 90; it also stages excellent one-off exhibitions, sometimes with free entry.

Courtauld Institute

Somerset House, Strand, WC2 tel 020/7848 2526; www.courtauld.ac.uk. Tube: Covent Garden or Temple (Mon-Sat only).

Excellent collection of Impressionists and post-Impressionists, with several masterpieces by Manet, Cézanne, Renoir, Gauguin and Van Gogh.

Dulwich Picture Gallery

College Rd, SE21 tel 020/8693 5254; www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk. West Dulwich train station from Victoria.

London’s oldest public art gallery has recently been refurbished, and houses a small but high-quality selection of work ranging from Poussin and Gainsborough to Rembrandt.

Estorick Collection

39a Canonbury Square, N1 tel 020/7704 9522; www.estorickcollection.com. Tube: Highbury & Islington.

Georgian mansion with a small but interesting collection of twentieth-century Italian art, including Modigliani, di Chirico and the Futurists.

Guildhall Art Gallery

Gresham St, EC2. tel 020/7332 1632; www.cityoflondon.gov.uk. Tube: Bank or St Paul’s.

New purpose-built gallery housing the Corporation of London’s collection, which contains one or two exceptional Pre-Raphaelite works by the likes of Rossetti and Holman Hunt.

Iveagh Bequest

Kenwood House, Hampstead Lane, NW3 tel 020/8348 1286. Bus #210 from Archway Tube:, or walk from Hampstead or Archway tube station.

Stately home overlooking Hampstead Heath, that’s best known for its pictures by Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Reynolds and Vermeer. Free entry.

Leighton House

12 Holland Park Rd, W14 tel 020/7602 3316. Tube: High Street Kensington.

The house itself is a work of art, but it also contains several works by Lord Leighton himself and his Pre-Raphaelite chums.

Lothbury

41 Lothbury, EC2 tel 020/7762 1642. Bank.

Changing exhibitions from NatWest bank’s vast art collection, which is especially strong on twentieth-century British art. Free entry.

National Gallery

Trafalgar Square, WC2 tel 020/7306 0055; www.nationalgallery.org.uk. Tube: Charing Cross or Leicester Square.

The country’s premier collection; it’s difficult to think of a major artist born between 1300 and 1850 whose work isn’t on show here.

National Portrait Gallery

2 St Martin’s Place, WC2 tel 020/7306 0055; www.npg.org.uk. Tube: Leicester Square or Charing Cross.

Interesting faces, but only a few works of art of a quality to match those on display in the neighbouring National Gallery, despite the NPGs snazzy redevelopment.

Tate Britain

Millbank, SW1 tel 020/7887 8000; www.tate.org.uk. Tube: Pimlico.

The old Tate is now devoted to British art from the sixteenth century onwards (the British tag is fairly loosely applied), with several galleries permanently given over to Turner.

Tate Modern

Bankside, SE1 tel 020/7887 8000; www.tate.org.uk. Tube: Southwark.

Housed in a spectacularly converted power station on the South Bank, the new Tate is the largest modern-art gallery in the world, and displays the cream of the international modern art collection.

Victoria and Albert Museum

Cromwell Rd, SW7 tel 020/7942 2000; www.vam.ac.uk. Tube: South Kensington.

The city’s principal applied arts museum boasts a scattering of European painting and sculpture, a fine collection of English statuary, two remarkable rooms of casts, Raphael’s famous tapestry cartoons, works by Constable, Turner and Rodin, and a photography gallery.

Wallace Collection

Hertford House, Manchester Square, W1 tel 020/7935 0687; www.wallace-collection.org.uk. Tube: Bond Street.

A country mansion just off Oxford Street, with a small, eclectic collection, including fine paintings by Rembrandt, Velázquez, Hals, Gainsborough and Delacroix.

William Morris Gallery

Forest Rd, E17 tel 020/8527 3782; www.lbwf.gov.uk/wmg. Tube: Walthamstow Central.

