A Design and History Lover’s Guide to London
We just got back from a whirlwind trip to visit family, friends, and do a bit of site-seeing. I’m not sure if you all knew this but Luke is from England and I lived there for nearly 5 years. We lived in Bristol and London, but most of our family is in Cornwall. So over an 8 day period we visited Cornwall, Bristol, the Lake District, and London. I plan on writing more posts about the trip but the first one is design and history lover’s guide to London.
So many of you on social media wanted to hear more about trip, specifically London. So here goes!
A Design and History Lover’s Guide to London
We only had two full days in the city (not including arrival the night before and departure in the morning). So we tried to jam pack A LOT in two days. I will also share some other places of interest and other blog posts about England at the bottom of the post.
One thing about London is it’s super easy to get around. We used the Tube and love that you can now tap your phone to pay. Woot woot! We also did a lot of walking. Our last day there we walked 34,000 steps! Okay are you ready. Here are some places you should visit in no particular order, although I guess it is chronological of our visit.
DeVOL Kitchens
I know, is it crazy that this was our first stop?!? Well, I love the DeVOL story. I’m a huge fan of their TV show, and have both their books. I love Paul’s design aesthetic and love how Helen styles EVERYTHING. I plan on writing a WHOLE post about this visit.
We visited the St. John’s Square location – 36 St John’s Square, Clerkenwell, London, EC1V 4JJ
The showroom is spread over several floors and has that beautiful handmade emerald tile! My favorite cabinet style is those shown above. Take a closer look at the St. John Square showroom.
Churchill’s War Rooms
This is a must see for any history lover! We plan on taking our boys there next time we go to London. These War Rooms were erected by Winston Churchill during WW II and this is where he planned the defense of Britain from. It was quite amazing to see. The rooms are pretty deep down and were fortified over the years with concrete.
Many people lived and worked down there. They pumped air in and there were no windows. We got to see an Enigma machine:
The rooms are set up just as they were during the war and there is also a museum of Winston Churchill’s life. Read more about Churchill’s War Rooms.
St. James Park
A lovely park in close proximity to Buckingham Palace and Horse Guards Parade. You’ve probably seen this park on TV. We walked through it on the way to Winston Churchill’s War Rooms. The day we were there was spectacular. Hot and sunny and I really wanted to get a Flake 99 ice cream cone! Learn more about St. James’ Park.
Buckingham Palace
I’m embarrassed to admit that we’ve never toured Buckingham Palace. We’ve only ever visited it outside. If you’d like to take a tour of Buckingham Palace you can learn more here.
Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament
Big Ben is actually the bell inside the clock tower. It is an iconic London landmark. You can learn more about the clock tower here.
The London Eye
Can you believe we never did the London Eye when we lived there? We booked tickets months ago and I was certain we’d have fog and rain, luckily we had a perfect weather day. I recommend booking tickets ahead of time. We got in the line at the time of our booking and it only took about 10 minutes to get on.
The eye has different pods and approximately 20 people are in the pod with you. There is a large bench in the center and windows on all sides for amazing views. The floor is solid so no worries if you don’t like heights.
This year marks 25 years of the London Eye. Amazing views of the city and we’re so glad we did this! Here you can see the amazing views from the London Eye:
Read more about The London Eye.
Shopping on Oxford Street
There are so many amazing shops, department stores, and restaurants along Oxford Street. I had hoped to go to Top Shop, only to find out it shut a few years ago. We shopped in Next, Selfridges, and some sport shops for rugby gear. The food hall at Selfridges is amazing.
Liberty
This store is beautiful and so historic. The architecture and woodwork is so lovely. It’s a pleasure to be in the building.
“Liberty is the chosen resort of the artistic shopper”
Oscar Wilde
According to the Liberty site, “In 1875, Arthur borrowed £2,000 from his future father-in-law and took a building on Regent Street, London with just three dedicated staff and plenty of ambition.” This shop is still THE place to go for luxury and lovely fabrics. Everything is beautifully style. Wish I could have afforded a dress but it was so fun to window shop.
The Victoria and Albert Museum
This one is another one for history AND design lovers. The V&A was founded in 1852 by Henry Cole. According to Wikipedia, “The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is the world’s largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.”
Everything is beautiful in this museum including the marble, beautifully tiled mosaic floors, gorgeous dark wood trim. We have visited before and knew I wanted to visit the museum while we were in London. The museum is completely free and we got there when it opened at 10am, in fact we had a lovely breakfast down the street and strolled over.
There are additional fees for special exhibitions. Currently a Cartier exhibition is happening.
We love the furniture gallery. It was really cool to see a break down of styles, and construction methods, Luke really enjoyed this part.
We saw some Cornishware in the ceramics section.
But there was just so much to love from large statues to large scale murals.
The outdoor gardens are also lovely.
We enjoyed a coffee and a chocolate coconut flapjack in the coffee shop. Hidden at the back of the museum is the world’s oldest museum cafe. Designed by James Gamble, William Morris and Edward Poynter, the opulently decorated rooms reflect the eclectic tastes of the Victorian era.
