Your Leisure Time

Parks | Museums | Art Galleries | Cultural Centres | Interesting Area to wander | Historic buildings | Markets | Shops | Music | Theatre

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London is an education in its own right. It is one of the cultural capitals of the world with its theatres, cinemas, music venues, galleries and museums. Many of the opportunities here are free so do make the most of your free time and explore this amazing city. It’s a good idea to buy a small guide-book and/or a map of the city. If you want to know about things that are happening in London during the coming week, then you should buy Time Out, the weekly listings magazine. The free daily paper Metro in tube stations also has some events listed. The following is a brief guide to some of the most popular places to go and things to do. The nearest tube stations are in brackets.

International Students’ House,
229 Great Portland Street, London W1N 5HD
Tel: 0207 631 8300. www.ish.org.uk (Gt. Portland St., Regents Park).
This is a students club that is open to all full-time students in London. It organises many different activities, including: swimming, snooker, multi-gym, dances, musical evenings, film, art and drama, excursions and outings. There is also a very wide range of facilities available to all students, such as a restaurant, coffee shop, bar, study room, television rooms and even a laundry! Membership rates range from £20 for 1 year to £3 for 1 month. You will need a David Game College student card to join this club.

Parks

London is famous for its parks. They are all free and are great places to relax and get some fresh air. The two within walking distance from the College are:

Holland Park – has woods, formal gardens, a small Japanese garden and tennis courts. Squirrels and peacocks roam freely.

Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park– enormous. Has two lakes, the Serpentine and the Round Pond, Princess Diana’s memorial playground for children, a pretty Italian sunken garden next to Kensington Palace. On the south side there is the Albert Memorial built by Queen Victoria and in the centre is the Serpentine Gallery which houses exhibitions of work by major modern artists.

Museums

All these state-run museums are free. All are worth visiting.

British Museum, Great Russell St., WC1 (Tottenham Court Road, Holborn, Russell Square) - wonderful building. Full of fascinating items from ancient times to today, from Egyptian mummies to 7th century treasures. www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk

Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7 (South Kensington) – world’s largest museum of decorative art. www.vam.ac.uk

Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7 (South Kensington) – wonderful displays of animals, insects, environmental issues, dinosaurs, fossils and geology. Beautiful Victorian building. www.nhm.ac.uk

Science Museum, Exhibition Road, SW7 (South Kensington) – everything scientific from old to cutting edge inventions. Lots of hands-on things. Great fun. www.sciencemuseum.org.uk

Museum of London, City Wall, EC2 (Barbican, St Paul’s, Moorgate) – great displays and reconstructions of interiors and street scenes of past London. www.museumoflondon.org.uk

Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, SE1 (Waterloo, Westminster) – looks at all aspects of warfare, from weapons to the effects on ordinary people. www.iwm.org.uk

National Maritime Museum, Romney Road, SE10 (Cutty Sark DLR) – everything to do with the sea. www.nmm.ac.uk

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Art Galleries

There are so many places to see art and exhibitions in London, from small commercial galleries to large galleries with permanent displays and special exhibitions. These are the main galleries which are free:

National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, WC2 (Charing Cross, Leicester Sq., Piccadilly Circus) – paintings from the 13th century to 1900. Many very famous pictures. www.nationalgallery.org.uk

National Portrait Gallery, 2 St. Martin’s Place, WC2 (next to National Gallery) – pictures of people through history to present day in paintings, drawings and photos. www.npg.org.uk

Tate Britain, Millbank, SW1 (Pimlico) – British art from 16th Century to now.

Tate Modern, Holland Street, SE1 (Blackfriars, Mansion House, Southwark) – amazing converted power station housing a major collection of contemporary art. www.tate.org.uk

Cultural Centres

South Bank Centre, SE1, on the river Thames (opposite Embankment) – the Royal Festival Hall is London’s main concert hall and good community space with a café, restaurant, free art, free lunchtime music, good arts bookshops and music shop. www.rfh.org.uk Also, theatres and galleries.

