What to do
The main problem when faced with London's cultural and entertainment scene is finding the time to fit it all in. London is Britain's – and arguably Europe's – premier entertainment centre with an enormous range of pubs, clubs, art galleries, museums, opera houses, concert halls, restaurants and shops.
But arguably the jewels in London's crown are its theatres, of which the city has the greatest concentration in the world showing everything from musicals to Pinter, pantomime to Shakespeare and all points in between.
World class galleries include the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, the Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the National Portrait Gallery as well as a host of high quality smaller galleries, admission to most of which is free. London also has an unparalleled roster of museums, notably the British Museum, which contains cultural artifacts from every great civilisation, the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert, which is dedicated to art and design.
Sports fans are also well catered for in London, which is home to 6 of football's top divisions' clubs, (including the 2 most recent champions, Chelsea and Arsenal), 2 major county cricket sides in Middlesex and Surrey (who play at test venues Lord's and The Oval respectively) and for those who might still be around by then, the Olympic Games in 2012. Fans of odd-shaped balls are well catered for by Rugby Union sides, but with the exception of the London Broncos, almost all Rugby League sides are at least 180 miles away. London is also the location of England's national rugby stadium at Twickenham and the national football stadium at Wembley, which should re-open in 2006 just as soon as its Australian builders get the job finished...
Another attraction of the capital is the food. French president Jacques Chirac scored an almighty own goal in 2005 when he suggested that English food was second only to Finland's as the worst in Europe. Not only did he potentially lose his country the 2012 Olympics when the Finnish IOC members voted for London, he also demonstrated how behind the times he was. London's culinary scene is unrecognisable from 20 years ago as a wave of new restaurants - led by Terence Conran and a gaggle of 'celebrity' chefs such as Gordon Ramsey, Marco Pierre White and Christophe Novelli - transformed the gastronomic map of the capital.
At the cheaper end of the market, London also has an incredibly diverse range of restaurants serving cuisine from virtually every corner of the globe, from the ubiquitous Indian, Chinese and Italian restaurants through to offerings from Ethiopia, Jamaica, Japan and Mongolia. There are even 3 Afghani restaurants. Another, more recent development, has been the 'gastropub', which combine the ambience of a traditional pub with restaurant quality food (and prices). For listings and reviews, see www.london-eating.co.uk.
More alcohol-focused pubs and trendier bars abound in London varying from the sublime to the downright grotty. Although their number has declined in recent years, there are still around 4,000 pubs in London and, after years of arguments, the blanket 11pm closing time for pubs throughout the UK was abolished at the end of 2005. For some of the better examples of London's pubs, visit www.pubs.com. For the fate of some of the others see www.derelictlondon.com/id1974.htm. For the homesick, London also has a large number of Antipodean pubs and bars. For listings, see www.ebigoe.com/pages/london_scene/pubbigoe.html
The other big attraction of London is its proximity to the rest of Europe, North Africa and the eastern seaboard of the United States (flying time from London to New York is only an hour more than Sydney to Perth). Heathrow handles more international flights than any other airport in the world, while the past decade has seen the emergence of a plethora of budget airlines – the most famous being Easyjet (www.easyjet.com) and Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) – which operate from London's other airports and offer some very low fares to destinations across Europe. The 9/11 disaster led to enormous discounting on transatlantic airfares, which have yet to fully recover and it is still possible to fly to New York and back for £250.
Further information:
www.timeout.com
www.visitlondon.com
www.londontown.com
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