Halifax,
Abbey National, Woolwich, Lloyds TSB, HSBC and NatWest are all on Bethnal Green
Road, where there's also a Barclays' cash till but no bank.There is absolutely loads to see and do in London. Here's a little flavour of some of the best stuff you'll find in our area (and occasionally a little further afield). You'll also find very useful bits of information on things like handy local shops and sports centres. Grab a copy of the listings magazine Time Out for more detail.
Local
Cass: There's a Tesco
supermarket barely a 30-second walk away and you can find
Marks & Spencer, Primark and Boots nearby in "Narrow
Way".
Halifax, Abbey National, Woolwich, Leeds, Barclays, Lloyds
TSB, HSBC and NatWest are all nearby on Mare Street, "Narrow
Way" or Graham Road.
Claredale: There's a large Tesco supermarket just 10 minutes walk away on Bethnal Green Road. And on the same road, you'll also find Woolworths and many late-opening shops, which sell a wide variety of food, drink and other essentials.
Halifax,
Abbey National, Woolwich, Lloyds TSB, HSBC and NatWest are all on Bethnal Green
Road, where there's also a Barclays' cash till but no bank.
General
Covent Garden - as well
as the very tourist-orientated piazza, populated with street performers, many
of the younger fashion brands have now moved into the area. There are also plenty
of good bars and restaurants.
Nearest tubes: Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Holborn.
Knightsbridge - if
you've just got to visit Harrods, you've got to go Knightsbridge (but don't
wear tatty jeans - Harrods might not let you in!) As well as the "Ab-fab"
Harvey Nichols, it's a mixture of mostly fashion stores. A short bus ride away
(or a tube to Sloane Square) is the King's Road, which while it may have been
exciting in the 60s and useful for punk-spotting in the 70s, is not much more
than OK these days.
Nearest tube: Knightsbridge (Sloane Square for the King's Road)
Oxford Street - What
can you say, a mile of every big shop you've ever heard of and it has the largest
music and fashion stores in the world. You'll also find Selfridges, as well
as Regent Street and the exclusive Bond Street running off it.
Nearest tubes: Hyde Park Corner, Bond Street, Oxford Circus, Tottenham Court
Court Road.
Clubs & Music Venues
Cargo - live bands of
an indie nature and club nights of an unusual flavour.
Where: 83 Rivington Street, EC2
Nearest tube: Old Street
District - underground
mixed-up bag at this DJ bar venue not far from Ocean, playing jazz, funk, hip
hop, ragga and breaks.
Where: 19 Amhurst Road, E8
Nearest tube: It's a short bus ride
Cost: Free
Fabric - various nights,
but mainly tribal house, garage, techno and a few breakbeats thrown in, at this
largish and v popular venue.
Where: 77a Charterhouse Street, EC1
Nearest tube: Farringdon
Cost: expect to pay £10-£15
Mother
- the queues prove something about this anything-goes
spot with cabaret, house classics and even 50s and 60s Rock 'n' Roll depending
which night you choose.
Where: 333 Old Street, EC1
Nearest tube: Old Street
Cost: Free
Play - retro vibing
back to the 80s and good old party tunes, with some free nights, usually Thursday.
Where: 58 Old Street, EC1
Nearest tube: Old Street
Cost: Free - £5
Turnmills - this institution's
currently cranking out tribal, techie dub platters to regular big sweaty mobs.
Where: 63 Clerkenwell Road, EC1
Nearest tube: Farringdon
Cost: £10
Comedy Clubs
Backyard Comedy Club - call
for details of what's on, 020 7739 3122.
Where: 231 Cambridge Heath Road, E2
Nearest tube: Bethnal Green
Comedy Café - call
for details of what's on, 020 7739 5706.
Where: 66 Rivington Street, EC2
Nearest tube: Old Street
Jongleurs Bow - call
for details of what's on, 0870 787 0707.
Where: 221 Grove Road, E3
Nearest tube: Mile End
Pubs near Cass
The Dove - a great
pub with lots of Belgian beer and lovely food. A good place to impress friends.
