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

lots of parakeets in Richmond park and it looks like some have moved into our very small local inner city park too

Apparently where I live (SW London) we have masses of parakeets, but I have yet to see one (despite all the open spaces in my vicinity!)

I did see one on the towpath at Putney last Autumn though. DSGD (who lives way out of London) was very impressed!

I have three that regularly visit my garden, in SW London. You can come round any time you like!

I get the feeling that you and I live fairly close to each other, BIWI? In fact, at one point, I thought that you might be a RL friend of mine - but I don't think we are!! But I've never seen a damn parakeet round here, despite everyone (including DP) saying "but they're everywhere"!

I'm not unobservant and I walk around lots, but I just haven't seen one here

I have a SW19 postcode and live in one of the Parks beginning with 'M'

Ah, BIWI, you are a tad further away from where I live than I thought! But close enough'ish!

100's of parakeets in Gunnersbury Park!

I would have recommend a visit to Gunnersbury Park Museum (I used to work there) but it's just closed for refurbishment so leave it to the bottom of your list and come in a couple of years!

Lots of parakeets in Beddington Park !!!!

Great thread Mintyy - nothing to add till I have read it all, except that yes, there are lots of new bars/cafes/restaurants around Rye Lane, and the Bussey Building hosting lots of arty stuff

mrs d are the hollow ponds across from the city of London cemetery on alders brook rd? My dd was cremated there almost exactly 9 years ago. We go there in winter but really should go in summer - it would kind of make a nicer day out, if that's possible...

I sort of started today.

Well, not really, but I went in to Victoria on the bus this afternoon (had an errand to run there) but had lots of time to spare so then hopped on another bus and went on a nostalgia trip to Pimlico, Sloane Square, Kings Road, all the way to Fulham Broadway. My word, the Kings Road has changed a lot in 10 years .

Made mental note to re-explore Pimlico and Chelsea embankment and the area round the Royal Hospital on foot again when the weather is a bit nicer!

There are some excellent suggestions on this thread. I'm really looking forward to going somewhere I've never been before.

MrsDV and imip

Mintyy hope you remember this but DD1 is going to a birthday party tomorrow ice-skating at Somerset House where you and I first met! Spurred on by this thread and if it's not pissing down we are going to stroll along the north bank of the Thames ending somewhere around Charing X or Trafalgar Square and hopefully see some sights along the way. I'm really looking forward to it.

Zillions of parakeets here - but almost no sparrows (they've been scared away). One day in autumn, dd and I counted FORTY parakeets eating the apples in our tree. But mostly they like to sit in the copper beech opposite my front door. They are stunning. But I do miss the sparrows.

Sorry, can't do links, but can I recommend this:

www.londongardenstrust.org/features/Perivale.htm

This is lovely too:

www.pitzhanger.org.uk

And this is behind it:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walpole_Park

We had 5 parrots in the tree in our garden this week! They're beautiful but so noisy!

Other things to explore -
Wilton's Music Hall
Hatton Garden for the jewellers (and visit the Mitre )
Try out this legal walk - it goes to some amazing hidden gems
Take tea at the Criterion - a magical and spectacular dining room through a door off Piccadilly Circus (and full of literary references )
If you like birdlife try the London Wetland Centre - and if you're down that way go to the Dove

if you're ever in St Martin's Lane with 10 minutes to kill find nos 55-56 then go into the tiny alleyway-this takes you into Goodwins Court which is an amazing alleyway of late 17th century shops lit by gas lamps. Most people don't seem to know its there -its is like stepping onto a film set

Yes must check out Wilton's - Never seen it!

Snice - I Love Goodwins Court!

That sounds like Diagon Alley!

mrsd

It's amazing how 9 years seem so long ago, but yet just like yesterday, isn't it? Like you, I have dd at home, but we do always visit the baby garden at the cemetery (we also have an inscription in the book of rememberance). I am very familiar with the beautiful angel. I have 4 surviving dcs 8 and under, so our time in the baby memorial is spend trying to stop dcs taking flowers/toys/mementos! So, when I read the inscription it always brings a few tears.

We are always there at the beginning of jan, which is when my daughter died, and we always say we will take the dcs when the weather is better, and perhaps have a picnic there. So I'd love to explore the hollow pond - it's a great tip!