If you’ve never been to London before, every friend and guidebook will have a list of things that you should not miss.
Shopping at Harrods (even though it’s far more expensive than Selfridges), a peek at Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, a visit to the Tower of London and so on.
Here are a few of my personal favorites:
CABINET WAR ROOMS
Think for a minute of the Gulf War — laptop computers, satellite communications and seeing-eye rocketry.
Now try to imagine running not just a regional war but one that sprawled over an entire continent — from some guy’s basement.
For six years during World War II, British strategy was managed from this grubby, underground warren of offices filled with clacking typewriters, shouting officers and the whumping of German bombs landing overhead in the city. The enemy never learned where the war rooms were located.
They’re all very primitive by today’s standards. One direct bomb hit would have blown everything away. Xerox did not exist, so copies of communiques were made by teams of secretaries with manual typewriters and carbon paper. Military strategy was figured on a map with pins.
And if Prime Minister Winston Churchill wanted to talk with President Franklin Roosevelt, he stepped into a onetime cupboard for the secure trans-Atlantic phone.
For anyone who remembers World War II or who has thrilled to old movies, this is a not-to-be-missed place. Located at Clive Steps, King Charles Street. Open 9:30 a.m. (10 a.m. from October to March) to 6 p.m. daily. Call 930-6961.
PORTOBELLO ROAD MARKET
Sure, you can find some neat antiques. Old silver, china, a curved brass auto horn with a rubber squeeze bulb, a Leica camera, mahogany chairs, handmade mirrors. With 1,500 dealers on Saturdays, it all goes on for block after block covering a mile north of Hyde Park.
Beyond the antiques, near-antiques and kitsch, the market extends another two miles on down the street where vendors sell fruits and vegetables, knock-off clothing, CDs and flea market stuff.
But the wonderful part is the people — tourists from all over the globe, locals, kids, bewildered dogs and smiling cops with inverted tub helmets.
It all opens about 6 a.m. when the true antique hunters show up. But as the day progresses, the market becomes more and more festive as the crowds ooze along, bellies to backs, in a slow-moving Thames of humanity, eddying around street-corner musicians, wandering pretzel sellers, sidewalk chalk artists and such.
To get there, take the tube or a bus to Notting Hill Gate, walk north along Pembridge Road and take the fourth street left, Portobello Road.
HOLLAND PARK
Everyone’s heard of Hyde Park. And Kensington Gardens. But many people, even Londoners, haven’t heard of Holland Park, which may be the niftiest of all.
In the better-known parks, everything seems manicured. Carefully cropped lawns, scrupulously pruned bushes, trees with nary a dead limb.
But Holland Park, which isn’t far from Kensington Park, is woodsy. Leaves lie on the ground to kick through. Limbs fall as they do in any forest and are not picked up. It feels like country.
And as a result, it is one of the few perfect escapes from London’s cost-a-pretty-pound busy-ness.
In absolute contrast, Holland Park also has a superb little Japanese garden, called Kyoto Garden, with a perfectly harmonic convergence of gentle pond, graceful trimmed plants and perfectly coiffed trees.
Holland Park is about six blocks west of Kensington Park, north of Hammersmith Road and south of Holland Park Avenue.
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For more information contact the British Tourist Authority, 800-462-2748.
