Every few weeks a London cheat sheet goes viral on Instagram and Facebook: one screen, six boxes, twenty four names, and the promise that if you tick them all off you have “done” London. The latest one, from the travel site CuddlyNest, has been shared thousands of times. It is a good list. What it does not tell you is what each place actually costs, how far ahead you need to book, and where a Greek can get a decent coffee or souvlaki before or after. So here is the same London cheat sheet, expanded, with a Greek stop at every corner.
Four viewpoints, two of them free. Horizon 22 at 22 Bishopsgate is the highest free viewing platform in Europe, 58 floors up, and you book a free timed ticket online. Sky Garden at the Walkie Talkie is also free with a booking, and has the plants and the bar. The View from The Shard is the classic paid option, at around £30 and up, and is worth it once, ideally at sunset. Lift 109 takes you up the chimney of Battersea Power Station in a glass lift, a newer experience that most Londoners still have not tried.
Good to know: Horizon 22 and Sky Garden release free tickets online a few weeks ahead and sunset slots go first. Both need photo ID at the door.
The queue outside the door is the sign. Fortitude Bakehouse in Bloomsbury is tiny and sells out its buns by lunchtime. Cédric Grolet at The Berkeley in Knightsbridge does the trompe l’oeil fruit pastries you have seen online, at prices to match. Arôme Bakery in Covent Garden is the one for the Japanese French crossover, and Pophams in Islington and London Fields made its name with the maple bacon pastry.
Good to know: Go before 10am on a weekday. On weekends most of these have a queue of 30 minutes or more.
Greek stop nearby: Fortitude is two streets from The Life Goddess on Store Street, so you can queue for the bun and have a proper Greek coffee after. If what you actually want is a Greek bakery, Borneo Cafe & Bakery on Green Lanes in Palmers Green and Source of Life Bakehouse in East Barnet do the tsoureki, koulouria and spanakopita the viral bakeries never will.
ABBA Voyage at the purpose built arena in Stratford is the show every visitor asks about, and it lives up to the hype. The Harry Potter Studio Tour in Watford needs booking months ahead, especially for school holidays. The Uber Boat by Thames Clippers is the cheapest “experience” on this London cheat sheet: it is a commuter boat, so for the price of a tube fare you get the river from Westminster to Greenwich. And Up at The O2 is the climb over the roof of the arena, harnessed, with a view down the river.
Good to know: The Uber Boat takes contactless like the tube. ABBA Voyage runs several shows a week and the cheaper seats are in the dance floor standing area, which is the best place to be anyway.
Greek stop nearby: ABBA Voyage is a ten minute walk from Westfield Stratford, where EPIC serves Greek street food in the Food Hall. Souvlaki before the show, and you are on the Jubilee line for the O2 straight after.
The pretty corner of the London cheat sheet. The Kyoto Garden in Holland Park is small, free and busiest at cherry blossom time. Kew Gardens is the one with an entry fee, and it is a full day: the Palm House, the treetop walkway and the Temperate House. Regent’s Park has the rose garden and the open air theatre in summer. St James’s Park is the one between Buckingham Palace and Whitehall, with the pelicans and the best view of the palace from the bridge.
Good to know: Kew is cheaper if you book online and go after 4pm. The other three are free and open until dusk.
Greek stop nearby: Regent’s Park sits right above Marylebone, where Kima on Paddington Street does the best Greek fish in London and Opso does modern Greek brunch. After St James’s Park, walk five minutes into Mayfair for coffee at Chill House Coffee on Shepherd Street. For Holland Park, Halepi on Leinster Terrace in Bayswater has been feeding Greeks and Cypriots since the 1960s.
Liberty on Great Marlborough Street is a Tudor style department store that is worth entering even if you buy nothing. The British Museum is free, and for Greeks it is personal: the Parthenon Marbles are in Room 18. Tate Modern is also free, with the view from the Blavatnik Building thrown in. Harrods and Selfridges are the two big department stores, the first for the food hall, the second for the window displays.
Good to know: British Museum and Tate Modern are free every day. Go early or late; the middle of the day is tour group time.
Greek stop nearby: Two minutes from the British Museum you have The Life Goddess for meze and Elysée on Percy Street, the Fitzrovia Greek restaurant with live music at night. Liberty and Selfridges are a short walk from Marylebone and Opso.
The four the cheat sheet picks are the four everyone picks, and for good reason. The Cotswolds needs a car or a tour. Bath is 80 minutes by train from Paddington, with the Roman Baths and the Royal Crescent. Oxford and Cambridge are each about an hour by train, and no, you cannot do both in a day, pick one. Windsor Castle is under an hour from Waterloo or Paddington and is the easiest of the four.
Good to know: Book train tickets in advance on the operator’s site; walk up fares on the day can be double.
No London cheat sheet fits everything on one screen. If you have ticked these off, the next tier is Greenwich by boat, the Sunday markets at Columbia Road and Broadway Market, a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, and the walk along the South Bank at night. And if you are new in the city, start with our guide to the Greek community in London.
The one thing missing from every viral London cheat sheet is the Greek calendar: concerts, bouzoukia nights, talks at the Hellenic Centre, church festivals and community events. They are all in one place, with dates and tickets, on the Greek Events page on Greek List, the most complete list of Greek events in the UK. Organising something? You can list your event for free.
The restaurants, cafes and bakeries mentioned above are members of Greek List. More than 100,000 Greeks and Cypriots in the UK read us every month on the site, in the newsletter and in the Ellines sto Londino Facebook group, and our listings rank first on Google. If you want them to find you too, see the plans and sign up or add your business in a few minutes.
What would you add to the London cheat sheet? Tell us in the Facebook group Ellines sto Londino.
