Hi everyone!
The sun might still be shining right now, but pretty soon the nights will get darker, the heating will be on, and everything will have the sickly sweet taste of pumpkin spice as the spookiest month of the year rolls around.
With every passing October, London’s Halloween celebrations seem to get bigger, better and spookier, with all sorts of family-friendly frights, movie screenings, pumpkin-picking fun and scary nightlife to check out over the month.
This month we are exploring London…
Walking is a brilliant way to explore London. It’s free, it’s healthy, and you’ll spot things that you’d never notice from a bus or train window. You get to see how this sprawling city comes together, discover its hidden spots.
Most of the London walks in our round-up take you past famous landmarks, intriguing museums and stunning scenery. Several of the routes are largely road-free, moving along the River Thames or the city’s secret canals. They range from two-and-a-half to eight miles and are easy to extend if you want to make a day of it. Here are some of the best London walks:
1. Westminster Walk
Highlights Big Ben, Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, The Mall, Buckingham Palace, Churchill War Rooms, Westminster Abbey.
Pay a visit to the PM and the King plus three art galleries, Winston Churchill’s secret bunker and several Monopoly board squares on this circular walk. It starts and finishes at Westminster tube station in the shadow of Big Ben. First, head down Whitehall, past the PM’s home, 10 Downing Street, and Household Cavalry guards in strange pointy, shiny helmets. The next stop is Trafalgar Square, where you can admire Nelson’s Column. The Mall brings you to three royal residences: Henry VIII’s former abode, St James’s Palace; the official London home of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, Clarence House; and Her Maj’s pad, Buckingham Palace (when the Royal Standard flag is flying, she’s at home). You can see art from the royal collection at the Queen’s Gallery, before ambling through St James’s Park to the Churchill War Rooms – his underground control centre is now a museum. The final showstopper is Westminster Abbey, where royals have been crowned since 1066.
2. Regent’s Canal
Highlights The car-free stretch along pretty Regent’s Canal, riverside restaurants, Victoria Miro gallery, Broadway Market, Victoria Park, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, ArcelorMittal Orbit.
A hundred and fifty years ago, horses hauled barges full of coal and timber along London’s canals. Nowadays walkers, joggers and cyclists ply their tranquil towpaths. This car-free walk begins at Duncan Street in Angel, where the Regent’s Canal emerges from the Islington Tunnel and flows past the landscaped garden of Victoria Miro, a cavernous gallery in a former Victorian furniture factory. There are a handful of chic canalside restaurants after Whitmore Bridge, or continue to Broadway Market to pick up picnic supplies (come off at the Cat and Mutton Bridge – named after a pub). It’s also worth making a detour at Mare Street Bridge to marvel at the taxidermy specimens and bizarre art in the Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities. The towpath curves round to Victoria Park and meets the short, leafy Hereford Union Canal (also known as Duckett’s Cut). Follow it along the park’s southern edge to the Olympic Park, where you can admire Anish Kapoor’s twisting 111-metre sculpture the Orbit, then slide down it.
3. Thames Path: Richmond to Hampton Court
Richmond riverside, Petersham Nurseries, Ham House, Marble Hill, Eel Pie Island, Hampton Court Palace.
You could almost forget you’re in London on this leafy eight-mile stretch of the Thames Path, where the river meanders past two lavish stately homes, a rock ’n’ roll mini-island and a royal palace. After you’ve followed the signs from Richmond station to the river, you have to decide whether you want to take the north or south bank, which soon arrives at Petersham Meadows, gorgeous garden centre Petersham Nurseries and the National Trust-owned Ham House, one of England’s grandest Stuart houses. The north bank winds past the English Heritage-managed Marble Hill – an opulent villa built for the mistress of George II – to Twickenham and Eel Pie Island, where the Rolling Stones played over a dozen times in 1963. Both paths eventually curve round to Teddington Lock, where the Thames stops beings tidal and you can relax with a riverside pint. At Kingston-upon-Thames, the south path stops. Continue along the north bank until you reach the grand finale: Hampton Court Palace, one of Henry VIII’s many homes.
Explore more in London!
Hope you enjoy this information.
See you all back again in November!
Bruno-Manager
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