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    Insight Guides Explore London (Travel Guide eBook)
    Insight Guides Explore London (Travel Guide eBook)
    Insight Guides Explore London (Travel Guide eBook)
    Ebook527 pages3 hours

    Insight Guides Explore London (Travel Guide eBook)

    By Insight Guides

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    About this ebook

    Pocket-sized travel guides featuring the very best routes and itineraries.

    Discover the best of London with this indispensably practical Insight Explore Guide. From making sure you don't miss out on must-see attractions like Big Ben, The National Gallery, The Tate, The London Eye and Portobello Market, to discovering hidden gems, including Whitechapel Art Gallery, the easy-to-follow, ready-made walking routes will save you time, help you plan and enhance your visit to London.

    Practical, pocket-sized and packed with inspirational insider information, this is the ideal on-the-move companion to your trip toLondon.

    - 20 walks and tours: detailed itineraries feature all the best places to visit, including where to eat along the way
    - Local highlights: discover what makes the area special, its top attractions and unique sights, and be inspired by stunning imagery
    - Insider recommendations: where to stay and what to do, from active pursuits to themed trips
    - Hand-picked places: find your way to great hotels, restaurants and nightlife using the comprehensive listings
    - Practical maps: get around with ease and follow the walks and tours using the detailed maps 
    - Informative tips: plan your visit with an A to Z of advice on everything from transport to tipping
    - Inventivedesign makes for an engaging, easy-reading experience
    - Covers: The Big Sights; National Galleries; Covent Garden and Soho; Piccadilly and Mayfair; Marylebone; Regent's Park; Bloomsbury; Holborn and the Inns of Court; The City; The South Bank; Tate to Tate; Hyde Park; South Kensington and Knightsbridge; Chelsea; Hampstead; Notting Hill; East London; Routemaster Bus Trip; Greenwich; and Kew

    About Insight Guides: Insight Guides is a pioneer of full-colour guide books, with almost 50 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides with user-friendly, modern design. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps as well as phrase books, picture-packed eBooks and apps to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherInsight Guides
    Release dateOct 1, 2019
    ISBN9781839051685
    Insight Guides Explore London (Travel Guide eBook)
    Author

    Insight Guides

    Insight Guides wherever possible uses local experts who provide insider know-how and share their love and knowledge of the destination.

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      Book preview

      Insight Guides Explore London (Travel Guide eBook) - Insight Guides

      How To Use This E-Book

      This Explore Guide has been produced by the editors of Insight Guides, whose books have set the standard for visual travel guides since 1970. With ­top-­quality photography and authoritative recommendations, these guidebooks bring you the very best routes and itineraries in the world’s most exciting destinations.

      Best Routes

      The routes in this book provide something to suit all budgets, tastes and trip lengths. As well as covering the destination’s many classic attractions, the itineraries track lesser-known sights, and there are also ex­cursions for those who want to extend their visit outside the city. The routes embrace a range of interests, so whether you are an art fan, a gourmet, a history buff or have kids to entertain, you will find an option to suit.

      We recommend reading the whole of a route before setting out. This should help you to familiarise yourself with it and enable you to plan where to stop for refreshments – options are shown in the ‘Food and Drink’ box at the end of each tour.

      Introduction

      The routes are set in context by this introductory section, giving an overview of the destination to set the scene, plus background information on food and drink, shopping and more, while a succinct history timeline highlights the key events over the centuries.

      Directory

      Also supporting the routes is a Directory chapter, with a clearly organised A–Z of practical information, our pick of where to stay while you are there and select restaurant listings; these eateries complement the more low-key cafés and restaurants that feature within the routes and are intended to offer a wider choice for evening dining. Also included here are some nightlife listings, and our recommendations for books and films about the destination.

      Getting around the e-book

      In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

      Maps

      All key attractions and sights mentioned in the text are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

      Images

      You’ll find hundreds of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of the destination. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

      © 2019 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

      Table of Contents

      Recommended Routes For...

