Londoners weekends

[RufflesPlus]

Inspired by a thread (or a few threads!) in which Londoners tell us how great London is....

What do you actually do in a regular month? How many times do you go to the theatre? Art gallery? Obviously not everyone spends their time in the same way, but give me a feel for living in London! Is it literally daily culture? Don't you get tired?

For context I live in a large town (not city) and go to the theatre, gallery, shops, museums and dinner approx once a month but have always thought the limiting factors to be cost and babysitters rather than availability of activities.

The most popular museums and galleries are hell for me. Too busy, too noisy, and the cafés are stupidly expensive.

I went to the Photographers Gallery recently which was cool. My next big trip is to see Othello at the Globe but I'm only going to help DD with her A level.

I have a decent large park near me so no need to go to Hyde or Regents Park.

I work shifts so when I've got free time I tend to stick to my area. My favourite pub is just down the road.

@dingledells your post made me laugh. 😂Someone I work with in London was agonising about whether to spend Christmas in the family home at Gstaad or the 3 bed apartment in Monaco. Same guy who offered to fly me (with him as pilot!) in his plane to Jersey for the day. Rich people problems eh? 😂

I signed up to seatfiller sites like Central Tickets and I get a lot of cheap on the day tickets. As I live close by, I can just dash into the West End for a last minute musical or play.

@HundredMilesAnHour 😆

I find the West End to be very seedy and smelly. Horrible.

Seatfillers are good, and I also enjoy going to recordings of BBC radio shows, which are completely free. Those are increasingly done all round the country, which is good, but there's still a large number at the Radio Theatre just north of Oxford Circus. I can jump on the tube after work, pick up anything I happen to need from John Lewis, watch the show, and be home in time for a quick pasta supper.

I live in a London zone 4 suburb, right next to a tube station (25 minutes to the West End) and work in central London.

I grew up in London. Was fabulous for a teenager, as all I needed was a travel card and me and my friends could go anywhere and do anything, even with little money. We used to go browsing in Camden Market, go to Hyde Park or Hampstead Heath, wander around the West End, walk along the river etc. So much freedom and opportunity and relatively safe.

Then when I had kids, I took advantage of a lot of the free and cheap things London has to offer when my kids were young. We went to all the museums, parks, swimming pools, sight seeing stuff you can imagine…we were never, ever bored even when money was tight.

Ive got more disposable income and time to myself now my kids are older teens. In 2023, I went to two concerts, the theatre three times, the ballet once, the opera once, multiple exhibitions at museums and galleries. Also many cheap days out just walking and pottering and stopping for coffee in Notting Hill/Portobello, Kensington, the West End, Brixton, Richmond, Shoreditch, the South Bank. Also lots of walking on Hampstead Heath and in the big London parks (most Sundays).

For 2024, I’ve already booked a concert at the Jazz Cafe, two ballets and a one-day music festival.

There is also the local, community stuff I enjoy. We have two nice parks with cafes a 10 min walk away, and a small arts venue that has good comedy and music and runs interesting programmes of events e.g. for Black History Month.

I love London, as you can probably tell! 😆
I’m currently staying with relatives on the south coast and it’s wonderful to be by the sea and am very much enjoying the peace and quiet, but I couldn’t live here. I need more of everything!

London is great. To me, anyway. Cosmopolitan, interesting and so very easy to get around. There are nice parks and places to walk, go for a meal etc. Loads of day, evening, nightlife, brilliant transport links. I don't ever get bored. I love the South Bank and all that goes on there. Camden, Portobello Road, many more. No I don't go to the theatre and museums all the time but I do sometimes. & I have a good social life here. Many free things to do, which was useful when DCs were younger. London isn't constantly crowded and busy everywhere. Im in Zone 3 and its quiet. & green. But I can hop on a train to central London and be there in 20 minutes. Tourists don't bother me, I've enough to get on with I just go around them. I went for a walk this morning then sat in the park on the hill by me for a bit. Lovely.

One of things I love about London (and no-one has mentioned yet) is the fashion and the sample sales. There are lots of designers / studios close to where I live so there's always interesting style to see and some great bargains to be had if you know where to shop.

I used to love the fashion & worked in it for many years. Fallen a lot out of love with it, may be an age thing or the fact I was a tween/teen in the 90s & a young adult in the 00s & the London fashion scene then was soo exciting. Also have a bit of a paunch these days which can kill the vibe somewhat! I blame social media, things are much more homogeneous now. I swear I counted over 100 pairs of panda dunk lows in a few hours the other day.

Spent 35 years in London...dcs grew up there. I loved it...was member of everything I could be and went into town at least 3 times a month. Never done the " tourist" stuff...eye, Tower of London, Science museum etc. We sought out stuff off the beaten track, weird stuff, random.
I still visit every month even though I live 300 miles away and never do the same thing twice!

