I (Tuomas that is) am planning of coming to London in the end of August, need tips on accomodation, etc. (UPDATE: I'm there again for Christmas 2013.)

Me and two of my friends decided yesterday that since we all have holiday in August, we should go to London together. Our initial plan is to fly there Wednesday the 19th of August and fly back Friday the 28th. But we need to find some accomodation in London, and we should try to find it pretty quick, since it's only a month until August 19th. I was wondering if you Londoners could give me some tips on cheap hotels or good hostels in London? Is it possible to find a relatively cheap hotel room in such short notice? We're not young hippies anymore, so we'd prefer to stay in hotel... But since our travel budget isn't huge, a quality hostel is okay too, if we can't find a cheap enough hotel room. Do you have any tips?

Also, if we're indeed gonna come there, it might be nice to have a pint or something with you London ILXors, if you're up for it. For example, some time during the weekend of August 21st-23rd might be nice, if you'd fancy a pint.

Probably best off asking non-Londoners for hotel tips - I've never had to stay in a hotel or hostel in London. Pity you can't stay for the weekend of the 28th for the Notting Hill Carnival.

I think it might be possible to be flexible with the dates, since one of the friends and I have holiday for the first week of September too. Maybe I'll ask if she wants to stay there for the Carnival... What is it like?

I always have loads of fun, though it can be an exhausting day. I'd recommend sticking around for it.

Well probably also be spending a couple of days in Brighton, since a friend of my friend lives there, and we can stay at her place. So if you have tips on what to do in Brighton, those are appreciated too. Though I guess our hostess should know what's happening there...

(x-post)

So is it like a street carnival, or something different?

Biggest street Carnival in Europe, up to 2 million people attend. It was started in the 60s(?) by the local Carribean community, and still has that flavour - lots of Jamaican food stalls, floats with soca bands playing on them and fat reggae sound systems.

Amazing costumes as well.

I just looked for it in Wikipedia, sounds like fun! But there must be a lot of tourists around then, right? That might mean it's difficult to get a hotel room for the weekend...

I'm sure you'll be fine if you book somewhere soon.

the brighton thread on ilx has a lot of good info, it's nice there!

i don't have too much practical advice apart from suggesting you stay in east london, cos it's fun.

Unfortunately, London hostels seem to have a pretty bad reputation. The St Christophers chain of hostels tends to be pretty decent, though, and some locations offer 4-person rooms, so if you book well enough in advance you could almost have an entire room to yourselves. Plus, some of them offer free breakfast, and most are well-located. Downside of course being that, well, it's a hostel, and it'll probably be very noisy and very busy, esp in August.

You might be able to find some cheap above-pub accomodation but I don't know if there's a website specific for searching for places like that or anything.

Hotels, I don't really know. There are tons and tons of them all over the city, so you certainly have a lot of options, but a quick search shows that they'll probably all start around £70 per room per night at the lower end. And they may try to make you get a second room for the third traveller unless they have a 'triple room' option. Although, you could just lie and say there are two adults travelling, then sneak in the third person and take turns sleeping on the floor...

You can probably still find some deals but you'll want to get searching right away. Make sure it's within zones 1-2, otherwise travelling costs more and takes way longer. And no matter where you stay, watch out for bedbugs...

TUOMAS IS COMING!! LOCK UP YR EVERYTHING!!!

i have had this bookmarked for a while, but i have never stayed there: http://www.hollyhousehotel.co.uk/

staying in of london during carnival is no harder than at any other time of year (except maybe notting hill itself).

Thanks for the tips, Salsa Shark! And Caek, that hotel looks pretty good! The cheapest three person room for seven days costs 560 pounds, I think that would be well within our budget. I don't know much about London geography, but apparently the location is (20 Hugh Street) is pretty good too?

Tuomas, please tell me you're going to London to be part of a wacky flashmob stunt at a busy station during peak hour.

http://www.generatorhostels.com/

used to walk past that all the time, a bit better location than the holly house, not much in it though. No idea what it is like inside though.

Yeah Russell Square is a better location than Victoria, but Victoria isn't the end of the world.

