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Underground > Gathering >

Eeks. London. Big place.

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00:35 / 09.03.04

Um. It's big, scary, and I know nobody there and not much about it. But I appear to be going anyway. 16th-30th March, in the Piccadilly hostel for most of it. Except 4 days, when I'll be staying...somewhere.

So what should I do, where should I go, and more importantly, who'll I see there? Anyone fancy doing anything?

Going somewhere with a population 100,000 times that of here is both exciting and daunting.

05:19 / 09.03.04

hurray! I'll be away during your first week but we can do something the week after?

06:17 / 09.03.04

Drinks are always on the menu...

06:51 / 09.03.04

Be good if you could order yourself a copy of "Time Out" for the time you're here. It's a London listing magazine - guide to all the exhibits, gigs, shows etc It's published weekly but a lot of the information about ongoing exhibitions and stuff is obviously valid for more than one week, so even if you get an old copy it'll still be useful. Will help you put together a bit of a plan for the time you're here. You should defintely spend an afternoon checking out the Tate Modern, go in the week, beat the crowds...bloody tourists.

I daresay Barbedrinks will be occuring at some point.

07:26 / 09.03.04

If I post a copy of Time Out to gingerbop, Jemimaville, will it get to you?

Lilly Nowhere Late

07:45 / 09.03.04

Where is it that you are coming from? I would hedge the bet that you'll have a great drunken exciting time and end up moving here and blah blah blah. There are brilliant music things going on during your visit. Kraftwork, The Boredoms, TransAm, Bobby Conn...the list is huge for March. Time Out is a good idea. London isn't really that big and scary, it just takes a long time to get around. I'd start with a Barbelith meeting so you can have numerous tour guides. Everyone is great for that.

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:01 / 09.03.04

Yes, we're absolutely lovely, and corruption, destruction and disaster definitely does not follow us everywhere we go... Pick a night that first week and the call will go out.

08:26 / 09.03.04

Boredoms gig at end of the month - check out the "Upcoming Gigs" thread.

If you're not coming, you should be.

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:44 / 09.03.04

Honestly, people who just assume that everyone else has to share their taste in music... It's very rude, isn't it? I'm shocked and appalled by you, Illmatic.

10:01 / 09.03.04

Don't go to the Tate Modern, it is rubbish, apart from the shop which is quite good. Go to Tate Britain instead (the one where they have the art).

What I like doing in London is wandering round Covent Garden and Neals Yard and Soho and Chinatown and the Charing Cross Road and Tottenham Court Road. If you get a bus or tube to Leicester Square you will find all these things signposted. People tell me that Camden Market is good fun too but I have never been there: I assume you would take a bus* to Camden and then ask someone.

*not a tube because it is on the Northern Line and the Northern Line is [a] confusing (it actually comprises about four different 'branches' so I don't see why they are all called the same 'line', it is like saying that the Metropolitan Line and the Jubilee Line are 'branches' of the Metrolee Line) and [b] vile and one of the main reasons I moved out of London. Anyway, going on buses is fun and makes you feel all competent and grown-up.

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:14 / 09.03.04

Tate Modern is great. And you were looking at me in a pained way, Deva? Et tu? (See, this is why I distrust Morrisey, if you listen to him long enough he makes your brain go all grey - not morally grey, mind you - and Larkin-y.) Okay, time for a thread in the Art forum...

Camden Market is fun as long as you find the bit that's just past the Lock and on your left, where you can see all two hundred and thirteen sub-species of Goth, and feel a bit Willy Gibson as you smell the noodles and contemplate buying a pinstriped jacket with a print of the Rolling Stones logo on the back. There are quite a few buses that go there, I think an 88 might be yr best bet from Picadilly. To be honest though, I reckon your best bet in all seriousness is to start with an early Barbelith meet and then chu-chu-choooose guides...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:28 / 09.03.04

Barbedrinks must and shall occur. I'll be off for one of those weeks (the first one I think).

Lilly- Bobby Conn? Why wasn't I told? When? WHEN, DAMMIT?!?!?!

