London hidden gems, any you’d care to share.

[LucyTamedOgres]

I’ve just found out about The Mayor of Scaredy Cat town, a bar that you enter via The Breakfast Club which I would have LOVED to explore and will do one day when child free (over 18’s only )

This then got me thinking of any hidden gems you’ve discovered and stumbled upon? Any you can recommend which would be good for a teenager too.

As we might be heading over there while it’s quiet (ish) thought it might be the prime time to explore the lesser known places, secret places, as we’ve visited many of the usual tourist attractions.

None secret or hidden, but worth doing -

1. The walking tunnel under the Thames between Greenwich and The Isle of Dogs
2. Dulwich Picture Gallery on a sunny afternoon
3. Ceremony of the Keys at Tower of London (when it is locked for the night)
4. Sky Garden is so relaxing

I always think the best way to discover London is to walk and head off into any interesting square or street that takes your fancy. One more mainstream walk is to start at Pimlico tube and head down to the river and walk to Tower Bridge (crossing the river at Lambeth Bridge. Then you can dip into whichever museums/attractions take your fancy - London Eye, Acquarium, Tate Britain or Tate Modern, Garden Museum by Lambeth Palace, medical themed museums at Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals, Film museum, Southbank Centre, shops at St Gabriel's Wharf and the Oxo Tower complex, the Globe, HMS Belfast and Borough Market..... You get great views across the river too.

If you like museums then it depends on your interests so I've tried to sort by subject:-

Agree with the Geffrye - also Soane's house on Lincoln's Inn Fields if you like interiors and Denis Severs House in Spitalfields.

For medicine and science the Wellcome Library opposite Euston is good too - a couple of exhibitions and a funky reading room and a nice cafe/restaurant/tea room upstairs (not the one in the foyer). It also has a lot of interesting talks in non-Covid times. ALso the Old Operating theatre by the Shard, Florence Nightingale Museum at St Thomas's hospital and the Grant museum of zoology in Bloomsbury. If you are in Bloomsbury then ELizabeth Garrett Anderson museum is small but interesting.

For music both the Royal College and Royal Academy have historic instrument museums which can be coupled with free lunchtime concerts (again not with Covid)

For fashion Zandra Rhodes Fashion and textile museum in Bermondsey

Heading out of the centre can be good - lots to do in Greenwich from the observatory and planetarium, the fan museum lovely cafe in the orangery) Royal Maritime museum and just a wander round the market and old naval college buildings. If its a nice day it is a good trip there by boat and back by DLR through Canary Wharf.
Dulwich has a lovely art gallery and a nice park and West Norwood (or any of the other Magnificent Seven cemetries) a suprisingly good walk with a mini Acropolis of Greek temple style mausoleums.

Finally, if your daughter is not too easily embarrassed there is the Vagina Museum in Camden - perhaps the less said the better.......

Feel like I’m going to bombard your thread now but I like stuff like this.

How old is DD?

There are cupcake places which can be worth a visit, I never eat in, but it’s rare I leave the city without cupcakes from hummingbird bakery. Other cupcake places are flavourtown, lolas etc

Peggy Porschen in belgravia for cake/intstagram worthy front signage....

Sketch (if you like pink!!)

What about sporty type places?

Flight (darts)
Junkyard gold club
Sluggers (baseball)

The murder express?

I have tons of suggestions but they are more adult based!!!

This is fantastic, just come back to my thread and there are lots more replies. Thank you.

Will have a read through each and every one later. Just off out for a socially distanced drink.

So many interesting places to explore.

DullDullWeather
The church is St Brides in Fleet Street. Often referred to as The Journalists Church. Fascinating and friendly. Check out the website for opening times and availability.

I came on to recommend the Geffrye but see others have already.
I had a lovely trip with the late Mner Fru Ola a few years ago.

Crystal Palace Dinosaurs !!

Has anyone said The Actors Church in Convent Garden. I love wandering around looking at all the plaques.

Wiltons Music Hall near Tower Hill is one of my favourite places. Also, the City is really quiet at the moment and there are some wonderful walks where you can explore little alleyways and things - either Google self-guided London walks or Andrew Duncan's books are excellent. Also, if you want louche, try the Phoenix Arts Club (check when non-members can get in, but I've never had a problem).

Further out, Pitzhanger House in Ealing is lovely, and I really like Hogarth's House in Chiswick too.

Fru and I visited Sir John Soanes together too.. 😔

@DullDullWeather I came in here to say the Old Operating Theatre! I really like it - doable in an hour, nice and interesting and a touch nostalgically shabby too.

