We've been to London before, but ...
It has been a while - 15 years since our one real, week-long visit.
Two other visits in the past 25 years were overnight and for less than 24 hours.
On the visit 15 years ago, we visited ...
- St. Paul's
- Tate Modern
- The Old Bailey (a great two hours, watching barristers ply their trade)
- The Imperial War Museum
- Westminster Abbey
- Hampstead Heath & Kenwood House
- British Museum & Sir John Soane House
- A market in Maryleborne and The Wallace Collection
- Hyde Park & the V&A
- Day trip to Oxford; Pitt Rivers Museum, Ashmolean, and wandered around one or another college, Christ Church Cathedral & Radcliffe Camera
Wondering about ideas for spring '27. We will have five full days and two-to-four half days in London. 7 nights, 4 at the front end and 3 at the back end. We don't need day trips out of London, other than Greenwich and/or Kew Gardens, since we have 3+ weeks to see other parts of England. But I am wondering about your suggestions. My initial ideas follow, but are subject to changes you may suggest.
- Arrival Day (really just the eve; our flight arrives LHR 3 pm) St. James Park or Covent Garden. We'll be staying in Chelsea (Sloane Sq.)
- DAY 1 - Tower of London and what else? Spitalfields Market? Other? Evening play or ballet/opera?
- DAY 2 - Greenwich Day trip ... possibly to include watching a play about Anne Boleyn at the outdoor theatre in Greenwich. Anyone know anything about the play? or the theatre?
- DAY 3 - Central London sights: Churchill War Rooms, Trafalgar Sq., National Gallery.
- Departure Morning ... Maybe a few hours for something ... (Late-morning to Mid-day train to Cambridge).
- Weeks later, Arrival day - a FULL afternoon. Courtauld Gallery, perhaps? Eve?
- DAY 4 - Day Trip to Kew/Richmond. Eve?
- DAY 5 - Shopping? Walking Tour? Neighborhood? BTW, at this point we will be staying quite central ... near Euston Sq./Fitzrovia, so Regent's Park and Soho are nearby, and a host of famous sights.
- Departure Day - 5 pm flight, so we have the full morning in Central London before we need to find our way back to the bags at the hotel around noon and take the tube or bus to the Piccadilly Line and LHR-->SEA
NOT mentioned in the above are the British Museum & Bayeux Tapestry, British Library, National Portrait Gallery, Major Stores like Harrod's, Churches like Westminster Abbey or St. Paul's and I don't know what all else. Here's where your thoughts come in. (My wife is only good for so many museums, but I only have the National Gallery and Courtauld on this list, plus the Tower of London & Churchill War Rooms.) As for churches, we will see Salisbury Cathedral and Canterbury in the 4 or 5 days leading us back to London and I feel no major need to return to St. Paul's or the Abbey.
As for Anne Boleyn, or the Royal Opera or Ballet, how long in advance should I be looking for tix in early May or early June? Now?
As for the perpetually playing "open run" shows, like Operation Mincemeat, Hamilton or Witness for the Prosecution, I imagine that's no problem. What about revivals like Billy Elliott or Amadeus?
And finally, I don't know what I don't know ... so any other thoughts are encouraged.