London : The City (Part 3)

London: The City (Part 1)
London: The City (Part 2)

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Other than the places in the "complete walking tour" of London below:), there are a couple more to visit which don’t fall within this walk.

One of them is Madame Tussads, which is a must-do. To see the wax figures of celebrities from across the world and get photographed with them! It makes you a kid again:).

The figures are really life-like, and the favourite ones are the popular stars like, Marilyn Monroe, Beatles, and Amitabh and Aishwarya for Indians. Mine of course was Hugh Grant:).

Also located nearby in Baker Street is “221b, Baker Street”, one of the most famous addresses in the world, where you can see the Sherlock Holmes museum. It’s a must do for Sherlock fans!

Also located nearby in this area is the Regents Park, another very beautifully landscaped park. During summer, they have open air plays performed in Regents Park, a must watch!

Nearby,the Kings cross railway station is quite an architectural delight, a grand building and somehow always reminds me about the VT station in Mumbai. Its quite a famous station, from where the Euro star goes nowadays, as well as the station where Harry Potter goes off to his school.

Camden Town is the slightly shadier part of North London, where you get a completely different view of the city. You can walk through the market, where you will find stuff you would never think of. Islington and Angel areas also in North London are good for partying, where lots of students party as it’s slightly cheaper than the other parts of the city.

Little Venice is an area in central London, next to the Regents Canal where apparently lots of Italians stay since it reminds them of Venice, Italy! I find that logic hard to believe, but I guess that’s what happens in such old cities. Is a good walk to walk around the canal across town and take breaks, sipping pimms on a lazy summer afternoon! Chelsea is the area for the high end living in London. Good to walk by Thames there, couple of good eating places again.
The City of London, located near the Tower of London is the old financial district of London, and contains the famous Fleet Street.

The rocket shaped building called the Gerkin is located here, one of the prominent buildings of the London skyline. As also the Tower 42, earlier one of the tallest tower in London, with (you guessed it) 42 floors.

The top floor of the building has a pub, with glass all around. Gives an amazing view of the city around from there. Though they don’t serve any hard alcohol there, only beer and wine. But who cares, given the view and lights of city below.

Within the Bank area, is the Bank junction, where is located the Bank of England as well as the huge Market.

There is some history to see here, as well as spend sometime in the market. There is also a Leadenhall market nearby, which has been shown in the “Twist” song in “Love Aaj Kal”. Its again one of those old time market places, where people sell foodstuff and dry fruits during the week. There itself is located a salad shop, called Chop'd which makes very very tasty salads. Very helpful for lunches during weekdays, if you work in the City.

Canary Wharf is the new “City” of London, where all the big banks are now located or relocating.

Its essentially the new and modern office area of London, with huge glass towers and modern residential buildings. The buildings in this part of the city are made of glass and very different from the rest of the city. Canary Wharf was earlier the wharf for ships coming on the Thames, so it does have a history, but all you would see here is the glitz of a modern convenient city, pubs, restaurants and everything else located very closeby. It’s the new part of the City, and very “concrete”. I personally don’t like it though!
Slightly farther from Canary Wharf is the Greenwich area. Its contains the Greenwich gardens, museums, as well as the Millenium Dome.

The Millenium dome is a huge structure which has lots of eating places, as well as regular shows, events and exhibitions. Greenwich is essentially a part of London itself, though slightly away from the Central City. It’s a good place to spend a day here, with lots of parks and museums. You can visit the prime meridian here, check out how the standards of length and weight were standardized in earlier times and go through the old laboratories which were used for studying the stars as well as measurements. You will see things and names there of people and scientific discoveries that we have read about in school, never really imagining us to go there too! There are a couple of maritime museums and other science museums there too, enough to spend a full day browsing through.

A trip to the Indian places of London is a must for all Indians. Southall is famous for the mini Punjab environ, right there in London.

You can take a train from Paddington to reach there within 15 mins. And believe me, it’s an experience by itself. Road signs in Punjabi, gol gappe on the streets, bright suits and sarees being sold in the shops, what more do you need when you feel nostalgic? If you want to have authentic north Indian food, enter any shop in Southall, you will get it! You want to buy anything Indian, you will get it. There is this big food store when you walk from the station towards the shops, which has anything you want to buy, Maggi, local achar, Parle-G etc. I actually used to go completely excited when I used to see what all was available there, always stock up with whatever I could carry back:). This is “the” place to be when you miss the homeland. Just next to the station is a Gurudwara also , where if you land up on a Sunday, you can have delicious langar food! Yummm..

Another Indian place to go to in London is Wembley, the Gujju land in London. You hear English spoken in Gujju here:). The Neasden Hindu temple is located here, where we would go on festivals.

On Diwali, they have fireworks shows here, as well as special pooja on all the other festivals. Getting there sometimes is confusing though. The Ikea store in London is also located nearby only, in case you setting up a house. Best place to buy stuff would say.

By the way, another temple in London in on Oxford street, the Hare Rama Hare Krishna temple. You would sometimes see the disciples singing hymns and walking on the street in Leicester Square also, especially during late party time hours.

Guess, if you can cover all this, you would have seen a lot more than a usual tourist in London. Hope this blog helps. Will keep adding as and when I remember more things, and as is clear, I had a wonderful time in London, and cant appreciate the city enough!

London: Things to do