Covers every aspect of Morris & Co’s work, and there’s a small gallery of Pre-Raphaelite work by Morris and his colleagues’ upstairs .

Major Galleries and Exhibition Spaces

Expect to pay around £7 for entry to one of the big exhibitions at the Barbican or Hayward. Similar prices are charged for special shows at the National Gallery, the Tates and V&A and at the Royal Academy. Students, senior citizens and the unemployed are eligible for concessionary rates. Hours vary so it’s always best to check Time Out or ring the gallery before setting off.

Barbican Art Gallery

Barbican Centre, Silk St, EC2 tel 020/7638 8891; www.barbican.org.uk. Tube: Barbican or Moorgate.

The Barbican’s two-floor gallery is badly designed, but its thematic exhibitions – ranging from African bush art to the latest photography – are often well worth the entrance fee.

Hayward Gallery

South Bank Centre, Belvedere Rd, SE1 tel 020/7960 5226; www.hayward-gallery.org.uk. Tube: Waterloo.

Part of the huge South Bank arts complex, the Hayward is one of London’s most prestigious venues for major touring exhibitions, with the bias towards twentieth-century work.

ICA Gallery

Nash House, The Mall, SW1 tel 020/7930 3647; www.ica.org.uk. Tube: Piccadilly Circus or Charing Cross.

The Institute of Contemporary Arts has two gallery spaces, in which it displays works that are invariably characterized as “challenging” or “provocative” – occasionally, they are. To visit, you must be a member of the ICA; a day’s membership costs £1.50 (Mon-Fri) or £2.50 (Sat & Sun).

Royal Academy of Arts

Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1 tel 020/7300 8000; www.royalacademy.org.uk. Tube: Green Park or Piccadilly Circus.

The Royal Academy is best known for its one-off exhibitions – its recent Monet extravaganza was the most popular art exhibition of all time. From early June to mid-August, the RA also stages its Summer Exhibition, when the public can submit work to be displayed (and sold) alongside the work of Academicians. Tasteful landscapes, interiors and nudes tend to predominate, but there’s the odd splash of experimentation. For the most popular shows here, you’re best advised to pre-book a ticket.

Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)

66 Portland Place, W1 tel 020/7307 3770; www.riba.net. Tube: Oxford Circus.

Regular architectural exhibitions by the leading lights, housed in a beautiful 1930s building, with an excellent café.

Saatchi

98a Boundary Rd, NW8 tel 020/7624 8299. Tube: Swiss Cottage.

First-rate exhibition space owned by Charles Saatchi, the Mr Big of Britain’s art world who made his money in advertising. Shows change twice-yearly, and a couple of Saatchi’s youngsters usually hit the headlines straight after the opening.

Serpentine Gallery

Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, W2 tel 020/7402 6075; www.serpentinegallery.org. Tube: Lancaster Gate.

This fine gallery displays dynamic work by new and established modern artists, as well as hosting interesting Sunday afternoon lectures, and a performance-art festival in the summer. It’s free, too.

Whitechapel Gallery

Whitechapel High St, E1 tel 020/7522 7888. Tube: Aldgate East.

The Whitechapel is a consistently excellent champion of contemporary art, housing major shows by living or not-long-dead artists. It’s also the focal point of the Whitechapel Open, a biennial summer survey (the next one is in 2002) of the work of artists living in the vicinity of the gallery; the show spreads into several local studios too.

Commercial Galleries

The galleries listed below are at the hub of London’s modern-art market. Most are open Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm, plus a few hours on Saturday morning, and many are closed throughout August, but you’d be best advised to ring to check the latest hours, as rehangings or private viewings often interrupt the normal pattern of business. Some of these places can seem as intimidating as designer clothes shops, but all at least are free.

Annely Juda

23 Dering St, W1 tel 020/7629 7578; www.annelyjudafineart.co.uk. Tube: Oxford Circus or Bond Street.

One of the city’s best modernist galleries; specializing in early twentieth-century avant-garde works, but equally strong on contemporary painting and sculpture.

