Visiting London

[hirszu]

Hi there! I adress all ninja Londoners.
I'll be visiting London in September - therefore I'd welcome any tips, suggestions and your opinions on:

1) Where to stay - I mean which borough. Me and my gf will probably be using airbnb.com to find a place and so far we've been looking at Brixton, but maybe some of you could point us in a good direction
2) Nice places to eat and drink, so restaurants and pubs, generally places with nice atmosphere
3) Any regular nights worth checking out ( I also hope Contact or System would be hosted during our stay, that would be sick and really lucky)
4) Good record stores to do some crate digging
5) In general - places you would recommend to go to, and that could be really anything - not the usual tourist places, of course

Cheers!

[jaydot]

Brixton-you looking to get mugged?

[rickyarbino]

Brixton isn't all that bad. Still wouldn't stay there for a holiday since no matter where you are, you probably won't be able to walk more than 15 minutes before you're at risk of getting mugged, I say that since you're a tourist and won't know the area or the people too well.
Try look for somewhere West/North West. Not the hottest place for nightlife etc., but safer for sure. It's all pretty well linked up via public transport anyway.
Actually, North West Central can be pretty good for some mindless club crawling, if you can't find anything you're into on at night.

[wolf89]

Middle of Brixton is pretty gentrified to be honest.

East London has all the good music really and a bit in the south

Soho has by far the best selection of record stores. BM for good UK stuff, Phonica for serious house and techno stuff, Sounds Of The Universe for bits of this but loads of rare jazz, funk, disco, afrobeat etc. Reckless and Music And Video exchange for general second hand digging and Sister Ray for general broadness (Got a Mayhem bootleg and a Prince album there last time)

[wolf89]

Middle of Brixton is pretty gentrified to be honest.

East London has all the good music really and a bit in the south

Soho has by far the best selection of record stores. BM for UK dance stuff, Phonica for serious house and techno stuff, Sounds Of The Universe for bits of this but loads of rare jazz, funk, disco, afrobeat etc. Reckless and Music And Video exchange for general second hand digging and Sister Ray for general broadness (Got a Mayhem bootleg and a Prince album there last time)

[DJoe]

ignore jay. brixton is really nice now. you'll be absolutely fine staying there. id be very surprised if you get mugged.
there are a lot of cheap hotels around finsbury park really near to the station
it won't be difficult to find a good restaurant but id reccommend going for a curry on brick lane or going for a kebab on green lanes
check resident adviser for nights out, its quite a comprehensive list. most good clubs are around shoreditch/dalston, vauxhall, london bridge or peckham
soho has loads or record shops all near to eachother. wolf listed them
dont bother going to camden despite what the guidebooks say, its shit. go for a walk along the thames, the london bridges are one of the best ways to see the city.

[DiegoSapiens]

Soho has by far the best selection of record stores. BM for UK dance stuff, Phonica for serious house and techno stuff, Sounds Of The Universe for bits of this but loads of rare jazz, funk, disco, afrobeat etc. Reckless and Music And Video exchange for general second hand digging and Sister Ray for general broadness (Got a Mayhem bootleg and a Prince album there last time)

yep, all this shops are amazing. The prices in music and video exchange were pretty decent and i bought some of my fav dub records from my collection

[hirszu]

Residents' opinions are always more valuable than any other info
The reason we looked at Brixton first was rather accidental, it just looked like a well situated area with reasonably good accomodation prices, our budget has its limits We're going to take a look at the West/North West area tonight then, as you suggested @jesslem.
Well concerning nights I guess I will just have to check RA around August. All the other info you provided is really useful, thanks

[Forum]

Im pretty sure he's not basing his holiday plans around where the best record stores are.

What protection are you taking?

[skimpi]

Jaydot where would you stay in LDN then?

[titchbit]

I stayed here last summer. Was a good time:

http://www.expedia.com/London-Hotels-Me ... Mgodh1cAKA

[kay]

Possibly a bit touristy but on a nice day, I think you probably can't really beat a stroll along the South Bank, through Borough Market, continuing along and then crossing over a bridge and carry wandering up through some of the older parts of Holborn. A good 3-4 hours well-spent. Top it off with 2 of my favourite bars:
- Buena Vista, a Cuban rum bar in Clapham, with live latin/jazz Thursday - Saturdays.
- Jackson & Rye, a Rye bar in Soho, really good cocktails, decent atmosphere.

There's also a bar near Jackson & Rye that makes its own Vermouth called Mele e Pere that seems decent but I've only been there once. The cocktail bar in the Shard also supposedly does amazing cocktails and isn't ridiculously overpriced.

I really rate the Saatchi Gallery, they usually have some good exhibitions. Also the Wellcome Collection at the Wellcome Trust Centre is full of quirky items (they usually also have special exhibits). The Serpentine can be a bit hit and miss but you'll get a nice walk in the park anyway.

Head over to Hampstead Heath in the evening, you can get some really good night time views of London from there.

[Lye_Form]

you would have to work hard in brixton to get mugged tbh, you would need to wait until night and start walking through estates with a laptop bag or something.

Wolf hit the nail on the head for stores.

[DJoe]

yeah definitely go to hampstead heath for the view

[Lye_Form]

and blowjobs

[DJoe]

lol yeah stay out the public toilets

[kay]

I thought this map was actually fairly accurate: http://now-here-this.timeout.com/2014/0 ... the-truth/

[hirszu]

Big ups guys! This is so much better than any guide.
We'll be only staying there for a week, I hope I get I'll manage to see everything you suggested.

Also good tips about Brixton, I've heard that it's not the safest place on the globe but I was surprised reading Jaydot's comment. We also have an area in Warsaw called Praga which is considered fairly dangerous, there's even a saying that if you visit Praga and don't come back with a black eye that's like visitng Paris and not seeing the Eiffel tower. However I've been there a few times on nights out, sometimes hammered, and nothing ever happened to me. If you "behave well" and mind your own business it's safe and I hope the same applies to Brixton. We haven't chosen yet though

[rickyarbino]

you would have to work hard in brixton to get mugged tbh, you would need to wait until night and start walking through estates with a laptop bag or something.

Wolf hit the nail on the head for stores.

Beg to differ. Been robbed there myself, in the enclosed market area behind the station, under the bridge.

Tbf, I was 12, and it was for spraypaint, but still

[rickyarbino]

On second thoughts, I didn't get robbed, but the two guys I was with did
I left with all my paint because I hadn't bought any and he didn't want my half used tins.