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Holiday in London

11:57 / 15.07.04

I have next week off work and due to my poor organisational skills and lack of cash I am not heading to exotic climes. Instead I have decided to really explore London, as despite living on the doorstep of London (that's Hertfordshire, though you could come up with some less polite metaphors) I am really a London novice. Do any 'lithers have any suggestions for activities or sights that I should check out?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

12:04 / 15.07.04

The British Museum may be an obvious suggestion, but it's one of my favourite places in this great city of ours. An old habit of mine was to get really caned, keep walking into the museum until I was thoroughly lost and then try to find my way out. I'd see totally different stuff every time.

12:13 / 15.07.04

The Tate Modern's free too, and contains hours of fun... walking along the river is fun and free too...

12:20 / 15.07.04

on a saturday walk from London bridge to waterloo on along the south bank, stopping off at borough market - the tate modern the globe and various pubs etc as the feeling take you.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

13:28 / 15.07.04

Has the Borough Market reopened then? Last time I went was last Summer and it was mostly closed for building work.

Phyrephox, come out of Black Friars and you're over the river from Tate Modern. Come out of Leicester Square tube and go downhill, you've got the National Portrait Gallery and then the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square. I'm fairly sure there are signs from Tottenham Court Road tube station for the british Museum, if not you want exit three, pass the Queen musical, first right then straight on across the road, you pass lil' Gosh comics on your right and the British Museum is on your left. South Kensington tube station is your friend for the V&A, Science and Natural History Museums. St Pancras if you want the British Museum. Marble Arch tube station if you want to go to Hyde Park, you can walk along to the Serpentine or into Kensington gardens or Green Park by the palace if you fancy, Regent's Park tube in the North for a nice park near Camden Town.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:29 / 15.07.04

And when you're done with culture, why not go for a pissup with Barbelith people from the Smoke?

Or even go for a smoke with Barbelith people from the Pissup?

13:51 / 15.07.04

This all sounds good, thanks for the advice. I often visit the British Museum and I have the book "Walking London", which I plan on utilising.
Are there any more kind of offbeat, barbelithian locations/activities anyone can recommend? As for a pissup or even a swift drink, that sounds like a plan.

13:53 / 15.07.04

As far as I'm aware Borough Market wasn't ever closed - it just had to work around the building work - but you need to remember that it is only open to the public on fridays and saturdays...

21:12 / 15.07.04

The East End's always good - Start off from Liverpool Street, heading down to Brick Lane, with a couple of detours onto the Ripper Trail. Basically, do the walk recommended in Lights Out For The Territory by Iain Sinclair, and do be sure to take in the City, all those fucked-up erections round Leadenhall Street, plus the Hawksmoor churches, the absurd police checkpoints... It sounds like something out of a William Burroughs novel, but it's honestly like that, it's very genuinely strange. Finishing up round the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel, which, if it's still open, would be an excellent place for a Barbelith meet, if anyone's interested.

And anyone who hasn't read Lights Out For The Territory isn't exactly living in London, you're just living on the tube map, it's as simple as that. Yer bastards.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

22:04 / 15.07.04

And anyone who hasn't read Lights Out For The Territory isn't exactly living in London, you're just living on the tube map, it's as simple as that. Yer bastards.

Can I have your babies?

22:14 / 15.07.04

Stoat on the burning tightrope/I've just Given Up, Dave babies.

Wow...

Our Lady Has Left the Building

12:48 / 16.07.04

And anyone who namechecks Iain Sinclair in relation to a London thread as though that somehow wins any kind of argument anywhere any time ever is just an idiot.

heh.

13:36 / 16.07.04

Yeah, but a cool idiot though.