LONDON

INTRODUCING THE CITY--LONDON

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Stretching for more than thirty miles at its broadest point, London is
by far the largest city in Europe. The majority of its sights are
situated to the north of the River Thames, which loops through the
city from west to east. However, there is no single predominant focus
of interest, for London has grown not through centralized planning but
by a process of agglomeration - villages and urban developments that
once surrounded the core are now lost within the amorphous mass of
Greater London.

One of the few areas that you can easily explore on foot is
Westminster and Whitehall , the city's royal, political and
ecclesiastical power base, where you'll find the National Gallery and
a host of other London landmarks, from Buckingham Palace to
Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. The grand streets and squares of St
James's , Mayfair and Marylebone , to the north of Westminster, have
been the playground of the rich since the Restoration, and now contain
the city's busiest shopping zones.

East of Piccadilly Circus, Soho and Covent Garden are also easy to
walk around and form the heart of the West End entertainment district,
containing the largest concentration of theatres, cinemas, clubs,
flashy shops, cafés and restaurants. To the north lies the university
quarter of Bloomsbury , home to the ever-popular British Museum, and
the secluded quadrangles of Holborn's Inns of Court, London's legal
heartland.

The City - the City of London, to give it its full title - is at one
and the same time the most ancient and the most modern part of London.
Settled since Roman times, it is now one of the world's great
financial centres, yet retains its share of historic sights, notably
the Tower of London and a fine cache of Wren churches that includes St
Paul's Cathedral. Despite creeping trendification, the East End , to
the east of the City, is not conventional tourist territory, but to
ignore it entirely is to miss out a crucial element of contemporary
London. Docklands is the converse of the down-at-heel East End, with
the Canary Wharf tower, the country's tallest building, epitomizing
the pretensions of the Thatcherite dream.

Lambeth and Southwark comprise the small slice of central London that
lies south of the Thames. The South Bank Centre, London's little-loved
concrete culture bunker, is enjoying a new lease of life thanks to its
proximity to the new Tate Gallery of Modern Art in Bankside, which is
linked to the City by a new pedestrian bridge.

The largest segment of greenery in central London is Hyde Park, which
separates wealthy Kensington and Chelsea from the city centre. The
museums of South Kensington - the Victoria & Albert Museum, the
Science Museum and the Natural History Museum - are a must; and if you
have shopping on your agenda, you'll want to check out the hive of
plush stores in the vicinity of Harrods.

The capital's most hectic weekend market takes place around Camden
Lock in North London . Further out, in the literary suburbs of
Hampstead and Highgate, there are unbeatable views across the city
from half-wild Hampstead Heath, the favourite parkland of thousands of
Londoners. The glory of South London is Greenwich, with its nautical
associations, royal park and observatory (not to mention its Dome).
Finally, there are plenty of rewarding day-trips along the Thames from
Chiswick to Windsor , most notably Hampton Court Palace and Windsor
Castle.

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CITY TRANSPORT

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London's transport network is among the most complex and expensive in
the world. The London Transport (LT) travel information office , at
Piccadilly Circus tube station (daily 9am-6pm), will provide free
transport maps; there are other desks at Euston Station, Heathrow
(terminals 1, 2 and 3), King's Cross, Liverpool Street, Paddington and
Victoria stations. There's also a 24-hour phone line for transport
information (tel 020/7222 1234), and a Web site giving real-time
travel news ( www.londontransport.co.uk). If you can, avoid travelling
during the rush hour (Mon-Fri 8-9.30am & 5-7pm) when tubes become
unbearably crowded, and some buses become full to overflowing.
Travelcards
To get the best value out of the transport system, buy a Travelcard .
Available from machines and booths at all tube and train stations, and
at some newsagents (look for the sticker), these are valid for the
bus, tube, Docklands Light Railway,...

The tube
The eleven different London Underground - or tube - lines cross much
of the metropolis, although London south of the river is not very well
covered. Each line has its own colour and name - all you need to know
is which direction you're...

Buses
Tickets for all bus journeys within, to or from the central zone costs
a flat fare of £1; journeys outside the central zone cost 70p.
Normally you pay the driver on entering, but some routes are covered
by older Routemaster buses, staffed by a...

Suburban trains
Large areas of London's suburbs are best reached by the suburban train
network (Travelcards valid). Wherever a sight can only be reached by
overground train, we've indicated the nearest train station and the
central terminus from which you...

Taxis
If you're in a group of three or more, London's metered black cabs can
be an economical way of getting around the centre - a ride from Euston
to Victoria, for example, should cost around £10. A yellow light over
the windscreen tells you if the...

Boats
Boat services on the Thames still do not form part of an integrated
public transport system, and Travelcards are not currently valid on
the river. So for the moment at least, travelling by boat remains a
leisure pastime and not really a commuting...


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RESTAURANTS

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London is a great place in which to eat out . You can sample more or
less any kind of cuisine here, and, wherever you come from, you should
find something new and quite possibly unique. Home to some of the best
Cantonese restaurants in the whole of Europe, London is also a noted
centre for Indian and Bangladeshi food, and has numerous French,
Greek, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Thai restaurants; and within all
these cuisines, you can choose anything from simple meals to gourmet
spreads. Traditional and modern British food is available all over
town, and we've reviewed some of the best venues.

Another bonus is that there are plenty of places to eat around the
main tourist drags of the West End: Soho has long been renowned for
its eclectic and fashionable restaurants - and new eateries appear
here every month - while Chinatown , on the other side of Shaftesbury
Avenue, offers value-for-money eating right in the centre of town.

Many of the restaurants we've listed will be busy on most nights of
the week, particularly on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and you're
best advised to reserve a table wherever you're headed. The majority
of places take major credit cards, such as Visa, MasterCard and Amex;
in the listings, we've simply noted those that don't.

As for prices , you can pay an awful lot for a meal in London, and if
you're used to North American portions, you're not going to be
particularly impressed by the volume in most places. In the listings,
we've quoted the minimum you can get away with spending (assuming you
don't tip and don't drink) and the amount you can expect to pay for a
full blowout.

Service is discretionary at most restaurants, but many tend to take no
chances, emblazoning their bills with reminders that "Service is NOT
included", or even including a ten to fifteen percent service charge
on the bill (which they have to announce on the menu, by law).
Normally you should, of course, pay service - it's how most of the
staff make up their wages - but make sure you check you're not paying
twice.