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COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL The British Museum. 005_688410-ch01.indd5_688410-ch01.indd 4 55/13/10/13/10 22:17:17 PMPM LONDON here cannot be a city in the world with more free things to Tdo than London. As well as the world-beating Natural His- tory Museum with its enormous blue whale and robot dinosaurs, the interactive Science Museum and the British Museum, home to the world-famous Rosetta Stone, there’s plenty of royal pomp. Highlights include Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace, the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London and Trooping the Colour. The Oxford and Cambridge boat race is staged annually along the Thames, while the colourful Notting Hill Carnival is the biggest of its kind in Europe. There’s the celebrity chef endorsed Borough Market that’s fantastic 005_688410-ch01.indd5_688410-ch01.indd 5 55/13/10/13/10 22:17:17 PMPM 6 CHAPTER 1 LONDON for food shopping, while free comedy nights are staged at the Theatre Royal in Stratford, master-classes at the Royal Academy of Music and concerts at the Royal Opera House. There are Jack the Ripper walking tours for the ghoulish, bird walks in Regent’s Park and the deer to take in at Richmond Park. You can start a revolution from Speaker’s Cor- ner in Hyde Park or plant a foot on each side of the globe on the Greenwich Meridian line at the Royal Observatory. Art highlights include the Turners at Tate Britain, while the National Gallery is home to more than 2,300 paintings. You can catch the evocative Woolwich Ferry on the Thames, climb to the top of Big Ben and enjoy an open-air show at the Scoop arena, while there are a host of lesser known highlights. You can see the remains of Napoleon’s horse at the National Army Museum, a whale penis at the Horniman Museum, and the foetus of a cyclops child at the Hunterian Museum. 1 Getting Around London The easiest way to get around London is by Tube, and Travelcards are the best value for visitors using the underground, plus they are also valid on bus, tram and DLR services. The most useful tickets for visi- tors are available as one-day or one-week Travelcards. See www.tfl. gov.uk/tickets for all the different combinations available and buy online ahead of time. Otherwise buy Travelcards in Tube stations, where an adult day ticket costs £8.60 for Zones 1–3 (check on the Tube map to see which zones you need to cover), and a seven-day ticket is £30.20. JOIN A TOUR OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY Trafalgar Square, London WC2 5DN (& 020 7747 2885, www.nationalgallery.org. uk). Charing Cross. Housing one of the greatest collections of western European paintings in the world, there are more than 2,300 masterpieces here by artists ranging from Leonardo Da Vinci and Vincent van Gogh through to Gainsborough, Cezanne, Rembrandt and Michelangelo. You can join free tours to have works of art explained, and there are often hands- on activities in the education centre (check times) for 5–11 year olds as well as workshops for 12–17 year olds. There are roughly four tem- porary exhibitions a year, usually relating to the permanent collection. 005_688410-ch01.indd5_688410-ch01.indd 6 55/13/10/13/10 22:17:17 PMPM GETTING AROUND LONDON 7 OPEN Daily 10am–6pm (Fri 10am–9pm). AMENITIES CHECK OUT PAINTINGS OF SHAKESPEARE & DAVID BECKHAM AT THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY 2 St Martin’s Place, London WC2H 0HE (& 020 7312 2463 or 020 7306 0055, www. npg.org.uk). Charing Cross. Here you’ll find hundreds of portraits of famous Britons ranging all the way from one of William Shakespeare to a study of David Beck- ham. Among the 120,000 works here about 1,000 are on display including pictures of Samuel Johnson, Judi Dench, the Brontë sisters, the Beatles, Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Nelson and Napoleon. There’s also an extensive photography collection featuring a very annoying one of a bare-chested Sting taken by Terry O’Neil; my wife lingered far too long over this. OPEN Daily 10am–6pm (Thurs–Fri 10am–9pm) AMENITIES HEAR TOP MUSICIANS PLAY AT STMARTININTHEFIELDS Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 4JJ (& 020 7766 1100, www.smitf.org). Char- ing Cross. An unbroken 60-year tradition that began to boost civilian morale in World War II sees top classical musicians perform here for free every Monday, Tuesday and Friday lunchtimes. Past performers at this church have included Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears and Myra Hess. The music ranges from Bach and Bartok through to Bernstein and Stravinsky. The concerts last 45 minutes and audiences average around 250, so come early to get