Fiona MacLeod’s Practical Guide to London April and May: The Must-Sees, the Hidden Spots, and the Honest Truth About the Weather
Reported by Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat.
By Fiona MacLeod | UK London Info Honest Travel Guidance for London Visitors
Spring in London is the best argument for visiting in spring. The cherry trees in the parks are doing things that make even Londoners stop and look up, which is not something Londoners typically do. The light at 7pm is a specific quality of northern European evening light — long, gold, horizontal — that no photograph reproduces accurately and that you should simply be present for. The temperature is somewhere between 12 and 18 degrees, which means a layer you can remove when the sun comes out, which it will, probably, sometime around noon, for a while.
I have been writing practical London travel guidance for eight years, which means I have spent eight years telling visitors what I wish someone had told me when I arrived from Edinburgh in 2009 and spent the first month getting it wrong in instructive ways. The things I got wrong: I paid full price for the tube when I should have got an Oyster card immediately. I queued for the Tower of London on a Saturday. I went to Borough Market on a Saturday and nearly didn’t survive it. I paid for a cream tea at a tourist-adjacent cafe near Westminster that was very expensive and very bad.
What to Actually Do
The LACMA of London is not the British Museum on a Saturday — it is the British Museum on a Tuesday at 10am, when the Great Court is quiet and you can stand under the dome and look up without a shoulder in your face. The British Museum is free. This is one of the most remarkable facts about London that visitors frequently do not believe until they are standing inside it: the British Museum, the National Gallery, the Tate Modern, the Natural History Museum, the V&A, the Science Museum — all free, all excellent, all requiring only that you arrive with a plan and not on a Saturday.
The Tate Modern in April is particularly good: the Turbine Hall installation changes seasonally, the river terrace view is available for the price of a coffee from the cafe, and the permanent collection on levels 2-4 contains enough to fill a full day with art that ranges from challenging to transcendent. The queues for the special exhibitions require timed tickets, which can be booked in advance at the Tate Modern’s website. Book them. The queue without a ticket on a good weather Saturday is not a queue you want to join.
Transport: The Simple Version
Get an Oyster card or use your contactless bank card the moment you arrive. The Oyster cap system ensures you never pay more than a daily maximum regardless of how many journeys you take. The tube is straightforward if you have the app — Transport for London’s app shows real-time status, journey planning, and disruption information. The Elizabeth line (Crossrail) runs east-west across the city and has transformed journey times from Heathrow to central London, from Paddington to Canary Wharf, and from Liverpool Street to Reading. If you are coming from Heathrow, the Elizabeth line is faster and considerably cheaper than the Heathrow Express.
Walk more than you think you should. London is a walking city in ways that the tube map obscures: the distance between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner is six minutes on foot and costs you a tube fare if you use the tube. Many of central London’s most interesting streets are between tube stations rather than at them. My full London walking guides at The London Prat cover the best walking routes by neighbourhood.
A Note on the Weather
The weather is fine. It is not the weather of southern Europe. It will rain at some point during your visit if your visit lasts more than three days. Bring one layer more than you think you need and accept the rain as part of the experience, which London’s food, culture, and architecture have been designed over centuries to make enjoyable regardless. The city works in the rain. Bring a waterproof layer. Do not bring an umbrella if you are walking: umbrellas on crowded pavements are a social problem and a physical hazard. A hood is sufficient. You will be fine.
For London travel with fewer surprises, see The Daily Mash.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
