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I'll spend a week in London (8-14 May) and would like to know what's interesting to see or do aviation wise. For a change I will have almost the whole time free for bumming around so would like to know what you'd recomend in and around London.
I know I'll checkout the Concorde (where is it?) since I've never actually seen one up close and will definitely checkout the Battle of Brittain sites.
And will stock up on Marmite as well he he
SYT_YYZ you working on the evening of the 8th?
PS Mods if you think it should be in Misc, move it, I wasn't sure.
It's almost MANDITORY that you pay a visit to the Imperial War Museum. You will not regret it. It has everything related to British military history and then some.
Big Pratt wrote:I'll spend a week in London (8-14 May) and would like to know what's interesting to see or do aviation wise.
The RAF Museum (London) is definitely a must see. It's a short walk from the Colindale Underground station on the Edgware branch of the Northern Line. I was there in the late 90's and it was worth the visit.
Both recommendations are good, but you guys missed the best one. When one ask what to do in London, only one thing comes to mind: DUXFORD.
Located near Stanstead and accessible by train, RAF station Duxford looks almost like it did during WWII and is filled with airplane. It also contains the largest flyable collection of Spitfire (5 or 6 if my memory serves me right) if you drop by on the weekend, you may even be greeted with an impromptu airshow. The last time I went, a guy showed up and flew a low level aerobatic routine with his P40 just for the fun of it.
RAF Hendon War Musuem - Hendon, NW London - absolute must for military aviation stuff
RAF Duxford - just off the M11 motorway about 45 miles NW of London
Another one worth visiting (and you can take in Cambridge at the same time as its about 30 miles east of the city) is the Shuttleworth Collection, based at Old Warden airfield. This is a real old grass roots airstrip with a feel straight out of WW1!
The Concorde prototype is at Duxford. When you go, go into Cambridge and ask for the airman's pub - there are names of WW2 aircrew on the ceiling, put there with their Zippos.
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"What's it doing now?"
"Fly low and slow and throttle back in the turns."
As mentioned by the others, Duxford is definitely a must-see in terms of aviation- Concorde prototype (you can walk throught it, or at least it used to be open to the public, probably still is), various classic warbirds and lots of other planes. It really is a fantastic museum- I went to an airshow there when I was kid and can still remember the day. Well worth it.
Also you will probably see Concorde again if you are landing in Heathrow- they have one on display on one of the taxiways.
Apart from aviation, England has a lot more to offer as well. There's the tourist traps in London if you want. However I strongly recommend going to a professional soccer game. It doesn't have to be a Premiership match and you don't even have to really like soccer. The atmosphere of an English soccer stadium on match day is something very unique and very cool...Hold on...when are you going...if it is May sometime then the season will be over unless you can get a ticket for a playoff game or the FA Cup Final.
Check out the Science Museum - betch can't just go once - allow a full day.
Oh yeah, London is expensive, take lots of money - don't plan to drive unless you are desperate; the tube has an all-day fare that you can't use during rush hour, but the tube really works. Tube last ride is 12 or 01:00...
City centre pubs aren't very good, generally - go to Hampstead and check a couple out there. Restaurants in Leicester Square are a hoot, but VERY expensive.
If you're corporate, you won't use Heathrow. If you go to Biggin or Stanstead or whatever, the Kensington Marriott is good, but not cheap (nothing is) and very central. Get a service, like a limo, to drive you in and don't forget the tip.
One of my favourite cities! Enjoy!
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"What's it doing now?"
"Fly low and slow and throttle back in the turns."
Both air museums (Duxford and Hendon) are great - beware, though, Duxford is pretty much a day trip by itself.
Also the 3 big museums: Imperial War, Natural History, and Science.
The Greenwich Observatory is worth a visit, also.
For a good view of the city, there's a small walkway at the top of St Paul's Cathedral ('course, you could also go on the London Eye - big ferris wheel). St' Pau'ls was built in the late 1600's, just after the Great Fire of London. It's pretty amazing, the size of the place, considering the construction techniques and materials in those days. If you walk down the hill from St.P's, you go down Ludgate which turns into Fleet Street, long the home of England's tabloid press. Fleet St. turns into the Strand. A few blocks in on your right is Covent Garden. There's a big public market there, similar to Granville Island in Vancouver. The Maple Leaf pub is on Maiden Lane - if you're feeling homesick for a hockey game (it is playoff season, after all!) you'll find one there, plus a bunch of Canadians.
