London 'Must do's'!

[KeyboardJockey]

Visit Dagenham - well why not.

 

[Louloubelle]

combined with your day at the hampsted ponds, stroll on the heath to the giant chair thingy (climb up it if you're adventurous), go to parliament fields and check the awesome view of London spread out before you.

Then go to waterlow park and have a pizza at waterlow house (they serve awesome pizzas), then go to Highgate cemetry and visit the grave of Karl Marx and various other peeps. Then go back to the heath and walk to the Hill Garden (possibly the most romantic / beautiful place in London). If you walk from the heath to the hill garden you'll encounter unusualy dressed gay men in the woods hanging around as if waiting to take part in a village people video which could be a good thing / bad thing / amusing thing depending on your inclinations.

Perfect day

 

[fanta]

So what must do's are on your list Mr Fanta?

Some of what others have said. I'd go to all the markets, definitely. And finance permitting, as many good restaurants. All the comedy clubs too...

...but Tate Modern?

I'd rather carry a union jack up the falls road whistling the sash than step foot in that over-rated shit pit.

 

[fanta]

yeh, god forbid that people would get to see several floors worth of some of the most important art of the 20th century gathered together in one fantastic building FOR FREE.

damn their eyes!

important art?



Fuck off you poncy git.



Bite me!

 

[A Dashing Blade]

yeh, god forbid that people would get to see several floors worth of some of the most important art of the 20th century gathered together in one fantastic building FOR FREE.

Well, true but a lot of it is still crap!

The building's better than the art (actually, I think it overshadows the art but . . . )

But the view of the Thames from the top floor cafe is superb!

 

[the B]

But the view of the Thames from the top floor cafe is superb!

Yep, it sure is

 

[silentNate]

Well, true but a lot of it is still crap!

The building's better than the art (actually, I think it overshadows the art but . . . )

But the view of the Thames from the top floor cafe is superb!

I've been going regularly (about once a month ) to the Tate Modern and the standard appears to have slipped with anything decent disappearing to other museums... That said the Tate is a superb building and anyone who hasn't been would be wise to go... Not advicing acid or cannabis beforehand as that would be both illegal and stupid

 

[William of Walworth]

important art?



Fuck off you poncy git.



Bite me!

Dub's right and you sound like a fucking philistine and bigot too (in your earlier post I mean). If you want to criticise the contents of Tate Modern why not do so
[a ] rationally
[b ] without resorting to cheap populist smears about the people who go there

I'm NOT saying the place is beyond criticism ... so spare me the 'can't deal with sacred cows being criticised' shit. And feel free to actually add some criticism -- there wasn't any in your first post, just bile and hatred.

The 'I don't know much about art but I know what I like' types are far more often than not, cretins -- especially when they sneer at people who DO like art. I don't sneer at people who don't -- I only get annoyed when they parade their ignorance and prejudice.

I know you did it to get a reaction. Well I've reacted (because your post was cretinous drivel -- have you actually been to the Tate Modern??), but your deliberate provocativeness was close to trolling.

Which is the worse?

 

[William of Walworth]

Well visit the Tate Modern for yourself anyway, and make your own mind up! Tis free

 

[DrRingDing]

You off to join the Maoists in Nepal then DUAF?

While I have a woman to love I'll leave the revolutionary authoritarian guerilla warfare on the back burner.

I'm actually leaving blighty for a 'Scandinavian Liberal Paradise'.

 

[acfj]

The Wallace Collection
http://www.speel.demon.co.uk/other/wallace.htm
Only off Oxford St, and free entry, and in my opinion the hidden treasure of London.

St Pauls is suprisingly nice

Epping Forest

Hampton Court

Brick Lane / Spitalfields on a Sunday. Curry at RASA or Woodlands.

 

[boohoo]

Sir John Soane Museum - real curio showing how to cram a house full of tat.
Dennis Sever's house - bit like above but made-up.
The Temple church - Knights Templar church - it's old and not destroyed!
Walk along Thames beach. Look at 2000 yrs worth of rubbish.
British Museum - see some things we stole from other countries!

