Visiting London and have done all the "visitor" bits before

[givemebooks]

Morning all!

Very excited as i have been surprised by my DH with a 2 day trip to London this weekend.

This is our first time been away on our own child free in 3 years!!

So we of course have been to London many times and have done all the usual tourist things buckingham palace, tower of london, harrods, hamleys, Greenwich observatory, boat on the Thames, big ben ect ect!

Looking for different maybe unusual suggestions of things to possible do?

We arrive Friday afternoon! On the list are beyond bread bakery as my DH is coeliac, the ice bar

Would have loved to see a show on the saturday night but tickets are all sold out or only 1 seat left plus i cannot afford over £100 a ticket!!

Would be grateful of other suggestions

Thank you :)

Thank you all so much! I am going to go through each idea and give it a google!

Should have said the london eye and the shard are out as my DH is terrified of heights!

Fantastic tip about the ticket booth in Leicester square!

Bit sad at the Emirates experience is closed this weekend as would have loved to have DH go on the flight sims! He is aviation crazy!

If you're into grue, the Hunterian on the other side of Lincoln's Inn Fields for Sir John Soane's is good. Go into the Royal College of Surgeons and ask for a free visitor's pass.

Another shout out for Dickens house and the play that goes wrong. Regents park is Just beautiful , a lovely night walk along the Thames too 😊

@DisgraceToTheYChromosome No, Hunterian is closed until 2021 for major building work.

@reallybadidea ooops sorry! I'm sure you don't mind too much as it was very funny!

Hi OP. I lived 25 years in London (now in NZ and miss it terribly) but here are my Local Londoner favourites. All are away from the tourist hordes. You'll feel like you've found something special!

Go to Pop Brixton and have a NZ wine an some tapas under a blanket and some sparkly lights.

Walk the Fleet river from its source in Hampstead Heath to Vauxhall. Stop at every pub you see! (This takes a day but massive fun)

Pub crawl of beautiful ancient pubs starting from Wapping ending at the Blackfriar

Greenwich park walk and the views from the Observatory. Marvel at GMT

Richmond Park. Marvel at the green space. See the deer

Walk or cycle from Putney to Kew Bridge. Lunch in Chiswick on the river

Go to Gordon's and have several glasses of port and a cheese plate in the catacombs

Imperial war museum. I'm not into wars but hell, that is a great museum.

Regents park. Walk from the south side up to Primrose hill. There is no view like a Primrose Hill view.

Get a beautiful French wine and sit outside Bedales in Borough Market for excellent people watching

(Realise most of my suggestions involve drinking .. I don't apologise for that!)

Museum of Brands. My favourite small museum.

Should also have said that my favourite thing was walking around City of London at the weekend. Silent. Atmospheric little alleyways. The area around Guildhall and London Wall is especially atmospheric. Very photogenic and easy to think of what London was like hundreds of years ago.

As for shows... I'd rather pull my fingernails out then entertain musical theatre but if at a loss then the Comedy Store on Leicester Sq always has good nights and great atmosphere. Sunday nights are improv and Paul Merton or Josie Lawrence usually make an appearance.

Coal drops yard kings cross
One aldwych for.gf food a gf restaurant

Photo journalist exhibition at Tate Britain

Brasserie Zelek is nice.
My teens liked God's Own Junkyard but I have no idea what it is 😂

Two Temple Place is lovely.

I haven't been to the John Soane Museum since it was done up but was always brilliant.

You can go to the Shard's Aqua Bar for a sky-high tipple, no booking and no entry charge.

Sorry Brasserie Zedel

Have you been down brick lane for a curry? That's quite fun.

Colombia road flower market on a Sunday morning. Free and beautiful.

Following on from SummerintoAutumn's suggestion, check what's playing at Crazy Coqs underneath Brasserie Zedel - they do some great cabaret shows

Hampton Court Palace is a beautiful day out, is on the river, and not far from two of the Royal Parks for deer spotting (Bushy Park and Richmond Park)

Dans le noir is a restaurant when you eat in complete darkness! It's amazin, although I think you'd be lucky to get a reservation for this weekend.

I also second wandering around the City on a weekend.

Hampton Court or Kew Gardens.

Some of the walks you can book into are really good, especially if you have an interest in a particular thing.
I booked a rock & roll history walking tour of London for my DH's birthday and we went to loads of places that I didn't even know were there (Born & bred Londoner & never lived anywhere else)

The Brick Lane curry houses are really bad, though. I'd trek out to Southall or Wembley for good Indian food in London -- or Tayyab's in Whitechapel, though it's years since I ate there.

The Horniman and Dulwich Picture Gallery are both worth a visit and are near to each other if you fancy a trek South
The V&A Museum of Childhood is great, although worrying to see my childhood belongings are now museum exhibits
Enter the lottery for Hamilton tickets.
Kew Gardens.

Turn the last time I went (a few months ago) they had one of DD's toys in there! She's only 9!!

Agree with your south London suggestions.

Actually, If you are coming this weekend there is probably a load of St Patrick's day stuff going on

The London Dungeon
Hyde Park
Covent Garden
The Natural History Museum

One Aldwych is closed at the moment for refurbishment. Which is a shame as it does lovely cocktails and the staff are really nice.

Some amazing ideas and i am checking up on most of them!

Things get difficult with bars and restaurants as DH is coeliac so i like to check there is a good gluten free selection!

I have also entered the Hamilton lottery :)