Where: Broadway Market, E8
Pub on the Park - very
trendy pub with lots of locals to make you feel at home..
Where: Martello Road, E8
Pubs near Claredale
The Dove - see above.
The Durham Arms - our
very local, local - it's joined to the building, so it's usually full of people
from Claredale. It also has Sky TV and a big screen.
Where: Hackney Road, E2
SoBar - providing anything
from jazz, typical east end sing-a-long nights to karaoke. Got to be worth a
visit.
Where: Hackney Road, E2
The Hayfield - a student-friendly
pub that does great food too.
Where: Mile End Road, E1
Genesis Multiplex Mile End - call
for details of what's on, 08700 606061.
Where: 93-95 Mile End Road, E1
Nearest tube: Stepney Green or Whitechapel
The Rio - Call for
details of what's on, 020 7241 9410.
Where: 107 Kingsland High Road, E8
Nearest tube: it's a short bus ride to Dalston
The Yoga Place - 020
7739 5195.
Where: 449-453 Bethnal Green Road, E2
Nearest tube: Bethnal Green
York Hall - Has a swimming
Pool, 020 8980 2243.
Where: Old Ford Road, E2 Nearest tube: Bethnal Green
Whitechapel Sports Centre -
020 7297 7538.
Where: Durward Street, E1
Nearest tube: Whitechapel
Camden Lock - a now
world-famous mixture of all things youth culture, straddling the canal in Camden.
Clubwear, music, new and vintage clothing, crafts and plenty more to be found,
as well as a few antique/retro design pieces towards the Chalk Farm end.
Where: Camden Lock, NW1
Nearest tubes: Camden Town and Chalk Falk
When: Saturday and Sunday (though parts of it are open all week, these days)
Columbia Road - once
a week this ordinary London street is filled to the brim with flowers and plants.
Loads of interiors, antique, clothes and design shops
have now opened up around it. You can also get top bagels here and there are
lots of cafés, making it a good place to chill out on a Sunday morning.
The market itself does get rammed, though.
Where: Columbia Road, E2
Nearest tube: Bethnal Green
When: Sundays
Portobello - specialising
in the old, you'll discover everything from high-quality antiques to boot sale-quality,
second-hand good. The Westway end of the market is where you'll find all the
extremely trendy new and vintage clothes that have become a real speciality
here.
Where: Portobello Road and around, W10
Nearest tubes: Notting Hill or Ladbroke Grove
When: Friday and Saturday
Spitalfields - everything
from organic food to vintage clothing, antiques and bric-a-brac. Perfect if
it's raining, because it's all indoors.
Where: near Commercial Street, E1
Nearest tube: Aldgate East, Liverpool Street or Shoreditch
When: Sunday
The Lux Centre - housed
above the Lux cinema in Hoxton, this gallery specialises in contemporary photography
and video work.
Where: Hoxton Square, N1
Nearest tube: Old Street
Cost: Free
Website: www.lux.org.uk
National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery
-
the National Gallery fronts on to the world-famous
Trafalgar Square, with the portrait gallery attached to the side. The National
Gallery houses one of the world's greatest art collections and, as a flavour,
here are just a handful of the artists whose works you'll find on display: Turner,
Stubbs, Gainsborough, Hogarth, Rembrandt, Rubens, Caravaggio, Titian, Botticelli,
Raphael, Michelangelo, El Greco, Velasquez and Goya. The National Portrait Gallery,
as you'd suspect, concentrates on portraiture covering photgraphy as well as
paintings of famous people from Tudor times through to the now.