10:28 / 09.03.04

Drinks will be needed of course.... 16th would be cool as it's my birthday but maybe that's a bit soon if your travelling on the same day (although most normal people take the plane which is only an hour rather than the 8 on the train)

10:57 / 09.03.04

Which wasn't meant to be an insult to you in your taking the train! I was slagging myself for my fear of flying!

I have no idea how your getting here.

12:23 / 09.03.04

Fly: Im glad I managed to finally Shock and Appall you, instead of just the usual Angering and Insulting. We should work on all 4 at the same time and practise them all at Gingerbop's Welcome to Laannndahn drinks. GB - that is teh correct way of saying "London", I will demonstrate the correct pronounciation, awight treacle?

Oi you, Deva! Tate Modern is fab. Camden Market is good but ..
*sniffs, assumes superior air of jaded London snob*
It's Not As Good As It Used To Be.

12:31 / 09.03.04

Barbe-drinks with gingerbop. Quality.

12:32 / 09.03.04

But neither is London.

Tryphena Absent

13:06 / 09.03.04

Hey I'm not working yet (total inability to pick up phone and ring temp agency) and now I know why! I'll take you to Camden if you want, you need to go Thursday-Sunday when the full market's open, they have everything and it's good. Plus I know where the Stables are and some of our number seem to have completely missed their existence and like Fly says, they're the best bit.

I would suggest Tate Modern but I can't go there with other people unless they really like Mark Rothko.

Goodness Gracious Meme

13:34 / 09.03.04

Now, I don't like to say this, and I wouldn't were it not very important, but ignore Deva, she knoweth not.

The building alone is worth the visit, it's stunning, and you get a wonderful view over the river from the viewing gallery and the collections aren't brilliant, but they're the best you'll see in the UK.

But the shop is eeeeviiiiil. Stay away, or get someone to hold onto yr wallet.

Ill, mate:
*Brighton snob*
That's why we left....

Ooh, and go and have a look at circus space, for runing away to the circus-in-north-london antics. it's in ex-trendy hoxton, so someone can take you there and too hipster-ish bars. I suggest Fly/Anna/myself for that.

13:38 / 09.03.04

Hey, what about us... we live there...

Goodness Gracious Meme

14:49 / 09.03.04

yeah, but I'd move back in a second if i had your flat.

Tryphena Absent

14:50 / 09.03.04

Hey, this sounds like an excuse for champagne cocktails, tulle skirts and red shoes.

Let's DRESS UP!!!!!

15:19 / 09.03.04

In Kilts!

16:05 / 09.03.04

You guys are so cool!

Anna, I started clapping and jumping in my seat when I read your thread, mostly because I cant think of many people more fabulous to look at clothes and shoes and things with. I meant to go to Camden last time I was in laaaaaandaahn but didnt get time. Also, theres the DMs shop there, isnt there? This is set to be an expensive trip.

Circus Space, Im going to go and check out- near old st tube station, I believe. Intending on convincing them that they need me in their invitation-only trapeze classes, and bribing them into letting me onto their degree programme in september, when Im not 18 til october.

Speaking of which, do most lahndahn pubs etc give a shit that Im not 18? In Inverness, half go one way, half the other. And shall we say the 16th for drinks? I arrive at 4pm, so might be still alive at night.

I meant to go to the Tate Modern for the sunshiney thing, which ends on sunday. I've been there twice before, and it's alright. Once saw a film with clay people beating each other into big clay blobs, which was very funky. Last time I went, I was with a girl who constantly whinged "ITS NOT ART!" about the huge big red whatever it was. Something that big may not necissarily art, but it was damn cool anyway, whatever it was.

You know the saddest thing? When wondering about my 4 unaccommodated days, I though "surely the B&B will have room for me?"- I have to wean myself off Eastenders.

Oh and clothes! We better be dressing up, but I'll need to know the theme before I pack

02:14 / 10.03.04

All maybe sorted; Ashlee House in Kings Cross, for the whole time, not 4 days. Hurrah!

08:13 / 10.03.04

Congrats Bop, couple of other suggestions fro your trip.

