First Time in LONDON -- where to go, what to do?

Zak Forsman

Zak Forsman

Major Contributor
I'm flying to London tomorrow to take part in the Power to the Pixel conference at the London Film festival and to screen my short, IFHY. I will have some free time to explore the city. I haven't been there before and everything online is geared toward tourist trap stuff.

so I come to you... can anyone recommend some must-see, off the beaten track, non-tourist trap stuff?
 
This is definitely on-the-track, but if you have even the slightest of love for history, go to the British Museum. It's free, and completely awesome. All the original stuff is there. Real mummies, the real Rosetta stone, real original everything. I spent one day almost racing through the exhibits, I wished I'd had three days. Again, it's free, so even if you popped in for just a few hours, it's no big deal.
 
Also, just wandering into random pubs can be very fun.

Westminster Abbey is very enjoyable (pretty much everyone and their evil brother is buried there). It's expensive, like 20GBP, but i'd pay it again. One thing they do that's not advertised that much is they have real church services there. Now it's not church like you'd think, it's just really old choir stuff, really beautiful even if you're not the least bit religious. It's completely free and rather short, maybe an hour around 6pm I think.
 
Ah London... went with a group a few years back. About 10 minutes into the tour of the Queen's doll collection (yeah, we lasted that long) a couple of us ran to a cab and asked the driver to take us somewhere we wouldn't bump into other tourists. We wound up in a pub in the middle of some factory district- no idea where we were. Had a great time doing that for the rest of the week just hanging out with the natives and making new friends.

Just beware of anything referred to as a "mini cab" or anything that isn't obviously a real cab.
 
Oddly enough one of the most exciting sights I saw while being in London for only a short time last month, was when we stumbled upon the street where the coffee shop explodes in Children Of Men. Loving that film, it really sort of brought a more vivid picture to my mind of the fact that I had seen that street before (on the screen) and never really thought i would stand on it one day.
 
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I'd recommend going to Grenwich (sp?).. where the Meridian line is... go in the evening to see it streaking across the sky... very cool and worth checking out...

Also, def. go see a couple shows out there... if you've never seen "Phantom" go see it... cool old theater :)

and.. as some may have mentioned... the best food is in the pubs for sure.

Also, the tower of London is always cool...



I may just keep adding things, lol.
 
As a Brit.

Covent Gardens - Mass Entertainment
The Mall / Buckingham Palace
Downing Street
London Bridge
IMAX Cinema
Waterloo
Piccadilly Circus
Paddington Station - Because they have the bear in a glass box?
London Eye
Westminster / Big Ben
Subway

You can get London Bus Tours around famous places..

Just a few ideas, I'm up there next month.
 
The Tower is great!!!! I kissed my girlfriend on the exact spot where Anne Boleyn lost her head. How romantic is that?

It's also nice to stroll the south bank and take in a play at the National. There always seems to be something cool there and you'll find street performers along the river, as well as used book tables and the like.

And if you are a lit-geek like I am, go see Dickens' House.

Also, Speaker's Corner on Sunday would be a blast for you. All the crackpots come out and give public speeches, from end of times preachers to commies. And they all argue with each other too. It's in Hyde park. I think the Marble Arch subway stop is right there.

Finally, it's another touristy thing, but St. Paul's is amazing. You can go all the way up into the dome.

And the Cafe in the Crypt at St. Martin in the Field is a good place to stop for a hot cocoa or coffee when out and about. It's right on Trafalgar Square.

Portabello Road is a huge flea market near Notting Hill. It's, eh, I live in NYC, so massive crowds buying stuff is less than novel to me :)

I guess all of that is pretty touristy. But fun.

I love London, can you tell? :)

And you know, it's only 3 hours by chunnel, Waterloo to Gare du Nord...
 
shawneous said:
This is definitely on-the-track, but if you have even the slightest of love for history, go to the British Museum. It's free, and completely awesome. All the original stuff is there. Real mummies, the real Rosetta stone, real original everything. I spent one day almost racing through the exhibits, I wished I'd had three days. Again, it's free, so even if you popped in for just a few hours, it's no big deal.
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Hey! You don't need a "Slight love for history" to get off on the place, all you need is slight love for Indiana Jones movies! So much cool stuff in there!
 
British museum has some great exhibits there, I've been three times and I would gladly go back. It's just takes 90 minutes from bilbao to heathrow (by plane), then off to london......
 
If you find a cheap/safe place to stay, let me know.

I'm in Paris now, but I'd like to make the trip across the channel for a week.
 
The new saatchi gallery in london is pretty cool. Im not an arty person, but I spent 7 hours steadicamming in there on Friday, and the dead angel is pretty cool to look at.
 
oh yeah, beware of unlicensed minicabs. A cab is a big black taxi, a minicab is just a guy with a car, but a minicab should be licensed and has a plate thing over the number plate. If its not licensed, dont get in it, caus the unlicensed minicab people are well known for taking people to dark alleys and raping them.

Also be very wary of people that come up to you asking you to change a pile of pound coins into a note. Also if someone comes up to you saying they ran out of petrol and can you lend them some money to buy some petrol, they never come back.

Other than that, london is pretty cool. If anyone is in london over the 26th 7th 8th, im doing a shoot with a RedOne. We have a motion control dolly, crane and three axis jib head if anyone wants to come and have a tinker....
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by shawneous
Also, just wandering into random pubs can be very fun.

Ah yes... what he said.:beer:
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I will third this. Pub. Food. Beer. The best. :beer::beer::beer:

The London Aquarium is solid, if you've seen the movie "Closer" you may recognize a few areas where scenes were shot.

Oh! And head over to the Gloucester Road Burger King (right next to the tube station) and get 'The Burger'. It's about 100GBP. Don't forget to call ahead and order it!

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,368901,00.html

(I actually have eaten at that BK, but just had a chicken sandwich or something)

Have fun! I can't wait to go back myself...
 
does it really require a helmet?

badlands.jpg
 
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