Location-wise it depends on what you want to do - if you're up for the whole tourist thing then Victoria will be fine. If you want to be staying out late and going clubbing etc then East London is the best place to do that. I probably wouldn't recommend staying in East London itself though, in which case Russell Square will be fine (and crucially walkable/bussable to most places).

A pint would be good yeah.

xpost ^^Actually that's a very good idea, as they appear to do private rooms for £20 per head per night if you are three people travelling together. If you don't want to eat out, there's a very nice supermarket nearby and you'll be able to take the Tube most of the way to Carnival. During Carnival, the police/transport org close the stations in the area so you have to get off somewhere like Little Venice or Paddington, hit the canal, and walk until you get to one of the places where there are sound systems and food (I recommend Golborne Road and the park/streets north of it for the best and cheapest food).

Matt may disagree but VICTORIA IS A SHITHOLE. Generator's spec and location are much better than some dive that looks like a B&B in Bristol in 1985, in a neighbourhood where nobody goes unless they're going someplace else. If you're doing tourist things, Russell Square is just as useful but useful x1000 for getting back from East London on 20 different busses. FWIW about 20 ILXors work near Generator and at least two of us, not counting Ed (former resident of neighbourhood) live within 5 minutes' walk.

^^^ agree 100%
I used to (not any more as I left London years ago) live in the apartment block next door to Generator. Russell Sq is where a whole load of bus routes intersect, so v v useful.

Oh I wouldn't disagree at all, Victoria is a shithole. A reasonably located shithole if all you want to do is see yer standard London tourist attractions, but a shithole nonetheless. It's nothing much more than a transport hub and some bad pubs really - Russell Square/Bloomsbury area so much nicer. Decent restaurants around there as well.

I think living in Camberwell/Oval and New Cross my first year or so in London has given me a proper dose of aversion therapy wrt Victoria and/or 36 bus.

yeah - but some of the East End ain't all that..

I agree about Russell Square though.

yeah, what brings me to london usually means that holly house/victoria would be fine, and it's about as good as it gets as a base for the tourist areas without spending millions, but suzy speaks sense.

I don't think we want to visit that many tourist sites, mostly just go clubbing and shopping and visit the pubs. So a nice location with good public transport connections would be good, and the Generator hostel seems to have three-person rooms well within our price range. So it seems like a good option, have to discuss it with my friends.

Russell Square is good then - you're within a bus ride of Old Street/Shoreditch, as well as Fabric and various other places. The pubs round Russell Square are good, ditto some of the restaurants, and there are lots of nice green squares to chill out in during the day.

There are also a lot of tourist traps round there, especially food wise, what with being so close to the British Museum, but I'm sure ILE can point you in the direction of the good places.

I just talked with my friend, and she said she could stay for the Carnival, but she'd have to fly back to Helsinki on Monday the 31st August. I might fly with her or stay behind for a day or two more, I dunno. Would we miss a lot of the Carnival if we left on Monday morning already? Are there any gigs or clubs you'd recommend during the weekend of August 28th-30th?

I don't think we want to visit that many tourist sites, mostly just go clubbing and shopping and visit the pubs.

I'm going to have faith here and suggest you just stay in east london in that case, you're on the central line and have amazing selection of pubs/clubs/restaurants. there are several hotels I've known friends to stay in, what's your price range?

I think staying around shoreditch and walking around dalston/hackney/bethnal green for a day or two going out or going to eat etc would give you a lot of really good experiences and a strong feel for at least one version of London. I know that's how I still feel having moved here about 18 months ago.

London tends to go pretty mental over the course of that August Bank Holiday weekend - there'll be parties everywhere but I'll take a look.

Quite a lot of the carnival takes place on the Monday. I'm not sure it's necessarily worth extending your stay for the carnival itself, it tends to get very crowded indeed and a bit pushy, but can be kind of buzz harshing.

I personally don't get the Russel Sq thing, the only place you're going to specifically want to go out to around there is Fabric, and it's not like that's a million miles from Shoreditch. Whereas if you stay in Shoreditch you can walk to about 50 different club events on a weekend, most of which are prob better than Fabric anyway, plus you get all the pubs/restaurants etc and (even more importantly) the general buzz that's around the air of lots of young people...