Where: Leicester Square, W1
Nearest tubes: Charing Cross or Leicester Square
Cost: Free
Websites: www.nationalgallery.org.uk (The National Gallery)
www.npg.org.uk (National Portrait Gallery)
Natural History Museum, Science Museum and V&A
- you'll find these three huddled together, though
covering a huge area of South Kensington. Don't try and do them all in one day
-you could seriously damage your health! The Natural History Museum specialises
in all things natural and has undergone a transformation in recent years, which
has seen excellent new interactive galleries opening up and the addition of
a number of pretty gruesome animatronic dinosaurs. Likewise, The Science Museum
is a thoroughly modern museum with seven floors of "science", covering
everything from steam engines to space exploration. If you're interested in
the decorative arts, then the Victoria and Albert Museum is what you want. Fashion,
furniture, jewellery, textiles, ceramics, glass, photography, armour, sculpture
and Indian art are just some of the things on display.
Where: Cromwell Road, SW19
Nearest tube: South Kensington
Cost: Free
Websites: www.nhm.ac.uk (Natural History Museum)
www.sciencemuseum.org.uk (Science Museum)
www.vam.ac.uk
(V&A)
Tate Modern - the permanent
modern-art collection of the Tate is now housed here, in an absolutely stunning
old power station, the scale of which has to be seen, to be believed. It's the
largest modern art gallery in the world. Try going to St Paul's first, then
walking down here, crossing the Thames over the new Millennium footbridge (famous
for its earlier tendency to vibrate!).
Where: Southwark
Nearest tube: Southwark, SE1
Cost: Free
Website: www.tate.org.uk
Whitechapel Art Gallery - this
gallery has made a name for itself by showing innovative and challenging contemporary
art. The shows are continually changing and the Art and Crafts building is interesting
in itself.
Where: Whitechapel Road, E1
Nearest tube: Aldgate East
Cost: Free
Website: www.whitechapel.org
two
massive tanks cutting through three floors of the former Greater London Council
headquarters building dominate this excellent aquarium - and yes, it has got sharks.
It's also right next to the London Eye.London
Eye (BA Millennium Wheel) - rising to a massive
135m (450ft), the London Eye on the South Bank of the Thames, is the tallest
observation wheel in the world and looks out over the best city in the world!
You need to book to avoid a big queue.
Where: The South Bank, SW1
Nearest tubes: Waterloo or Westminster
Cost: £9.50
Website: www.ba-londoneye.com
Booking: 09061 209 595
London Zoo - now firmly
angled towards animal conservation, the zoo still has an impressive collection
of animals and reptiles and all in a great setting in Regent's Park.
Where: Regent's Park, NW1
Nearest tube: Camden Town (and then a short bus ride)
Cost: £9
Website: www.londonzoo.co.uk
Madame Tussauds -
the
original and the most famous of all the waxworks museums. Figures of the famous
and infamous and a theme-park ride, too. The London Planetarium is joined to
it. Book to avoid the huge queues.
Where: Marylebone Road
Nearest tube: Baker Street, W1
Cost: £11.50; combined ticket with Planetarium £13.95
Website: www.madame-tussauds.com
Booking: 0870 400 3000
Shakespeare's
Globe - a superb replica of the original Elizabethan
theatre that stood on the sight. You can go and see a play or go for a guided
tour and the exhibition. During the summer the tour includes a look inside the
theatre in the mornings, but not the afternoons, because of performances.
Where: Southwark, SE1
Nearest tubes: Blackfriars and Southwark
Cost: Performances tickets vary from £5 (standing) to £27; the tour
and exhibition is £8
Website: www.shakespeares-globe.or
Booking: 020 7401 9919
St Paul's Cathedral -
Sir
Christopher Wren's huge, domed masterpiece is well worth a visit just for the
sheer size of it. If you don't like heights stay well away from the whispering
gallery!
Where: Newgate Street/Cheapside, EC2
Nearest Tube: St Paul's
Cost: Free or guided tour £6
Website: www.stpauls.co.uk
Tower
of London - famous for being the place where
Anne Boleyn met her untimely end, literally losing her head for Henry VIII.
It's an impressive fortress and houses the Crown Jewels, which you get to see
from a conveyor belt.
Where: next to Tower Bridge, SE1
Nearest tube: Tower Hill
Cost: £11
Website: www.hrp.org.uk