Essential London | The top sights in London and beyond
The best cultural and historical sights in London and beyond.
Places to eat and drink in London
St Katharine Docks were opened in 1828 to provide capacity for Britain’s largest import (and second largest export after wool); tea. Arriving in tea chests from China and India it was a roaring trade, accounting for around 400,000 tea chests per year. For 140 years, these docks were central to satiating the appetite for the [...]
Covent Garden is home to the world-renowned Royal Opera House, the Royal Ballet and the London Transport museum – as well as some of the best shopping, food & drink and street entertainment in London. This post is about the foundation of Covent Garden. Covent Garden was originally a medieval orchard and garden, belonging to [...]
Renowned for being the home of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane has a colourful past stretching back to the fourteenth century. Named after Sir Thomas Drury, who built a house here during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, it peaked as a select and fashionable neighbourhood in C16-17. However, one hundred years later, it had [...]
Originally premiered on Regent Street in 1954, London’s Christmas lights are a much loved fixture of shoppers, photographers - and bloggers! Oxford Street caught up in 1959, before a hiatus during the 1970’s owing to austerity and power cuts. Today, the lights are LED units, consuming two-thirds the energy of electric bulbs. Here are a [...]
Built for £2.2 million in 1933, it’s the price of a modest apartment today in this swish residential-retail-leisure complex. Originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert-Scott, the station powered a quarter of London by 1948. Closed in 1983, the grade II* listed building was the problem child of the river front until rescued by Malaysian investors [...]
Regent’s Canal was London’s main thoroughfare for heavy freight from the 1820’s – used by horse-drawn barges taking goods from sea-faring vessels on the River Thames into mainland England. The canal stretches 13.5 km from Little Venice in the west of London to Limehouse Basin in the east, today’s Docklands. The canal drops around 30 [...]
Completed in 1816, the Royal Opera Arcade predates it’s better known cousin, Burlington Arcade in Piccadilly, by three years. For the wealthy, it symbolised the dawn of shopping as a leisure pursuit - and no longer a chore undertaken by staff. The Regency period shopfronts were designed by one of London’s most famous architects; John [...]
Bermondsey is a thriving business and social area on the south side of the River Thames. It found prominence as the location of Bermondsey Abbey in the middle ages. The abbey was dissolved during Tudor times and the area developed into the centre of London's leather processing industry - many of the street names bear [...]
Brick Lane, in London's East End, is an eclectic mix of shops, restaurants, market stalls and street art installations. Here are a few shots taken in late 2021. (Nearest tube station: Aldgate East).
This is part one of a two-part article on one of London’s best places to live. The article covers the sights to see in Clapham, South West London. You’ll discover compelling facts about the area, its residents and renowned architecture. Plus, an awesome selection of pubs and cafes to visit! Introduction Clapham is perhaps best [...]