All a bit history based but that is one of London's top qualities. London Open House weekend on 17 should provide an oppotunity to have a nose around some of London's interesting building.

 

[trashpony]

London Open House weekend on 17 should provide an oppotunity to have a nose around some of London's interesting building.

If it's open, I particularly recommend going to the Foreign Office - it's stunning inside. And then you can go for a nice lunch after at Inn the Park in St James' and watch the pelicans (one of which is wearing an anklet saying Praha Zoo on it)

 

[William of Walworth]

Sorry to all except fanta for above rant. Some good ideas here on this thread, including for poncy old art so you can go and be pretentious

I'd like to try some of these again, or even for the first time in one or two cases

Weird how living/working in London long term renders you lazy about all the treasures on your doorstep

 

[rutabowa]

Sir John Soane Museum - real curio showing how to cram a house full of tat.

seconded

 

[trabuquera]

other ideas

lots of me faves already in here (deer in Richmond Park! Brixton Market! ) but here are some more

- Brockwell Lido
- the Black Friar pub just north of Blackfriars Bridge (amazing architecture and murals, beer & peanuts not bad either)
- dim sum in Chinatown
- mezze & fruitjuice at some pretty late hour of the night in Edgware Road - watching the local middle eastern families promenading & teenagers eyeing each other up through their veils
- the square courtyard and gardens BEHIND Westminster Abbey (bizarrely quiet even when the 'Goddy bit' of the building is crawling with tourists)
- Belting along the Westway at dawn/dusk
- riverside cafe at the back of Somerset House (and the ice rink in the S House courtyard when it's on)
- Museum of Mankind - don't even know if it still exists, but it's underrated - interesting building and amazing collection of fantastic art wot we looted off Rest of the World when we shot 'em and nicked their countries...
- stroll down Jermyn Street (for the architecture typography and the outrage & rush of holy socialist righteousness you feel at being In The Belly Of the Capitalist Beast)

 

[Christo]

Persian restaurants & shops around Kensington Olympia, the Japanese garden in Holland Park, Wednesday late openings at National Gallery with live music http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/what/events/lates_music.htm, an auction at one of the big houses..http://search.sothebys.com/jsps/live/event/EventDetail.jsp?event_id=27478 (20th Century British & Irish Art), http://search.sothebys.com/jsps/live/event/EventDetail.jsp?event_id=27478 (Vintage film posters) and http://www.christies.com/promos/sep05/5826/overview.asp (Old Master Pictures)

 

[the B]

- dim sum in Chinatown

Dim sum in the far east, so vastly superior it's untrue. As well as vastly vastly cheaper...

 

[lang rabbie]

- Museum of Mankind - don't even know if it still exists, but it's underrated - interesting building and amazing collection of fantastic art wot we looted off Rest of the World when we shot 'em and nicked their countries...

It's now closed. BUT ... the Africa galleries at the British Museum (in a new basement down some hidden away staircases behind the Reading Room)are among the least visited corners of the museum, well worth a visit. The Benin Bronzes are finally displayed in a way that does them justice, whatever the rights and wrongs of whether they should be here.

The old MoM building in Burlington Gardens is now part of the Royal Academy. Think most of it is mothballed while they raise the money for a major revamp.

 

[Bob]

Boat trip from Westminster - Greenwich on a sunny day

Drinks on the boats on the Thames by Embankment & Temple tubes

Hampstead Heath

 

[cathal marcs]

Imperial war museum is interesting also may I add.

 

[rutabowa]

if i was leaving london i would have to eat at Tara restaurant before I went... on Green Lanes, halfway between Manor House and Turnpike Lane, it's Kurdish and they do the most gorgeous stews of lamb neck and the best bread I have ever tasted. Also it is mad cheap.

 

[Cloo]

Second Sir John Soane museum, definitely!

Maybe the food hall at Fortnum and Mason should be added to the list. I've been known to tell tourists asking for directions to Harrods to go to F&M instead if they want to see a store that's actually classy.

