A practical guide to slowing down, going sideways, and finding the city the guidebooks miss
Every year, millions of visitors come to London, and most of them see roughly the same city: the same handful of famous sights, the same crowded routes, the same exhausting rush from landmark to landmark. There is nothing wrong with seeing the famous sights, and you should see some of them. But London rewards a different kind of visitor, the one who slows down, wanders sideways, and discovers the city the guidebooks tend to miss. I am Fiona MacLeod, I write about London for visitors, and I want to help you experience the city as a local would.
Slow Down and Go Sideways
The single most useful thing I can tell any visitor to London is to slow down. The instinct on a short trip is to cram in as much as possible, to race from the Tower to the Eye to the Palace, ticking off the sights, and this instinct, while understandable, produces an exhausting and shallow experience of the city. London is not a checklist to be completed but a place to be wandered, and the visitors who get the most from it are those who resist the urge to rush and instead allow themselves to linger, to wander, to follow their curiosity down a side street.
Going sideways is the key. The famous sights are surrounded by less famous but often more rewarding places, the neighborhoods and streets and corners that the rushing tourist never sees. Step away from the main routes, wander a few streets in a direction the crowds are not going, and you will find a different London, quieter and more genuine, the city as it is actually lived rather than as it is packaged for visitors. The best discoveries in London are almost always just around the corner from the famous things, in the places the crowds do not bother to explore.
The resources that locals actually use can help you find these places. Sites like Time Out London and Londonist cover the city the way Londoners experience it, the events and the openings and the hidden corners, and they are far more useful for experiencing London like a local than the standard guidebook, which will only ever point you toward the same famous sights as everyone else.
Eat Where the Londoners Eat
One of the great pleasures of London is its food, and one of the great mistakes visitors make is eating in the tourist traps that cluster around the famous sights, where the food is expensive and mediocre and the experience is geared entirely toward people who will never return. The London that locals eat in is a different city, full of genuinely wonderful food at every price point, from the markets to the neighborhood restaurants to the countless places serving the cuisines of the world to a famously diverse population.
The rule is simple: walk away from the famous sights before you eat. The restaurants immediately surrounding a major attraction are almost always the worst in the area, surviving on the captive trade of tourists who do not know better. Walk a few streets, into the neighborhoods where Londoners actually live and work, and the quality rises and the prices fall. The food markets in particular, scattered across the city, offer some of the best eating in London at reasonable prices, and they are where locals go for a casual, delicious meal.
Be adventurous, too, with what you eat. London’s great culinary strength is its diversity, the food of every culture available across the city, and the visitor who sticks to familiar dishes misses one of the city’s genuine glories. Some of the best meals you will have in London will be cuisines you have never tried, in neighborhoods you had not heard of, recommended by locals or discovered by wandering, and they will tell you more about the city than any famous restaurant.
Embrace the Walk and the Wander
London is, despite its size, a wonderful city for walking, and walking is the best way to experience it. The city reveals itself on foot in a way it never does from a tour bus or a taxi, the neighborhoods flowing into one another, the surprises emerging around every corner, the texture of the place becoming apparent only at walking pace. Many of London’s areas are closer together than visitors realize, and a walk between famous sights will often show you more of the real city than the sights themselves.
The parks, in particular, reward the walker, and London’s great parks, maintained by bodies including the Royal Parks, are among the city’s genuine glories, vast green spaces where Londoners go to escape the bustle and where visitors can experience a quieter, more restful side of the city. A walk across one of the great parks, unhurried, with no destination in mind, is one of the most pleasant things you can do in London, and it costs nothing.
So slow down, go sideways, eat where the locals eat, and walk and wander, and you will experience a London that most visitors never see, the city as it is actually lived rather than as it is packaged for tourists. I share more guidance for experiencing London genuinely over at my home on The London Prat, where I try to help visitors find the real city beneath the tourist one.
London rewards the slow and curious visitor far more than the rushing one; go sideways and discover it. More London travel guidance appears at The London Prat, and the resources locals actually use include Time Out London.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
