In March @Northwind and I will be travelling down to London for a long weekend of gigs. That's 3 nights of gigs (The Hold Steady's Weekender, for anyone who's interested) so our weekends are sorted but we need to have some plans for filling up the days
We'll be travelling down on Friday and staying somewhere around Camden probably. However much of Friday afternoon we have in London will probably be used to wander around Camden market, but that leaves us most of Saturday and Sunday and a shorter amount of time on Monday.
There's been several Weekenders now and in previous years we've done primarily geeky things including visiting the RAF Museum in Hendon, the Imperial War Museum, the V&A, the British Museum (twice, I think), the National Gallery, an exhibition at the Southbank Centre, and wandered around Hampstead Heath, Kew Gardens, Regent's Park, and various central bits of London.
So, what other stuff might appeal to a couple of middle-aged nerds while we're in London? And ideally some ideas that account for the possibility that Northwind might sleep until about midday on at least one day and that we need to be back near Camden for food and gigs fairly early each evening.
(This may also be an excellent opportunity for any of you southerners who want to meet and/or throw peanuts at a officially acknowledged Big Hitter to do so.)
not visit London....
Borough Market area always good for a mooch round if you are at all interested in food.
HMS Belfast seems an obvious omission from your military theme.
Tate Modern should be experienced once just for the turbine hall, even if you are not interested in art (make sure you enter from the end not the side for the full effect)
All of the above are along the South Bank so can be combined into one 'session'.
I recently enjoyed the F1 simulators with my son here; https://f1arcade.com/
You've done the British Museum but there's a very well written about exhibition just opening 'Legion' that I'm very interested in.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/legion-life-roman-army
Can be weather dependant but plenty of self guided walks / tours that you can find - you might have been to all these areas before but unless you have the right info you will have missed quite a bit
https://www.londonforfree.net/walks/
https://www.southwesternrailway.com/where-next/things-to-do/free-self-guide-london-walks
etc.
Few weird museums
https://thenudge.com/features/unusual-museums-in-london/
etc,
nickjb Free Member
Its quite a nice walk along the canal from Camden towards Kings Cross. There’s the canal museum there as well. A quirky place worth popping into is Novelty Automation in Holborn. Lots of wacky creations from the mind of Tim Hunkin
Actually we visited the canal museum last year, but we didn't walk there. We did walk the other way along the canal when we went to Regent's Park though.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions so far! The Legions exhibition at the British Museum sounds interesting, and we've probably only seen a fraction of what's in the museum normally too, it's quite close to King's Cross so tends to get visited on the Monday before we catch the train back up to civilisation, so they're often fairly short visits.
Coal Drops Yard in Kings X
Battersea Power Stn redevelopment
Can you take him up the oxo tower?
Moonwalkers at Coal Drops - https://lightroom.uk/whats-on/the-moonwalkers/
Ride in the Elizabeth Line at some point. Stand in the middle and watch the train snake as it climbs and turns in the tunnels under central London
Take mattocks, storm Westminster, start a coup.
Chelsea Physic Garden is nice if you are in the area. Always fun to see the plants that can be used to kill, incapacitate and cure. Not sure if things might be growing by March.
I'm still sad that the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre moved out of Covent Garden. Maddest collect of auomatons ever. Think it is in Kent now. Novelty Automation in Holborn has a few great ones still.
The south bank walk from Tower Bridge to the Tate is a little goldmine of interesting stuff. Golden Hinde, Tate, Wobbly footbrige, The Globe, Vineopilos, Southwalk Cathedral and Borough Market...
If you pre-book the Sky Garden in the walkie talkie building is pretty decent too.
stevenmenmuir Free Member
Take mattocks, storm Westminster, start a coup.
Not entirely dissimilar to something Northwind suggested!
I haven't done it myself but I've heard good things about the Postal Museum - in particular the train ride through the tiny tunnels that used to move mail around. https://www.postalmuseum.org/
Design museum on Kensington High Street has some interesting stuff and as with most museums, the permanent collection is free. It's also not too big so i tend to avoid the museum fatigue that I normally get after a couple of hours walking around at a slow pace with my hands clasped behind my back.
Out East really, but the old bits are in the City.