Barbican Centre, Silk Street, SE1 (Barbican, Moorgate) – 2 theatres, cinemas, galleries and concert hall. Bar, café and restaurant. www.barbican.org.uk

Interesting areas to wander

Covent Garden – an old market area, now a lively shopping and eating area with a market of crafts and antiques in the central part. Street artistes perform here at weekends and evenings. (Covent Garden)

St. Katharine’s Dock, east side of Tower Bridge, north of Thames, (Tower Hill) – old dock, now converted into an attractive area of water with interesting old boats, shops and cafes.

Greenwich – (Cutty Sark Docklands Light Railway or take a boat down the river!) – historic area, now a World Heritage Site. The Cutty Sark, an 1869 tea ship, the Royal Observatory, the Queen’s House, Old Royal Naval College, the Ranger’s House and more!

Chinatown, Gerrard St, W1 (Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus) – centre of London’s Chinese community. Lots of Chinese restaurants and shops.

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Historic buildings

Too many to count! The most famous are:

The Tower of London (Tower Hill) – very interesting prison, but expensive. The Crown Jewels are here. www.hrp.org.uk

Buckingham Palace (St James’s Park, Victoria) – home of the Queen. Changing of the Guard happens every day 11.30am Apr – July, alternate days rest of the year.

Houses of Parliament and Big Ben (Westminster) – home of the British Government. You can sit in the public gallery of the House of Commons or Lords and watch parliament in action. www.parliament.uk

Westminster Abbey (Westminster) – incredible building with much history. Started in 1050, and is the burial and coronation place of most of Britain’s kings and queens. www.westminster-abbey.org

St Paul’s Cathedral, Ludgate Hill, EC4 (St Paul’s, Mansion House) - architectural gem built by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London in 1666. Famous for its dome with Whispering Gallery. www.stpauls.co.uk

Markets

London has numerous markets. Here are a handful of the most colourful.

Portobello Road, W10 (Notting Hill Gate, Ladbroke Grove) – general market during the week, but best on Saturday when hundreds of stalls sell antiques. At far northern end there is a flea market. NOT TO BE MISSED!

Petticoat Lane, Middlesex Street,E1 (Liverpool St, Aldgate, Aldgate East) – 9am – 2pm Sunday. Sells clothes, leather goods, cheap jewellery, toys and fast food of all nations.

Old Spitalfields, Commercial Street, E1 (Aldgate East, Liverpool Street) Best on Sundays 9.30am to 5.30pm. Young designer clothes, food, hand-made craft items and bric-a- brac.

Camden Lock, Chalk Farm Road, NW1 (Camden Town) – very trendy. Clothes, food, books, records and antiques. Great atmosphere.

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Shops

There are several shops or shopping areas that are a must for the visitor to London.

Harrods, a beautiful department store in Knightsbridge, with its wonderful Perfume Hall and Food Halls.

Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly, wonderful food emporium.
HMV and Virgin record shops in Oxford Street, Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus.

Oxford Street for clothes and shoes.

Knightsbridge, Chelsea, Bond Street for expensive designer shops.

Charing Cross Road for books.
Hi-fi and computers in Tottenham Court Road.
Department stores – John Lewis and Selfridges (more expensive) in Oxford Street.

Music

There are so many venues for live music in London, both large and small. To find out what’s on, look in Time Out, the weekly listings magazine. Some venues have free music, such as pubs, Festival Hall (lunchtime) and the Barbican Foyer.

Theatre

Theatre ranges from sophisticated productions to fringe theatre productions in upstairs rooms in pubs. For cheap mainstream theatre tickets there is a half-price ticket kiosk on the south side of Leicester Square where you can buy unsold tickets on the day of the performance only. It’s worth trying. The Evening Standard sometimes has 2-for-the-price-of-one deals (The E.S. also has a listings magazine called Metro on Thursdays).

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