The Rough Guide to London Mini 3 - Softcover

Rough Guides

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1843531127 ISBN 13: 9781843531128

Publisher: Rough Guides, 2003

Synopsis

INTRODUCTION

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 in the last few years, the city has been in a relatively buoyant mood. Thanks to the national lottery and the millennium-oriented funding frenzy, virtually every one of London’s world-class museums, galleries and institutions has been reinvented, from the Royal Opera House to the British Museum. In the Tate Modern and the London Eye, the city can now boast the world’s largest modern art gallery and Ferris wheel, and the first new bridge to cross the Thames for over a hundred years. Furthermore, following sixteen years of being the only major city in the world not to have its own governing body, London finally acquired its own elected assembly in 2000, along with a mayor who’s determined to try and solve one of London’s biggest problems: transport.

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 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 problems are 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 countryside of Hampstead Heath and Richmond Park.

You could spend days just shopping in London, too, mixing with the upper classes in the tiara triangle around Harrods, or sampling the offbeat weekend markets of Portobello Road, Camden and Greenwich. 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 is now on a par with its European rivals, and offers a range from three-star Michelin establishments to low-cost, high-quality Chinese restaurants and 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.

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Rough Guides are written by expert authors who are passionate about both writing and travel. They have detailed knowledge of the areas they write about—having either traveled extensively or lived there—and their expertise shines through on every page. It's priceless information, delivered with wit and insight, providing the down-to-earth, honest read that is the hallmark of Rough Guides.

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WHAT TO SEE

Stretching for more than thirty miles at its broadest point, London is a big place. 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, Chinatown 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, to the east, 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 Canary Wharf s skyscrapers, including the country s tallest building, epitomizing the pretensions of the smash-and-grab culture that has gripped the nation since the 1980s.

A small slice of central London south of the Thames is definitely worth exploring. First off, there s the South Bank Centre, London s little-loved concrete culture bunker, which is enjoying a new lease of life thanks to inspired artistic direction and its proximity to the giant observation wheel known as the London Eye. Further east along the river in Bankside is the Tate Modern, one of the world s greatest modern art museums, now linked to the City by the funky pedestrian-only Millennium 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 and 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 seventies 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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1843531127
• ISBN 13: 9781843531128
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 400