Not far from there is a really nice little herb garden place - or there was, years ago. I went after reading a Jeanette Winterson novel that featured John Tradescant, who travelled round the world searching for new plants and herbs in the 17th century, and was the royal gardener. There is (or was) a little garden museum near Lambeth Palace.

Just checked and apparently it's been redone in the last few years. gardenmuseum.org.uk/the-museum/ - I think it must be 20+ years since I went, but I remember it as being really lovely and calm and quiet.

Climb up Monument. DD loved getting the certificate afterwards (She was 8 at the time, and basically shares my weird liking for climbing tall buildings).

Tower bridge museum was interesting too.

There is an old church in the city (not sure which one, sorry) that if you go down to the Crypt (you are allowed) you will see an old Roman road .

Southwark Cathedral. Also fascinating ruins if you wander round near The Clink prison museum, and of course see the Golden Hind nearby too. Borough Market well worth a walk round if you haven't done it before.

The Museum of the Order of St John in Clerkenwell is brilliant - you have to take some of the crusade positivity with a pinch of salt but it's a beautiful little building and a great museum. Fascinating on the development of St John's Ambulance too. I often have (well... had) meetings nearby and I'd try to pop in whenever I was nearby. There's a lovely little walled garden associated with it very nearby too.

Aldwytch tube station tour, probably not something that is happening currently but good for the future?

Cin Chin hot chocolate with giant toasted marshmallow fluff on top...or one of their many weird and wonderful ice creams.

The Wallace collection is great - beautiful artworks, furniture and a mad room dedicated to knights coats of armour etc

Huntarian museum - has loads of weird and wonderful specimens, including the skeleton of a 7 foot tall man.

St Dunstans is nice and peaceful, All Hallows By the Tower, London's oldest church. Has a little museum thing and part of roman floor in the crypt, although currently closed.

Look up Joolz Guides on YouTube, he is ace.

@bookmum08

Crystal Palace Dinosaurs !!

Wow! Are they still there? Thirst takes me right back to being tiny!

Thirst = that !

I promised my dc a trip to London this summer (hasn’t happened) to do this fire of London walk. I grew up in central London and DDad was fascinated by history, particularly the Fire, he would have loved this.

Sir John Soane's museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields - can touch an actual sarcophagus, squeeze round all sorts of weird stuff, and then the walls start moving around (one room had too many paintings to fit on the walls, so they slide up and out to change the ones on display!). Can then wander via odd alleyways to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese which is a pub serving good food but been there since being rebuilt just after the Great Fire of London.

Tea House in Vauxhall Gardens by Vauxhall City Farm (both good for small kids).

Yi-Ban for dim sum in Docklands - it's good but the main attraction is being able to watch planes landing at City Airport as well as boats and trains going past - fab for small kids whn you're fed up of the transport museum!

The Wellcome on Euston Rd has exhibitions, but for a teenager you could also wander down to the Crick by St Pancras and the British Library on the way, as both have free exhibitions too. Then Chalcot St off Euston Rd has quirky places to eat.

Love Scaredy cat town.
Great little museum and absinthe bar in Bethnal Green...Victor Wynde Museum. Not for the easily offended.

If it’s open, the Knights Templar church at the Temple is fascinating (made famous by the Da Vinci Code).

The Bonnington Cafe in Vauxhall fur veggie/vegan food. Cheap n Cheerful community cafe.

There’s also a fantastic veggie (vegan?) Quaker cafe bang opposite Euston station.

BikeRunSki yep the Dino's are still there. They have Listed status. Sadly one of the big ones got his nose bashed off by vandals at the beginning of lockdown.

Walk round the City at weekends and dip into the churches, all 100 of them. Free, exquisite, almost all packed full of important 'n' famous stuff.

River path from Hammersmith to Chiswick chocka with beyootiful Georgian houses and pubs and a v pretty cemetery.

Top floor of the Wellcome in Euston for real shrunken heads, electric chair, etc.

If you’re ever in Walthamstow (E17, end of the Victoria line), God’s Own Junkyard is worth a look - full of neon signs and props, which is a lot more interesting than it actually sounds. Lots of good places to eat in Walthamstow Village, and Lloyd Park is a nice wander (with the William Morris Gallery, which often has interesting displays).

Opium in convent garden. It's like a old fashioned speak easy but Chinese themed.
It does Dim sum and cocktails.
It amazing