London 2008 - Leicester Square, Chinatown, Piccadilly Circus

Finally I succeeded getting to London after my one day delay in Salzburg. After arriving late on May 9, 2008, I got a good night's sleep at the Zetter Hotel, a hip boutique hotel in the Clerkenwell area. The next day, after a delicious breakfast, my travel partner Andrea and I got going early to start our discoveries. We walked past historic medieval St. John's Gate and admired the Victorian era Smithfield Market. From here I took my first ride on the Tube (London's famous subway system) to the historic St. Pancras Railway Station which is now the terminal for the Eurostar Trains, connecting London with the Continent. We then walked over to neighbourhing King's Cross Railway Station where we checked out Platform 9 3/4 of Harry Potter fame.

Our next destination was the Portobello Market, an ecclectic mix of fresh vegetables, fruit, baked goods, enticing aromas from all sorts of delicious freshly made street food, funky clothes, furs and antiques. After our interview with Michael Williams, one of the organizers of the Notting Hill Carnival (a Caribbean-style carnival and Europe's biggest street party) we walked through the serene streets of Notting Hill and Kensington before we embarked on a brief tour of Little Beirut, a heavily middle-Eastern influenced area on Edgeware Road.

A tube ride later we arrived at Hyde Park Corner where to my disappointment nobody was giving any speeches or ranting about anything. Only two older gentlemen were sitting on two soap boxes and taking a rest, maybe exhausted from an earlier discourse. After a brief stroll through Hyde Park, which was full on sun worshippers, we tubed it to London's Financial District where we checked out various classicist bank and stock exchange buildings, the stunning Victorian era Leadenhall Market, the Lloyds Building, a postmodernist masterpiece by Richard Rogers, which has all the piping on the outside, and the Gherkin, the famous cucumber shaped Swiss Re building. Our walk continued to another historic train station: the Liverpool Street Railway Station from where we took a train to Walthamstow Village to do an interview with the owner of Eat 17, a restaurant and deli that serves really cool waffles (among many other things), where I had a supremely delicious spinach risotto.

Our final stop for the day was a walk around Leiceister Square that included London's Theatre District, Chinatown and hustling and bustling Piccadilly Square. I simply couldn't believe how packed the streets of London's entertainment area were, we could hardly walk...

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• England
• London
• Leicester
• Square
• Chinatown
• Piccadilly
• Circus
• Zetter
• Hotel

[ScrappingTheSky]

Oooh. Our china town is quite small compared to others around the world. But it's really fun if you know all the right places to go. You should try camden. AWESOME PLACE...=]

[travelandtransitions]

@ScrappingTheSky; Thanks for the tip! Next time I go to London I'll check out Camden.

[AndrewEliasActor]

The original Chinatown was out in Limehouse and is mentioned in Victorian Literature (Oscar Wilde etc.) but got destroyed during the blitz. This one didn't pop up until the 1960s. There's still a lot of Chinese over in East London.

[zupermaus]

London is famous for mixing its massive ethnic mix - there isnt the gehttoisation of classes and races as elsewhere due to house prices and Victorian tradition. Basically Chinatown comprises of only a few streets - but the vast majority of the city's 180,000 Chinese live elsewhere. This is the same for all the major ethnicities.

[creaton1976]

Are you kidding. have you ever been to london???? London has 40% immigrant population. Yes 40% were not born in the UK. The racial mix is even higher due to Brits of different ethinic backgrounds. London has higher racial mix than New York and to say there are not many oriental people in Britain is just foolish.

[georgethebear1812]

chinatown here consists of only one yes one shop and thats closed most of the time - its a coin operated laundry by the way.

[ajaaronjoe]

Yes you are right that the China Town in NYC is larger, bigger and better, because there are not much Chinese and other oriental people in Britian so they don't have to build many chinese buildings and massive china town is un necessary tho, plus in london, its really hard to find and see chinese face except in china town ok lol

[omgrobbiee]

I live in NYC and Chinatown I think is DISGUSTING ! and DIRTY ! The London one looks much nicer I'd say.

[allenmo1984]

am I gonna be the first one who comment on ur video???lol well...from what I saw from video, I think the chinatown in New York City is even better and larger, and bakeries r everywhere. Those buns and cakes r man delicious, if u havent gone to the Chinatown in NYC, I suggest u to go!