- emilybell
- (8)
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If you want an early morning diversion on a Sunday 8 am til 2pm, columbia Road flower market is excellent, even for non-gardeners. Over the years new shops selling young designers' furniture, delicatessens and even a top cake shop, Treacle, have opened there, making it a great place to browse or meet... Warning though if you are taking small children - it is absolutely heaving and can be a bit daunting for a knee-high visitor.
Afterwards it is close enough to go to the Whitechapel art gallery, Spitalfields Market, Shoreditch or a curry in Brick Lane.
Columbia Road,
London
E2
Nearest underground Old Street (turn left outside, walk along Old Street, into Hackney Road then after 200 metres turn right into Columbia Road)
A hotel in Brighton Marina is not necessarily an enticing prospect - the marina is soulless and a mile and a half out of the town centre but for a place where town centre hotels are either mediocre or often booked, the Seattle is worth considering as an alternative. It is modern, has sea and marina views (though if like me you are in a car park view room this can be positively irritating). It has a boutiquey feel - large beds with white linen, huge shower heads and bento boxes for breakfast - and a really excellent young staff, good room service and a decent restaurant and bar.Interconnecting rooms and a positive effort to attract families make it a good place to bring kids - as long as you don't mind the £6 taxi fare into town.
A restaurant right on the shoreline (in the arches almost directly the below the Grand Hotel) which sources excellent organic produce with an eye to environmental sustainability. Very good modern British food - excellent fat chips, sirloin, absolutely delicious Dover sole and cracking fish soup are among the highlights - and leave room for pudding if you can. Pricey but far better value than similar London joints.
Step off Fifth Avenue into the Frick and you enter a completely different world. A fascinating house stuffed with the most beautiful paintings collected by industrialist Henry Frick in the early 20th Century - Vermeer, Goya, Holbein, Piero della Francesca. If you are touring the art galleries of NYC this is a must - and much easier on the feet than the Met or Moma.
There are really very few nice hotels in central London - the rooms are small, the rates are high. One Aldwych is probably the best of the bunch if you want something a bit more modern (not a gilded chair in sight), and it has a large swimming pool in the basement. Sited in the Aldwych it is very handy for either Covent Garden or crossing the river to the South Bank.
The former Southwark power station on the south bank of the Thames is a brilliant place for kids. Whatever the installation in the great turbine hall it's a fantastic place to run around. The shops cafes and views are all excellent, if a little busy. Kids like the pop art galleries, and if they are not that interested in the art, the walk along the riverbank will take you to the National Theatre in one direction and past Shakespeare's globe to the Golden Hinde and Borough Market (Fridays and Saturdays only) in the other - or over the millennium bridge on foot to St Pauls.
Moro is a Spanish/Moorish restaurant - lively and highly recommended. You can either have tapas at the bar or a full meal, but book for a table.
34-36 Exmouth Market EC1R 4QE; 020 7833 8336; www.moro.co.uk
A branch of the London members' only club and sister hotel to Babington House, this is a very expensive downtown option which is not for those who like formal service, trouser presses and in-room IT support. Having said that the rooms, even the small ones, are fantastic in terms of size for New York and the rooftop pool terrace is a brilliant place to sit and watch the Hudson go by.
Send your feedback or queries to been.there@guardian.co.uk
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last submitted a tip on 21 November 2005
first submitted a tip on 31 August 2005
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