      Architecture

      Art fans

      Cool Britannia

      Families with kids

      Food and drink

      Literary London

      Royal London

      Shoppers

      Explore London

      Population

      Population growth

      Ethnicity

      Wealth distribution

      The climate

      London geography

      The political map

      North–South, East–West

      Modern London

      Food and Drink

      British cuisine

      Places to eat

      High-end restaurants

      Pubs

      Ethnic restaurants

      Greasy spoons, pie and mash, and fish and chips

      Chains

      Vegan food scene

      Drinks

      Beer

      Wine

      Cider

      Whisky

      Shopping

      Shopping areas

      Designer districts

      Around Piccadilly

      High-street fashion and department stores

      Soho and Covent Garden

      Markets

      Entertainment

      Theatre

      Drama old and new

      Music

      Film

      Nightlife

      History: Key Dates

      Early period

      After the conquest

      After the Fire

      The age of Empire

      20th century

      21st century

      The Big Sights

      Trafalgar Square

      Nelson’s Column

      Bordering the square

      St Martin-in-the-Fields

      Whitehall

      Horse Guards

      Banqueting House

      Downing Street

      Parliament Square

      Westminster Abbey

      St Margaret’s

      Churchill War Rooms

      St James’s Park

      The Mall

      Carlton House Terrace

      ICA

      St James’s Palace

      Buckingham Palace

      The State Rooms

      Queen’s Gallery

      National Galleries

      The National Gallery

      The move to Trafalgar Square

      The Sainsbury Wing

      Tour of the collection

      Renaissance galleries

      North Wing

      East Wing

      National Portrait Gallery

      Background

      The collection

      Covent Garden and Soho

      Covent Garden

      Royal Opera House

      Covent Garden Market

      The Covered Market

      London Transport Museum

      St Paul’s Church

      Charing Cross Road

      Soho

      Soho Square and Greek Street

      Frith Street

      Around Old Compton Street

      Chinatown

      Leicester Square

      Piccadilly and Mayfair

      Piccadilly Circus

      Eros

      Piccadilly

      St James’s Piccadilly

      Shopping

      Royal Academy of Arts

      Mayfair

      Commercial Art Galleries

      Bond Street

      Brook Street

      Oxford Street

      Marylebone

      St Christopher’s Place

      Wallace Collection

      The high street

      Marylebone Road

      Baker Street

      Regent’s Park

      Nash’s terraces

      Queen Mary’s Gardens

      The Lake

      London Zoo

      Bloomsbury

      British Museum

      Egyptian Mummies: Rooms 62–3

      Rosetta Stone: Room 4

      Elgin Marbles: Room 18

      Portland Vase: Room 70

      Anglo-Saxon Ship Burial: Room 41

      Other highlights

      Historic streets

      Dickens Museum

      Foundling Museum

      University of London

      Holborn and The Inns of Court

      Fleet Street

      Offices of national newspapers

      Dr Johnson’s House

      Church of St Dunstan-in-the-West

      The Inns of Court

      Chancery Lane

      Lincoln’s Inn Fields

      Sir John Soane’s Museum

      Somerset House

      The City

      Tower of London

      Along the river

      The Monument

      Bank of England

      The Guildhall

      St Paul’s Cathedral

      Postman’s Park

      Museum of London

      Barts Hospital

      Smithfield Market

      The South Bank

      County Hall

      London Eye

      Southbank Centre

      Music Venues

      Hayward Gallery

      BFI Southbank

      National Theatre

      OXO Tower

      Tate Modern

      Shakespeare’s Globe

      Bank End and Clink Street

      Southwark Cathedral

      Borough Market

      Towards Tower Bridge

      Tate to Tate

      Tate Modern

      The building

      The collection

      Tate Boat

      Tate Britain

      The collection

      Hyde Park

      Apsley House

      Hyde Park

      The Serpentine

      Kensington Gardens

      Serpentine Gallery

      Albert Memorial

      Kensington Palace

      The palace gardens

      South Kensington and Knightsbridge

      V&A

      Lower ground and ground floors

      Upper floors

      Exhibition Road galleries

      Natural History Museum

      Life Galleries

      Earth Galleries

      Science Museum

      Ground floor

      Third floor

      Past and future

      Knightsbridge

      Department stores

      Chelsea

      Sloane Square

      Duke of York Square

      Royal Hospital

      Chelsea Physic Garden

      Carlyle’s House

      Cheyne Walk

      Cremorne Gardens

      Back to Sloane Square

      Hampstead

      Fenton House

      Burgh House

      Willow Road and Keats House

      Hampstead Heath

      Notting Hill

      Portobello Road

      Street market

      Beyond the Westway

      Towards Golborne Road

      East London

      Whitechapel

      Spitalfields

      London’s old markets

      Eating and drinking

      Christ Church Spitalfields

      Brick Lane – ‘The Curry Mile’

