London is one of those rare cities that absorbs every level of attention you bring to it — from the British Museum's Elgin Marbles and the Tower of London's thousand-year history to a market lunch at Borough and an evening at the National Theatre, it is a city that simply never runs out of itself.
- Suggested duration: 3–5 days
- Best time to visit: Apr–Sep
- Budget: $$$$
London rewards the curious in a way that few cities can match. It is a city of villages — Notting Hill and Shoreditch, Hampstead and Bermondsey — each with its own character, its own market, its own literary pub, and its own angle on what it means to be a Londoner. The great institutions are genuinely great: the British Museum and the National Gallery are among the finest in the world, and both are free. The parks — Hyde, Green, St James's, Regent's — are the city's lungs and its social stage, particularly in summer. And the food, the theatre, and the sheer concentration of creative energy at work across the city at any given moment make London one of the most stimulating places on earth to spend a week.
The Historic City
London's history is most densely concentrated in the square mile of the original City and along the Thames. The Tower of London, begun by William the Conqueror in 1066 and continuously occupied for nearly a thousand years, holds the Crown Jewels in a vault that draws queues of understandable length. Tower Bridge, opened in 1894 and still among the most beautiful bascule bridges in existence, is best photographed from the south bank at dusk. St Paul's Cathedral, Wren's masterpiece and a place of national ceremony since 1710, can be climbed to the Whispering Gallery and the external Golden Gallery for the finest elevated view of the city. The Museum of London Docklands, in a Georgian warehouse at Canary Wharf, tells the story of the river with unexpected emotional force.
- British Museum: The Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles, the Lewis Chessmen — allow three hours minimum and return
- National Gallery: Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait, Turner's Fighting Temeraire, Seurat's Bathers — all free
- Borough Market: London's oldest food market; busiest on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday — arrive hungry and without a plan
The West End and the Arts
London's performing arts scene is without peer in the English-speaking world. The West End theatre district, centred on Shaftesbury Avenue and the Strand, runs over 40 major productions simultaneously at any point in the year — Shakespeare at the Barbican, revivals and transfers at the Savoy, new writing at the Donmar Warehouse. Across the river, the South Bank arts complex — the National Theatre, the Tate Modern, the Southbank Centre — represents perhaps the most impressive concentration of cultural institutions in the world, all connected by the pedestrian Millennium Bridge and viewable from the new Sky Garden at the top of 20 Fenchurch Street.
Neighbourhoods Worth Knowing
Mayfair and Belgravia provide the London of established luxury — Mount Street's galleries and restaurants, the Connaught and Claridge's, the private members clubs of St James's. Shoreditch and Dalston in the East End offer a different register: rooftop bars, concept restaurants, vintage markets, and the creative energy that has characterised east London since the Huguenots arrived in the seventeenth century. Notting Hill on a summer Saturday — the antique dealers of Portobello Road, the terraced gardens of Pembridge Square, lunch at the Ledbury — is one of the great pleasures of the city. And Hampstead, on the northern heights above the city, offers the Heath, Kenwood House with its outdoor concerts, and the illusion, walking across the open grassland with the city laid out below, of being somewhere entirely other than London.
- The Tate Modern: The Turbine Hall installations alone are worth the visit; the Blavatnik Building extension added five floors of extraordinary space
- Kew Gardens: 300 acres of botanical wonder; the Victorian glasshouses and the treetop walkway are the highlights
- Hampton Court: Henry VIII's great riverside palace, 35 minutes by river boat from Westminster Pier
Staying and Eating in London
London's hotel landscape has been transformed in the past decade. Claridge's and The Connaught represent the gold standard of traditional British luxury — impeccable service, extraordinary art collections, and a sense of occasion that money alone cannot manufacture. The Ned in the City occupies the former Midland Bank building, a 1924 masterpiece by Edwin Lutyens, and offers nine restaurants in one extraordinary space. For a more contemporary sensibility, The Hoxton in Shoreditch or Ace Hotel in Bermondsey place guests at the centre of the city's most creative neighbourhoods. Dining at the highest level — The Clove Club in Shoreditch, Sketch in Mayfair, Da Terra in Bethnal Green — requires booking weeks in advance, but London's restaurant culture is deep enough that exceptional meals are available at a day's notice if you know where to look.