Trip Report: London, March 2024

I’ll start with a memorable moment.

A Royal Sighting

A friend of mine is a bit of a Royal Watcher and tasked me with “finding Kate” on my trip. Imagine her reaction when I texted her that although I didn’t locate the missing princess, I did stumble across someone else…

Somewhere in the middle of our trip I wanted to go back to Buckingham Palace to get some pictures up close because when we walked by on arrival day, I didn’t really register what I was looking at. We strolled in that direction via St James’s Palace where we noticed a crowd of people gathered. Soon one of those trumpet-y marching bands started playing, and marching, and the crowd started walking along with them, so we shrugged and joined in. We found ourselves walking up The Mall with about a million other people while the band played and my husband commented that this was so “not him.” My crowd-averse introvert husband in the middle of hordes of people marching in a parade towards Buckingham Palace – it was pretty comical. He asked what was going on. I had no idea. It wasn’t time for the changing of the guards, and this didn’t seem like that. We stopped close to the palace and were standing around when I saw a few police motorcycles and horses leading a couple of fancy looking black cars up The Mall. I wondered aloud who it might be and as the cars slowly passed us, I heard my husband exclaim “Oh! It’s Charles!” And there he was, right in front of us, waving that royal wave from the back of the car. The people around us started holding up their phones, of course, but we didn’t, we just stayed in the moment – and it really was about 5 seconds – so although I have pictures of everything else I saw in London, I did not get a photo of that time we went to London and got caught up in a parade and saw King Charles III.

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Day 1: We landed at Heathrow the way we always do on the first day – frazzled, sleep deprived, and feeling like we were in a dream. We headed to the terminal 2&3 tube station to find “Piccadilly Cockfosters,” but it was blocked off due to flooding in the station, so we pulled up the TfL GO app and found another way. By ‘we’ I mean my husband as I was pretty zoned out. I think we took the Elizabeth line but not sure. We got to our hotel around 1pm and were able to check-in immediately. After freshening up we headed out to walk. Our hotel was located in a good place to stroll by some of the ‘greatest hits’ for a first-timer. We walked around Buckingham Palace, St. James’s Park (we would end up here a few times, it’s such a pretty place!), Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, Whitehall, London Eye, etc. Everything on day 1 always feels surreal (I watched Notting Hill on the plane, so forgive me if I say it was “surreal, but nice”).

Day 2: First stop was Westminster Abbey. We had pre-purchased tickets but it was not very crowded and may not have been necessary. The history and architecture of the Abbey was remarkable, and it was fun to have the recent coronation in mind while walking around. We had tickets for the Diamond Jubilee Gallery upstairs – 108 stairs to be exact – and we emerged at the top to see others getting out of the elevator that we somehow missed. One thing that I thought was odd up here is that there are several great viewpoints looking down into the Abbey, and you’re allowed to take photos everywhere except in these spots. Not sure why.

After an hour or two we emerged and the sun was shining, so we started doing Rick’s Bankside Walk. The most interesting stops to us were Shakespeare’s Globe, Winchester Palace ruins, Borough Market, and Southwark Cathedral and garden with Shakespeare statue. It was Friday afternoon so Borough Market was very crowded and we didn’t try any food. We did receive the pleasure of a man dressed as Willy Wonka turning a corner, bumping into my husband, and blowing marijuana smoke in his face.

Day 3: We started the day at The National Gallery which we both enjoyed. The Arnolfini Portrait was breathtaking, but smaller than I imagined. I also especially loved the Velázquez and Vermeer, and my husband got another Caravaggio fix. We ate lunch at Muriel’s Kitchen inside the museum: sausage rolls, scones, and tea.

We then walked around Chinatown, Soho and Covent Garden area and it was very crowded. Foyles Bookshop was a highlight in this area.