This cafe absolutely delights and glitters!
We loved seeing all the Turners.
How gorgeous is the library?
Highly recommend exiting through the gift shop 😉
National Portrait Gallery
This is another museum we love and as the name implies, it’s all portraits. I took some photos of art I thought John would love. It’s lovely seeing all the portraits from very traditional to modern day photographs.
Admission is completely free and a lovely way to spend an afternoon. They have a wonderful cafe and gift shop too.
Just outside is Trafalgar Sq. and it’s lovely to sit outside in the sunshine by the fountains.
The Tower of London
After the gallery we decided to walk along the Thames River. We walked past the Tower of London on this trip, but have visited many, many times. I took my mom to see the crown jewels when we were living there and she loved that. They offer wonderful tours of the site. Learn about the two princes, the legend of the ravens, and more. Learn more about the Tower of London here.
Tower Bridge
Is such an iconic London site. If you haven’t seen it in person, it’s definitely worth a visit. One of my favorite bridges. You may have seen it in films. They offer a tour and we were going to do it but ran out of time. Visit Tower Bridge for more.
Well, those are all the places we visited, but in case you want to learn more about our trip, read on below…
Where Did We Stay?
We stayed at the Hoxton in Shepherd’s Bush, but they have four locations across London. When we booked it we didn’t realize it was a chain and that they have loads of hotels in the US and internationally, but we loved this hotel.
We arrived after a 4 1/2 hour drive from the Lake District so we got to our room and just dropped everything. The room was well appointed and very stylish. The bed was sooooo comfortable and we loved the rain shower in the bathroom.
This was the view of Shepherd’s Bush Green from our window:
The entire hotel had a very warm vibe with great artwork.
We will definitely stay there again. We really love this part of London because we used to live in Hammersmith. We actually walked past our old flat on Brackbenbury Road the next morning.
What Did We Eat?
Chet’s at the Hoxton Hotel
We were too tired to explore the city that night so just went downstairs for drinks and dinner at the hotel at Chet’s. The food was fabulous. We both got exactly the same thing – Fried Chicken Khao Soi which was Chiang Mai curried noodles with katsu-style fried chicken, pickled radish, red onions, fish sauce, coriander, beansprouts, roasted chili oil. It was sooo yummy!
The next morning we got up early at had breakfast at the hotel. We had avocado on toast with a poached egg and it was HUGE. On this trip we actually just did breakfast and dinner and had a protein bar for lunch.
The Bull at Westfield
After Oxford Street we headed back to Shepherd’s Bush to do a bit of shopping at Westfield which is a luxury mall. We ate rather late, close to 8:30pm. The Bull made wonderful Aperol Spritz cocktails and we enjoyed baked camembert with homemade rosemary focaccia and red onion chutney. For some reason we thought this was going to be a charcuterie board and we’d get dinner after, but this was so filling. I didn’t get a very good photo, but here’s the baked cheese.
It was yummy and so filling. The Bull had a lovely pub atmosphere with Chesterfield couches and wingback chairs. See more about The Bull.
Farm Girl in South Kensington
We dined al fresco in the morning sunshine outside the vibrant pink facade of Farm Girl.
It’s a restaurant that celebrates farm to table. I LOVED my avocado toast. I loved how they included zesty mint and dill.
Really lovely breakfast right before the V&A. This is a perfect start if you plan to any of the area museums. Read more about Farm Girl.
The V&A Cafe
As I told you this is the oldest museum cafe in the world. We had a coffee and a flapjack which was wonderful but the food and patisserie here looked phenomenal if you’re feeling peckish for lunch. Learn more about the V&A Cafe.
The Reglan in Walthamstow
Our last night in London we met up with Luke’s brother, Matt, and family. It was lovely to catch up with them and we went to one of their favorite pubs (their local) called the Reglan. The ambiance was lovely and the food was just as amazing. The pub serves a mix of Irish and Indian foods.
We tried a chicken spice bag for the first time:
Other Posts About England You May Enjoy
Over the years I’ve shared many posts about our trips to England. In no particular order, here are some you might enjoy:
- English Countryside
- Visiting Windsor Castle
- Mews Living
- A Farmhouse in Devon
- English Castles
- A Day at Trebarwith Strand
- Down to the Farm
- Visiting Cornwall
- Things to Do in North Cornwall
Let’s Keep in Touch
Well, I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please feel free to pin or share with friends if you’re planning a trip to London or the UK. Let’s stay in touch! Join our newsletter for access to exclusive content, our favorite projects, easy recipes, and fun tutorials. You’ll receive the best design secrets delivered directly to your inbox! Sign Up Here!
Thank you for this post! It is very timely, as we leave for London on Wednesday. We only have a couple of days there before heading to the Cotswolds to visit friends. We want to see as much as we can in our short time in London, so this is very helpful.