We live quite central. I am not British and love how international and diverse London is. I don’t think I could live anywhere else now.
I go to galleries or museums weekly. We eat out maybe 3-4 times a month and go walking on Sundays often around Little Venice and Camden as we live close.
I used to go to the theatre a lot, but these days find it so expensive we only really go a few times a year now.
I do miss nature living in London. We have parks, but feel like I have to travel too far to go for proper hikes or visit the sea. This is what I miss living in London.

I do think that Instagram has changed the London experience noticeably.

St Dunstan's in the East for example, a picturesque bombed out City of London church with a garden in it, which used to be dead quiet all the time apart from a handful of office workers eating their lunches in the summer, is now overrun with people who've seen it on Instagram or a "secret London" website and are trying desperately to get their perfect atmospheric "secret deserted ruin" photo without catching any of the other twenty-six amateur photographers there in the shot. They have, of course, just as much right to be there as anyone else, or as much as I do when I walk down the Shambles In York or a quaint little Montmartre alleyway. But it has changed life.

Lone parent in Zone 2.

Similarly to others, I used to do lots of things with my DD when she was little and primary school - museums, theatre, etc. Not so much in recent years. Lots of reasons - museums etc are very busy on weekends, theatre tickets have become even more expensive, etc.

Never done the " tourist" stuff...eye, Tower of London

I love the Tower of London, was fascinated by the stories & history as a dc eg the ravens, polar bear swimming in the Thames, two Princes, Anne Boleyn, etc. As an adult I think the juxtaposition of the old & new gives London the best & unique skyline of any city.

@YoullCatchYourDeathInTheFog I agree & obviously they have a right to be there too but it often seems like a tick box exercise. My dc are all still primary stage, I hope “becoming a brand” has died a death by the time they hit secondary!

In January I am going to Edward Scissorhands at Sadlers Wells ( pricey), a comedy night ( cheap) and a lecture on conservation ( free) plus a trip to Leighton House ( free for me as I have an Arts Card). Don't know any city that offers this range of entertainment. I don't spend in clothes and shoes any more. Its all experiences.

The crowds don't bother me. I hope to never leave.

Any9me who lives outside of zone 1-2 might as well live further out. I'm in kent but 2 min drive to station, 1 hr I'm in charing cross heart of London. If I drive 10 mins to the next station 40 mins to London Bridge. And easy to get home as London trains run really late, you can't get back after 10ish coming from the coast back in.
I could leave the pub in London at almost midnight and get home but Canterbury I'd have to leave by 9.50 ish.

I agree that of all the big cliche tourist experiences the Tower of London is the one which every Londoner should do. Because it's ticketed the inside isn't too crowded.

The Tower of London is my absolute favourite place to visit in London. I first went on a school trip when were were 9 or 10 and I loved it. Who knew then that I would end up living within walking distance of it?! And I still love it. As a local resident I get discounted entry so I pop in quite a few times a year (when it's quiet) and I walk past it a couple of times a week and am always spellbound. Late evenings can be quite magical. The cafe inside also does an excellent Victoria sponge,

I haven’t been to the Tower of London in years! I’m putting on my list of things to do in 2024. Thanks for the reminder, folks!

I should add that I used to be a rower and 'our' stretch of water that we trained on was up to Tower Bridge (between there and the Thames Barrier). It's a very special experience rowing underneath Tower Bridge and sitting with your crew in a small racing shell on the mighty Thames gazing up at the Tower of London from the water. Not many people get to enjoy that experience but it's quintessential London. For me, that's one of the reasons why I live in London and put up with the crowds and noise and dirt etc.

My general rule when it comes to the big ticket London tourist cliches are that the ones run by charities or the State are worth doing if you try to get there at quieter times, but the ones run for profit should be avoided at all costs.

I'd possibly make an exception for the London Eye, which I rather like, but the queues are horrible.

London parks are also amazing and there are more accessible walking opportunities I have found in London than in the countryside (if you don’t have a car). Plus easy trains to Kent or Essex coast if you want to see the sea.

Londoner here and it's been nuts the last month, even allowing for Xmas crowds coming to see the lights and the like.

Zone 2 live alone.
The last year or so I've not gone out much due to grief and family illness.
In more normal times I'll go to the theatre once a month on average. Art galleries I used to pop into the National after work pre theatre regularly but not so much now.
Avoid the big museums (like others hate the crowds) unless there is an exhibition I want to see that I can book.

I do belong to a couple of seat filling sites so go to gigs and shows cheaply when I want an evening out and don't want to pay west end prices. I live near the O2 and often get tickets for under a tenner to both main arena and indigo2 shows.
That's the best thing for me, I can get an offer to a show in the morning and just go after work. And can enter the theatre lotteries and know it's not a big hassle to get home after.

I do use the clipper boats several times a year, they're my favourite London-y thing to do.