What to do near Moorfields Eye Hospital

[AnnaMagnani]

DH has an appointment at Moorfields tomorrow following surgery to both eyes last week. He currently can't see very well - is staring at his laptop from a distance of 2 inches.

He's likely to need treatment that means we have to hang around for a few hours just in case of complications - this happened last week and we spent the time having lunch across the road for a few hours.

This week however his appointment is at 9am so a long lunch isn't going to work to pass the time - plus we may be doing this for a few weeks and the budget doesn't stretch to long posh lunches twice a week!

Any suggestions for where we can pass the time pleasantly, with a DH who can't see much at the moment?

Bunhill Fields is about five minutes walk away from the hospital. My husband and I enjoyed strolling through it when he had a day of various tests at Moorfields earlier this year.

Hop on the bus to Angel and go for a coffee somewhere in Camden Passage. Very pretty round there. I would recommend walking along the Regents Canal but maybe not very relaxing with limited eye sight.

The Regents canal is just a few mins walk north of the hospital. If you like walking and depending on your time allowance you could head there and walk round on the towpath and do a loop back through Hackney. Lots of pubs and bars along the canal to check out if you have the time. It's an interesting walk, hopefully your DH will be able to take it in!

Passing the time pleasantly is exactly what the Barbican is for - and you’ll be about five minutes away by cab. Open from 9am on weekdays.

It’s great because you don’t have to be attending any particular event, you can just hang out in the building. Take your own food or use the various cafes. Stay inside or sit by the lake outside if you’re wrapped up warm. Wonderfully cosy - despite the Brutalist architecture - and absolutely the place I’d go in your circumstances.

Ozone on Leonard St is good for coffee/breakfast/brunch.

If the weather isn't great, grab an Uber to Spitalfields as it's under cover, although it will be fairly quiet on a Mon morning. It's walking distance from Moorfields (if the weather's ok). Or go to One New Change and wander round the shops and enjoy the view from the top floor (although probably wasted on your poor husband) and then walk over to St Paul's. The Museum of London is good (and free) but depends how much/little your husband can see I guess as to whether it's of interest or not.

Why is everyone sending the OP and her poor husband on sightseeing trips? Surely they’ll just want to sit somewhere warm and comfortable without any obligation to do anything? With food/drink/loos/power sockets all readily available.

Barbican. Honest!

Some of these are good ideas for the future as we have about 6 weeks of weekly visits to fill (if not more) and hopefully the vision will be picking up as we go along.

Barbican is a great idea.

Unfortunately we left Moorfields at about 9.30pm last week after surgery, both of us were ravenous, he had 2 eye shields on and I dragged him across the street for the only visible taxi to get us to our hotel, lobbing him into a litter bin in the process So he is now a bit scared of walking round London, especially with me