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LONDON
INTRODUCING THE CITY--LONDON
READ IT HERE Stretching for more than thirty miles at its broadest point, London is by far the largest city in Europe. The majority of its sights are situated to the north of the River Thames, which loops through the city from west to east. However, there is no single predominant focus of interest, for London has grown not through centralized planning but by a process of agglomeration - villages and urban developments that once surrounded the core are now lost within the amorphous mass of Greater London. One of the few areas that you can easily explore on foot is Westminster and Whitehall , the city's royal, political and ecclesiastical power base, where you'll find the National Gallery and a host of other London landmarks, from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. The grand streets and squares of St James's , Mayfair and Marylebone , to the north of Westminster, have been the playground of the rich since the Restoration, and now contain the city's busiest shopping zones. East of Piccadilly Circus, Soho and Covent Garden are also easy to walk around and form the heart of the West End entertainment district, containing the largest concentration of theatres, cinemas, clubs, flashy shops, cafés and restaurants. To the north lies the university quarter of Bloomsbury , home to the ever-popular British Museum, and the secluded quadrangles of Holborn's Inns of Court, London's legal heartland. The City - the City of London, to give it its full title - is at one and the same time the most ancient and the most modern part of London. Settled since Roman times, it is now one of the world's great financial centres, yet retains its share of historic sights, notably the Tower of London and a fine cache of Wren churches that includes St Paul's Cathedral. Despite creeping trendification, the East End , to the east of the City, is not conventional tourist territory, but to ignore it entirely is to miss out a crucial element of contemporary London. Docklands is the converse of the down-at-heel East End, with the Canary Wharf tower, the country's tallest building, epitomizing the pretensions of the Thatcherite dream. Lambeth and Southwark comprise the small slice of central London that lies south of the Thames. The South Bank Centre, London's little-loved concrete culture bunker, is enjoying a new lease of life thanks to its proximity to the new Tate Gallery of Modern Art in Bankside, which is linked to the City by a new pedestrian bridge. The largest segment of greenery in central London is Hyde Park, which separates wealthy Kensington and Chelsea from the city centre. The museums of South Kensington - the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum - are a must; and if you have shopping on your agenda, you'll want to check out the hive of plush stores in the vicinity of Harrods. The capital's most hectic weekend market takes place around Camden Lock in North London . Further out, in the literary suburbs of Hampstead and Highgate, there are unbeatable views across the city from half-wild Hampstead Heath, the favourite parkland of thousands of Londoners. The glory of South London is Greenwich, with its nautical associations, royal park and observatory (not to mention its Dome). Finally, there are plenty of rewarding day-trips along the Thames from Chiswick to Windsor , most notably Hampton Court Palace and Windsor Castle. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- CITY TRANSPORT READ IT HERE London's transport network is among the most complex and expensive in the world. The London Transport (LT) travel information office , at Piccadilly Circus tube station (daily 9am-6pm), will provide free transport maps; there are other desks at Euston Station, Heathrow (terminals 1, 2 and 3), King's Cross, Liverpool Street, Paddington and Victoria stations. There's also a 24-hour phone line for transport information (tel 020/7222 1234), and a Web site giving real-time travel news ( www.londontransport.co.uk). If you can, avoid travelling during the rush hour (Mon-Fri 8-9.30am & 5-7pm) when tubes become unbearably crowded, and some buses become full to overflowing. Travelcards To get the best value out of the transport system, buy a Travelcard . Available from machines and booths at all tube and train stations, and at some newsagents (look for the sticker), these are valid for the bus, tube, Docklands Light Railway,... The tube The eleven different London Underground - or tube - lines cross much of the metropolis, although London south of the river is not very well covered. Each line has its own colour and name - all you need to know is which direction you're... Buses Tickets for all bus journeys within, to or from the central zone costs a flat fare of £1; journeys outside the central zone cost 70p. Normally you pay the driver on entering, but some routes are covered by older Routemaster buses, staffed by a... Suburban trains Large areas of London's suburbs are best reached by the suburban train network (Travelcards valid). Wherever a sight can only be reached by overground train, we've indicated the nearest train station and the central terminus from which you... Taxis If you're in a group of three or more, London's metered black cabs can be an economical way of getting around the centre - a ride from Euston to Victoria, for example, should cost around £10. A yellow light over the windscreen tells you if the... Boats Boat services on the Thames still do not form part of an integrated public transport system, and Travelcards are not currently valid on the river. So for the moment at least, travelling by boat remains a leisure pastime and not really a commuting... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ RESTAURANTS READ IT HERE London is a great place in which to eat out . You can sample more or less any kind of cuisine here, and, wherever you come from, you should find something new and quite possibly unique. Home to some of the best Cantonese restaurants in the whole of Europe, London is also a noted centre for Indian and Bangladeshi food, and has numerous French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Thai restaurants; and within all these cuisines, you can choose anything from simple meals to gourmet spreads. Traditional and modern British food is available all over town, and we've reviewed some of the best venues. Another bonus is that there are plenty of places to eat around the main tourist drags of the West End: Soho has long been renowned for its eclectic and fashionable restaurants - and new eateries appear here every month - while Chinatown , on the other side of Shaftesbury Avenue, offers value-for-money eating right in the centre of town. Many of the restaurants we've listed will be busy on most nights of the week, particularly on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and you're best advised to reserve a table wherever you're headed. The majority of places take major credit cards, such as Visa, MasterCard and Amex; in the listings, we've simply noted those that don't. As for prices , you can pay an awful lot for a meal in London, and if you're used to North American portions, you're not going to be particularly impressed by the volume in most places. In the listings, we've quoted the minimum you can get away with spending (assuming you don't tip and don't drink) and the amount you can expect to pay for a full blowout. Service is discretionary at most restaurants, but many tend to take no chances, emblazoning their bills with reminders that "Service is NOT included", or even including a ten to fifteen percent service charge on the bill (which they have to announce on the menu, by law). Normally you should, of course, pay service - it's how most of the staff make up their wages - but make sure you check you're not paying twice. |
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