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

The wall?? I had no idea! Great thread! Poor DS won't know what hit him once we get onto these ideas

Please excuse the dreadful typos in last post!!

Also if doing little venice get boat down to regents park near zoo and walk along the canal through Camden, hit primrose hill and belsize park and end up in the lovely old pub, the holly bush, in Hampstead for a well deserved drink

Write a blog about it, Mintyy. Srsly. I'll follow you. One blog post a week, perfect. Gwan.

I worked in Notting Hill for a long time Elfy, never actually made it as far as Portobello Road

I know exactly what you mean - I was working down Baker St and everyday walked along York St pass this big brick wall, never gave it a moments though as I was usually late! Four years I did this until one day I looked around the other side and Fuck Me there's only a beautiful little church - How the hell I didn't know it was there!!

Place marking... I'm not a Londoner at all but I'm coming for a special visit this year and I'd love to do the different non tourist things mentioned here! Sooo excited!!

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)

I need to do this one, not an area of London I know well at all!

Can I share a London thing? I saw a tree in full blossom yesterday morning on the school run - our own little eco system

Is anyone else ticking off the places they have been in London, but so many I haven't visited and I've lived here for over 30 years.

OP., the secret garden is the garden of St Johns Lodge opposite the rose garden in the Inner Circle I think.

I do know Shoreditch/Haggerston/Columbia Road very well ... or at least I did a long time ago before it all got gentrified. Used to cycle along the canal from home in Dalston to work in Islington. If I went back there it would all be hugely changed, no doubt.

You wouldn't believe it I don't like going there it makes me sad - I used to spend a lot of time over there in the 80's it's had its heart and soul ripped out.

I'm an ex-West Londoner who still works in London. I'd definitely recommend Leighton House in Kensington, which is stunning - purpose-built in the 1860's for the artist Lord Leighton.

Combine that with 18 Stafford Terrace, just up the road. Home to the Victorian cartoonist Linley Sambourne, and still kept with most of its Victorian furnishings and decoration. Also stunning - you'll probably have seen it in period dramas as they use it for locations all the time.

You could also branch off to Chelsea, not that far away, and go to Carlyle's house in Cheyne Walk. Another combination possible here, a wander along the river and maybe Tate Britain too.

Agree with a poster upthread that Sir John Soane's museum in Lincoln's Inn
Fields is a must, but it does get very busy at times, I'd avoid at weekends. You can call in at the Hunterian Museum just across the square if you're interested in the history of medicine and like looking at body parts in jars

The Dickens Museum in Doughty St is fantastic, recently restored and re-opened, and Lamb's Conduit Street nearby is full of lovely little shops and cafes. The Foundling Museum in Brunswick St is within easy reach of both.

The areas round all of these places are fascinating and just great for wandering, really. I lived in London for 20 years and that's how I got to know it...nothing beats exploring on foot.

I found this helpful page which reminds us all just how much of London there is out there London postcodes.

Great ideas. The Herb garrett museum opposite Guy's Hospital also interesting. Can combine with a visit to Borough Market.
South Bank and Gabriel's Wharf?

Has everyone seen the Roman Amphitheatre in Guildhall Art Gallery?

Oh what is that ancient stone in Farringdon or near there, it's surrounded by dirty old glass and you have to bend down to see it? Got a headache and can't think of it's story - anyone know it?

Sorry for the epic previous post, but just to add: this is a brilliant blog about East London, for anyone who doesn't know about it.

Yeah, Leighton House - camp is not the word

path built over the Great London Sewer (waaaay nicer than that sounds)

How far are you from Canning Town bus station OP?

I like to take the cable car ride over the Thames (from Canning Town) and have lunch at the 02.

The ride's only 10 mins long but it's scenic and only costs about £3.80 with your Oyster card.

www.tfl.gov.uk/modes/emirates-air-line/?cid=fs045

What about Hampstead Heath and Kenwood House? Kenwood re-opened relatively recently after a long refurbishment, and is even more lovely than it was. It has a wonderful art collection, though its top attraction, its Rembrandt, is currently in the Rembrandt exhibition at the National Gallery.There are lovely walks through Kenwood's grounds, and beyond to Hampstead Heath. And you get great views of London from the Heath, both from Parliament Hill and from the bit near Jack Straw's Castle.

Place marking. Bought a FitBit, planning on doing big walks in the coming months.

I toured The Magnificent Seven cemeteries for a photography course. Nunhead is my favourite, followed by lunch in Peckham. Lots of good local restaurants.

The Barbican are running tours of the centre and surrounding estate until February. I'm going on that. Would love to live in the estate.

Oooh, AND, Persephone Books on Lamb's Conduit Street. Heaven.

a fave day out of mine...

Visit to The Wallace Collection and maybe have a drink at the bar

a mosey down Marleybone High Street and Marylebone Lane having a look in all the quirky little shops

A burger from Patty and Bun on James St W1 - best burgers in London.

if you're on Twitter follow:
@ldn
@londonpopups
@londonist
@secretlondon

for ideas

bit near Jack Straw's Castle

When it was a pub back in the day on Sunday we could sit out in the courtyard for a drink and watch Morris dancers!!

If you like cemeteries, have a nosy at Nunhead Cemetery - it's one of the big Victorian ones and is very pretty in a not-too-creepy way. It's from the same period as Highgate but nature is slowly reclaiming it.

And for interesting architectural things, the Red House in Eltham is worth a look too.

You could go and see more of the Thames. I think you can visit the barrier, or go to explore the foreshore with on one of the Museum of London outings, or arrange to sail (at Canary Wharf?) or canoe parts of it.