a good seat. The church itself is the most famous non-cathedral place of worship in the country and has a history of radicalism. Desmond Tutu regularly preaches here and, as the parish church to the Royal Family, Prince Charles and the Duch- ess of Cornwall also knee-bend here. Famously designed by James 005_688410-ch01.indd5_688410-ch01.indd 7 55/13/10/13/10 22:17:17 PMPM 8 CHAPTER 1 LONDON Gibbs, and much copied in America, the church was where Thomas Chippendale of furniture-making fame, and Nell Gwyn, the actress mistress of Charles II, were buried before all the bodies in the church- yard were exhumed and moved elsewhere. OPEN Daily 8am–5pm (depending on services). AMENITIES SEE THE GHOST OF LORD NELSON AT SOMERSET HOUSE The Strand, London WC2R 1LA (& 020 7845 4600, www.somersethouse.org.uk). Temple. On free guided tours you learn how the first perforated stamps were invented here, about the ghost of Lord Nelson, who haunts the court- yard, and also about its role in two contemporary films – Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes and Last Chance Harvey starring Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman. On the 45-minute tour, hear how Lord Nelson visited Somerset House many times to see his brother Maurice, who worked for the Navy Board. His ghost, we were told, moves from King’s College through to the courtyard. You’ll also see the under- ground Dead House, containing the relocated graves of people bur- ied in the chapel of the Tudor palace formerly on this site. You might, however, also get called Stanley (after stamp giant Stanley Gibbons) by your wife, who feels it’s funny to tease you about your stamp-col- lecting past. Also free on Mondays between 10am–2pm is access to the Courtauld Gallery (normally £5), containing a famous Van Gogh self-portrait as well as Manet’s celebratory Bar at the Folies-Bergère and other Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works. Visiting exhibi- tions have included works by Michelangelo, Renoir, Rubens and Dégas. The Terrace Room is also free to explore and features London- specific exhibitions, which have included photos by Norman Parkin- son and displays on urban regeneration. Attractions within the complex that charge admission include a winter ice-rink, an open-air cinema and the Embankment Gallery (£5). OPEN Daily 10am–6pm. AMENITIES 005_688410-ch01.indd5_688410-ch01.indd 8 55/13/10/13/10 22:17:17 PMPM GETTING AROUND LONDON 9 VISIT THE OLDEST WINE BAR IN BRITAIN Gordon’s Wine Bar, 47 Villiers Street, London WC2N 6NE (& 020 7930 1408, www. gordonswinebar.com). Charing Cross or Embankment. This famous canoodler’s paradise opened in 1890 and was where Lawrence Olivier wooed Vivien Leigh. It was the home of diarist Samuel Pepys in the 17th century and Rudyard Kipling was once a tenant here. With its low vaulted ceilings and semi-dark candlelit cel- lar, the bar has a timeless feel that made us think that a black-capped highwayman might burst in at any moment, level a smoking pistol at our heads and demand a mouthful of our nibbles before bounding off to rob the night-bus. They serve great bread and cheese and the only problem is getting a table, so get there early. OPEN Mon–Sat 8:30am–11pm; Sun midday–10pm. AMENITIES LEARN ABOUT DR CRIPPEN & CHARLES DICKENS ON A WALKING TOUR OF COVENT GARDEN London WC2 (www.coventgardenlondonuk.com/assets/CG-Walking-Guide-DL1.pdf). Covent Garden or Leicester Square. One of London’s most colourful corners is the vibrant square of Cov- ent Garden, where George Bernard Shaw found his inspiration for Pygmalion while watching flower girls selling violets to wealthy opera goers. Although the old fruit-and-veg traders have been replaced with an antiques and crafts market, and the flower girls and prostitutes of Shaw’s time have given way to East European acrobats and fey-look- ing violinists, the area still bustles with activity. To learn how the area once looked, there’s a wonderful self-guided walking tour taking in Wellington Street, where Charles Dickens once worked for the maga- zine All the Year Round, and Will’s Coffee House on Bow Street, the literary hang-out for writers and poets including Samuel Johnson, Alexander Pope, John Dryden and Jonathan Swift. The tour takes you past the Royal Opera House, where Wagner’s The Ring was first per- formed in England, and the empty shell of Bow Street Magistrates Court, which saw the trials of Oscar Wilde and Dr Crippen. On the tour, taking under an hour, you’ll see where the artist Turner was born, the area Alfred Hitchcock based his movie Frenzy upon, and 005_688410-ch01.indd5_688410-ch01.indd 9 55/13/10/13/10 22:17:17 PMPM 10 CHAPTER 1 LONDON the lodgings where Jane Austen stayed when visiting from Bath.