Londonian recs for me...?

[sevenswells]

I'm swamped! Super busy! Lots of stuff to do! Aaaaaarrrrh!

But! I'll be in London (again! SUPER YAY!) very soon, so I was wondering: do you have any recommendations for me, f-list?

What's fun to do in London? What's good to visit? What's good to eat? If you have tips and addresses to give me, I will be forever grateful and will sing your prowesses to my grandchildren, not that I'm planning to have any (grandchildren, I mean, not prowesses), nevertheless, I'm being very sincere right now.

This request goes to the British people of my f-list, but also to anyone who's been to London and did fun stuff there: please tell me! I'm open to any suggestion!

Comments

[jainas.livejournal.com]

I hear the Music museum in the O2 (the old Millenium Dome) is good fun and quite interactive, but it's a bit outside London... It could be worth it if you use the occasion to go to Greenwich.
Theater-wise, I don't know how far in the season we are, but there is a open air amphitheater in Regent's Park I always wanted to try, it must make of a wonderful evening if the weather is kind.
Otherwise... well... Portobello market on the week-end is an old favorite, as is a pique-nique in the upper-west part of Hide Park.
Every Monday at 1pm there is a free classical music concert in St-Martin in the Fields on Trafalgar Square.
If you're not too far (it isn't worth crossing half-London of it), there is a small bakery/tea house near where I used to live, at the intersection of Connaught Street and Porchester Place in Westminster, with great food and the most incredible golden crockery, it is delightfully posh and Britsh. Also, some pubs have sing along evenings every week... It depend on the pub, mine used to be on sunday evening around 7pm. If you want to listen to british people singing old british classics (and sometime dancing) in good cheer, it's worth checking if there is any pub doing this kind of thing close from were you're staying.
And last but not least, if you want to geek-out, there is always Earl's Court TARDIS and Forbiden Planet.

[sevenswells.livejournal.com]

Hee, thank you so much dear; I've never been to Portobello market and I'll definitely try to find one of those sing-alongs, I never knew they did that too in pubs!

Haaaaa so much fun to have!! London is fantastic.

Ye Gods

[evildrem.livejournal.com]

That is a 'how long is the piece of string' question. What sort of things are you interested in doing? If you can give me some ideas I can make some suggestions. The theatre in London is wonderful and there are some fabulous shows on at the moment. Are you interested in history or things Sherlockian, art, museums, meeting other fans?

Re: Ye Gods

[sevenswells.livejournal.com]

Ooooh thank you for replying!

Well the answer is: all of the above! XD

I'm interested in pretty much anything, the only thing I don't do much is nightclubbing.
Visiting stuff is cool, but I'd also love to simply have experiences, or a "feel" of the Londonian life if you will -- like jainas recommended sing-alongs in pubs, well I'm all for stuff like that!
I'm crazy about history, but things Sherlockian of course would be awesome! ^^ And I'd love to meet other fans too; in fact I said I would go to the Sherlock fans London meet-up on theeee... I think it was on the 13th -- will you be there too? Also I thought maybe I'd do the Jack the Ripper tour around White Chapel, is it any good?

But! Theatre recs would be more than awesome, I love theatre, and if you have good shows to recommend, I'm all ears!

Thank you, thank you!!! <3

Re: Ye Gods

[evildrem.livejournal.com]

Okay well as far as a feel of London life it really depends on what part of London you are talking about as to what its like. The kind of 'traditional' London lifestyle you have mentioned is not really what London is like now and even then it more describes life in the East End. Each part of London has its own character to be honest.

London is also big os if you can give me an idea (feel free to email me at emkeres at gmail dot com) of where you are actually staying I can give you a good idea of what is close to you.

Any of the markets are worth visiting. Have a look here for more details on dates, times and locations on each of them and what they sell. I particularly like Portobello and Camden. If you like clothes (and good currys) I would also recommend Brick Lane.

