London Travel Guide - Never Grow Up Magazine

Hotels & Accommodation

Finding accommodation that’s not too expensive can be quite tricky in London. There are lots of nice hotels but the better and centrally located ones are usually tailored towards business travelers and are priced according to that. Prices go down over the weekends but they are still expensive for what you get.

Eat & Drink

The food in England and London has come a long way from the bad reputation it had in during the second half of the 1900’s. It’s now a true melting pot of cuisines with some truly spectacular restaurants. London and Bray (40-50 minutes by train) is home to Heston Blumenthal, one of the most important and progressive chef’s of our generation.

Shopping

London is a true shopping destination with Harrods as a tourist attractions in itself. In London there is a great tradition of fashion and tailored clothing that has trickled down from the social elite to the general population. It’s possible to find everything from cheap vintage to breakout designers and the very best of the best. The overall fashion awareness has created stores on the high street that are fashion forward and quickly adopts trends.

Harrods. Very often will you find people all over the world with a bag or a tea caddy from Harrods. It is the biggest department store in Europe with over 330 different departments. Harrod’s has a clear luxury focus but more mainstream brands can be found as well and the vast majority of visitors are tourists. Selfridges on Oxford Street is much more contemporary and less focus on the most expensive merchandise.

New Bond Street is perpendicular to, and starts from Oxford street. It is one of the most expensive strips of real estate in the world and along the street many of the worlds finest brands has a retailer.

Watches and Fine Jewelry

The area around New Bond Street is a true hot spot for fine jewelry and high-end watch retailers.

Marcus Watches.

Marcus Watches is located on New Bond Street and has an exceptional selection of rare and beautiful watches from both smaller independent manufacturers and the bigger brands. Their partnership with the watchmakers is equal to that of Chronopassion in Paris and they even get their own unique pieces made from brands such as Greubel Forsey and MB&F. In addition you can count on that every hard to get limited edition from the normal ranges pass through this shop. Unfortunately the staff is both quite rude, not really interested in watches and frankly not that knowledgeable even about their own brands. There are better places to see, learn and buy watches unless Marcus is the only one carrying the piece in question.