Chat thread for Londoners (sorry for being quichey everyone else)

[Mintyy]

Right you laahvly cockerney sparrers. Cor blimey, apples & pears, luvaduck etc.

Having lived in London an exhilarating 30 years, I have resolved to make this the year I get to know it better.

Please can you recommend interesting walks and places to visit in areas that you know very well, because I want to head out with my oyster card and explore. Am taking a day off work every week from now on and I want to see slightly off-the-beaten-track London.

So, if anyone was asking me this question I would recommend walking from Chancery Lane Station, through the Inns of Court at Grays Inn, visit to the Sir John Soane Museum, walk up Doughty Street, quick pop in to the Charles Dickens Museum, Coram's Fields, Brunswick Centre, Russell Square (for eg.).

But there are huge swathes of London I know absolutely nothing about! I've never been to Portobello Road for instance, only been to Camden market a handful of times, don't really know much about West London, SW London, Docklands, East central London just outside the city (eg. Limehouse).

Oh there's tons of places to explore! If you have a favourite walk, little museum or park I should see, then please post.

Thank you

These ideas are so good, thank you V much everyone.

Just thought of another one I would recommend: if you are ever in SE23 (Forest Hill) go to the Horniman Museum, then get yourself over to Canonbie Road 5-10 minutes walk away and have your breath taken away by the most stunning view ever of the whole of London from the peak of the hill.

Another favourite area of mine is Fitzrovia, and there are some excellent Indian canteen style restaurants, including the Indian YMCA, near Warren Street tube.

Come to the sunny West for a really different kind of London. If you're travelling by car, go to Petersham which is ridiculously fragrant and lovely and not at all urban. Have lunch in Petersham Nurseries and walk by the river.

Or you could get the train to Teddington, have a fabulous lunch at the Fallow Deer (Teddington High Street), then walk East across Teddington Lock and follow the river path down to Kingston (40 mins walk), where you can have tea in John Lewis, overlooking the river, then get the train back into town.

Or, if you walk the other way from Teddington, you can explore Bushy Park, see the wild deer, go into the beautiful enclosed Pheasantry and visit the cafe there. You can either walk South and come out at Hampton Court Palace - visit the Maze and the new Chocolate Kitchen at the Palace, then get the train home. Or keep going West and come out at picturesque Hampton Hill, where you can do homage at Alan Turing's lovely home and then walk along the Thames Riviera to get to Hampton Court that way.

I always wanted to explore Highgate Cemetery with my mum but we always had something else to do and then it was rainy and muddy and I could never really be bothered and then the hill became a bit too challenging for her.

It was my fault. I was a bit lazy.

But I'm going to do it in the spring when it's sunny and the little flowers are out.

Oh Postmans park near to ......damn can't remember - Google postmans park - its in the City - Plaques all around remembering ordinary Londoners who died saving others, very sad!

I love the Horniman Museum!

Years ago, I really enjoyed a walking tour of the Jewish East End - well worth doing.

HeeHiles, is that the place near Barts Hospital? Funnily enough I was just thinking of it too, but couldn't remember the name. It is such a hidden gem, really worth a visit. And from there you can explore Barts Hospital (pretending you're Bridget Jones at the Henry VIII gate), wander round Smithfield, maybe walk up to Barbican for a show.

Plenty of lovely houses and parks within the national trust in london, to name a few

Ham House
Osterley Park
Carlyle House
Leighton house

The V&A is my favourite museum, particularly the exquisite jewèllery room.

Go up the Shard, eat at Borough market, visit HMS Belfast.

This thread is a good example of why london is an extraordinary place to live.

Have you done the Thames Path from London Bridge to Canary Wharf? That's a really nice walk, takes about 1.5 hours.

I love Clissold park.

I was thinking Barts but didn't think it was but yes that's the place! Bit brain dead today!

Have you been to the Horniman museum? Love the quirkiness and bizarre collections there, and the gardens are lovely.

There's also a lovely walk from close to Finsbury Park station up to Highgate Woods where you almost forget you're in London.

On a sunny day I quite like walking along the Thames too and having lunch in the Garden Museum at (I think) Lambeth Bridge.

PS I used to live around Dalston/Stokie too, but maybe about 25 years ago (ie before it went so up market that students and not very well known artists couldn't afford it any more!)

Great idea for a thread. I love London and all these ideas are making me love it even more.

The secret garden in Regents Park always makes me feel as if I'm in my very own Jane Austin film.

Ex-Londoner here.

Try Leighton House Museum if you go exploring Holland Park way. It's the best place that nobody has ever heard of.

I always wanted to explore Highgate Cemetery

Love a cemetery Kensal Green is lovely, so peaceful and lots of famous dead people!

I love driving through richmond park, taking the boat between the two Tates, walking in battersea park and national theatre productions.

For something a bit different, I recommend Paul Talling's books and walking tours: www.derelictlondon.com/authors-guided-tours-of-london.html

Also getting the River boat from Tate Britain down to Greenwich. You can pay with an Oyster card, and it is much nicer than the tube.

I really enjoyed a Duck tour as well. Just enough history.

What an ace thread. Have you been to Postman's Park Mintyy? Near St. Paul's and the London Museum, and with an amazing secret inside...

Shadwell and the Prospect of Whitby is a good idea, it has a 600 year old pewter bar . Then you can go round Shadwell Basin and walk along the canal past the pirate ship to St Katherines Dock, or the other way, river walk to Canary Wharf.

Hampstead Heath, Wimbledon Common or the lovely little known Wanstead Park.

I love the City at weekends when it's deserted. DH and I once walked the Wall - all around the old city, and there's loads of London Wall left, in car parks and the like.

Kingly Court, One New Change, Leadenhall Market

oh yes a day on the river Clippers is fab - you can get a day pass and hop on/off all day

I was going to say walk to canary wharf too - lovely from London Bridge or a bit further along from tower bridge - st Katherine's dock, Wapping, Limehouse...all very cobbled and warehousey. Takes in a couple of the pubs mentioned previously and a great pub crawl too. The Captain Kidd, Prospect of Whitby, the Narrow (one of Gordon Ramsey's) and the Grapes (owned by Sir Ian McKellan I do believe).

Also the walk from Blackheath village across the Heath and down through Greenwich park, market, onward to the Cutty Sark.

And another favourite of mine is primrose hill to Camden lock along the canals.

I hardly know Regent's Park. I remember there was a tube strike once and I had to walk from my boyfriend's flat in Swiss Cottage in to work on Oxford Street. I walked through Regent's Park and was completely bowled over to hear elephants and monkeys from the zoo!

Must get up there again pronto.

If you do Potobello you could walk up from Notting hill to westbiurne Grove then over to Kensal Rise cemetery

Following the lost rivers is really interesting, there are so many.

The city churches would fill a few days as well. They are all over the place in heaps of styles, and at the weekend it is eerily quiet round there. Unfortunately they all have different opening times

Oh and there's the Greenway - from Beckton to the Olympic Park along a path built over the Great London Sewer (waaaay nicer than that sounds).