      Hoxton and Shoreditch

      Rivington Place

      Hoxton Square

      Geffrye Museum

      Routemaster Bus Trip

      Eastcheap and Old Bailey

      Fleet Street and Strand

      Greenwich

      Along the river

      The Cutty Sark

      Greenwich Foot Tunnel

      River path

      Maritime Museum

      The Queen’s House

      Naval College

      Covered Market

      Greenwich Park

      Observatory and Planetarium

      Kew

      Palm House and Lake

      Princess of Wales Conservatory

      Kew Palace

      Children’s Garden

      Accommodation

      Hotel areas

      Budget chains

      Covent Garden and Soho

      Mayfair and Piccadilly

      Westminster and Victoria

      Kensington and Chelsea

      Bloomsbury and Holborn

      The City and East London

      South Bank and Bankside

      Restaurants

      Covent Garden and Soho

      Mayfair and Piccadilly

      Westminster and Victoria

      Kensington and Chelsea

      Bloomsbury and Holborn

      The City and East London

      The South Bank

      West London

      Nightlife

      Theatre

      Music

      Dance

      Film

      Bars and Clubs

      A-Z

      A

      Airports and arrival

      Airports

      Arrival by train

      B

      Blue plaques

      C

      Children

      Clothing

      Crime

      Customs regulations

      Cycling

      D

      Disabled access

      Driving

      E

      Electricity

      Embassies

      Emergencies

      Entry requirements

      H

      Health and medical care

      I

      Internet

      L

      Left luggage

      LGBTQ travellers

      Lost property

      M

      Media

      Money

      O

      Opening hours

      P

      Postal services

      Public holidays

      Public transport

      Underground (tube)

      Docklands Light Railway

      Rail

      Bus

      Boat

      Tickets and fares

      S

      Smoking

      Student travellers

      T

      Tax

      Taxis

      Telephones

      Useful numbers

      Time

      Tour operators

      Tourist offices

      W

      Websites

      Weights and measures

      Books and Film

      Books

      Good companions

      History

      Memoirs

      Art and Architecture

      Film

      Recommended Routes For...

      Architecture

      The Big Sights (route 1) covers architecture of royalty and government, the City (route 9) has Wren churches and steel-and-glass showpieces, and Greenwich (route 19) offers Georgian elegance.

      Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

      Art fans

      There’s something for everyone, from the National Gallery (route 2) and Tate Modern (route 11) to elite Mayfair galleries (route 4). Find the best of British at the National Portrait Gallery (route 2) and Tate Britain (route 11).

      Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

      Cool Britannia

      Experience the cutting edge in Soho’s bars and clubs (route 3), the boho markets of Portobello Road (route 16) and the trendy East (route 17). For Brit Art, visit Tate Britain (route 11).

      Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

      Families with kids

      There is plenty for young ones to see: London Zoo (route 6), dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum (route 13), hands-on fun at the Science Museum (route 13) and old buses at the Transport Museum (route 3).

      iStock

      Food and drink

      The biggest choice is in the West End, from Chinatown to pre-theatre suppers (route 3). For fresh produce visit Borough Market (route 10) and for ethnic cuisine head to East London (route 17).

      Ming Tang-Evans/Apa Publications

      Literary London

      Head to Holborn (route 8) and Bloomsbury (route 7) to follow in the footsteps of Samuel Johnson, Charles Dickens and Virginia Woolf; those with poetic sensibilities should visit Hampstead (route 15), home of Keats.

      Shutterstock

      Royal London

      Have a regal time visiting Buckingham Palace, Changing the Guard and Clarence House (route 1). Kensington Palace and the Albert and Diana, Princess of Wales memorials are found in Hyde Park (route 12).

