London: A round-the-clock guide to London’s tourist sights

July 18, 2024

Events

by Howard Swains

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9 Minute Read

First published October 2022. Last updated August 2024.

We all know why you’re coming to London. It’s to win the UKIPT Main Event. But even if that does turn out to be you, you’ll still have plenty of time in the UK’s capital when you’re not playing poker — and you’ll want to make the most of that time.

London is, quite simply, an amazing city. You can live there for seven decades and still be discovering new things to see and do every single day. It means that if you’re in London for any length of time, you can fill your hours with wonderful activities: walking, staring, learning, absorbing.

You’ll no doubt want to explore for yourself, and there are countless resources for discovering the best of the city. But here’s our own contribution to your explorations: a round-the-clock guide to London — by which we mean a guide to things you can see if you leave the UKIPT London tournament room and walk in any of 12 directions, approximately in the direction of a clock face.

12 o’clock: Talk to the animals

Take a trip to London Zoo

Regent’s Park is worth exploring in its own right, but many of its visitors are heading to the park for one reason only: London Zoo.

This is one of the oldest city zoos in the world, opened in 1828, but thankfully it has moved with the times. Animals are very well cared for and the zoo prides itself on its conservation efforts.

Obviously this is a tremendous place to take kids if you’re travelling with your family, but even if you’re alone and smarting from a bad beat, an afternoon watching penguins goof around will be very good for the spirits.

1 o’clock: Retail therapy

Shop til you drop

A short trot from the Hippodrome takes you through London’s traditional shopping district, where you’ll find most of the big name high street stores — and a few hardy independents still somehow clinging on.

If you head for the junction of Bond Street and Oxford Street, you can turn left along the latter to get to Selfridges, and right to find John Lewis, plus plenty of other options in both directions.

You’re also only a short walk here from Regent Street (for Hamleys), Carnaby Street (the epicentre of 60s London) and Soho (for some alternative shopping).

2 o’clock: A tourist’s bonanza

Everything you could want in London’s throbbing tourist heartland

From Leicester Square, you can scoot along Piccadilly to Piccadilly Circus, then hit Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden. They’re all teeming with people and activity, and you’ll need to tick them off.

There’s some terrific culture to be found aside from just the general hustle and bustle: the same route will take you past the Royal Academy, the National Gallery and into theatre-land, and all that entails.

3 o’clock: South Bank walk

So much to explore on the South Bank

Head to London’s South Bank and you can wander past a whole host of exceptional attractions without ever leaving the river footpath.

They really come thick and fast. Glance right to look at the London Eye (the official name for the huge wheel), but you’re mainly going left, past the Southbank Centre (gallery, cinema and theatre complex), the Oxo Tower (shops and restaurant), Tate Modern (contemporary art gallery in converted power station), Shakespeare’s Globe (recreation of 16th century theatre), Borough Market (foodie’s dream), Southwark Cathedral (ancient place of worship), the Shard (London’s tallest building), Hays Galleria (shopping arcade) and Tower Bridge (you’ll know it from the postcards).

The South Bank amble is not to be missed.

4 o’clock: Discover royal Britain then marvel at its art

The home of Britain’s monarch, Buckingham Palace

Brits squabble about the relative merits of the country’s Royal Family, but there is little doubt that plenty of tourists flock to the UK to learn about its centuries-long monarchy.

They mostly head to Buckingham Palace, which has been the main residence of the reigning queen or king since 1837, when Queen Victoria ascended to the throne. It is London’s largest private residence, but since 1993, several rooms have also been open to the public for official tours. Even without paying the entrance fee, there will be big crowds outside, peering through the railings.

When you’re done gawping, stroll down towards Millbank and Tate Britain, a gallery displaying a wide selection of British (and overseas) art from the 16th century onward, including the largest collection of paintings by J.M.W. Turner. Like most galleries and museums in London, it’s free to enter.

5 o’clock: Shake off the bad beats, Brixton style

The buzzing Brixton Market

The weather in London in August is never certain, but that’s never mattered to the regulars at Brockwell Park Lido, a superb outdoor swimming pool that has been there since 1937 and is open from 6.30am, 365 days of the year.

