London

[Carol]

Shaun Hately wrote:
>
> <snip>
> 
> I'm heading to London in September for a brief (too brief, really,
but I have to fit it into school holidays) holiday, and I am trying to
work out where to base myself. I just thought I'd ask people who might
know the place better than I do (a lot of people) and who are better
travelled than I am (also a lot of people) if they have any
suggestions as to what areas I should look at as being a decent place
to lay my head at night.
> 
> I intend to be using public transport to get around (particularly the 
> underground) and I will probably want to hit some of the
'stereotypical' 
> tourist sites - Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, British Museum
(also 
> open to any other suggestions people might have on this point). I
also want 
> to do a 'Jack the Ripper' walk one night.
> 
> Basically I'm asking, what areas are reasonably central (in terms of 
> accessing public transport), and have a reasonable choice in terms
of accomodation options. Cost is not a major concern, but on the other
hand nor is luxury - I just want somewhere decent to sleep at night,
I'm not planning on spending much more time than that at any hotel.


Carol responds:
If you're going to be doing any research, you might consider London
House, an extremely inexpensive hostel for scholars. Of course, you
won't have a bathroom in your room, so you'll have to use communal
showers (reasonably private) and restrooms, erm, toilets. There's a
private quad in the middle, just like you'd find at Hogwarts or, I
assume, and Oxford "college."

When I stayed there in 1995, it was within easy walking distance of
the British Museum, which has since been moved, and of Bloomsbury and
Dickens House--and several "tube" stations if you want to get
downtown. There's also a post office and a few shops and restaurants
nearby, but I usually ate in the cafeteria. I never did master English
money--those heavy pound coins and five-cent pieces that look like
dimes!--and that was *after* the conversion to the decimal system!

I went to London alone, an untraveled American who always looked the
wrong way first before crossing streets, and had no trouble finding
Westminster Abbey (hint: don't go on a Sunday!) the National Portrait
Gallery or traveling to Oxford on the "Oxford Tube" (really a bus or
train) from Victoria Station. Another hint: Don't even try to figure
out the bus routes. Use the Underground.

Carol, who would love to go back to England, preferably with a
companion and sufficient time and money to take a Ricardian tour