Gardens Galore

What better way to experience London than by visiting its garden squares? But most of these spaces are private and not open to the public. Ah, if only one could gain access to these magical places, what a wealth of culture, history and romance would suddenly be accessible to London residents and visitors alike.

Well, thanks to the London Parks & Gardens Trust, you can. For one weekend in June, London throws open its most lovely, fragrant, intimate and historic outside spaces for any one to enjoy. And it’s a great bargain. For 10 pounds a head, you gain access to more than 200 green spaces over the course of 48 hours. Today, we managed to visit 9.

Highlights for us included the three-acre Edwardes Square, that was built between 1811 and 1819 by a Frenchman rumored to be an agent of Napoleon. This oasis of calm between High Street Kensington and Earls Court has meandering paths, a croquet lawn, a rose pergola, and grass tennis court. The full time gardener still lives in the Grecian-style lodge at the entrance.

We also loved visiting the beautiful and serene Islamic garden on the roof of the Ismaili Centre in South Kensington. It’s a little bit of the Alhambra right in the centre of London. And we learned a lot about the Ismailis as well.

In all of the nine gardens we saw today, we were generously welcomed by volunteers who are rightly proud of what they have cherished and preserved. For anyone who loves gardens and loves London, the Open Square Weekend is unmissable so start planning now. Next year’s Open Garden Squares Weekend is 9-10 June 2012. More information available on www.opensquares.org.

Cha Cha Moon: Its cheap but not very good

How we wanted to love Cha Cha Moon, the Chinese fast food emporium created by Alan Yau of Wagamama fame. You see, we love Wagamama. Perhaps too much. We eat there all the time and have for years. We recommend Wagamama to everyone who comes to London as the best fast, inexpensive meal in town but after the 1000th Chicken Chilli Ramen, one starts to wonder if there is some other place to eat that is cheap, cheerful and good.

Alas, Cha Cha Moon is not that place. Despite being in a fantastic location near Carnaby Street (with another outlet opening at Whiteleys Shopping Center in Bayswater this weekend), despite the hip décor, and despite being really cheap with main courses ranging from £3.40 to £5.50, the food at this Cha Cha Moon is just not very good. We had three different main courses with noodles: chicken, crispy duck and seafood. As Eloise, who is always a good eater, picked politely but unenthusiastically at her chicken, we were in perfect agreement that everything was OK but not great. And such is the demand for cheap eats in London that despite being mediocre, unless you get to ‘no reservations’ Cha Cha Moon early, you’ll be waiting a long time for a seat.

So it’s back to Wagamama for us. When we want Chinese, we'll head for one of the twelve Ping Pong Dim Sum outlets instead. Its not so cheap but oh, so much better. For cheap and cheerful Indian, we head for Marsala Zone. Anyone with suggestions on how to eat well in this town for under a ‘tenner’, we would love to hear from you.

Cha Cha Moon
15 – 21 Ganton Street
London W1F 9BN
Tel:0207 297 9800

Opening this weekend at

Whiteleys
151 Queensway

Photo Credit: Anelia Jetsetter on Flickr

London's North End Road Market

The first time I saw North End Road market, I didn’t get it. It didn’t look like much. Lots of ragtag stalls selling very ripe fruit and veg, batteries, fish, candy and suitcases, that kind of thing. But now, I head for North End almost every day and for me, it’s a quintessential London experience – vibrant, incredibly cheap, rough around the edges and lots of fun. It’s the only place where I am still regularly called young lady, or darling, or ‘luv’. Open six days a week, but best on Fridays and Saturdays, the market runs between Lillie and Walham Grove roads on London’s North End Road in Fulham.

One of the reasons I love North End Road market is its local history. Since 1887, residents of Fulham and passers by alike have come to the market in search of a bargain. Many stalls have been run by the same families for generations. The clamour of traders calling out their products and prices, the polyglot of languages and the rush of traffic make North End a bustling, multi-cultural place where ethnic foods sits next to English cauliflowers and purple sprouting broccoli to satisfy an increasingly diverse group of shoppers. Preserved lemons from Egypt, Camembert cheese from France, milk fish from the Philippines and plantains from the Caribbean are all part of the North End offering.

