Rainwear

Thanks for your timely responses. We did plan on dressing in layers, shirts, sweaters or hooded sweatshirts. I hadn’t thought about gloves, but will include them. We'll check on more water proof outerwear.

Exploring cities like London and Paris I think warm jacket + umbrella is a good combination. If you were thinking about doing more nature walking/hiking I'd think about different kind of clothing.

I don't have a leather jacket so I don't know how they do in the rain. If it were me, though, I would take my fall jacket, which is GoreTex with a plushy lining. It can also have an additional fleece liner added. With more or less layers underneath I have used this jacket well into November. Most recently, I wore it with a t-shirt and sweatshirt underneath while camping in the pouring rain in late March. The temperature hovered around 35 all day and I was perfectly comfortable (well, except for wet pants and boots).

I have not been to London but was in Paris the first week of November last year. I wore a trench coat that was water-resistant. It is just my typical fall coat here. I did use my umbrella. I wore sweaters under the coat if I was cold. I did end up buying a scarf and gloves but there were pretty inexpensive.

While combining leather jackets with umbrellas should keep you dry, that's a bulky combination.

Like Nancy, I recommend that you dress in layers. A waterproof but breathable hooded jacket (Gore Tex or a similar material) with a zip-out liner is great! I'm wearing only the shell right now for cool fall weather in North Dakota. When it gets truly cold, I'll add the fleece liner. That combination--plus a sweater--is all I need even in frigid weather.

If you take umbrellas, be sure they're the compact kind for traveling. And don't forget gloves and caps.

Yes, you'd be better taking a type of outerwear other than leather jackets, for London in the damp/rain of November. Leather jackets are bulky, just what you don't want on a trip.

The temps in London probably won't get as cold as Cleveland can get in, say, December - January, because it's an island surrounded by warmer (than the land) water, which moderates winter temps.

Better outerwear choices have already been suggested by the posts above.

I wear a the Marmot Precip rain jacket with a Patagonia Fleece under it. The Patagonia alone with a nice scarf looks dressy enough to get by also.

Layering is key! Layer with wicking fabrics also. I stay away from cotton.

I wouldn't pack leather. It looks and feels nice but is heavy to pack and could get ruined in the rain.

If it's a nice leather jacket, I'm not sure I would risk spraying it with water proofing.

Here's what I pack:

http://www.polyvore.com/mens_travel_pack_list/set?id=1440268

It's meant for shoulder season. For November in London and Paris, I would add a wool cap, gloves and scarf. I'm borderline on silk long underwear. You may run into very cold weather but it may just be rainy. You can get long underwear there, so maybe don't pack any and buy them if you need to.

Polypropylene or silk glove liners are useful for making handling a camera a more pleasant experience in the kind of weather that you can expect.