London Visit - Gems for 4th time visitor?

Have you been to Richmond? I love Richmond and Kingston upon Thames area. Both charming towns along the Thames - pretty upper-class and lots of great restaurants along the river and shopping. Not too far from Hampton Court Palace either if you haven't seen that yet - highly recommended!!

Richmond is accessible via the District line - in zone 4. I also recommend exploring Richmond Park which is beautiful and HUGE.

Hampstead Heath is another great area of London. It's very green and there are some great views of London from Parliament Hill! Take the tube to Hampstead (zone 2 I think) and just explore the cobblestone streets and great pubs. If you like crepes be sure to stop at La Creperie de Hampstead.

There are dozens of museums you've probably never heard of. I found a fabulous museum about interior design that's not listed in any guidebooks. Is there anything you're specifically interested in?

Also check out www.walks.co.uk - they have dozens of interesting walks that take you to place you would never think to explore. Shakespeare, Literary London, Hidden Pubs, Hidden Alleyways, Beatles, all kinds of stuff!

Laurel

If you've not already done it I'd recommend a river walk from London Bridge to Rotherhithe.

Go to London Bridge station and first visit Borough Market (Friday and Saturday) for a look at some excellent cheeses, breads and other goodies.

Turn back on yourself and head up to the river. Turn right at the bridge onto the riverside walk and keep walking. At some points you lose the river as you go behind warehouses but you soon rejoin it. After about an hour you get to the Mayflower pub. Apparently many years ago some pilgrims departed from here in a ship called the Mayflower. I wonder whatever happened to them?

Some details and photos here

http://www.pubs.com/pub_details.cfm?ID=209

The pub does reasonable, if slightly overpriced, food but, assuming the weather is reasonable, the selling point is the little back garden above the river. A great view both upriver to tower bridge and downriver to the isle of dogs.

Coming out of the pub you turn left for 50 yards and then right, walking away from the river, and within a couple of minutes are at Rotherhithe tube station.

You can do the walk in reverse, of course, if you don't want to lunch at the pub (or if you want to walk after lunch I guess.)

If you are in the London Bridge area for lunch a good bet is the George. The last remaining galleried inn. If Shakespeare didn't perform here he certainly did in similar pubs in the street, and Chaucer's pilgrims will also have gathered in a pub like this.

http://www.pubs.com/pub_details.cfm?ID=187

While we're on literature Dickens lived across the road and the church in which Little Dorrit was married is just at the bottom of Borough High Street.

Cheers
Alan

Have you been to Borough Market? I love going to the market for lunch and just wandering among the many vendors. It is open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

Have you taken the Tower Bridge tour or visited the Old Highgate Cemetery? The new one is open to the public but you need to have a reservation for the Old section. If you've been to London several times you've probably been to Greenwich, but did you cross under the Thames via the tunnel there, or take the boat all the way to the Barrier? Though not a tube ride, Brighton is only an hour away by train.

The William Morris Gallery (and the "pie and mash" shop) in Walthamstow.

I go to London at least once a year so I also have done alot of the "normal" tourist stuff. I found Sir John Soane's Museum (13 Lincoln's Inn Fields - Holborn Station Tube Stop) delightful. The house was left to the nation in 1837 with the stipulation that nothing at all should be changed. As a result it is a facinating peek into a bygone era. In one room are rows of glass table cabinets with covers. Lift one after another for a period era surprise. Normally I don't rent head sets but this was one place where I went back to the entrance to rent one and was glad I did. Delightful, some truly first class art, on the small side, nice cafe. The Borough Market is wonderful (Friday noon-6pm, Sat. 9 to 4). London Bridge tube stop, 8 Southwark St. As I recall you exit the tube, hang a right and cross the street. Next quick right leads into market. (It is kinda along the Thames.) Across the street from the metro stop and to the right across the street is "The George Inn" which is the only example of a traditional galleried coaching inn left in London (mentioned by Dickens). Rebuilt in 1676. GREAT fish and chips. We walked right past it (twice) because the entrance looks kinda like a service alley). The entry opens into a courtyard filled with picnic tables. We ate inside. You order your drink in the bar and order your food in another room. Take a number, have a seat and rest your tootsies.

Sir John C. Ritblat Gallery in the British Library. Astounding.
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/whatson/exhibitions/ritblat/literary.html

A visit to Hampstead to walk around the Heath and then tour the Highgate cemetary.

Lavenham in Suffolk.

If you take the ferry or boat to Greenwich...

that is fun AND my Dad and I visited the small but charming Fan Museum....and they have a lovely little spot for tea....

The Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in London is an excellent small museum - free admission and right across the street from a nice park if you want a good spot for a picnic lunch afterwards.

There are a couple of good books you can purchase from Amazon.com or your local bookstore which list all the locations of the blue plaques in London that mark specific buildings where someone famous lived or died. You can create your own tour based on your personal favorites.

We ahve been more than 40 times and I still LOVE London. Kew Gardens is one of my favorite places. Spend a day there just wandering through all the greenhouses, and various gardens. It is beautiful even in Winter. Windsor is my favorite "village". The castle is one of the best in Europe in my opinion. Lots of good shopping too. Canturbury is also very nice as a day trip.

The Geffery museum is great ( I have been at least
30 times to London ) so this idea has some creditabilty

Not sure when you visited last, but on our 3rd visit we found that the War Rooms Museum had added a separate Churchill Museum since the last time we had been there. We really enjoyed it - it is a very modern, very interactive museum - highly recommend if you did not go before.