As well as the diversity of products, people come to North End from across London for the amazing prices. A dozen lemons or a bowl of avocados for a pound is common. Sometimes, whole boxes of tomatoes or oranges are sold for that price. The market provides a real benefit to anyone trying to stretch a budget or follow their doctor’s advice to eat more fruit and veg. Avid cooks and foodies go for the fresh and exotic ingredients, restaurants go for a quick resupply and children head there for the discounted sweets while their mothers search for inexpensive shoes. In effect, North End becomes a community meeting point for Fulham's old and young, well off and the struggling, long times resident and the recently arrived.

For visitors to London, North End is an “off the beaten track” opportunity to see an authentic London market without tourists. It is not very big and definitely not picturesque like Portobello or upmarket like Borough but its where ‘real’ Londoners, in anoraks, burkhas, track suits and school uniforms all come to argue, joke, discuss the state of the world and bag some of the best food bargains in town.


Photo credit: Christopher Bruce for All Saints Church Fulham on Flickr

Americans Go Free at Madame Tussauds

Quick. What’s the most over priced tourist attraction in London. For our money, it’s Madame Tussauds. At £22.50/$32.52 to see wax representations of Posh and Becks, we reckon there are about a thousand better things to do in this fabulous city with your time and money. But tomorrow, any American in London with “appropriate documentation” can get in to Madame Tussauds for free to see the new wax representation of our 44th president. And at that price, it’s a bargain.

As Madame Tussauds describes the experience:

“Standing in a recreation of the legendary Oval Office, President Obama is in a typical informal and relaxed pose, smiling with arms casually folded, dressed in a tailored suit.

Stepping right into the heart of the White House you can sit behind the iconic Resolute desk used by Presidents since 1880 or pace the ‘American Eagle’ monikered carpet and experience what it’s like to be a World Leader.”

Tomorrow, before the TV coverage commences, we’re grabbing our passport (not our wallet) and heading for Madame Tussauds. Right on, Washington!

Favourite London Freebies

London may be the third most expensive city in the world but it can not be faulted for its rich offering of free entertainment. In fact, digging into this topic I am amazed at the almost limitless things to do in this town that are hugely entertaining and easy on the purse.

Let’s start with the museums: the British Museum, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, the Tate Britain and Modern, the Museum of London, the Victoria and Albert, the Natural History Museum, the Wallace Collection, Sir John Soanes Museum, Kenwood House, and many, many more. I’m not much for Math, but I counted 63 museums in London that don’t charge for entry and I suspect there are more out there. Most of these places also offer free or nominal cost films, tours, concerts, lectures and workshops which make for a whole lot of free activities.

In addition to its free museums, London has some of the loveliest parks you will find in any city in the world filled with no-cost or inexpensive things to see and do. Most of the larger parks, such as Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Holland Park, Regents Park, Battersea and Richmond Park have well equipped playgrounds, lakes with boats you can rent, cafes and even historic building and art galleries. Many of the parks offer guided walks, such as the Peter Pan Walk in Kensington Gardens.

For example, yesterday, I had a fine walk through Kensington Gardens en route to the Serpentine Gallery for modern and contemporary art which until May 21 has an admission free exhibition of works by Ellsworth Kelly. The combination of the park in full spring bloom, the elegant small gallery and sparse and thought provoking artwork put a very fine spin on what had started out as a grey and grumpy day. After the Gallery, I walked home via the refurbished Albert Memorial, an amazing example of “high Victorian gothic extravaganza”. All in all, an engrossing couple of hours that cost me nothing.

As well as the great museums, libraries and parks, London has fabulous markets where you can savour the exuberant street life and many fine examples of antiques, clothing, collectibles, food, jewellery and much more. And there is the added benefit that almost everything on offer costs far less than what you find in the boring old chain stores.

London is estimated to have over 100 markets ranging from the famous and crowded Covent Garden (with loads of free entertainers hoping to be discovered) and Camden Market as well as Borough the foodies paradise and Billingsgate for fish, Bermondsey and Portobello for antiques, Columbia Road for plants and flowers, Petticoat Lane for clothes, Brick Lane for “treasures and trash” and Leadenhall for a taste of Victorian times. Napoleon thought he was insulting the English when he described them as a nation of shopkeepers unfit for fighting but I would argue that it is precisely in the markets where you come to appreciate the dynamism and diversity of this society.

