London is a big city
which drags more than 14 million tourists a year, but it is such a
big city that with one visit barely can be copsed a little part of
the whole. British Museum, National Gallery and Tate (Modern, not
“the other one”) are the undeniable Top3 for the visitors around
the globe, but today we are proposing you a Top10 beyond the tourist
crowds at the more popular places. Here you have our list of 10
hidden gems that you could see on your next visit to The City.
A small church down
town, right next to Piccadilly Circus. Its sober outside serves as
placement for a dairy market (food, antiques and collectibles, arts
and crafts...) while its interior hosts evening concerts. Free
entrance.
9-
HAMPSTEAD
This high class
north-eastern neighbourhood has always been residence for the
intellectual elite. Nowadays commerce and restaurants are the main
appeal even if it is also nice to just walk around. And for nature
lovers just walk a few more minutes up to Hampstead Heath and enjoy
the view or have a fresh bathing in one of the three lakes that serve
to that purpose.
What can be more
interesting than visiting a museum? To visit one as how it was in
1830. When he died, the architect Sir John Soane had disposed his
home-museum should remain untouched, although the museum concept of
that century is far different from the actual British Museum. 13
Lincoln's Inn Fields is a house full of the worldwide discoveries of
the architect and his own models of the old roman temples. Free
entrance.
You must pay to access
the courtyard where you can take a picture of you with a foot on each
side of the 0 meridian, but the visit to the Astronomy Centre is free
entrance. Also there is a huge park to enjoy in sunny days and,
again, great views. The best way to get there is with the DLR, a
train without conductor which you can catch at Bank station, and you
can take the chance to visit also de National Maritime Museum.
Westminster Cathedral,
not to be mistaken with Westminster Abbey, is a Neo-Byzantine
building quite near of Victoria Station. It is surprising when you
find it as it doesn't seem to fit in its surroundings. Inside, the
big coloured marble columns contrast with the vaults of blackened
bricks, while the chapels are decorated with mosaics enriched with
gold leaf. Free entrance.
Whether you like
literature or not we invite you to step in this Victorian house where
Dickens used to live. The various rooms seem intact while you
discover not only life facts of the famous writer, whose life was
closely related with his works, but you also see how was life in any
London house of that period. Entrace: 8 pounds.
The most notable part
of this war museum is the section about the Holocaust, actually the
longest of its exhibitions which includes even a final reflection
about what could have done Great Britain to avoid that situation.
Now, however, it is close for a renovation that will see the light
this summer to celebrate the centenary of First World War.
It is
also part of the IWM family the Second World War battleship HMS
Belfast and the Churchill War Rooms where the British Prime Minister
sheltered during that same conflict; but while the museum is free
entrance the other two have an admission charge.
This is not a market
like Camden or Portobello Road, is one of the oldest food markets in
London. Under its typical structure of cast-iron architecture you can
find wine, sausages, meat and fish, fruits and vegetables, different
products like truffle oil or cheese with walnuts and quirky products
like grass juice and zebra or crocodile hamburgers. It is a good
place where to have lunch, as it is close to the Tate Modern and The
Shard, the new tallest building of the city. You can try the
traditional English pies or south-Asian deli, and end your feast with
sweet pastries, chocolates or the typical British fudge.
In
this Tudor palace there are always very interesting temporary
exhibitions, keeping a balance between free and charged entrance.
The permanent collections, which includes artworks from Da Vinci,
Manet, Van Gogh and Picasso among others, can be found at the
Courtauld
Gallery. The entrance to
this gallery is 6 pounds, but Mondays is half price.
The museum of history
of the city, the best place to learn about London's evolution from
the neolithic settlements and the Roman foundation until the present
day. Museography is somewhat uneven because in occasion of the
Olympic Games it was specially reinforced the dialogue in the segment
of Roman history of the city. However must also be mentioned the
audiovisuals about the two big Middle Age crisis (Black Death and
1666's Great Fire) and the space recreations: a prison, a Victorian
Market or a cinema from the beginning of 1900's among others. Free
entrance.
This museum is next to
the Barbican Centre, a cultural centre with a very interesting
calendar of temporary exhibitions, conferences and dance shows.
Ricard Gispert
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