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2 Stars - 40 Opinions
Highbridge Road, Barking, Essex, IG 11 7B, United Kingdom
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of people enjoy staying here
40 Opinions
Whitehall, London
JB's Record Shop - London
Lovely fountains and The Long water (Serpentine).
From near the end of the road
If you come to London for New year, is sightseeing possible or everyhting is closed for visit 31/12, 01/01, what about shopping?
Sorry for the question, but last year we were in Miami and all the shops on Ocean Drive were open till almost 12pm /i agree this is far south and almost Latin America/
Given this is the UK and they do celebrate Xmas and New Year's Eve, with NY Day being a Public Holiday, I'm sure you will find most things closed. Depends on what things you have in mind for sightseeing though. Best bet is to look at the website of each particular attraction. They usually state what days/Public Holidays they open. Some state they close only on Xmas Day. Quite often, Xmas and NY Days are the only time some staff get a guaranteed holiday!
On December 31st most things will close early especially in London. Nothing much will be open after about 7pm.
1st January, believe it or not, is not a public holiday in 2011 as it falls on a Saturday. UK does not celebrate public holidays that fall at weekends except for Christmas Day, so Monday January 3rd is a holiday! The shops will be open for sure on January 1st. But as the previous poster says, it's difficult to be specific about places of interest.
Many sports events will take place over the weekend as normal. Expect public transport to be restricted however.
London is rather closer to the North Pole than Miami, so expect it to be cold wet and horrible.
You might find some of the publicly owned museums are closed at New Year. You'd need to check the individual web sites for such as the British Museum, Natural History Museum and the V&A. It wouldn't surprise me if they were closed. They generally are at Christmas.
Yes, agree that checking the websites for individual museums, galleries etc is a good idea. You can easily find them by googling the name, and all will give you dates and times of opening.
On 3rd you will find not only that shops. restaurants and sights/sites will be open for shorter hours (and some may remain closed) but also that public transport is running on a reduced service. This is usual for UK 'bank' (public) holidays.as noted, 1st is not a public holiday this year because it is a Saturday.
UK shops in general tend to close around 5.30, with larger supermarkets/chainstores etc opening until 8pm rather than later. However, 8pm for larger stores is not a norm every day =everywhere..in many places shops will open late only on one or two nights perweek.
Again,it would be worth googling e.g. Harrods, Selfridges etc (if you really want to visit them)to find out their exact opening hours over the New Year.
The New Years Day Parade brings many visitors into the centre, with many shops and cafes around Trafalgar Square open. The Parade is worth seeing, and this year is the 25th anniversary so should be special. http://www.londonparade.co.uk/
Nearby attractions such as the London Eye are also open on New Years Day.
although i envy london's underground because defitinely is the best metro in the world - okay, i'm over reacting, but u must agree it is bloody good - it's good going around in london by bus. it's also a nice way to see places and know the city. depending on the time the trafic is quite good and you can always fall more in love with the city :-)
Enjoy a show or two in the theatre district near Gloucester Square. We took in Verdi's Tosca as well as Les Miserables when we were there. London also has terrific food and drink from around the world, including excellent Middle Eastern cuisine. Make sure to party at the Hippodrome! When I was there with a school group in 1996, MTV Europe was shooting video of everyone on the dance floor.
This is the closest overview of the monument that was built within the park. It is very ideal especially in Summer. People could be seen sitting around the monument or dipping their legs in the clean running water. Some tourist just walk around and enjoy the scenery, and what more, when you are tired or you want something to drink, you can walk to the club below to relax with your partner or family.
A study of the pyschological make-up (I'm not wearing make -up, you calling me a puff ?) of taxi drivers in London has become one of the 'core studies' that A-level students in the United Kingdom now have to study.
Apparantly the amount of 'knowledge' that has to be acquired in order to become a licensed Black Taxi cab driver leads to several inbalances in the brain. This is something that we have known for a long time - the ability of any cab driver to bring any subject around to the issue of immigration and a complete inability to cross over to the south side of the Thames after about 8 PM at night.
On the other hand, you have to admire the amount of imformation that a cabby has to store in his head on the layout of London - there can't be room for much else when you consider that they must know the 320 main routes, through central London. That is some 25,000 streets within a six mile radius of Charing Cross along with the major arterial routes through the rest of London.
He or she must also know 'points of interest' along those routes including streets, squares, clubs, hospitals, hotels, theatres, government and public buildings, railway stations, police stations, courts, diplomatic buildings, important places of worship, cemeteries, crematoria, parks and open spaces, sports and leisure centres, places of learning, restaurants and historic buildings.
You can get some idea of what that involves by looking at the website : www.taxiknowledge.co.uk and taking the on-line test.
The 'average' candidate makes 12 attempts and 34 months to pass - no wonder they want a tip !
Even with the advent of cell phones, the red phone boxes are still familiar sight on London streets. I walked down the street a bit in order to get this one into the picture.
I did not realize that originally, the designer Giles Gilbert Scott intended the phone boxes to be silver with a greeny-blue interior. Maybe they were red to go with the red post boxes (since the post office also administered the phone system in those days.)
There are main two types. This one is the smaller K6 ‘Jubilee Kiosk’ made of cast iron starting 1936 (with raised crown & irregular windows) were sited in the whole country.
The larger (taller and heavier) K2s that remain (with cut-out crown & regular windows) are now listed 'buildings'. These first ones dating from 1926 were introduced in Metropolitan Boroughs.
The K2 was to replace the K1 which were made of pre-cast reinforced concrete with a pyramidal roof topped with a ball. The only London survival of the K3 is apparently by the Parrot House in London Zoo, and not many of K7 or K8 survive either. No mention is made in the website of K4 or K5.
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