      Ming Tang-Evans/Apa Publications

      Shoppers

      Shop exhaustively on Oxford Street (route 4), fashionably in Covent Garden (route 3), exclusively in Mayfair (route 4), smartly in Chelsea (route 14) and alternatively in Notting Hill (route 16).

      iStock

      Explore London

      Fire, plague, population-explosions, aerial bombing, economic recessions, urban blight, terrorism… London has taken everything history can throw at it, and continues to ride high as one of the world’s most complex and fascinating cities.

      There must be something special about London to attract some 19.83 million international overnight visitors each year. And it is not the weather. There are, however, wonderful palaces and cathedrals, theatres and museums, parks and gardens, restaurants serving cuisine from all parts of the world, a vibrant nightlife, and a refreshingly cosmopolitan and open attitude towards diversity in all things, especially its own inhabitants. Brimming with history and charisma, London pulls off being both ancient and resolutely forward-looking in a characteristically mix-and-match way – less a melting pot than a cacophony of influences, where centuries-old buildings rub up against cutting-edge towers of steel and glass, million-pound townhouses neighbour social housing estates, and the Mayor can be an Eton-educated, upper-class journalist or a Muslim human rights lawyer, the son of an immigrant bus driver.

      Crossing the Millennium Bridge

      iStock

      Population

      Population growth

      The population of London is estimated at around 8.78 million people and there is no sign of any let up in its growth. London is generally considered the most populous city in the European Union (EU). Of course, there are questions over where the boundaries of London’s sprawl lie, but it is usually defined as the financial district (‘the City’) and the 32 boroughs that constitute ‘Greater London’.

      The population of this territory rose from about 1.1 million in 1801 to peak at over 8.6 million in 1939. It then declined to 6.7 million in 1988, before growing once more to about the same level today as in 1970 (also the level of the 1920s). However, the wider metropolitan area of London continues to spread outwards and is now home to between 13 and 14 million, depending on the definition of that area. Indeed, most of the gripes relating to living in London are related to the volume of people – crowded transport and roads, the demand for public services in everything from health to education, and – most acutely felt – the lack of affordable housing.

      Ethnicity

      More than one in three London residents is from a minority ethnic group. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that in 2014, London’s foreign-born population was around 3 million (37 percent), having more than doubled since 1995. Of this number, about 30 percent are from the Indian subcontinent and about 25 percent are African or Afro-Caribbean. Hundreds of thousands of workers from the newest member countries of the EU, especially Poland, make up much of the remainder.

      Of course, London has been a focus of immigration for centuries, whether as a place of safety (as with the Huguenots fleeing Catholic France, or Eastern European Jews escaping Nazism) or for economic reasons (as with the Irish, Bangladeshi and West Indian populace). Immigration came under the spotlight during the 2016 Brexit referendum, when Eurosceptics and nationalists pushed concerns over immigration as one of the main arguments for leaving the EU. Although 51.9 percent of the UK favoured leave, London voted overwhelmingly for remain and continues to espouse the benefits of multiculturalism.

      Grosvenor Square Garden

      Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

      Wealth distribution

      London ranks as one of the most expensive cities in the world, alongside Singapore, Hong Kong and Zurich. At one end of the scale, London places in the top five in the world in its number of billionaire residents. There is also the City of London, (in)famous for awarding hefty bonuses to its star employees.

      At the other end of the often shockingly-extreme scale are the homeless, sleeping rough in shop doorways, and newly arrived economic immigrants living in cramped boarding houses. In the past, the East End hosted countless arrivals from overseas. Many have subsequently moved elsewhere in London as they have gained prosperity and been able to buy their own homes. However, the contrast between rich and poor, and indeed, rich and the vast majority of squeezed middle-incomers, has perhaps never been more marked.

      The climate

      London has a mild climate. Snow (other than a light dusting) and temperatures below freezing are fairly unusual, with January temperatures averaging 4°C (39°F). In the summer months, temperatures average 17°C (63°F), but can rise much higher, causing the city to become stiflingly hot. Heat stored by the city’s buildings creates a microclimate with temperatures up to 5°C (9°F) warmer than in the surrounding areas. Even so, summer temperatures rarely rise much above 33°C (91.4°F).

      Day-to-day fluctuations can be significant, though, and surprise showers catch people unprepared all year round. This enables people to engage in a favourite topic of conversation – the

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