London Life

Exploring London

In getting to know London, start with the most famous sights of the city. For a virtual tour, check out these historical places first.

Buckingham Palace
Madame Tussauds
Shakespeare's Globe
St. Paul's Cathedral
Tate Modern
The British Museum
The London Zoo
The National Gallery
The National History Museum
The Science Museum
The Tower of London
Westminster Abbey

Getting Around London

London is famous for its underground subway system, also known as, The Tube. For more information about travel, please see the Transport and Oyster Cards section of our website.

Walking Tours

Many companies run organised walks around London. Arguably the best is Original London Walks www.walks.com which has walks on everything from Sherlock Holmes to Jack the Ripper. If you want to do it yourself, Green Chain Walks connect many of the green spaces of south-east London www.greenchain.com and Time Out publishes an excellent guide, The Time Out Book of London Walks. The website, Lastminute.com, also has various walks throughout London that can be printed out on your computer and taken along with you!

Thames River Tours

A river boat is an excellent and stress-free way to see London. Tours leave Westminster or Embankment Piers in central London around every half hour in summer, less often in winter.

Your key port of call will be Greenwich where attractions include The Cutty Sark, a chance to see what life was like aboard a nineteenth century tea clipper. The National Maritime Museum is a museum of all things connected with boats, the sea and ships. It's entertaining, with plenty of hands-on interactive exhibits. You should then visit The Royal Observatory. At Longitude 0° 0' 0", Latitude 51° 28' 38" - it is home of the prime meridian of the world; hence "Greenwich Mean Time or GMT".

Shopping

The main areas in central London are Oxford Street and Regent Street with big branches of most UK and international stores (e.g. Selfridges, John Lewis, Debenham's, Marks and Spencer, H&M, Jigsaw, French Connection, Kookai, Gap etc). Knightsbridge is home to the worlds' most famous store, Harrods as well as the possibly even more up-market Harvey Nichols. Both the King's Road in Chelsea and Covent Garden are popular with young people for their more quirky independent shops. Each shopping areas has abundance of pubs, coffee shops and restaurants. In the case of Covent Garden street performers - jugglers, tightrope walkers, fire eaters, and mime artists add to the experience. High Street Kensington right by our central London campus offers a good mix of up-market expensive shops and branches of many UK stores.

Markets

There are more than 100 traditional markets in London. Time Out London
has created a great list of just some of the most famous markets. Some markets are worth a visit just for the atmosphere even if you don't buy anything.

Brick Lane Market Tube: Aldgate East or Shoreditch
In the heart of London's East End, traditionally a working class area and home to many immigrant communities. Massive range of cheap meat, fruit, vegetables, electrical goods, tools, clothing, jewellery and household goods.

Brixton Market Tube: Brixton
Europe's largest collection of Afro-Caribbean foodstuffs

Camden Market Tube: Camden Town or Chalk Farm
Apparently this is now London's fourth biggest tourist attraction. Always busy. Street fashion, retro clothes and crafts.

Petticoat Lane Tube: Liverpool Street
Another East End Market. Good for household goods

Portobello Road Tube: Notting Hill Gate or Westbourne Park
It used to be where you could buy cheap antiques. Its now
very expensive. Also stalls selling new and vintage clothes.

Columbia Road Flower Market Tube: Old Street
Open 8am to 1pm Sunday only. Flowers and plants as far as you can see!

Inexpensive London

We are sure you never thought of London as an expensive city, but honestly if you are thrifty there are ways you can see a lot in the city without going broke! In addition to strolling around one of London's many beautifully manicured parks and gardens and the museums (most of which are free!), there are endless other opportunities for those on a tight budget.

Time Out London, Top Things to Do Under a Tenner!

Link to this page: http://www.richmond.ac.uk/s/28.aspx