Anthony d’Offay

Dering St and Haunch of Venison Yard, W1 tel 020/7499 4100; www.doffay.com. Tube: Oxford Circus or Bond Street.

Several galleries on Dering Street, and a new one round the corner in the delightfully named Haunch of Venison Yard, all run by one of the real powerbrokers in the world of art politics. Works exhibited here range from recently dead greats of Pop Art, to pieces by leading contemporary artists such as Rachel Whiteread.

Entwistle

6 Cork St, W1 tel 020/7734 6440. Tube: Green Park.

Box-like space often featuring small shows by major figures in the contemporary British and American art scenes.

Flowers East

199-205 and 282 Richmond Rd, E8 tel 020/8985 3333; www.flowerseast.com. London Fields train station, from Liverpool Street.

This outstanding, ever-expanding East End gallery complex shows a huge variety of work, generally by young British artists.

Helly Nahmad

2 Cork St, W1 tel 020/7494 3200. Tube: Green Park.

A gallery where you’re guaranteed a glimpse at some very expensive works by very famous artists, from Monet to Picasso.

Lisson

52-54 Bell St, NW1 tel 020/7724 2739; www.lisson.co.uk. Tube: Edgware Road.

An extremely important gallery whose regularly exhibited sculptors – among them Anish Kapoor and Richard Deacon – are hugely respected on the international circuit.

Marlborough Fine Art

6 Albemarle St, W1 tel 020/7629 5161; www.marlboroughfineart.com. Tube: Green Park.

This is where you’ll find the latest work of many of Britain’s most celebrated artists, many in one-person shows. Essential viewing for anyone interested in modern British art.

Waddington’s

11, 12 and 34 Cork St, W1 tel 020/7437 8611; www.waddington-galleries.com. Tube: Green Park.

No. 11 is the largest of three Cork Street premises owned by Leslie Waddington, and tends to concentrate on the established greats of the twentieth century. At the others you’ll find newer international stars and younger upcoming artists.

White Cube

44 Duke St, W1 tel 020/7930 5373; www.whitecube.com. Tube: Green Park.

Open Friday and Saturday only, this is a gallery that likes to grab the headlines, with the latest YBAs (Young British Artists). Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and various other Turner Prize artists display here.

Photography

The Barbican and the Hayward both host photographic exhibitions from time to time. The galleries listed below are places you can guarantee will always have photos on show. Apart from the V&A, entry is free.

Hamilton’s

13 Carlos Place, W1 tel 020/7499 9493; www.hamiltonsgallery.com. Tube: Bond Street or Green Park.

Classy Mayfair exhibition space for the most famous and fashionable contemporary photographers. Loads of pricey prints for sale as well.

National Portrait Gallery

2 St Martin’s Place, WC2 tel 020/7306 0055; www.npg.org.uk. Tube: Leicester Square or Charing Cross.

The NPG has lots of exceptional photos in its collection, with a fair sampling on permanent display; it also regularly holds special (fee-charging) exhibitions on internationally famous photo-portraitists.

Photographers’ Gallery

5 and 8 Great Newport St, WC2 tel 020/7831 1772; www.photonet.org.uk. Tube: Leicester Square.

The capital’s premier photography gallery shows work by new and established British and international photographers, often with a couple of exhibitions running concurrently. The prints are often for sale.

Victoria and Albert

Cromwell Rd, SW7 tel 020/7942 2000; www.vam.ac.uk. Tube: South Kensington.

The V&A now has a permanent gallery devoted to photography, though it’s way too small to do justice to its vast collection. There’s an admission charge for the museum.

SHOPS AND MARKETS

Whether it’s time or money you’ve got to burn, London is one big shopper’s playground. And although chains and superstores predominate along the high streets, you’re still never too far from the kind of oddball, one-off establishment that makes shopping an adventure rather than a chore. From the folie de grandeur that is Harrods to the frantic street markets of the East End, there’s nothing you can’t find in some corner of the capital.