 

[lang rabbie]

Sir John Soane Museum - real curio showing how to cram a house full of tat.

Thirded or is it now fourthed(?) as a must see. Unfortunately the incredible Picture Room is closed again while the builders are in, so the Hogarths are in a temporary gallery in the basement.

Egyptian and Graeco-Egyptian antiquities: 38, Greek and Roman marbles including architectural and decorative fragments (candelabra, furniture, ornaments etc.), major frieze and relief fragments, Greek votive and funeral reliefs, sarcophagus fragments, cinerary urns, funerary vases and statuary (including fragments, figures, heads and busts): 413, Greek and Roman bronzes: 31, Greek and Roman terracottas, mosaics and miscellaneous: 47, Greek and Roman vases: 59, Gems (Egyptian scarabs; Greek & Roman provincial, Hellenistic, Etruscan, Roman, Early Christian,

Medieval, Renaissance, Neo-Classical & miscellaneous gems): 323, Engraved seals: 202, Medieval objects (including architectural fragments, fragments of woodcarving, tiles, pottery, glass & miscellaneous items): 70, Italian and Northern Renaissance bronzes (figures & plaques): 24

Works by named English Sculptors: John Flaxman: 55, Other sculptors: 38 Sculpture based on antique or renaissance models (mostly in plaster): 24 Miscellaneous sculpture: Stone, marble, alabaster, terracotta & Coade Stone: 39, Plaster (including stucco manufacturer's specimens): 58, Wax: 6, Architectural fragments: Stone & marble: 44, Other materials: 32

Medals (Napoleonic, Soane & others): 166, Ceramics: 39 (this does not include Soane's domestic china), Arms: 5, Jewellery: 2, Clocks, barometers & timepieces: 11, Natural objects, curiosities (i.e. fossils, mummified cats &c.): 30, Plaster casts (from antique and renaissance buildings or works of art): 442 Oriental or South American objects: Oriental: 57, Peruvian Pottery: 12, Stained glass: 104 subject panels

Paintings and drawings (excluding architectural drawings): Oil paintings 16th-19th centuries: 68, Watercolour, chalk, pencil etc.: 266, Miniatures: 4, Oriental (Volume of Indian miniatures: 17th & 18th century): 37

Architectural models: Models of antique buildings (plaster & cork): 34, Soane models: Bank of England: 44, Other buildings: 84
Miscellaneous models (including full-size models of ornaments other than casts): 100 ... Furniture (approximately 325 items)

= tat

 

[boohoo]

tat

He probably found it lying around various foreign countries he visited. I bet his mum told him off for hoarding.

 

[Poi E]

Docklands/Poplar. Marvel at some of the poorest areas in the UK just metres from some of the wealthiest.

 

[William of Walworth]

Imperial war museum is interesting also may I add.

This is DEFINITELY true. People think from the name and the theme that it's going to be fascistsexistracistwarmongeringimperialist, but this lazy preconception is NOT TRUE.

OK there's a few tanks and planes and shit (no bad thing anyway), but mainly, there's some excellent historically informative displays. There's now a permanent Holocaust display too, quite harrowing, I went in one time when I was short of tme, and ended up spending an hour and half in there. Draining!

Have a look at the huge painting by Sir John Singer Sergeant ('Gassed') upstairs. He was a Society portrait painter pre WWI, but this is something else ....

This museum is very near to where I live, and I can't recomend it enough, to anyone even faintly interested in history (military and social and political).

IWM website

 

[lang rabbie]

The "Devonshire Hunting Tapestries" - hidden away at the very back of the first floor of the Victoria and Albert Museum about half a mile from the front door. Sit down for a couple of minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dim lighting, and be astonished.


If you've never been to the V&A before, the "Raphael Cartoons" are probably worth a peek as well.

 

[lang rabbie]

Lunch in the New Piccadilly Cafe

 

[DrRingDing]

This museum is very near to where I live, and I can't recomend it enough, to anyone even faintly interested in history (military and social and political).

It's also very close to where I am too.

Added to my to do list.