London churches are also wonderful places to visit. Sadly, both St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey now feel the need to charge tourists £9 and £10 respectively, but London has many fine examples of churches dating from Norman times through to the modern era which do not charge and offer an interesting, uncrowded experience. Some of my favourite London churches include Southwark Cathedral, St Bartholomew-the-Great (you saw it in Four Weddings and a Funeral), the Brompton Oratory, All Saints Margaret Street and Temple Church which is currently under siege by Da Vinci Code groupies. Both St Giles in the Fields and St James in the West End offer free concerts and Westminster Abbey has free weekly recitals by top organists at 5:45 every Sunday. For something out of the ordinary, visitors are welcome to visit the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Temple in Neasdon, north London, the only traditional Hindu mandir outside India which Reader’s Digest once called the “Eighth Wonder of the World.”

And finally, there are historic buildings and what can only be described as “one offs” that do not charge for access such as the Houses of Parliament and the Guildhall, where the Guilds who controlled London in earlier centuries met. For a more Dickinsian view of London, visitors over the age of 14 can visit the Old Bailey Criminal Court to view court sessions. Science enthusiasts can hang out at the Dana Centre and music fans can sample the nightly concerts in the Foyer of the National Theatre.

Actually, I now realise that I have only begun to scratch the surface of free things to do in London. One of the most useful resources I have found to keep tab on freebies is the website http://www.londonfreelist.com/ which is well organised and comprehensive. In fact, I’m now on a mission to find and report on the best value entertainment that London has to offer and to continue to do damage to London’s reputation of being unaffordable.

Affordable Accommodations in London

In a town known for either shockingly awful or shockingly expensive places to stay, it’s not easy to find interesting, good value hotels. Or at least that’s what I hear.

As a London resident, I have no reason to stay in a hotel but I’m asked all the time to recommend good, inexpensive accommodations in London. Normally, the question is just a ruse to get me to say, “But, of course, you MUST stay with us,” which I often do say, but when all the children are home or when the person inquiring is way too smart (in every sense of the word) to stay with us, here is how I typically reply.

For longer stays, try an apartment. My favourite site for finding London apartments is http://www.aplacelikehome.co.uk/.

As for hotels, if you like to search the internet for good deals, try http://www.londontown.com/ which has both good prices and some decent editorial so that you can get a bit of a feel for the hotel and location. If you know where you want to stay, http://www.hotels.com/ does as good a job as any.

And here are some of the hotels which I think are worth a look.

Base2stay – a new property in Kensington near the Earl’s Court tube station which claims to be a blend of boutique hotel and serviced apartment. Doubles start at £99. Each room has a small kitchen, air conditioning and broadband internet. Special discounts are available for longer stays.

B+B Belgravia – This is an award-winning small hotel which claims it will change the way you think about bed and breakfasts. The location and price (doubles for £99 which includes VAT, breakfast and internet access) are hard to beat.

The Pavilion – I read about this place and had to check it out. So should you if you consider yourself groovy, funky and “artistically minded”. This is not a boring hotel and I’m not even sure it’s a comfortable or clean hotel (some of the tripadvisor reviews were a bit worrying) but it is “different”. Double rooms are an affordable £100 a night for a good central London location.

Millers Residence – If you can spend in the range of £150 to £185, love over-the-top interiors, want to be in Notting Hill and are looking for a completely unforgettable experience, take a look at the website for this property, owned by Martin Miller of Miller Antique Guides. You really have to see it to believe it.

The Mandeville – A hip hotel in a great location. Their published rates start at £250 but hotels.com had rooms on offer in the £150 range and at that price, it’s good value.

The Zetter – Time Out describes it as a"super-hip and reasonably priced Clerkenwell hotel” and from looking at the website, I’d agree. If you like modern and prefer to stay in East London, this hotel offers great value in the £150 range.

So there you have it, some affordable alternatives to staying at my place. As our son Lee once said to the former headmaster of his old school, “You really don’t want to stay with my parents. You never know who you will meet on the staircase at two in the morning.” Personally, I have no idea what Lee is talking about.

