London Things to Do

1. Ham House. Terrible name, wonderful house. This gorgeous 17th century mansion is on the banks of the Thames River near elegant Richmond on the edge of London.

The Christmas lights have been switched on in Oxford Street to add some festive cheer to the dark nights. It’s starting to be Christmastime in London and there is rarely a more enchanting time to visit London as the shops make a special effort with imaginative window displays to entice you in and there are festive events taking place throughout the city.

Roll out the red carpet – the 55th Annual London Film Festival has arrived!

This is a wonderful opportunity to see the extraordinary range of film making today – over 200 films from around the world in 16 days! London is such a multi-cultural city with over 300 languages spoken, it is an ideal venue to celebrate world film-making.

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.

London is a crowded city. Despite the huge parks dotted around, Londoners are still quite squeezed for outdoor space. So when the nicer weather comes, they head up onto the roof. Here are some suggestions

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.

There are people who swim year around in London – outdoors. Yes, I also think they are crazy but I have to admire them. The place to do it is the Hampstead Heath Swimming Ponds, world-renowned and very London. Located on the Highgate side of the huge wilderness known as Hampstead Heath, there are two ponds open all year around: the Highgate Men’s Bathing Pond and the Kenwood Ladies’ Bathing Pond.

I was delighted to be asked to offer a complimentary walking tour of London to Viator clients last Friday. The idea was to introduce people to the benefits of hiring one of Viator’s qualified Tour Guides. I called it A Tale of Two Cities because we explored the 1000 year old City of Westminster in [...]

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.

Do you like looking around places usually closed to the public? Well London is the place for you on the 17th and 18th of September as we enjoy the annual Open House Weekend.