London: The Rough Guide (Rough Guide Travel Guides) [Paperback]

The Rough Guide to London must have represented a considerable challenge for author Rob Humphreys: not only is the library of guide books to the capital overstuffed, Humphreys was faced with creating the definitive insider's guide for an imprint which has long enjoyed very high expectations in its dedicated army of users. The Rough Guide series has always marked itself out as the most incisive, lively, hyper-informed and (most of all) unstuffy series of guides on the market. Previous editions of this pithy and highly accessible book have comprehensively established its credentials, and they're copper-bottomed. Whether you're looking for a truly idiosyncratic guide to the more esoteric byways of the Big Smoke (with particularly useful and offbeat sections on the performing arts and sport) or a straight-down-the-middle guide to all the standard tourist attractions, Humphreys' book pulls off the impressive conjuring trick of functioning on both levels. While the guide is perfectly judged for the reader living on the British mainland, there are useful sections on getting to London from North America, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland, with up-to-date info on visas, customs, tax and work permits (the latter will be particularly useful for students: always a key audience for the Rough Guide series). And the sections on the more boring necessities such as insurance, post and health are dispatched with economy and accuracy. But it's in conveying the city's rich topography and history that Humphreys really soars, and a casual glance at the sections on Fleet Street, the South Bank and trendy areas such as Clerkenwell will have both die-hard Londoners and visitors keen to track down the points he ticks off. As ever in the series, illustrations and colour are kicked out in favour of hard-core info, and even if you've picked up earlier editions, the ever-shifting flux of one of the world's greatest cities has ensured that you probably need this new, comprehensively updated volume. --Barry Forshaw

Impressive research on architecture and history, and thorough coverage of the capital's attractions. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

"The Rough Guide to London is at once invaluable and diverting." Conde Nast Traveller --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Rough Guide to London is the definitive insider's handbook to one of the world's most exciting cities. It features incisive accounts of all the sights and districts, from the London Eye to Tate Modern, from Windsor Castle to Covent Garden. And it stays on the inside track to write up London's staggeringly expensive hotels (from the humblest to the very finest), its dazzling array of eating and drinking possibilities and its overwhelming choice of nightlife and entertainment. Rob Humphreys has lived in London for fifteen years and knows the city intimately.

Rob Humphreys joined Rough Guides in 1989 and has been writing guides ever since covering Scotland, Prague, the Czech Republic, St Petersburg and London. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

WHAT TO SEE
Stretching for more than thirty miles at its broadest point, London is a big place. 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, Chinatown 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, to the east, 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 Canary Wharf’s skyscrapers, including the country’s tallest building, epitomizing the pretensions of the smash-and-grab culture that has gripped the nation since the 1980s.

A small slice of central London south of the Thames is definitely worth exploring. First off, there’s the South Bank Centre, London’s little-loved concrete culture bunker, which is enjoying a new lease of life thanks to inspired artistic direction and its proximity to the giant observation wheel known as the London Eye. Further east along the river in Bankside is the Tate Modern, one of the world’s greatest modern art museums, now linked to the City by the funky pedestrian-only Millennium 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 and 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.

WHEN TO GO
Considering the temperateness of the English climate, it’s amazing how much mileage the locals get out of the subject – a two-day cold snap is discussed as if it were the onset of a new Ice Age, and a week in the upper seventies starts rumours of drought. The fact is that English summers rarely get hot and the winters don’t get very cold, though they’re often wet. The bottom line is that it’s impossible to say with any degree of certainty that the weather will be pleasant in any given month. May might be wet and grey one year and gloriously sunny the next, and the same goes for the autumnal months – November stands an equal chance of being crisp and clear or foggy and grim.
As far as crowds go, tourists stream into London pretty much all year round, with peak season from Easter to October, and the biggest crush in July and August, when you’ll need to book your accommodation well in advance. Costs, however, are pretty uniform year-round. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.