London

i am going to be lookin' around for funnish stuff to do during the days while my friends are at work. should i take day trips anywhere?

definitely do a beer with some of us. what sort of day trips do you have in mind?

im not sure haha! i just thought maybe like... day trips would be cool? ihavent seen any of england outside of london.

except in movies.

Oxford and Cambridge are easy day trips on the train. Worth seeing one or the other.

Was thinking bout that ya!

Just be aware that a round trip train ticket to Brighton costs approximately 1 million pounds

oh yeah, even in the off-season? (is april the off-season?)

Lunchtime is about as off-season as it gets these days.

Coach is reasonably quick to oxford (90 mins) and about half the price of the train.

thread summary:
q) what should i do in london?
a) get the hell out!

hahah noooooo

train tickets are a lot more affordable when bought in advance, but then you're supposed to travel only on that specific train.

Parks is a good idea, for things to do in london in actual london. Through Regent's Park and up Primrose Hill is a decent stroll ending with a good view over the city.

i am very into taking 'walks' (free, fun, photos)

walking along the riverside, from e.g. battersea bridge to tower bridge, is kind of a must

i will do that!!

excited to see what's playing at BFI! seeing l'atalante the last time i was in london, some years ago, was a highlight of my cinemagoing life

tmi probably but the river walk from battersea to vauxhall is a bit of a pain in the ass imo, lots of the riverfront is inaccessible and you can wind up getting lost in a maze of old industria and new sterile housing. but, it can be an adventure.

yeah trains to brighton are not ridic expensive if booked well in advance. def worth popping down if the weather's nice. parks-wise i'd say hampstead heath is a must if you have a) good weather and b) some ppl to explore it with

the walk from finsbury park up to alexandra palace is great

without knowing what specifically is on where i'd recommend the south bank as a good place for visitors to hang. if the weather's nice it can be pretty chilled, there's usually a good exhibition or two around there as well as various interesting concerts etc in the evening.

more good walking to be had along the regents canal, pretty much any stretch between limehouse and little venice has got interesting things to look at and goes past lots of nice parks, pubs, etc.

awesome! thanks for all this guys.

yeah trains to brighton are not ridic expensive if booked well in advance. def worth popping down if the weather's nice. parks-wise i'd say hampstead heath is a must if you have a) good weather and b) some ppl to explore it with

― jabba hands, Thursday, March 22, 2012 11:27 AM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is there a way of knowing in advance what the weather is going to be like?

http://www.positiveweathersolutions.co.uk

s1ocki that question is at this very moment producing smirks all around the britILX

(haha i know i was joking)

i may try to see some theatre while i'm there too? has anyone seen anything good lately? do people still do that?

the walk from finsbury park up to alexandra palace is great

Absolutely. Ally Pally to Hampstead Heath via Highgate Wood is excellent as well.

more good walking to be had along the regents canal, pretty much any stretch between limehouse and little venice has got interesting things to look at and goes past lots of nice parks, pubs, etc.

i always feel weird walking along this stretch cuz it used to be my run. when i walk along it i'm like, why is it taking so long to get from one place to another? why am i going so slowly?

i may try to see some theatre while i'm there too? has anyone seen anything good lately? do people still do that?

yup there's always something good on! would recommend the fringe listings as well as the main west end ones. too many good theatres to list.

gah that reminds me, i am meant to be organising a theatre trip, i said i'd email people, um, 2 weeks ago

s1ocki the current issue of Time Out is all about how great London theatre is at the moment

i'd check out what's on at the Donmar Warehouse, Young Vic, Arcola, the National Theatre, etc etc

awesome!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3Xngs4VuoU

listening to this in anticipaysh

this is gonna sound weird but do time out london actually post their articles to their site? http://www.timeout.com/london/ seems to be just listings?

ledge is wise upthread, don't bother with the battersea -> vauxhall bit

if you find yourself around buckingham palace, head over towards big ben, cross the river, then walk east along the river making your way towards tower bridge. you'll pass loads of galleries, museums and the areas around waterloo / london bridge stations are really good for finding good food, places like borough market, lower marsh.

