london

The little cartoon/comic museum on Wells St. W1 is worth a look I think.

A good walk would be along the Regents canal pretty much anywhere between Islington and Mile End although the often narrow towpath can get pretty busy (including cyclists).

I've never been here Stevie but I've always thought it looked fun!

https://novelty-automation.com

"I mean btwn Philly and NYC I can get amazing Italian, Thai, Indian, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, etc., but what are the types of things I'd have a hard time finding stateside?"

See Vietnamese, Turkish and Ethiopian have not been listed. There are some good places though ppl here should know better.

Anybody ever been to Museum of Brands in Notting Hill? Might be of limited interest to American visitors ... but I'm a sucker for old packaging etc, and keep meaning to pay a visit when I'm done in London:

https://museumofbrands.com

I have. It is (or at least was) pretty much exactly as you'd expect - lots and lots of old packaging - and none the worse for it.

The Design Museum moved a few years back to the bottom of Holland Park (not far from where you are staying) and is in this fantastic building, the old Commonwealth Institute. Then you could wander up into the park itself, hang out in the orangery and see the Kyoto water gardens.

I have no real plans other than to just ~vibe~,

This is a good plan imo. It’s a good idea to allow a certain amount of time for simply soaking up the various areas of London and their own characteristic nature. My only tip: don’t be persuaded to spend all your time in East London on the grounds it’s the most vibrant, but also make time for the South Bank (combine with Tate Modern) and Notting Hill (you’re well placed in Kensington) and the central areas of Bloomsbury, Soho and Fitzrovia.

Also avoid the Stratford Olympic Park unless you want to hang out at a rocket launch apron with a football stadium and pile of twisted metal plonked down onto it at haphazard angles. Soho is a good call for wandering through its low canyons, also near to Chinatown.

> The Design Museum moved a few years back

probably worth a look at the permanent collection on top floor if you've not been before but i was there at start of october and it seemed very down on its luck - lights only half on, the secondary exhibition space closed, shop contents seemed odd, somehow, and the outside shop now sells only plants.

holland park worth a wander though, yes. actually feels like being in the woods despite being in central london.

(like the Museum of the Home sounds p cool?

Enjoyed the Museum of the Home but it's gone through major restructuring since I last went.

Was going to suggest the Museum of Childhood and the House Of Illustration but both are temporarily closed, boo hiss.

Re: restaurants, considering your list includes most of the major diasporas...maybe if you're willing to go posh with it, you could try modern English (please do not laugh) cuisine? Lyle's, The Clove Club and St. Johns are all good representatives of this, tho also all pricey as fuck.

Re: Turkish food of course I'm biased but numara 19 bos cirrik does a mean mixed grill in a super noisy/unpretentious atmosphere. Mangal 2 is good for a more fancy take.

If you like Jazz some of the best concerts I've seen recently have been at the Church Of Sound in Clapton. Actual rented out church, strong community feel.

My only tip: don’t be persuaded to spend all your time in East London on the grounds it’s the most vibrant,

This take has surely been moved to South London ages ago?

My relatives visiting London this year were desperate to visit Shoreditch, Hoxton, Brick Lane, London Fields, and Victoria Park.

Unfair though it may be, Peckham, Crystal Palace and Penge just didn’t have the same “brand recognition”.

I live in East London and have long resigned myself to this being seen as uncool by my Southern authentocrat brethren.

But this reminds me yeah CRYSTAL PALACE is a must!! For the bizarre Victorian dinosaur statues!

peckham is "cool" though probably still lagging behind said east end locations. penge not so much yet

Also avoid the Stratford Olympic Park unless you want to hang out at a rocket launch apron with a football stadium and pile of twisted metal plonked down onto it at haphazard angles.

harsh - as ugly as is the orbit

that part of it sucks but the park itself is big and the forested bits extend for miles up the river, it’s pretty cool actually /biased

Cosign the Soane Museum recommendation - it's old stuff but it's an unusual and rather English kind of place. Was going to suggest the Hunterian for weird old medical content, but it seems to be closed until next year. I like to pop into the Photographers' Gallery - there's usually something interesting to see.

My only tip: don’t be persuaded to spend all your time in East London on the grounds it’s the most vibrant,

This take has surely been moved to South London ages ago?

― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 26 October 2022 13:53 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

south london is bad and everyone shd feel bad

It's becoming bad bcz parts of it are being remade in an East London way.

I haven't been in a while but I'd recommend Dulwich picture gallery.

https://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/

Discussion of DPG current exhibition is a bit further above.

The South London Gallery in Camberwell is also of interest and has a good and bookshop.

Parts of South London have been fully assimilated into the spectacular commodity economy (eg The Newport Street Gallery in Vauxhall - proprietor Damien Hirst), but other parts of South London are still holding out.

Holding out?

There is no spectacular commodity economy within miles of where I live, except the centre of Greenwich.

If you think that off-licences, fried chicken shops and old maisonettes are spectacular, OK, we're spectacular.

I like Penge in my own strange way, but by most normal people's standards there is almost literally nothing to see there.

(Down the road at the NSG, we had Damien Hirst performatively burning 10,000 of his own artworks in an NFT/‘is innovative finance the new art ?’ carefully cultivated controversy/media event)

In an attempt to be more informed, I have looked up NSG but as far as I can see it is Northampton School for Girls, which doesn't seem to belong on this thread.

The aforementioned Newport Street Gallery

But this reminds me yeah CRYSTAL PALACE is a must!! For the bizarre Victorian dinosaur statues!

And the aquarium/reptilarium (?) in the town centre

South London is great but southeast in particular is a trek for tourists without a local friend/personal connection there.

