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Bristol Stokes Croft Riot

Things to do in London August Bank Holiday Weekend

Things to do in London

With another Bank Holiday coming up and the weather looking typical for August, I thought I’d compile another inspiring ten things to do in London. Some are obvious but worthwhile, while others are more unusual things to do in London that you might not know about and some are relatively topic so check the dates before you make detailed plans. Here’s the jump list:

1. Visit the Maps Exhibition at the British Library
2. Take the ferry from Richmond to Twickenham
3. Visit the biggest Apple Store in the World at London Covent Garden.
4. Eat Vietnamese food in Kingsland Road, Dalston
5. See the ship in a bottle at Trafalgar Square
6. See a hundred objects at the British Museum
7. Go on a Skyscraper hunt
8. Hire a blue bike
9. Eat authentic Mexican food at Wacaca
10. Travel on the new London Overground to Croydon

There’s a free exhibition at the British Library which is next to London St Pancras Station. Called “Magnificent Maps – Power, Propaganda and Art”  the exhibition features plenty of old historical maps which are fine works of art as much as political history.

Magnificent Maps

Of interest in particular to Londoners is a modern work called “The Island” which is a giant sketch map of London depicted as an island with all sorts of strange comments and illustrations written on top of your favourite neighbourhoods. Where I live for example is written most curiously “Wikipedia, yeah right!” I’ve no idea why. Zoom in and scroll around at the site below:

http://www.bl.uk/magnificentmaps/map4.html

One of my favourite destinations for sunny days out in London is Richmond on Thames, because the tide never goes right out thanks to a weir across the river. It’s also possible to take a pleasure boat circle trip up around teddington locks, past all the islands which is nice, but my recommendation this time is to go a bit further on foot then cross the river by passenger ferry. This is just a little boat with an outboard motor that crosses the river Thames from one bank to the other. Cost £1 single. You may have to wait around for the boatman if the crossing is not busy. The reason why I would recommend this is because it’s a lovely way to approach the old part of Twickenham, which has many delights. The walk along the river upstream from Richmond to where the little passenger ferry docks is about one mile, and once on the other side you are only a few hundred yards from the beginnings of Twickenham with York House gardens a must see. There are several nice places for lunch or refreshments too. Returning to the Richmond side, you might visit Ham House as well if you like these sort of grand places.

Opening hours Mon – Sat: 9:00 am – 9:00 pm, Noon – 6:00 pm on Sundays

I might just forgive the Apple Store in London’s Regent Street for being a bit chaotic, overcrowded and understocked recently if the new Apple Store at Covent Garden is the culprit. Said to be the biggest in the world, the Covent Garden shop is Apple’s 300th retail outlet worldwide and 28th in the UK. The Apple store in Covent Garden has 300 staff, and certainly looks the business, with a glass roof, two imposing glass staircases, and huge York stone arches. And of course loads of demo Macs, iPhones, iPads and iPods to play with, along with dedicated rooms where training and workshops on Apple products take place.

Best place to eat Vietnamese food in London, with a choice of nearly a dozen authentic Vietnamese restaurants and cafes in close proximity, near to the Geoffrye museum and not so far from Columbia Road flower market which is open on Sundays. The food in these places is wonderfully fragrant with special herbs, fresh chilli and lime juice. Go for the green papaya salads, lotus root salad or Beef noodle soup. Yum.

beef noodle soup

Trafalgar square is worth a visit anytime, and there’s often something different taking place within the landmark. For example quire recently, the amazing walk-in life size maze of green hedges. The different events at the heart of the maze included a showcase from some of the cast of the West End show Priscilla Queen of the Desert, a giant paper dragon show from Chinatown and a Carnaby Street-inspired 60s party.
While you’re at Trafalgar Square, check out the giant ship in a bottle on the fourth plinth. If there’s a rainshower, nip in to the National Gallery and have a posh afternoon tea snack in the rooftop restaurant with views across London.

The BBC Radio 4 programme “A history of the world in 100 objects” has brought a whole new interest into any visit to the British museum, and if you’ve been listening, then you’ll want to track down some of the 100 objects on display, which are all well signposted. On the outside of the building there is the South African garden planted by Kew but on my last visit I though it was already just past its best, so once the bank holiday is over this may not be the best attraction.

There are several new skyscrapers in London in the process of being built and it may be of interest to catch the changing skyline by spotting as many as you can during one visit. Eventually the public viewing gallery in the Shard at London Bridghe will become one of the most spectacular things to do in London.

The much talked about London blue bicycle hire scheme is now live in London and you will see people getting around on these contraptions and wonder what it’s like to pick up a bike in one place and then just leave it somewhere else instead of having to worry about it. Well you can’t try it out as a guest yet, unless you have to foresight to register for a card beforehand, so why not visit the TFL site and get signed up now.