go to richmond park, it's v posh & pretty. if you're here on the 2nd, go to 'boat-ting' and hang out with improv legends on a boat. on the 3rd it's 'first thursdays' where the galleries open late in east london. walking the canals around east london isn't particularly nice but i really enjoy it for it's griminess. we once started in old street at the 'wenlock arms' which has good ale selection then walked along the canal passing through hoxton, shoreditch, dalston, london fields and then ended up at the nice bit around victoria park. if you're feeling really brave and fancy it you can carry on to the olympic park, passing through all the hackney wick warehouse area, which is also horrible, but i like all that stuff

okay i'm going to stop now because it's just depressing that i don't have the time/money to do these things myself!!

i will be there through may 4th so looks like i could do those things on the 2nd and 3rd, though i am not QUITE sure what "hang out with improv legends on a boat" means?? comedy improv? or musical improv?

http://www.boat-ting.co.uk/

always good :)

Cor, Veryan Weston! Don't think I've ever seen him play and I shd see some improv this year. Might need to go.

Also Cafe Oto is gd for music, as w/Boat-ting depends on your taste:

http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/programme.shtm

For more evening thingies: tricycle and riverside are always good for a mix of theatre/cinema/dance. Told v nice things re: rich mix. Check their programme and there might be something you'd want to go along to.

Late Apr at the BFI looks gd: David Holzman's Diary is a pick, but there's some good things in their 'studio' room that opened about 2-3 years ago I think (L'Atalante ws screened there in a shiny new print but I missed it)

Oops you said May 4th so scrap the BFI pick. Always click on their site on the 1st day of the month to check.

i looked at some BFI offerings while i'm there (after an amazing experiencing watching l'atalante there, did i mention that in this thread?) and there's some interesting stuff incl THIEF OF BAGHDAD

Yes you did, hence why I mentioned the new print.

Thief of Baghdad = also good.

that would be a fun one to see on the big screen!

Other daytrip possibilities I would recommend: Whitstable (fishing town with lovely old buildings, pebble beach), Rye (similar but set on a hill above a salt marsh which gives it a very isolated atmosphere, with Camber Sands and Dungeness nearby- Dungeness is a weird headland with a nuclear power plant and lots of beach shacks dotted around a pebble beach which is a bit like a moonscape); Lewes (near Brighton, great big castle, a large tourable brewery, interesting shops, good pubs & restaurants); Warwick Castle (another huge castle). Oxford & Cambridge also recommended.

You could also go to another big city for a daytrip- Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Liverpool and Sheffield are all just about doable (each c. 2hrs on the train), but if you do that definitely book in advance.

all of those sound like great places to take pictures and stare into the distance and think about wg sebald and scribble stuff in my notebook i wont be able to make out later.

is there any great travel book re: london or any of these day trips any of yall know about?

Derek Jarman had a cottage in Dungeness, innit?

Kent is really good for a day trip in spring/summer (of course its utterly depressing at most other times). xp

Yeah, Dungeness was Jarman territory.

Whitstable & Rye definitely Sebald-esque, but you could go to the Suffolk coast for the real thing- Rings of Saturn is set round there IIRC, but I don't know that part of the world at all. Dunwich, the town now under the sea, was on that part of the coast.

Re. guides: Time Out London city guide is good. I have one called "London by Pub", which is basically a load of pub crawls plus some incidental stuff about architecture.

This obviously is no use for travel plans, but 20 degrees! http://static2.bigstockphoto.com/thumbs/8/9/2/large2/298016.jpg

ooh here's another daytrip suggestion: Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, nr. Oxford. Gigantic Vanbrugh country house, with Capability Brown grounds. Proper Hanoverian Ascendancy architecture-as-power stuff.

unlucky s1ocki, we're having summer in march this year

Also, you can get to the middle of Paris in like 2 hours.