London Things to Do

With its myriad of international cuisine and cutting edge restaurants, London is rapidly gaining a reputation as a gourmet hotspot, but food, as with everything in the city, often comes with a hefty price tag. Thankfully those on a budget can still survive a trip to the capital, and to help you along the way, here are a few ideas for dining on a budget in London.

While not as ubiquitous as fish ’n’ chips or afternoon tea, Britain’s love affair with Indian food is so renowned that there are over 7,000 Indian restaurants in the UK and curry has become one of the country’s most popular adopted dishes. The English love of a good curry, fueled by the capital’s high population of Indian and Bangladeshi residents, means you won’t have to wander far to get your fix of authentic Indian food in London.

After years as a bit of an outsider, Bermondsey is firmly staking its place as a great place to go in London for food and drinks.

On the south side of the river, not far from London Bridge Station, Borough Market, Tower Bridge and of course the new rising star, The Shard, Bermondsey is full of hip bars and excellent restaurants.

Around The Shard, which opens in February 2013, a new zone is developing called London Bridge Quarter. There will be new restaurants and bars to service all the new offices and apartments, and even London Bridge Station – one of the world’s oldest railway stations – will be getting a redevelopment in the next few years. The wharves along the Thames to the east of Tower Bridge have long been a place for good restaurants and shopping.

Regent Street, London. We all know the elegant curve of its Georgian facades – it’s the famous shopping heart of this city, crossing with Oxford Street at Oxford Circus. Regent Street has the huge flagship Apple Store, the famous Hamleys toy shop, and Liberty department store. It’s so crowded before Christmas that you can hardly move along its pavement. But do you know its history?

One of Sydney’s favorite and famous sons is Bill Granger. Now he’s opened his first restaurant in London, bringing to Notting Hill some of the laid back Aussie attitude combined with the excellent food that made Bill’s so popular in Sydney.

London has many secrets, be it streets, shops, legends, or something you never even thought of. One is The Cut. Tucked in just behind Waterloo Station and Southbank is a street called The Cut.

If you’ve see Bridget Jones’s Diary, you’ve seen Borough Market. It’s the site of her walk of heartbreak: bunny costume and tears. Bridget lives opposite the market : no schelpping her fruit and veg onto the train to get home after Saturday morning shopping; she could just cross the road. For the rest of us in London, the effort of getting to Borough Market is still worth it.

I like a good coffee. I do not like coffee from chains that put quantity over quality. Sometimes I like coffee because the view that goes with it is wonderful, or the atmosphere…. Keep that in mind as I tell you my five top coffee spots in London.

The Roundhouse is an icon of London music and performance. Located in Chalk Farm, the stunning round brick building dating to 1847 was originally a railway engine workshop, built round so trains could turn around inside. By the 1930s it was abandoned and became derelict, becoming home to a theatre company in the 1960s. The Doors played their only UK show here in 1968. But even this sort of history couldn’t save it from the closing during the 1980s when getting rich was much more popular than local theatre. Luckily in the mid-90s someone again saw the value of the place, bought it, and reopened the doors, giving it a major facelift in 2004.

When I first came to London, I was determined to do the one thing I had read about in books, seen in films and on TV, and dreamed about for years: take afternoon tea. Yes, I am sure there are many others things first on your list to do here, but it is just so quintessentially London, and so wonderfully indulgent that I had to partake.