Don't know how greedy you are but I strongly recommend Borough Market for all kinds of luxury ponce grub and porn food. It's worth going even if you only check out the fast food - loadsa different stuff from luvverly small organic food providers. Only open on Saturdays (I think?)

Still on the market tip - check out Spitalfields, Brick Lane and Columbia Road Flower Market on a Sunday. Brick Lane is mad, Bangadeshli green grocers and curry houses, crazy fashion kit (much hipper than Camden (so passe) and dodgy East Europeans selling tax-free ciggarettes. Spitalfields is great as well in a kind of "what shall I get my hippy auntie for Christmas" kind of way.

09:20 / 10.03.04

borough market is also open to the public on fridays and hanily located for quick dashes into the market porter

09:42 / 10.03.04

Don't ever take the tube. Walk when it's short, get the bus for everything else. It's a lot slower, but if you've got the time, it's the only way to see the city. The tube distorts everything (including my head), makes you think things are further away than they really are, plus it's like being in purgatory.

In terms of things to do, make sure you do the tourist bit. It's not the 'real' London, but then again what is? Go to the ICA, there's always something interesting happening. Go to the Prince Charles Cinema off Leicester Square for cheap films. Go to the second-hand book stalls outside the National Film Theatre on the South Bank. Go to Primrose Hill, look at the city and laugh at the people who live there (I can say that, some of them are my friends). Go to the Tower of London - expensive, but dammit, it's History with a capital H. Go to Hyde Park and feed the birds. Go to Notting Hill Arts Club for the most consistently interesting club nights.

Most of all, take it easy, enjoy yourself. Say hello to the British Museum from me - several thousand years of stolen antiquities, you've got to love it.

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:03 / 10.03.04

Looks like we're going to be neighbours then, 'bop... With that in mind, can I suggest the Golden Lion on Kings Cross Road for the evening of the 16th? It's very near to Ashlee House, easy enough to find for everyone else, not too busy on a weeknight and nice enough.

Jack The Bodiless

11:36 / 10.03.04

Also, theres the DMs shop there, isnt there? This is set to be an expensive trip...

Shoes, you say? Camden, you say? Swear. Swear. SWEAR.

Swearswearswearswearswearswearswearswear.

Swear.

I swear by 'em. Or I would, if I could afford them. Spooky swears, by 'em.

12:53 / 10.03.04

I meant to go to the Tate Modern for the sunshiney thing,

The sunshiney thing is vile. Honestly. All it is is that horrible orange street-lighting, which makes everyone look monochrome and dead (as if London didn't do that on its own already), plus the bad chemical smell of dry ice. And a big mirror on the ceiling, so that you can see five hundred dead-looking people upside-down as well. It makes people grey. Unlike Morrissey [sic], who makes people shiny and multicoloured and celestial, but only if you trust him. That's right, Flyboy, you must trust in Moz, stop listening to that nasty "hip-hop", and all will be made clear to you.

Um... back to the Tate Modern. BiP is right about the river views (I cast a sorrowful veil over the rest of her assertions). Those are cool. And I think I saw a sculpture in there I quite liked, in between traipsing up and down seven floors with about three paintings on each.

I notice none of the defenders are mentioning that the bar charges three pounds for a 330ml bottle of weak bitter.

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:06 / 10.03.04

No-one ever suggested drinking there!

13:11 / 10.03.04

But they do serve the best hot chocolate in London...

at least as far as I could tell, given my limited experience in that city and not having had the benefit of other peoples' experience to draw on whenever I was there

Tryphena Absent

13:50 / 10.03.04

I notice none of the defenders are mentioning that the bar charges three pounds for a 330ml bottle of weak bitter.

I'm a member, we pay less. Mwahaha!

Ashlee House. Jesus, that's so near the barbelith bedsit it's not even funny. I used to walk past everyday on my way to work and pull faces at the backpackers. Anyway to get to the Golden Lion you cross Grays Inn Road, walk down the street almost directly opposite the hostel and the pub's on your left. About a minute away.

Swear has those shoes that look like Chinese Lotus boots. I want them.

Tryphena Absent

13:52 / 10.03.04

And the best hot chocolate in London is at a patisserie near Bond Street. Italian style, thick chocolate soup.

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