The British Museum, The Natural History Museum, The Science Museum and The National Gallery are all amazing and well worth a visit. the British Museum is particularly beautiful and has a really good restaurant as well. Have a look here for more details and also as a good website on visting London.

The Jack Ripper tour is fun and you can also do a Sherlock Holmes tour as well I believe. There is the Sherlock Holmes Museum and you can visit Speedys where they film Sherlock.

If you like history then you may want to go visit The Tower of London or the Houses of Parliament etc. Have a look here for more info.

As far as Theatre is concerned there are some fabulous productions on at the National Theatre, The Old Vic and The Young Vic at the moment. These are all in or around the South Bank and within walking distance of each other. Andrew Scott (Moriarty in Sherlock) is currently in a production of Ibsen's Emperor & Gallilean at the National, Kevin Spacey is playing Richard III at the Old Vic and Julian Barrett is in the Government Inspector at the Young Vic. The South Bank is a great place to visit and has lots of shops, restaurants and places of interest including the London Eye.

Um, what else, David Tennant and Catherine Tate are currently in Much Ado About Nothing as well and the bloke who plays Rory in Dr Who is in Dr Faustus at the Glove. There are literally 100's of other productions and muscials going on, have a look here

I won't be at the meeting on 13th as do not live in London any more (about 2 hours drive outside on south coast of England) and I work during the day but if you let me know what dates you are here I can see whether I can arrange for us to meet up. If there are any plays/shows etc you are particularly interested in seeing but are worried about booking etc then let e know and I can see what I can do to help.

Re: Ye Gods

[sevenswells.livejournal.com]

Awesome, thank you so much for taking the time to write up and research all this -- WHOA MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING!! I LOooooVE this play, and you say Catherine Tate is in it??? Definitely going to see it!

Sending you an e-mail when I'm on British soil -- I'm leaving tomorrow morning at an insane hour and I've still got PILES of stuff to do. Gah. SO DISORGANIZED T____T

[kamexkame.livejournal.com]

I've never ever been, but boy do I want to. I'm so glad you're going, it's like your visit allows me to live vicariously ^__________^.

Just an idea, how about trying to attend the taping of a TV show there?

Found this link, I dunno how useful it is in reality : http://golondon.about.com/od/londonforfree/a/tvaudience.htm

Maybe someone who actually knows stuff can tell you in more depth how to go about it, if you're interested.

Hey, it's sort of dorky, but I'd do it ^.^""".

[kamexkame.livejournal.com]

Ok so I'm having a little field day here researching what I'd like to be doing in London (wish I were going with you) (I'm such a style cramper) so I'll just post whatever links just in case anything also catches your fancy, 'kay?

Oh, and of course it's all free ^^.

'So Noble a Confection' Producing and Consuming Chocolate 1600-1980 at the V & A. Sounds yummylicious to me.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/867/

The V & A seems to have an abundance of awesomeness, a lot of it free. Check out the panoply they've got going on here : http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson

I'm making believe like I'm going to the Japanese enamels and Korean ceramics exhibits and the Spitalfield Silks one SO HARD right now.

The Ragged School Museum sounds incredibly fun : http://www.raggedschoolmuseum.org.uk/nextgen/

Unfortunately, it looks like you've missed the free Sunday event (it's on every first Sunday of each month) where you can go and attend the kind of lesson they gave during the Victorian era :(((. But the displays still look really cool. You can HANDLE stuff!!!

And the childhood museum has something that sounds fairly palpitating : http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/whats_on/exhibitions_and_displays/the_stuff_of_nightmares/index.html

It's called The Stuff of Nightmares and it makes me feel little all over again just reading about it. But maybe it's just a bit silly? But maybe not :).

Also, I get excite just going to IKEA so THIS : http://www.geffrye-museum.org.uk/

AND THIS THIS : http://www.geffrye-museum.org.uk/whatson/special/

I'm thinking destiny.

Bon voyage, baby :-*.

[sevenswells.livejournal.com]

YOU are the most fantastic person on earth and I hope you know it.

Bon voyage yourself! ;P