We had tickets for The National Portrait Gallery in the afternoon so we circled back. On my last trip report, I made a snide remark about the pigeon poop scam being just about the only one left I hadn’t experienced. Well. Here we were on a Saturday afternoon hastily eating samosas from a nearby shop before it was time to go in and I felt what I thought was water being poured on my head. Queue frantic shrieking from me, samosa dropped to the ground, jacket being pulled off, hand clutching my purse and at the same time I’m thinking I’ve never heard of this scam happening in London - imagine my husband’s face when I finally got the words out “a bird just pooped on my head! I have bird poop in my hair!” I also (thankfully) don’t have a picture of that time we went to London and bird shat on my head outside The National Portrait Gallery.

Day 4: We went to The British Library this morning to browse The Treasures Gallery. It started to rain while we were here so we had to abandon our plan to walk around this area and instead took the tube to Hatchard’s Piccadilly and Waterstones Piccadilly, where we happily spent a few hours. We made our way back to ‘our’ area and decided to go to The Churchill War Rooms since it was still raining. It was interesting and a bit different. Everything you ever wanted to know and more, much more, about Churchill. If you’re ever bored go read the one-star reviews of this place. You’ll see unironic comments like “ventilation was terrible” and “claustrophobic.”

Day 5: Daytrip to Windsor. We loved Windsor! My husband told me later that he wasn’t sure he was going to enjoy “all that fancy royal stuff” but he ended up raving about it. The castle was so much fun and really interesting with some really beautiful art. We also both enjoyed visiting St. George's Chapel and seeing the tomb of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip. The little town of Windsor was also very scenic and nice to stroll around. We also walked The Long Walk to get some pictures of the castle.

Day 6: We went to The Tower of London this morning. It was raining so maybe that’s why it was uncrowded, and we waltzed right in to see the Crown Jewels. The history of this place is undoubtedly impressive, but we both didn’t feel that this attraction was among our favorites in London. I am currently sipping tea from this mug I purchased here https://www.historicroyalpalaces.com/king-henry-viii-and-his-six-wives-bone-china-mug.html

In the afternoon we walked around The City area and visited St. Paul’s Cathedral, which was very beautiful, and although we were tired, we keep walking afterwards along The Strand so I could pop into the Twining’s shop.

Day 7: Today we went to The Wallace Collection which is a museum that could double as a sauna. For some reason they had the heat on so high that we didn’t spend as much time here as we would have. It is a cute little art museum though, and free. We then explored the Marylebone neighborhood, eventually ending up at Daunt Books. We are both major bibliophiles and bookstores are one of our favorite places to visit when we travel. Around this time in the trip, we had to start limiting bookstore visits because we were rapidly running out of space in our bags to take back our purchases (I still hadn’t bought all the biscuits and tea I wanted to bring back!).

Day 8: We walked from our hotel to Tate Britian, specifically for the John Singer Sargent exhibit that I found out about from Mardee’s post (thanks, Mardee!). It was lovely! The exhibit was really well done and I loved seeing so many of his portraits. The rest of the museum was also enjoyable and I was glad that we had the chance to go. I also loved seeing Ophelia by Millais.

Day 9: Today we slept a little later than usual and then took the tube to Ladbroke Grove so we could walk our way back along Portobello Road in Notting Hill. We spent a couple of hours wandering around here and I especially liked walking down side streets, and yes, we visited The Notting Hill Bookshop. We eventually found ourselves in Kensington where I took the obligatory photo of The Churchill Arms, and then we went to see Kensington Palace from outside and then walked around Kensington gardens. The trees and plants in early-mid March were already blooming, so it was really enjoyable…

Day 10: …except for my husband’s sinuses. One of these days I’m going to get to write a trip report without talking about that, but not today. Since we were flying out the next morning, he opted to take it easy and limit being out in the wind. I decided to walk the long, scenic way through Westminster towards Victoria Station where I wandered around Eccleston Yards, stopped at a bakery, then wandered around Belgravia. I brought lunch back to the hotel for my husband, then set out again to see a lot of things one last time and do a bit of last-minute shopping. My feet were almost falling off by the end, but I ended back where I started, around Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, only this time it was turning into dusk and things were starting to light up, and I no longer needed to look at a map. It felt like I’d been coming here for ages, but it had been a little over a week. The bridge was noisy and chaotic, and the mood was exuberant. Families and couples were posing for photos, it smelled of roasting peanuts, and I just walked and watched until it was time to go back to the hotel and pack. Surreal, but nice.

Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/CTumuLEfC2Q5Mifk8

Thanks for sharing. London is my favorite city on the planet and I throughly love reading other traveler’s impressions of it.

Wonderful trip report, Mary. I enjoyed reading it. London is my favorite city on the planet.

Thanks Mary, great trip report. I love bookstores too. I was a library volunteer and then a bookseller for many years and always make pilgrimages to book stores. Hatchards- established 1797 💕. I’m hoping to be in London next year in February.

Did I understand that you didn’t buy advance tickets for Churchill War Rooms or Westminster Abbey? It sounds like you did have crowds however. So how did it seem to be there somewhat off season?

Thank you for this informative and entertaining post!
Thank you also for the helpful links to apps and your critique of them.
I hope to go to London on our next trip.

Thanks for sharing, always interesting to see what others choose to do.

Great trip report, Mary! It transported me back to my favourite city. I have bookmarked the hotel for future stays, thank you!

Thanks for the trip report! I'm getting excited...only 45 days until we hit the streets of London!

Great trip report, thanks!
It has me recalling a visit for Y2K when I stood in front of Sargent's "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose" at Tate Britain for more than half an hour -- it was key my developing appreciation for the Transcendentalists and American Impressionists and the generation immediately following.

See also last year's traveling exhibit on Sargent and Spain:
https://www.famsf.org/exhibitions/sargent-and-spain

Lyndash, I just pretend Waterstones doesn't own Hatchard's.

I did pre-book tickets to Westminster Abbey but didn't pre-book Churchill. It was a spur of the moment visit. Since it was raining we did a few more indoor sites than planned.

Some areas were mobbed (Big Ben area, Westminster bridge, Chinatown, Covent Garden). But other areas were more comfortable (Belgravia, Notting Hill, Pimlico).

Thanks for a great report, Mary. We'll be in London for a week this summer, and are always looking for new ideas, or for other folks' experiences and insights on places we've already seen.

What a great trip report, thanks! I’m going on my first trip to London in 4 weeks, so your insights are helpful. I like the way you organized and summarized your report, it was so easy to read.

*Mary *, thanks for the trip report. I'm picking up helpful information for my own trip in May.

Thanks for mentioning the TFL GO app, which I've now downloaded and played around with a bit. It didn't exist when I lived in London....I just carried one of the little credit card sized maps that used to be available. I'm curious how you used it in conjuction with Google Maps.

Did you use Google Maps for walking directions and the purpose built TFL Go app for tube journey planning?

CWsocial, Google Maps was used mostly for walking but whenever we wanted to go somewhere via the tube, we'd look it up on Tfl to see our options.

Nice report! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for sharing! I will be in London in ‘May. I just downloaded the TfL GO ap on my phone thanks to you.

One other thing I just remembered - the TfL GO app also tells you when certain lines are closed or certain portions of a line are closed, and also when they're back open. This was something that was not always up to date on Google.

OK, Mary, your recent comment convinced me to download the TfL GO app. Twice in London we've had to make a literal last minute change of plans to get to the airport, because of Tube closures. The app will be worth it if only for line changes. Thank you.

Thanks, Mary! I've now got the TFL Go app in my phone's England folder, along with the train apps I downloaded last night.

The night before we were going to the airport we checked and it showed partial line closures, we checked again before bed, still closed. We had a plan B and C...but when we woke up in the morning we checked the app and it showed the line was back open.

Great report

Several years ago I was at Hampton Court buying a ticket and they apologized for a disturbance that would be happening in about 15 minutes. When I asked what it was, it was Prince Charles was coming to plant a tree. I said, can I watch? “ Oh yes, just go out there and sit and watch.” I have a lot of pictures of Prince Charles bald spot because he spent more time talking to the kids than the adults. (They were school children on the other side of the road) but it still one of my great memories of being that close to the prince.