Base2stay
25 Courtfield Gardens
London SW5 0PG
Tel: 44 (0) 207 244 2255
Fax: 44(0) 207 244 2256
http://www.base2stay.com/

B+B Belgravia
64-66 Ebury Street
London, SW1W9QD
Tel: 44 (0) 207 259 8570
info@bb-belgravia.com
http://www.bb-belgravia.com/

The Pavilion
34-36 Sussex Gardens
London, W2
Tel: 44 (0) 207-262-0905
Fax: 44 (0) 262 1324
Email: hotelpavilionuk@aol.com
http://www.hotelpavilionuk.com/

Millers Residence
111a Westbourne Grove
London, W24UW
Tel: 44 (0) 207 243 1024
Fax: 44 (0) 207 243 1064
Email: enquiries@millersuk.com
http://www.millersuk.com/

The Mandeville Hotel
Mandeville Place
London, W1U 2BE
Tel: 44 (0) 207 935 5599
Fax: 44 (0) 207 9359588
Email: info@mandeville.co.uk
http://www.mandeville.co.uk/

The Zetter
St John’s square
86-88 Clerkenwell Road
London EC1M5RJ
Tel: 44 (0) 207 324 4444
Email:info@thezetter.com
http://www.thezetter.com/

Affordable Food in London

Eating out in London reminds me of playing Monopoly. At first you are careful with your money, you have a sense of what $100 means. As the game progresses, as you acquire property, houses and hotels, the Monopoly money somehow loses its value. Prices are relative. You stop caring. You stop counting. That is what happens when you eat out a lot in London.

Many, many years ago, as a student in this town, I could eat a very filling, if not very good tasting meal at my local Hot Pot for 25 pence. Recently, my husband took our son out for lunch at our local Gourmet Burger Kitchen. I asked Jeff what it cost. He responded that it was pretty reasonable at £22. At an exchange rate of $1.75/€1.00, that is a $38.50 hamburger lunch. Only after playing London Restaurant Monopoly for a number of years could you begin to believe that paying $38.50 for two hamburgers was a good deal.

Faced with such a hostile environment to finding good, affordable food, here are some of the things I recommend to help lower the cost of eating in London:

Check out the website, Toptable, which is the closest thing we’ve got to hotels.com. with deals at lots of restaurants that can represent as much as a 50% discount. I’ve used this service several times. It works, the restaurants always have your reservation and the offers are “as advertised”. Today, for example, I found an interesting “2 for 1” offer from Noura, a very good Lebanese restaurant with several locations in London. Make the booking through Toptable and two of you can eat for the price of one £29 set menu.

Go for lunch or pre-theatre. Most serious restaurants that would bankrupt you at dinner have a prix-fix lunch or pre-theatre offer that is much more reasonable. For example, the famed Gordon Ramsey restaurant at Claridges Hotel, has a £30 a head lunch time menu which everyone raves about. Dinner would probably set you back about £90 a head. These offers are available at premier restaurants all over town and the best way to find out about them is to call or if you worry about appearing cheap, which you shouldn’t, you can check the website.

Look for “Beat the Clock” deals. How it works is that during a set time, usually early in the evening, your meal costs whatever time it was when you ordered it. Pioneered by the quite good chain, Belgo Restaurants and Bierodrome, you can get a great bowl of mussels and perfect French fries for £6 if you place the order at 6:00 PM. The barbeque chain, Bodeans, also offers “Beat the Clock”. I predict other will follow.

Go to places where you can BYO. I know of 3 good Persian restaurants where you can bring your own booze and really keep the costs down. My favourite is Mohsen on Warwick Road in W14 but currently closed for renovations. Also good is Patogh at 8 Crawford Place near the Edgeware Road tube and Alounak at 10 Russell Gardens near the Olympia Exhibition Centre.

Wagamama, Wagamama, Wagamama. I know I keep banging on about this high tech chain of noodle bars (24 locations in London) but it really does represent the best value in town. Where do you think I went on my birthday last week with my family? Yup. Wagamama. We had a wonderful time. No one worried about the cost.