It does have Zeret kitchen (excellent Ethiopian) and FM Mangal (excellent Turkish) and Silk Road (excellent Xinjiang/Chinese) though

I wrote that while on a no serve section of train, turns out reptilarium is a word

If I had a friend visiting I'd take them to 40 Maltby St, yes you can get good generically European food in NYC but it's very well done, and fun that it's a railway arch, and the whole area is quite fun. Can be combined with a visit to White Cube Bermondsey (and is only 10 minutes from Borough Market, which is only 10 minutes walk from Tate Modern)

For Stevie and for Londoners that might not know, the London Wall location of the Museum of London is closing forever 4 December! New museum in West Smithfield will open ~in the next few years~ and MOL Docklands remains open, but this is your last chance to see things like the Victorian Walk or the Olympic Cauldron which may or may not make it to new museum as well as a random hodgpodge of history of London from prehistoric fossils to today.

I comprehend the idea that "SE London is a trek". It is what most people think.

Yet it is also a fact that London Bridge or Charing Cross can be considered "central London", and getting from them to notable locations in SE London takes under 15 minutes.

"I mean btwn Philly and NYC I can get amazing Italian, Thai, Indian, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, etc., but what are the types of things I'd have a hard time finding stateside?"

See Vietnamese, Turkish and Ethiopian have not been listed. There are some good places though ppl here should know better.

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, October 26, 2022 4:06 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

We also have a ton of incredible Vietnamese and Ethiopian in Philly :( Turkish, not so much!

Re: restaurants, considering your list includes most of the major diasporas...maybe if you're willing to go posh with it, you could try modern English (please do not laugh) cuisine? Lyle's, The Clove Club and St. Johns are all good representatives of this, tho also all pricey as fuck.

no see this is actually exactly what I would love to try!! A friend recommended St. Johns, I will check out the other two as well.

all of this advice has been exceedingly tremendously helpful so far, tysm!!!!!

It was years ago, but I ate at St. Johns at ilx’s recommendation and really enjoyed it!

St John just opened a new branch in Marylebone.

St John just opened a new branch in Marylebone.

St John's is so good.

Don't feel tied to the restaurant hours either, you can get most of the star items at the bar at any time.

have people been to Singburi? The Vittles/Instagram folks talk about it as near-miraculous

on that topic, subscribing to Vittles for a month and reading your way around London while you eat your way around London might be a pretty good use of four King Charles pounds: https://vittles.substack.com/p/a-newcomers-guide-to-london-food

i live a 15 minute walk from singburi and been there many times. it's great. depends what you get. big chalk menu of specials every day. family run. no nonsense but always packed. you need to reserve a table by 1pm or forget it.

Might be partly through preciously living in walkeable Porto but everything in London is a trek in my book.

previously, though I'm sure I was precious about it too

I’ve lived in this neighbourhood for fifteen years and still haven’t come to terms with the embassy of North Korea being a detached suburban house at the end of the street pic.twitter.com/ppI9j3htne

— Gareth (@Cadmarch) October 28, 2022

I grew up in a north London street with the Ghanaian consulate a few doors along, I think it might be some kind of laundering thing where ill-gotten gains are transferred into overseas property.

Sure this will give visitors an idea or two.

the @vittlesmagazine pub guide continues with south london: co-op pubs, modern desi pubs, jamaican pubs with jerk chicken buffet tables, pubs with boules, the best real ale pub in carshalton, and, of course, skehanshttps://t.co/eOg7JUlQ8i

— axaxaxas lmäo (@demarionunn) October 28, 2022

Consulate buildings aren’t the result of dirty money - they’re necessary for diplomacy. I know exactly where that one is and my friend’s dad used to be posted there.

From that vittles pub guide:

All a pub needs to be special in a city like London is just one thing that marks it out from every other pub that surrounds it. It could be something small, like Glasshouse Stores’ bar billiards table, or The Southampton Arms’ pork bap. At The Prince of Wales, a sliver of a pub on Kennington’s residential Cleaver Square, you might assume it’s the hidden setting, or even the koulibiac I’ve spotted hidden on the menu next to the roasts, suggesting the presence of someone from Eastern Europe in the kitchen. But it’s none of those things. It’s the boules.

:|

okay I'm dialing back on my cuisine sentiments a bit, what are the types of foods London does exceptionally well? I am getting vibes that Indian and Turkish are two of thiese

There were some really nice Latin American restaurants in Elephant & Castle but I think a few have closed since the shopping centre was torn down.

the Vittles central London pub listing was pretty spot on for around us for the ones I've been to, and highlighted a few that are really nearby but I've never been in, so.

I would say the biggest communities foodwise in London are Indian, Pakistani and Turkish.

India of course is a gigantic country featuring tons of different cuisines and I know very little about the matter but will say I love Rasa (vegetarian place in Stoke Newington) and was also quite impressed by Brigadier's (though beware the City of London banker vibes).

At the risk of dropping yet another vittles link here, there's this: https://vittles.substack.com/p/60-south-asian-dishes-every-londoner

Would maybe add Chinese to that list above; certainly the offer is insanely better than what I had in Portugal, but perhaps an American won't be as impressed. Anyway, X'Ian Impressions in Islington (Niang Biang noodles), Silk Road in Camberwell (Xinjiang) and Leung's Legends (Taiwanese) in Chinatown are good places.

Dunno how London Japanese stacks up against elsewhere but Asakusa in Camden has good food and a cool "authentic" Japanese drinking hole vibe.

Some random regions for different local cuisines: Edgware Road (Lebanon), Stockwell (Portugal), New Malden (Korea), Green Lanes (Turkish and Kurdish).