CWsocial, I'm sending you a PM.

Jane, nice chatting with you!

Mary, thanks for your lovely report. It is interesting as I just returned from nearly 2 weeks in London with my sister (March 9-22). We had some overlap of sights visited, but amazing how little. I had seen the post about the Singer Sargent exhibit at the Tate and got tickets for that—lovely and thanks to Mardee I think.
You’ve inspired me to do my own trip report too.

Patty, it's amazing how much of my list I didn't get to, and how many things I did that weren't even on my list. I look forward to reading your report!

@CWsocial- you can still get those little paper Underground maps- quite widely available at stations. My latest one is dated May 2023, but there is probably a newer version. It can also be downloaded from TfL- https://content.tfl.gov.uk/standard-tube-map.pdf

I'm another in favour of TfL GO.

Great report!! Glad to hear you liked the Sanctuary House as I’ll be staying there later this year.

Nice to hear you can get real time closure info. on the tube from the TfL Go app.

I’m taking note of the areas you mentioned that were less crowded--Belgravia, Notting Hill, Pimlico.

I’ve been on the fence about Windsor. Based on your experience, I’ll be sure to take another look at it. Did you have the first time slot for the castle?

Thanks for sharing your photos. I love looking at trip photos for places I plan to visit.

Did you have the first time slot for the castle?

No, because we wanted time to have breakfast at the hotel and then take the train. We bought the 10am time and although it didn't say on the website, after we bought the tickets it specified we had until 10:30am to enter. I think it was about 9:45am when we went in. They were very lax and didn't seem to notice what time our ticket was, they just waved us in. Also, it was not crowded - not sure if that's because it was March or because the weather was a bit drizzly.

Mary, love the report! Glad the TFL app worked for you. I wound up switching back and forth between Google Maps and Citimapper. I walked a lot, though, and found those two were good for that. And I had NO idea that Waterstones owns Hatchards. Ugh. I'm still upset with Waterstones over the stale scones and lukewarm cappuccino I got in their cafe.

Thanks, isn31c, for the link to the tube map. I found my 1998 foldable tube map, showing loads of then-planned expansions for the Jubillee Line. And my earlier credit card sized version, showing even less of a Jubilee Line.

I'm copying a Snippet of the newer map into my OneNote for quick reference, though I suspect I'll mostly be taking old, familiar routes on the District, Circle and Picadilly Lines.

Mardee, Daunt Books is still independent. The one in Marylebone is so beautiful. They have an unusual shelving system where travel/non-fiction/fiction are grouped together by country or region. They also publish books https://dauntbooks.co.uk/book-categories/daunt-books-publishing/

Mary, just read your wonderful trip report. Thank you for sharing. We saw many of the sites you described as well- reading your descriptions takes me back to our trip! I’m ready to hop on the next plane!

We loved Daunt books travel section! Could have spent a day in there alone. London is just such a wonderful city!

I’m ready to hop on the next plane!

I'm pretty much always ready for that!

Mary, if you like bookstores and you're ever in Northumberland, check out Barter Books in Alnwick. One of the coolest bookstores I have ever been in. It’s a quirky secondhand bookstore in an old train station, with fireplaces, armchairs, a reading room, model trains and a café. The store was amazing, and the atmosphere was so fun. Books are for sale, but you can also bring in your own and barter them for books from the store (hence the name). There were lots of dogs laying on the floor next to their owners, kids watching the train go around overhead, and just the general good vibe of people who love to read. I really loved this place.

Also, I found out when I was in Oxford that Waterstones also owns the Blackwell bookstore. Sigh.

Mary, somehow I missed your trip report first go around. Since I’m headed to London before next year’s RS South England tour, I bookmarked your post. Thanks for sharing! You’ve given me lots of ideas.

It's sad isn't it, Mardee? We like to stop in a buy something at independent bookshops whenever we travel, even near home. Use them or lose them.