Like you're not going to wander into an amazing party walking through Russel Sq

Call me a purist but I think it's better to stay central and experience lots of different versions of London, especially if it's a first visit, but hey that's just me. Some people don't take to Shoreditch and you're stuck there if you don't.

It's certainly worth spending a lot of time in that bit of East London but it's not the be all and end all. You don't necessarily want to be staying right where the amazing parties are anyway and you can usually get back to Russell Square quickly at any time of night, even if it's in a cab.

Yeah for me I just don't see the point of that, it's not noisy/horrible in east London plus it's not just about parties either, I think the things you'd do in the day and eating/hanging out around east gives you as good an experience as going to warehouse parties or whatever.

I'm just providing info but if someone wants to stay somewhere that's predominantly young people, good cheap ethnic restaurants, v unorthodox clubs playing any kind of music, and a huge choice of pubs/bars, all in this fairly large but walkable area, it just makes perfect sense to stay east.

It's not even a rave thing, I hardly go clubbing at all, but I dunno, it's just for the size of the area you have a bigger range of options in practically everything you could want to do.

Only one of us has been to London and we probably want to do other things besides partying, so I guess a more central location might be good, I dunno. We only decided to go there a couple of days ago, so I think we'll still have to discuss what my friends want out of the trip. Personally, I don't think I want to party every night, but I definitely want to visit some clubs, so recommendations on good dance/electronic clubs are welcome. Preferably something a bit more bohemian than glitzy, and not terribly expensive.

(x-post)

LG, do you know any cheap hotels or hostels around that area?

"only one of us has been to London before"

I'm not actually sure on hotels/hostels, I know friends have stayed in hotels that are prob not that cheap, but I'm guessing there must be loads of hostels around, there are so many young people.

As for clubs/bars and stuff, wherever you're staying, revive the thread coming close to the time and I'm sure there'll be loads of ideas, and lots of non glitzy stuff too, there are loads of illegal parties around, or crazy anything goes type nights.

Passing Clouds in Dalston is a cool venue for that kind of thing. I understand it's a bit pot luck whether you're going to find a banging club night or some kind of boho poetry jam thing when you turn up there though (only been once and it was reggae).

Yeah Passing Clouds is exactly what I had in mind, I think Tuomas would love that. Actually anyone I've brought loves it. When I went it was reggae mostly but tropicalia and disco and stuff as well, totally shambolic but a great party.

That's an accurate description of the one I went to actually, maybe it was the same night.

yeah like maybe 3 months ago? maybe more...hmm.

Yeah, around then. It was cold, I remember that.

Yeah a lot of those basement bars around Kingsland Road can really kick off in a good way. I would be up for some Finnish rave action.

http://www.customhouse-hotel.co.uk/

This hotel seems to have pretty cheap rooms, but I take it the location is not good? Is it easy to get to public transport there?

Docklands is a whole 'nother world. Avoid if you want to have no hassle getting places.

That weekend might not be the time they're likely to offer whizbang cheap deals, but Hoxton Hotel or even the Holiday Inn in Old Street are good for Shoreditch and not expensive, considering.

I found the Ibis in Whitechapel to be great for all my sinister of East London needs. I would however recommend against the Whitechapel Travelodge - it's not really their fault, but having a train line right beside it means that if you keep your windows open you will be woken up by trains at the crack of dawn, while if you keep your window closed you will be too hot to sleep.

I'm actually thinking of my own trip to Lahndon in August, maybe we should have an ILX convention or something.

This hotel seems to have pretty cheap rooms, but I take it the location is not good? Is it easy to get to public transport there?