In the centre of town, Oxford Street is the city’s most frantic chain store mecca, and together with Regent Street , which crosses it halfway, offers pretty much every mainstream clothing label you could wish for. Just off Oxford Street, high-end designer outlets line St. Christopher’s Place and South Molton Street , and you’ll find even pricier designers and jewellers along the very chic Bond Street .

Tottenham Court Road , which heads north from the east end of Oxford Street, is the place to go for electrical goods and furniture and design shops. Charing Cross Road , heading south, is the centre of London’s book trade, both new and secondhand. At its north end, and particularly on Denmark Street , you can find music shops selling everything from instruments to sound equipment and sheet music. Soho offers an offbeat mix of sex boutiques, records and silks, while the streets surrounding Covent Garden yield art and design shops, mainstream fashion stores and designer wear.

Just off Piccadilly, St James’s is the natural habitat of the quintessential English gentleman, with Jermyn Street in particular harbouring shops dedicated to his grooming. Knightsbridge , further west, is home to Harrods, and the big-name fashion stores of Sloane Street and Brompton Road .

Opening hours
Opening hours for central London shops are generally Monday to Saturday 9.30am to 6pm, although some stay open later, especially on Thursdays. Many are now open on Sundays, although hours tend to be shorter, from around noon to 5pm.

The cheapest

Opening hours for central London shops are generally Monday to Saturday 9.30am to 6pm, although some stay open later, especially on Thursdays. Many are now open on Sundays, although hours tend to be shorter, from around noon to 5pm. The cheapest time to shop is during one of the two annual sale seasons , centred on January and July, when prices can be slashed by up to fifty percent. Credit cards are almost universally accepted by shops. Always keep your receipts: whatever the shop may tell you, the law allows a full refund or replacement on purchases which turn out to be faulty.

Department Stores

Fortnum & Mason

181 Piccadilly, W1 tel 020/7734 8040. Tube: Green Park or Piccadilly Circus.

Beautiful and eccentric store featuring heavenly ceiling murals, gilded cherubs, chandeliers and fountains as a backdrop to its perfectly English offerings. Justly famed for its fabulous, gorgeously presented and pricey food, plus upmarket clothes, furniture and stationery.

Harrods

Knightsbridge, SW1 tel 020/7730 1234; www.harrods.com. Tube: Knightsbridge.

Put an afternoon aside to visit this enduring landmark of quirks and pretensions, most notable for its fantastic Art Nouveau tiled food hall, obscenely huge toy department, and supremely tasteless memorial to Diana and Dodi in the basement. Wear jeans and you may fail the rigorous dress code for entry.

Harvey Nichols

109-125 Knightsbridge, SW1 tel 020/7235 5000. Tube: Knightsbridge.

All the latest designer collections on the scarily fashionable first floor, where the shop assistants look better dressed than most of the customers. The cosmetics department is equally essential, while the food hall offers famously frivolous and pricey luxuries.

John Lewis

278-306 Oxford St, W1 020/7629 7711; www.johnlewis.com. Tube: Oxford Circus.

Famous for being “never knowingly undersold”, this reliable institution can’t be beaten for basics, from buttons to stockings to rugs, along with reasonably priced and well-made clothes, furniture and household goods. The staff are knowledgeable and friendly, too.

Liberty

210-220 Regent St, W1 tel 020/7734 1234; www.liberty-of-london.com. Tube: Oxford Circus.

This fabulous and rather regal emporium of luxury is most famous for its fabrics and accessories, but is also building an excellent reputation for both mainstream and new fashion. The perfume, cosmetics and household departments are good, too.

Marks & Spencer

458 Oxford St, W1 tel 020/7935 7954. Tube: Marble Arch.

The flagship store of this British institution offers a huge range of well-made own-brand clothes (the lingerie selection is fancier than in local branches), food, homeware and furnishings.

Selfridges

400 Oxford St, W1 tel 020/7629 1234. Tube: Bond Street.

This huge, airy mecca of clothes, food and furnishings was London’s first great department store, and remains one of its best, with a fashionable menswear department and a solid womenswear floor; the food hall is impressive, too.