Wahaca is a mexican food chain started up by the same people who originally ran Wagamama, the Californian/Japanese noodle bars that were all the rage in the 1990s. This isn’t your average tex/mex greasy fast food mince and beans though, it’s more like a genuine Mexican market cuisine with interesting flavours and contrasting textures including plenty of fresh citrus and salad. The service is also very congenial without being intrusive, which I like.

Wahaca Covent Garden
66 Chandos Place
Covent Garden
London WC2N 4HG

The old East London Line Tube has been revamped and extended as part of the London Overground network with a new station at Shoreditch High Street from where you can travel to either Dalston Kingsland to the North, or way across to West Croydon, south of the river.

The ideas listed above may not be original but they’re mine. For loads more ideas of things to do in London, you might read the blog “Tired of London, Tired of Life“

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Ten More Things to do in London on Bank Holidays

Otherwise everybody would just assume that weekend trips are more trouble than they are worth and stay at home.

weekend engineering works

Of course once you get into Liverpool St Station on one of these rare weekend trains, there’s no guarantee that the onward journey will be as smooth. The Circle line, District and Hammersmith and City lines are likely to be severely disrupted or not running at all so that leaves the Central Line or “London Sauna” as better described.

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No Weekend Engineering Works

I’ve been going on canal boat holidays since a child, but none in the last few years and it has been long overdue to do something about that. The first trip I went on was a little Thames cruiser boat with my parents, before the locks were all manned. Then I went on a narrow boat with a youth club and years later took my own children on narrowboats and Norfolk broads cruisers. Ideally, I would like to spend spend summer months continuous cruising around the inland waterways of England and Wales. That’s part of the Location Independent Living idea but there are several steps which need to be taken first, and one of them was to take a gentle introduction to the joys of boating by way of a short canal boat holiday on the Kennet & Avon canal in rural Wiltshire, perfect for weekend breaks, on board the hotel boat Isabella

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Canal Boat Holidays

Here’s somebody who knows how to enjoy a bank holiday weekend by getting away from it all and going fly fishing in Wales. The fast flowing stream is next to an ancient stone bridge in a valley out off the road between Abergavenny and Brecon in South Wales. Fly fishing requires relaxed concentration, which is also excellent practice for getting in the flow state for other activities.

The River Vyrnwy in mid Wales is also excellent for fly fishing for trout.

Fly Fishing in Wales

Originally uploaded by Andyrob

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Fly Fishing in Wales

** book online Eurostar breaks with central Paris hotel**

I’ve no idea how many of my readers will understand what I’m talking about if I try to explain a sort of emotional response to specific large terminal railway stations. Perhaps if I begin by saying that I was brought up in Cornwall, so when I leave London from Paddington Station that’s like already being on the ‘last leg’ of a journey which marks a kind of homecoming.

So for me, Paddington station is not a part of London, it’s almost a part of Cornwall through association, anticipation and all those memories of being away from home and then returning. You can almost smell the seaside there, well you can definitely smell the pasties these days!
People from the southeast of England might have a similar association with Charing Cross, Waterloo or Victoria stations. Northerners with Kings Cross and Euston. And so it is with Gare du Nord in Paris, the arrival point from Calais, the Dover ferries and now eurostars from St Pancras, Ashford and Ebbsfleet. Eventually, hard as it is to imagine, Stratford International Station will become a little door to France, implanted in East London.

I arrived at Gare du Nord from Rotterdam on my first visit to Paris. I had no idea where to go, so I walked out of the station, crossed the road and walked slightly downhill for ten minutes. I needed to find somewhere to stay, and down a sidestreet spotted a 1 star Hotel, booked in, and stayed there for six months. That was in the Rue Faubourg Poisonniere, just off the main Rue LaFayette so I got to know the area around the Gare du Nord pretty well. The big boulevards Magenta and Madelaine, the pretty little churches and small leafy parks. The little north african grocers shops, bakeries, bars and tabacs, and further down the main road the magnificent Galleries LaFayette. I had little reason to visit Gare du Nord during day to day life except on occasion to visit the bureau de change which was the only one I knew about, open on a Sunday at that time. It was on one such visit that the idea of planning a trip home occurred to me after many months away, such can be the effect of being in the presence of one of these special stations.

Gare du Nord is not only an arrival point for Brits taking Paris breaks but also the departure point for Parisians visiting London for the first time, or perhaps on a weekly basis for those who work in the City finance industries and go home most weekends. There are about 300,000 French people living in London now, that’s a lot isn’t it! And I suppose for them, the new St Pancras eurostar station will eventually trigger a familiar sensation of being almost back to France.

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Gare du Nord in Paris