Don't stay there, Canning Town is a shithole and miles from everywhere.

public transport (tube and DLR) to that area is decent but that's not a good enough reason to stay there

I think living in Camberwell/Oval and New Cross my first year or so in London has given me a proper dose of aversion therapy wrt Victoria and/or 36 bus.
― going vogue (suzy), Sunday, 19 July 2009 12:42 (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ha i would have thought living in camberwell/oval and new cross would just make everywhere else seem nice in comparison..

btw surely you want to stay in this hostel

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=lohia+excelsior&ie=UTF8&ll=51.572695,-0.087719&spn=0,359.982705&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=51.572633,-0.090447&panoid=27HX7sTeY1JAKUCKRVnPdQ&cbp=12,333.55,,1,-1.07

Actually the Fitzrovia/Bloomsbury stretch probably has more good pubs than any other part of London, and is full of chilled out little squares and so forth. Cherry Blossom OTM.

well ken he did ask about what it was like around that hotel...it's pretty good! also like it takes about 15 mins to walk to shoreditch from there, hackney road is not middle of nowhere or something. i don't get how getting back there would be hassle at night, you walk. or you get a cheap cab or a night bus, same as getting back to city road. it's not like it's rough or whatever.

I think its more that the convenience of a central hotel is good for "so its 4pm, lets go back to the hotel and drop these records and clothes off, freshen up and head back out for a meal". Or the ability to walk the whole time and perhaps not even get a bus

Yeah that's it really. That's kind of why City Road is the perfect compromise, because you're close to both central and East London. There's also a lot to be said for being within 5mins walk of the Tube.

I really dislike that lower stretch of Hackney Road, not round the hotel but just past the Old Street roundabout and the Joiners Arms etc. It suddenly feels quite quiet and intimidating, especially at night. Much more so than Kingsland Road or Mare Street which are always lively and full of people. I suppose it's partly irrational, but this pub has always scared the shit out of me.

it's not even worth the argument but ok.

city road hotel by nearby night bus routes
205 214 271 43 N55 N35 243 N76

hackney road nearby night bus routes
N55 N26 (N253)

distance to nearest tube station
city road: 0.2 miles (old st) 0.2 miles (moorgate) 0.4 miles (liverpool st)
hackney road: 0.6 miles (bethnal green)

sorry xpost research took a bit long

wow Ronan is a true Eastender! rarely do they care to venture "up wist".

i wish the pub on Hackney Road called THE SCUD was still with this. don't forget that the WEST BROM PUB is only a stones throw from Days Hotel tho. and Little Georgia.

now that i'm livin central I appreciate it a lot more obv (esp. bloomsbury and clerkenwell)

little georgia otm...as for the transport thing, if you're talking better connected in general then that's once again nothing to do with the initial point made, which was that that hotel is not in the middle of nowhere or in a crap location.

fair enough

LOL at the suggestion that central London is 'ugly' in comparison with Shoreditch!

tuomas is going to have a very fucked up trip to london if he carries on reading this thread.

It's all right, we've already told him camden market is shit.

I really meant a crap location in terms of tourists staying in London for the first time, rather than in general. It's kind of the equivalent of going to New York for the first time and staying a fair way out in Brooklyn - there'll be good stuff going on there, it's not the middle of nowhere, and it's fine for people who have been there several times, but hardly the best base from which to explore the city for the very first time.

The boy won't know whether he's coming or going at this rate

(Haha yeah Tuomas you probably don't need to bother printing out anything after the record shop recommendations)

depends on your defn of ugly, most of central london looks like a 70s drama about IRA bombing campaigns

i have no idea what you mean or where you could be thinking of.

congrats

I agree about seeing central London first, but then Tuomas has quite a bit of time, so voyaging east could be fun. The Vyner street galleries are interesting to pop in and out of.

The market etc in Camden is a fucking armpit, but it's part of what makes London, er... London. And it's something of an eye opener, at least. Worth passing through once, maybe? For what it's worth, Brick Lane in full effect makes me queasier in some ways.

brick lane is horrible, I will give you that for sure.

Most of East London is pretty ugly just to look at, but then again most of London is pretty ugly just to look at. You want to go to a beautiful city, go to Paris or Copenhagen or somewhere. You go to London because it's exciting and full of really cool shit.

not sure Paris is really more beautiful (esp. if you take conveniently disregard Montmartre and the Isles).