There are big old chunks of Roman wall:
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryMagazine/DestinationsUK/Londons-Roman-City-Wall/
Leadenhall Market is amazing, used to be a great pub in there too.
The Monument, climb for amazing views, and not all expensive like other 'viewing' attractions.
APF
Science Museum
Natural History Museum
Go up The Monument
RIB ride on the Thames - great fun.
London Transport Museum
Was gonna suggest RAF Hendon but see you've done that.
Walking tour - we did the Spies & Spycatchers one a few years ago & it was very interesting (although perhaps a bit long. You can just sneak off if you have had enough: https://www.walks.com/our-walks/spies-spycatchers-london/
I hadn't realised they'd opened some of the old postal tunnels as a tourist attraction/museum! AWESOME! Last I saw of them was an unauthorised Urb Ex mission.
Right, that's one place I'm takign the kids at Easter then! Totally for them, not for me at all... Honest...
Some of the tall buildings have free to access viewing plaqtforms on their roofs, as required by planning. Interestign for aview fo the skyline...
nerds you say
pop on the train to milton keynes for a day.....
https://brickfestivalevents.com/event/mk-brick-festival/
kimbers Full Member
nerds you saypop on the train to milton keynes for a day…..
Sounds interesting, except for:
October 29, 2023 @ 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
We may be nerds, but we aren't time travellers.
The Royal Observatory in Greenwich,
Science Museum,
Cutty Sark,
The V&A is always excellent too.
Wellcome collection can have some interesting stuff on. Close to Kings cross as well.
Came here to suggest this. They also sponsor the medical history section at the Science Museum, which is fascinating and usually deserted as people go for the glamorous exhibits in the main building.
Be a Shoreditch hipster go to Gilbert and George centre, eat at pelliccis, beigel at brick lane, local markets on a weekend. Full of instaspammers but not as bad as anywhere obviously touristy, Monmouth coffee in Covent garden was full of them, they weren't even buying anything.....just doing selfies.
db Full Member
Head out to Greenwich for the Cutty Sark, Maritime Museum and Observatory? Plus a walk round the park and you’re sorted for a day.
We actually have done this one a few years back, though we didn't actually make it into the Observatory itself.
I think we intended to go to the Natural History Museum a couple of years ago but there was a huge queue so we ended up in the V&A instead. And for a while I was reluctant to go to the Science Museum as I seemed to end up there every time I was in London and it felt a bit played out for me. But that may not be the case any more.
The transport museum and postal tunnels sound interesting, actually lots of it does so thanks for all the suggestions! And I'd like to get back to RAF Hendon at some point as quite a few of the hangers were closed the last time I went, but it's not a priority if we have other ideas that appeal.
Lots of great suggestions above. Another idea is to buy a copy of London Hidden Walks and just do an outdoor walk in a special neighbourhood. Soho, Mayfair and Shoreditch were each fascinating walks that occupied a solid half day.
https://metropublications.com/products/copy-of-londons-hidden-walks-1-volume-2
Design Museum is pretty good, even if just to look at displays of old mobile phones and play “had that one”
Yep, did that with the kids at Christmas. There's the big wall of stuff and we had fun spotting all the things we have/I used to have. My 9 year old had no idea what a Walkman was so then had to find a cassette tape on the wall to explain what you did with it
The Cutty Sark is definitely worth a look around, a mate and I went around it not long after it was restored following the fire, and keep your eyes open when looking round the hold; someone has a sense of humour…
If you’re visiting Borough Market, book a ticket for The Shard, if the weather’s fine, the views are incredible from around 1000’ up with glass all around.
Another vote for the Science Museum, no-brainer if you're mildly nerdy and not been before. Get there at opening time, 10am to get some crowd free time. I've been going since about 1970, changed a bit over the years.
And if you're out in Docklands go on the Dangleway
I always forget to book the sky garden, looks good. I like the Design museum, the Science museum (mostly for the dissembled Spitfire which isn't there anymore I think). From memory the Tower bridge has some interesting technology/construction.
I'd look nearer the time for what exhibitions are on, there's always something interesting.
There are always nice wee gardens etc everywhere for a picnic lunch but probs not the right season.
London Transport Museum do tours of some of the closed parts of the underground network I believe. Never been myself but would find it very interesting.