Clothes and Accessories

Our listings concentrate on the home-grown rather than the ubiquitous international names, but if you’re after designer wear, bear in mind that nearly all of the department stores we’ve listed stock lines from both major and up-and-coming designers. For designer-style fashion at lower prices, try the more upmarket high street chains: there are branches of Gap, French Connection, Karen Millen, Jigsaw, Monsoon, Kookai, Warehouse, Hobbs and Whistles all over the capital. Marks & Spencer and BHS are a good bet for even cheaper versions of the same styles. For street, clubwear, secondhand and vintage gear, London’s markets also have plenty to offer .

Bookshops

As well as the big-name chain bookstores , most of which have branches throughout the city, London is blessed with a wealth of local , independent and specialist bookshops , many of which are located on or around Charing Cross Road. They may not have everything stocked by the chains, but they will almost certainly be more interesting to browse around, and may well have some hidden jewels on their shelves.
————————————————————————————————————————Secondhand books are also sold at the Riverside Walk stalls, under Waterloo Bridge on the South Bank, SE1 (Sat & Sun 10am-5pm, and occasionally midweek); Waterloo or train. ————————————————————————————————————————
Any Amount of Books

56 and 62 Charing Cross Rd, WC2 tel 020/7240 8140; www.anyamountofbooks.com. Tube: Leicester Square.

Sprawling secondhand bookshop spread over two neighbouring sites, stocking everything from obscure 50p bargains to rare and expensive first editions. Especially strong on fiction, the arts and literary biography.

Arthur Probsthain Oriental & African Bookseller

41 Great Russell St, WC1 tel 020/7636 1096. Tube: Tottenham Court Road.

Connected to the nearby School of Oriental and African Studies, this impressive academic store covers all relevant aspects of art, history, science and culture.

Atlantis Bookshop

49a Museum St, WC1 tel 020/7405 2120; www.atlantisbookshop.demon.co.uk. Tube: Tottenham Court Road.

Splendid occult-oriented place with the perfect ambience for browsing through books and magazines covering spirituality, psychic phenomena, witchcraft and so on.

Blackwell’s

100 Charing Cross Road, WC2 tel 020/7292 5100 (and other branches); www.bookshop.blackwell.co.uk. Tube: Tottenham Court Road or Leicester Square.

The London flagship of Oxford’s best academic bookshop has a wider range than you might expect; academic stock is unsurprisingly excellent, but so is the range of recent computing, travel and fiction titles.

Books for Cooks

4 Blenheim Crescent, W11 tel 020/7221 1992. Tube: Ladbroke Grove.

Anything and everything to do with food can be found on the drooling shelves of this wonderful new and second-hand bookshop, which also has a tiny café offering cookery demonstrations, coffee for browsers, and lunch.

Books Etc

120 Charing Cross Rd, WC2 tel 020/7379 6838 (and other branches). Tube: Tottenham Court Road.

Large, laid-back and user-friendly, with an on-site coffee shop and a wide and well-stocked range of mainstream and specialist titles, and especially good on contemporary fiction.

Borders Books & Music

203-207 Oxford St, W1 (and other branches) tel 020/7292 1600; www.borders.com. Tube: Oxford Circus or Tottenham Court Road.

Enormous London flagship of the American import, boasting four floors of book, music and CD titles alongside a huge range of magazines and a coffee bar. Good range of titles, with staff recommendations and reviews, and a solid children’s section.

Cinema Bookshop

13-14 Great Russell St, WC1 tel 020/7637 0206. Tube: Tottenham Court Road.

Close to the British Museum and in the heart of Bloomsbury, this small outlet has every new and second-hand cinema title you might want somewhere on its towering shelves.

Daunt Books

83 Marylebone High St, W1 tel 020/7224 2295 (and other branches). Tube: Bond Street or Baker Street.

Wide and varied range of travel literature as well as the usual guidebooks, presented by expert staff in the beautiful, galleried interior of this famous shop.