Camden market is fantastic if you are in the mood to spend an afternoon in the 1990s!

i guess some of The City is ugly? i dunno London kind of is the most beautiful place in the world, to me, so i'm finding all this discussion almost painfully baffling.

there are enough beautiful buildings, little parks etc. in zone 1 to excuse all the crap imo

Central London's not ugly at all! (Though it does have its bad points)

Fitzrovia, Belgravia, Mayfair, all those large town houses and squares. The small streets in Soho, the broad avenues of Regent St and Haymarket. Trafalgar Square. The Parks! Laaaahvely.

And I'm very fond of Camden, but it's been my stomping ground forever. I can understand disliking it.

Most of most cities are shit to look at unless you know where the pretty stuff is. Helpfully, many of us have pointed out pretty/interesting things already.

I can only assume Ronan is taking Central London to be TCR/Oxford Road/Centrepoint or something.

xposts

i thought most of the city was really ugly when i was younger and just going into town for the day on the tube. used to find all post-war stuff plus the general greyness just depressing.

In most of zone one that's way outnumbered by 18th and 19th C stuff though.

my heart belongs to the Black Tower of Archway

I had a dream once that Archway Tower contained an illegal casino full of Star Wars cantina aliens.

haha no that's archway snooker club across the road

zone 1 is filled with little parks and squares and courtyards and passages

and look there's Tiny Tim dancing a gay jig

In most of zone one that's way outnumbered by 18th and 19th C stuff thoug

yeah but the later stuff tended to be a lot taller thus more imposing and noticeable, esp. in the busier spots

Yeah I think the thing with Central London is that it can appear a bit grey and ugly and then you walk round a corner and suddenly see something amazingly beautiful, it's the whole patchwork architecture of the place. Like I just walked past Hinde St Methodist Church, like two roads north of Oxford St, and was immediately like "wow, that's gorgeous, I had no idea that was there".

So, what happened? I was expecting the Notting Hill Carnival photos, and considered review of London by now.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v356/kenjuggle3/tuomascarnival.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v356/kenjuggle3/tuomasbigben.jpg

Hey, I'm coming to London again for Christmas, we'll be staying there from 23rd to 27th December. I dunno if everyone is spending time with their families that week, but if not, maybe we could try a FAP again, since the last one didn't quite work out?

Also, I'd need a few Christmas tips, if any London ILXors can help me... We're thinking of going to a classical music concert; I'd love to hear some choral Christmas music like Händel, Saint-Saens, Mendelssohn, etc. Can you recommend me any venue or gig along those lines?

Another question I need some help with: we already have options of where to eat a Christmas Day dinner, but what's the restaurant situation on the 24th and Boxing Day? Are restaurants open or close on those days in general? If you can recommend me some good mid-range restaurants that serve nice food for both carnivores and vegetarians, I'd love to hear more.

"Mid-range" = "mid-price range", if that was unclear.

And tips on any other fun stuff to do in London during the Christmas week are appreciated too.

London will be super quiet that week, people will be out and about on the 23rd and 24th but you will feel like you have the city centre to yourselves for the rest of the time. That said, I'm not sure how much will be open on those days so plan ahead/phone ahead if you're thinking about going out on either day.

You can't do anything in London in December without passing a choir but most of the concerts will be done by that point. Having a look at concert-diary.com there's Handel's Messiah at St John's Smith Square on the 23rd and this on Boxing Day.

I'll be in London that week but doing family stuff throughout your stay, with the possible exception of the 23rd.

http://www.concert-diary.com/?f_Region=London

ha, reminds me of this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ianvisits/sets/72157628564018557/detail/

(photos of central london taken on christmas morning)

How's the public transport on Christmas? Our hotel is in SoHo, I guess it'd be nice to find a restaurant within a walking distance for Christmas Eve.

You will have no problems whatsoever on Christmas Eve and there are more restaurants within walking distance of Soho than pretty much anywhere else. Might still be worth booking ahead though.

Public transport will basically shut down completely on Christmas Day and will start up again with slightly reduced services on Boxing Day. There will be football matches played across London on the 26th so things will be running and people will be moving about.

Those pictures of London on Christmas day are amazing. It's like the start of 28 Days Later or something.