Have breakfast at a traditional London “caff”. Once described as linoleum temples to social isolation, you can eat a fabulous and fabulously cheap breakfast in these places. Take 2 Lipitor and enjoy a first class British fry-up. Perfect for hangovers. The website Classic Cafes has an excellent list of London’s top ten.

Eat sandwiches. Pret a Manger and Marks and Spencer, with outlets throughout London, have the best.

Time Out’s Cheap Eats in London – Buy the book or visit the website for hundreds of listings of cheap places to eat. Not as good as it should be ( not enough surprises, new finds or good indexing such as lists of BYOs or restaurants with lunch/pre-theatre deals) but still the best we’ve got.

And finally, the other thing I keep banging on about, when in London, rent an apartment and get out from under the tyranny of London restaurant prices. The take out/take away options are great and if you like to cook, you can buy the most luxurious and expensive ingredients and still spend a whole lot less than £22 for a hamburger.

Affordable London?

Dear God, how can you afford to live in London?

As the third most expensive city in the world after Tokyo and Osaka, it is one of the questions I am asked all the time. Which London, I always fire back, the London of investment bankers, football players and Russian oligarchs or the other one? The first London is financially ruinous. The second London is far more affordable.

What is true for the resident can also be true for the visitor as was shown by Jennifer Conlin in her recent article in the New York Times, “A Family Vacation in London, Guided by Scrooge”.

I like this article a lot. Conlin delivers useful advice on how to tackle London’s main budget busters: housing, food, transport and entertainment. If you have time, read the article. If not, here are the headlines: rent an apartment, eat in ethnic restaurants, take public transport and make use of freebies like parks and museums.

But I think NoCrowds can take this idea to a whole new level and since I’m on a roll nicking other peoples good ideas, I’ve decided to write a series of posting on my favourite ways to save lots of money in my favourite city. Since most visitors to London begin with a shockingly expensive trip in from the airport, I’ll begin with the whole topic of moving around London.

NoCrowds Top Tips for Saving Money on London Transport

Save roughly £40 ($70) simply by taking the Underground, not a cab, from Heathrow Airport to Central London. It can take up to an hour but it is a straight shot to Piccadilly. If you land at Terminal 4, take the free portion of the Heathrow Express to Terminals 1,2 and 3 where you can pick up the Underground. The Heathrow Express train to Paddington is fast but costs £13.50 and then you still have to get to your final destination. Bus service from National Express to Victoria Coach Station costs £10.


Take Southern Trains service from Gatwick Airport instead of the Gatwick Express. The Gatwick Express charges £14 for a single economy ticket while Southern charges £9. Both services run every 15 minutes. Both services have special group rates and other offers but Southern is always cheaper. Southern also offers 2 for 1 deals on tickets to London attractions such as the London Aquarium, the London Zoo and London Dungeon. Spend the money and take the Gatwick Express during rush hour because the crowding on Southern is diabolical.


Buy an Oyster Card for £3 from Transport for London at any Underground Station or Tourist Information Centre and save on each and every fare. The card will have paid for itself in just a few rides on the Underground or bus as substantial discounts apply depending on distance and time of day. You can pre-pay and avoid waiting in line and the cash on the card has no expiry dates. Also be aware that children under 16 ride the bus for free all day and those under 11 ride the Underground for free after 9:30 A.M. when travelling with an adult. There are also good deals on Travel Cards but I prefer the freedom and flexibility of the Oyster. Ask at the station which is the best fit for your needs.

Take the bus. Even Kate Middleton, girl friend of Prince William was snapped recently waiting for a bus in Sloane Square, so how fashionable is that! Buses are the cheapest, most efficient and nicest way to get around London. For example, from the top of #23 bus, you can see most of the same monuments you would get with an expensive guided coach tour (without the inane commentary). With an Oyster Card, you can travel anywhere on a bus for a £0.80 (under 16s are always free) and even though our Mayor, Ken Livingston says a lot of really idiotic things, bus service has improved dramatically during his term. Bus maps are available at Underground Stations and there is a route planner on the Transport for London website which is a bit cumbersome to use but gets the job done.

Walk. A blindingly obvious statement but walking remains the best way to see London and the best way to work off all the affordable meals I will talk about in tomorrow’s post.