If you’re in need of a place to wash away your woes, or just get the blood pumping ahead of a day at the tables, here’s where you should do it. It’s in Herne Hill, near to Brixton, and accessible by a number of buses and the Victoria Line.

After your dip, explore Brixton itself, an area unrivalled for bars, cafes, markets, music venues and the like — a city within a city, and demonstrating the true global nature of London.

6 o’clock: Peace out at the Battersea Park pagoda

A place for reflection: the Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park

Nearly 9 million people live in London, yet the city is also world renowned for its incredible parks. There are acres of green space in just about every area, even those that are seemingly the most built-up. You might want to head a little further, due south and over the Thames, to the 200-acre space of Battersea Park, laid out by the Victorians in the mid 19th century.

For one reason, it runs along the river, affording superb views across the city. For another, it houses the London Peace Pagoda, a structure of immense beauty that has provided a haven of quiet contemplation for many decades.

It was donated to the city in 1984 by the Japanese Buddhist monk Nichidatsu Fujii, shortly before his death at the age of 100. It still occupies pride of place in one of the most attractive parks in the whole of the country.

7 o’clock: West London’s football heartland

Stamford Bridge is home to Chelsea FC

Britain’s national sport, football, is a dominant feature of every city in the country, and there are several strong football enclaves in London. In south west London, we find both Stamford Bridge, home to Chelsea, and Fulham’s Craven Cottage – and both teams are currently in the Premier League, England’s top flight.

8 o’clock: Walk with the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum is home to London’s dinosaurs

Every school kid in the UK eagerly anticipates the day they get to go to London’s Natural History Museum, where the dinosaurs live.

A few decades ago, this meant looking in awe at an enormous static skeleton of a diplodocus, but more recently also involves strolling through a vast wilderness filled with animatronic reptiles. Extinct? Not in west London, they’re not.

Over and above all of this, the Natural History Museum, and the neighbouring Science Museum, offer just a wonderful and educative day out for people of all ages. The buildings themselves are architectural marvels too, designed by Alfred Waterhouse, one of the leading architects of the Victorian era. Entry to both museums is free and you can easily spend a full day between the two of them.

9 o’clock – London’s garden on your doorstep

A garden like no other: Hyde Park

Hyde Park is an amazing place to lose yourself, whether on foot or even in a rowing boat on the 40-acre lake, known as the Serpentine. There’s also a lakeside art gallery — the Serpentine gallery — with a pavilion whose design changes annually.

You can play tennis or go horse riding in the park, or maybe just utilise its dozens of miles of footpaths for your morning jog or gentle evening stroll.

10 o’clock – Discover the neighbourhood of Notting Hill

Notting Hill: A village in a city

Years before it became the title of a schmaltzy Richard Cutis film, Notting Hill was one of London’s most charming and dynamic neighbourhoods — a former rural hamlet that was swallowed up by the city’s incredible expansion in the years after the Industrial Revolution.

Every August, it hosts the raucous Notting Hill Carnival, which celebrates the area as one of the first settling points for generations of immigrants. For the rest of the year, tourists flock here for its incredible array of high end restaurants and bars, as well as Portobello Road market, with stalls selling antiques, food, clothing and just about everything else.

Even if you don’t want to spend a penny, this part of London is a terrific place to stroll around and marvel at a city’s development. There are buildings from all eras of London’s rich and vibrant history.

11 o’clock – A step into musical history on Abbey Road

Not just an ordinary road crossing

It’s the most photographed crosswalk in the world: the Abbey Road zebra crossing, immortalised by The Beatles in the cover photo for their 1969 album, Abbey Road.

Ever since John, Paul, George and Ringo strode across that crosswalk, just outside the recording studio in which they laid down some of the most popular music ever made, tourists have come from across the world to pose like the Beatles. There’s not an enormous amount to see here — one road crossing is very much like any other, in its purest sense — but when you’re in town, you might as well go an get an iconic photo of your own.

Beware, however: this is still a busy London thoroughfare, so you’ll need to dodge the cars, vans, lorries and motorcycles — as well as all the other wannabe models — to get your snap.

Images: Creative Commons