London is one of the cities I return to frequently. True, it can be frightfully expensive, but there still is good value lodging in the capital. My favorite is Doughty Cottage in Richmond, about 10 minutes by tube from central London. And there are any number of excellent neighborhood restaurants where dinner for two costs less than $70.
Of course, if you go to London to shop, bring wads of cash. But why do so? You don’t have to travel thousands of miles to find the same things that are sold at home. No, the reason to go to London—or at least my reason—is to see and enjoy the city’s great treasures. Theater tickets (and English National Opera, too) are available at half price at the TKTS office in Leicester Square. Unsold tickets for Royal Opera performances are sold at half-price four hours before performance at the opera house in Covent Garden.
The great Christopher Wren churches are open for inspection, and only a contribution at your discretion is asked. And then there are the museums, oh what a city for museums. My favorite is the National Portrait Gallery. There are more than 300,000 paintings, sculptures and drawings in its collection, with only the best known and most valuable on permanent exhibition, including very revealing likenessess of Queen Victoria, Benjamin Disraeli, Virginia Woolfe and David Hockney. I love this place because I can fully enjoy the work of an author, a painter, a dramatist and such only if I know what she or he looked like. All of the greatest and most insightful portraitists of their age are shown here.
London has the great museums that virtually everyone knows about—the British Museum, the Tate Gallery, the Victoria and Albert and on and on. But how many visitors know about the Museum of Mankind, Pollock’s Toy Museum, Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood, the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens, the Dickens House, Dr. Johnson’s House and Thomas Carlyle’s House? These are but a few of London’s little-known museums, and all are fascinating. Entry fees, if any, are not large.
I never run out of things to see in London—old favorites and new favorites. And my visits, not counting air fare, cost not too much more than if I had spent the time at home.
Do you have special places you enjoy visiting in London or any other city—especially places that are relatively inexpensive? Please tell us about them, as I’m sure others would appreciate the information.
Paula "Another pint, please" Gifford