Forbidden Planet

71-75 New Oxford St, WC1 tel 020/7836 4179. Tube: Tottenham Court Road.

Two permanently-packed floors of all things science-fiction and fantasy-related, ranging from books and comics to games and ephemera.

Foyles

113-119 Charing Cross Rd, WC2 tel 020/7437 5660. Tube: Tottenham Court Road.

Endearingly (sometimes irritatingly) antiquated, this huge and famous London bookshop is best avoided if you’re short of time. Pretty much everything you might want is here, but finding it is one adventure, and paying for it another; you queue once to part with your money, and again to pick up the book.

Gay’s the Word

66 Marchmont St, WC1 tel 020/7278 7654; www.gaystheword.co.uk. Tube: Russell Square.

Extensive collection of lesbian and gay classics, pulps, contemporary fiction and non-fiction, plus cards, calendars, magazines and more. Known for the weekly lesbian discussion groups and readings held in the back of the shop.

Gosh!

39 Great Russell St, WC1 tel 020/7636 1011. Tube: Tottenham Court Road.

All kinds of comics for all kinds of readers, whether you’re the casually curious or the serious collector. Check out the Cartoon Gallery in the basement.

Politico’s

8 Artillery Row, SW1 tel 020/7828 0010; www.politicos.co.uk. Tube: St James’s Park.

Mainstream political fare, new and secondhand, with plenty of big biographies. A cosy café, board games and irreverent window displays give it a more frivolous edge.

Silver Moon Women’s Bookshop

64-68 Charing Cross Rd, NW1 tel 020/7836 7906; www.silvermoonbookshop.co.uk. Tube: Leicester Square.

Large, well-stocked and spread over two floors, boasting the biggest lesbian department in the country and knowledgeable staff. Good selection of magazines, periodicals, cards, T-shirts, etc too.

Souls of Black Folks

407 Coldharbour Lane, SW9 tel 020/7738 4141. Tube: Brixton.

Dedicated black bookshop specializing in African, Caribbean and African-American literature, with regular readings, a buzzing café and late opening hours.

Stanford’s Map and Travel Bookshop

12-14 Long Acre, WC2 tel 020/7836 1321. Tube: Leicester Square or Charing Cross.

The world’s largest specialist travel bookshop, this features pretty much any map of anywhere, plus a huge range of travel books and guides.

Unsworths Booksellers

12 Bloomsbury St, WC1 tel 020/7436 9836. Tube: Tottenham Court Road.

Good for bargains, including recent and just-out-of-print novels and academic titles. Specializes in the humanities, and features an interesting antiquarian selection.

Waterstone’s

121-123 Charing Cross Rd, WC2, tel 020/7434 4291 (and other branches). Tube: Tottenham Court Road.

Flagship store of the huge, quality book chain, with technical and travel titles as well as fiction. The Waterstone’s Arts store, at 8 Long Acre, WC2 (tel 020/7836 1359; Tube: Leicester Square or Covent Garden) covers all aspects of the graphic and fine arts, media and music.

Zwemmer Media Arts

80 Charing Cross Rd, WC2 tel 020/7240 4157 (and other branches); www.zwemmer.com. Tube: Leicester Square.

Specialist art bookstore with a fantastic and expert selection across several neighbouring branches. This branch specializes in film, design and photography.

Markets

Bermondsey (New Caledonian) Market

Bermondsey Square, SE1. Tube: Borough or London Bridge. Fri 5am-2pm.

Huge, unglamorous but highly regarded antique market offering everything from obscure nautical instruments to attractive but pricey furniture. As the real collectors arrive at dawn to pick up the bargains, you should get here before midday.

Camden

Camden High St to Chalk Farm Rd, NW1. Tube: Camden Town. Mainly Thurs-Sun 9.30am-5.30pm.

On the high street, Camden Market (Thurs-Sun 9.30am-5.30pm) offers a good mix of new and