Make a Weekend of It
Things to Do
If you’re crossing an ocean for a morning ceremony, you’ve earned a proper London weekend. A few of our favourites, starting on our doorstep and working outward. Where to eat and drink lives on its own page, over at F&B.
In Marylebone
White Mulberries
Our coffee stop, a few steps off the High Street. The reason to come is the back garden, a small walled oasis that most people walk straight past — find a table out there with a double espresso or a cappuccino and you will not want to leave. Open from eight at the weekend, which makes it the civilised way to start a morning. whitemulberries.com
Marylebone High Street
The best stroll in the neighbourhood and the reason people love living here. Independent shops rather than chains, running from cheesemongers and butchers to homeware, stationery, and clothing, with cafés spaced out at exactly the right intervals. Give it an hour and you’ll spend two.
Daunt Books
An Edwardian bookshop with oak galleries and skylights, organised by country rather than genre. Possibly the most beautiful bookshop in London, and certainly the most dangerous for your luggage allowance.
Regent’s Park & Primrose Hill
September is arguably the park’s best month. Walk the rose gardens, then climb Primrose Hill for the classic London skyline view.
Marylebone Farmers’ Market
One of London’s best farmers’ markets, and two minutes from White Mulberries, which makes coffee and then the market the correct order of operations for a slow Sunday.
Further Afield
Churchill War Rooms
The bunker under Whitehall where Britain ran the Second World War, left more or less as it was the day they locked it up in 1945. The maps are still on the walls with the pins still in them. It is a strange thing to stand in. Book ahead, it sells out, and give it two hours.
Westminster Abbey
Every coronation since 1066 has happened in this room, and a good deal of British history is buried in the floor you walk on. Kings, Newton, Darwin, and Poets’ Corner off to one side with Chaucer and Dickens. Go on a weekday morning before the queues build, and when you come out you are two minutes from Big Ben and the river, which is the other half of the afternoon.
Westminster & the Waterfront
If London is new to you, this is the walk to do. Start at Big Ben and Parliament, cross Westminster Bridge for the view back at them, then turn along the South Bank past the Eye. Street performers, book stalls under the bridges, and the river on your right the whole way. No tickets, no plan, and it takes as long as you let it.
The British Museum
The Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon sculptures, and the great glass-roofed court. Free, vast, and worth every one of the two hours you’ll accidentally spend there.
St Paul’s Cathedral
The inside is worth the ticket on its own, but the reason to come is the climb. It is 528 steps up through the dome, and the staircase gets narrower and stranger the higher you go. You pass the Whispering Gallery on the way, where a whisper against the wall carries the whole way round to whoever is standing opposite. At the top you step out into the open air, 85 metres up, and the entire city is laid out around you. Not one for anyone who dislikes heights or tight spaces. Wear proper shoes, book ahead, and go on a weekday morning if you can, when you will have the stairs more or less to yourself. If you make it up, walk out across the Millennium Bridge afterwards and you are at Borough Market in ten minutes.
Borough Market
A thousand years of food trading under Victorian ironwork. Go hungry and graze widely. Everything good is eaten standing up.
The West End
If you’re in town for the Friday or Sunday evening, catch a show. The TKTS booth in Leicester Square sells well-priced same-day tickets.
Notting Hill & Portobello Road
Pastel townhouses and the famous antiques market, at its liveliest on Saturday, so best saved for the day before or a leisurely Sunday.
Hedonism Wines
An unbelievable wine shop, and one of the great things to do in London whether or not you buy anything. Three floors off Berkeley Square holding something like six thousand wines and four thousand spirits, with old vintages, enormous formats, and bottles worth more than a car sitting out in the open. If you appreciate wine you can simply wander and look. If you want to taste, the Coravin bar at the back pours grand cru and first growths by the glass, and the staff are sommeliers who are happy to talk. hedonism.co.uk
Afternoon Tea
When in London. The Landmark’s Winter Garden, under the glass roof of the palm-filled atrium, is two minutes from the ceremony venue and the most spectacular room of the lot. The Langham’s Palm Court is where the whole institution was more or less invented, and Brown’s in Mayfair is the other great one, a wood-panelled drawing room that feels like a private house. Claridge’s and The Ritz are the full-pageantry versions. All require booking well in advance.