Fiona MacLeod’s Honest Assessment of the Capital’s Most-Photographed Sights
By Fiona MacLeod | UK London Info
Royal London is the version of London that first-time visitors have usually already seen in photographs, films, and the mental image that the phrase “London” produces in approximately 80 percent of the world’s population. Buckingham Palace. The Mall. St James’s Park. The Tower of London. Westminster Abbey. These are real places that are worth seeing in person, and I will give you the information that makes seeing them in person better than the photograph suggested it would be, and also the honest assessment of which ones require more time than others and which are better experienced at specific times of day or year.
Buckingham Palace: The Reality
You cannot go inside Buckingham Palace unless the State Rooms are open to visitors in August and September, which they are when the royal family is in Scotland and which cost approximately 30 pounds per adult and are worth the cost because the State Rooms are extraordinary. If you are visiting in June, you can see the exterior and the forecourt from the Mall, and if you time your visit for the Changing of the Guard ceremony, you can see an elaborate and genuinely impressive military ceremony that happens at approximately 11am on alternating days (check the official schedule because the days change by season and the information circulating online is often out of date).
The Mall, which runs from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square through St James’s Park, is one of the best walks in London: a formal tree-lined avenue that is simultaneously grand and accessible, with the park on either side providing the pelicans, the deck chairs, and the specific quality of a London royal park on a good June afternoon, which is a quality that is difficult to describe but easy to recognise.
The Tower of London: Worth It
The Tower of London, which sits on the north bank of the Thames east of London Bridge, is one of those attractions that its tourist volume has made feel like it might not be worth it, and which is actually worth it once you are inside. The Crown Jewels are extraordinary in person in a way that photographs do not capture, because the scale and quantity of precious stones in a confined space produces an effect that photographs flatten. The White Tower, which is the original Norman keep built by William the Conqueror in the 1070s, is a building of genuine historical weight. Book in advance. Go on a Tuesday morning. The queues are shorter than on weekends and the experience is better.
What to Skip
Madame Tussauds is not worth the price unless you have children who specifically want to see it and for whom the photographs of themselves next to celebrity wax figures will be worth the cost of admission. Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross is a queue for a photograph in front of a luggage trolley mounted on a wall. The London Eye is expensive for the view, which is good but not significantly better than the view from the Sky Garden at 20 Fenchurch Street, which is free.
Fiona MacLeod writes about London for visitors who want to see what the city actually is rather than what the postcards say it is. That means the Royal Mews and the Tate and the Borough Market and the things in the guidebooks, yes, but also the things around those things: the cafe on the back street that is better than the tourist cafe on the front street, the museum that is not the British Museum but is excellent and has no queue, the neighbourhood that is twenty minutes from the centre and is genuinely what London feels like when people live in it rather than visit it. She is here to help visitors have a better time than they would have without her, which is the most practical form of journalism available. For London visitor information, see Visit London. For London events, visit Time Out London. For London travel tips, see Evening Standard.
Fiona MacLeod has been writing about London for visitors since she arrived from Edinburgh fifteen years ago and found that the best London guide she could find was written by someone who had visited London twice and photographed Buckingham Palace from a distance both times. She has been trying to do better since, and the measure of success is visitors who write to her to say that the restaurant she recommended was actually good and the neighbourhood she described was actually worth an afternoon and the museum she said to skip was correctly assessed. London is too large and too interesting to waste time on the wrong things, and she is here to help you avoid wasting it.
Fiona MacLeod has been writing about London for visitors since she arrived from Edinburgh fifteen years ago and found that the best London guide she could find was written by someone who had visited London twice and photographed Buckingham Palace from a distance both times. She has been trying to do better since, and the measure of success is visitors who write to her to say that the restaurant she recommended was actually good and the neighbourhood she described was actually worth an afternoon and the museum she said to skip was correctly assessed. London is too large and too interesting to waste time on the wrong things, and she is here to help you avoid wasting it.