The Strand ends in Trafalgar Square. Canada House (our embassy)is there, as is the National Gallery. Full of original paintings from about 1200AD onward. If you've ever wanted to see an original Rembrandt, vanGogh or any one of a host of other painters, then its there. Well worth a visit for the shared cultural history even if you're not an artistic person.
From the square, you can cut up the Mall, and gawk at Buckingham Palace at the top end, or you can go down Whitehall towards the Houses of Parliament. About half way down, there's a statue of Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris, the architect of the RAF bombing campaign during WW2. You'll also pass Downing Street (it's blocked off, so you can't enter.) At the bottom end of Whitehall is the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. The abbey can be interesting if only for the fact that parts of it have been there for about a thousand years. There are several old kings of England buried there.
The Tower if London is interesting to see the Crown Jewels.
If you are in London on a Sunday Morning, Speaker's corner in Hyde Park is really interesting. Basically, it's a public speaking free-for-all. Anyone is welcome to stand on their soapbox and speak about whatever. Be warned: the Brits aren't polite Canadians who will sit there and just listen to you - if you're full of it they'll tell you so, and in no uncertain terms. That's where it gets interesting - you get all sorts of public debates. The day I was there, there was one homeless guy arguing that it was his duty to collect welfare, so that the people who gave out the cheques would have a job; a raving homosexual arguing sexual morality with an equally raving christian, all by swapping bible quotes, and there was a Methodist preacher who's been there every sunday (after church) for about 50-odd years. All, in all, very interesting.
If you go clubbing, be prepared to get reamed for a cover charge. Much better to go to a pub and experience Britain that way..
I could go on...and on...and on...you could spend a month there, and still not see everything.
Have fun!
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Say, what's that mountain goat doing up here in the mist?
Happiness is V1 at Thompson!
Ass, Licence, Job. In that order.
I think this is where I went when I was a kid. The museum was on an active Harrier base and you could watch them doing circuits. And they do have a Concorde.
If you're interested in the Royal Navy, you can always do a tour of HMS Belfast; a WW2 cruiser anchored in the Thames across from parliament. There's always the Tower of London and a view of the Crown jewels etc. The tour of the Tower is always interesting due to the grisly goings on that occured there; Anne Boleyn wasn't the only one to meet her maker somewhere on the grounds.
If you find yourself leaving London headed south, Dover is well worth a visit; if for no other reason than to see the white cliffs. The castle is an interesting tour itself and on the grounds is a, still standing, Roman lighthouse.
As others have mentioned, you definitely need to see the Imperial War Museum, RAF Hendon, and Duxford; complete with it's sector control bunker, and to the best of my knowledge, the only CF100 outside of a Canadian museum.
If it's still there, there's a small museum at Hawkinge; which was the last surviving Battle of Britain grass strip. Nothing you won't see at Hendon or the war museum but still worth checking out.
Edited because I couldn't remember the airfield's name until now.
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Last edited by shitdisturber on Fri Apr 28, 2006 7:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
Big Pratt wrote:
In the meantime, keep the ideas coming!
All this talk about airplanes, nobody has mentioned what pilots do when they are not flying, and thats DRINKING.
Doesn't matter where you are in London, there's going to be a pub nearby. Go sample the brews, meet some locals. You'll have a great time. A couple of stouts makes a great dinner. Then, for the next night out, find an underground station, jump on the train, get off at Picadilly. Go out, start walking. Trip report expected, there will be all sorts of 'interesting' things to report back about. For the third evening, try some more of the local pubs in the vicinity of whereever you are staying. Finally, on the morning of day 4, you should be sufficiently hung over that you can finally appreciate things like the concorde etc, in the proper frame of reference, an aviator with a hangover.
If you want to do some flying here I’m working in the UK doing aerial photography. You could see a lot of the countryside in a day. Even if its from the back seat of a 172.
PM Me.
And while you're waiting for The Ministry of Sound to open it's doors ( it's worth the wait - way too many nights that I can't rememeber spent in there ) you could go here
Get out of London - the place sucks - and go to York (trains from Kings Cross Station), and visit the Yorkshire Air Museum. http://www.yorkshireairmuseum.co.uk/
And while your up there, go see the old Roman & Norman remains in York. Oh yeah, and have a few pints of northern beer. Southern beer, in general is crap!
