COVER
ABOUT THE BOOK
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TITLE PAGE
INTRODUCTION
AN HOUR FOR CULTURE
AN HOUR TO EAT AND DRINK
AN HOUR OF INNER PEACE
AN HOUR TO BUY A GIFT
AN HOUR FOR YOURSELF
AN HOUR OUTDOORS
AN HOUR TO SEE THE SIGHTS
AN HOUR TO GET CREATIVE
AN HOUR IN THE MORNING
AN HOUR FOR SOMETHING SPECIAL
MAP
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INDEX
COPYRIGHT
Bonnington Square
With over 120 imaginative and unmissable bite-size ideas for things to see and do in London, this alternative guide will inspire you to use your precious free time in a more rewarding and fun way. Turn a spare hour into an hour well spent and transform your experience of the city.
Kate Hodges has over 20 years writing experience on magazines, having been a staffer on publications including The Face, Bizarre, Just Seventeen, Smash Hits and Sky, and written for many more, including the Guardian, the Sunday Express, Kerrang!, and NME. Since June 2012, she’s edited, researched and written the weekly Hopscotch newsletter, a family guide to the best free and affordable fun things happening in London, and co-written their book, Little London (Virgin Books, 2014). She lives in St Leonards-on-Sea with her partner and children.
Londoners are busy people. We have lengthy commutes and working hours that stretch from espresso-o’clock to evening nightcap. Sometimes in the hustle of our working days and rushing from one place to another on the train, Tube or bus, we forget to stop and look at our extraordinary city and appreciate it. It’s time to reclaim a few minutes for yourself, and use them to remind yourself that London is a city packed with exciting mini-adventures.
This book will inspire you to exploit your precious spare moments and pack them with fascinating trips and time outs. London is a city bursting with history, culture and fun things to do, all within a few square miles.
This book is a collection of cultural must-sees, new activities to try and places to explore that can all be done in an hour or less. Read on and discover how to drive a hard bargain at an antiques market before work, dive into cold, wild water in your lunch break, escape to the solitude of a twelfth-century church or drink a cocktail with friends watching the sun set over the city skyline. There are secret pleasures and treasures to find all over London; on every street, in every patch of green, and even underground. It’s a city packed with potential micro-experiences; this is your roadmap to finding them.
I hope that this book will inspire you to grab your precious minutes of downtime and do something special with them. It’s written for both Londoners in search of new sensations and visitors hoping to uncover some of the hidden joys of the city. Pack a lunch, leave your desk, turn off your phone and head outside. We’ve done the planning for you – now find that small window of spare time and fill it with something wonderful.
Photographers’ Gallery
London is the cultural heart of Britain, throbbing with music, art and theatre. Sometimes, though, it can be hard to find time to visit that latest exhibition, to see that site-specific dance performance, or even to hear the band playing in the bar at the end of your road. Life gets in the way. The solution? Be cunning.
Get your arts fixes in short bursts, as and when you can. Go to a free lunchtime concert, head for a mini night out at an hour-long show or go to a drop-in DJing session. Take in a small exhibition after work and still be home in time for dinner. There’s so much happening in the city, you’ll always find something small-but-perfectly-formed going on.
Wigmore Hall
The Soho Theatre offers very funny shows that are just 60 minutes long, featuring a single stand-up comedian rather than a huge line-up with MC. They are perfect for a quick after-work dash of fun, no matter how late you work (start times can be anything from 7pm–10.30pm). During the summer, you’ll catch pre-Edinburgh Festival works-in-progress from upcoming comics and established stars alike. The venue also has an excellent bar (great for comedy industry people-watching).
sohotheatre.com
21 Dean Street, W1D 3NE
Tube Tottenham Court Road
Held weekly in this beautifully gilded and painted theatre, the BBC’s series of classical concerts is a relaxing way to spend a lunch hour. Featuring well-known international artists and groups, as well as up-and-coming performers from the New Generations scheme, these recitals last an hour, with no break. It’s a pure shot of culture that will restore your mind after a hard morning’s work. Book in advance to secure your seat – and get yourself away from your desk. If you can’t get down to the Wigmore in person you can listen in live on BBC Radio 3 or online.
wigmore-hall.org.uk
36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP
Tube Bond Street
The Ace Hotel in Shoreditch isn’t just a place for sophisticated travellers to lay their heads; there’s always something going on that you can get involved in. Most evenings, the lobby hosts music-spinning sessions, with DJs and creatives picking their favourite tunes of the moment. It’s free – anyone is welcome to wander in and out. Check out the venue’s website for bigger evening events held in their downstairs room, plus craft and cooking workshops, guided running sessions around local sights, yoga classes and storytelling. There’s even a black-and-white photo booth you can visit to immortalise your micro night out.
acehotel.com
100 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6JQ
Overground Shoreditch High Street
If you can’t make Mondays at the Wigmore, try Friday lunchtimes at the Central Bar at the Royal Festival Hall. Every week the bar reverberates to the sound of live music and the buzz of the people listening. You might hear classical, jazz, folk or world music. The show’s free, so buy a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, pull up a chair, and ease yourself into the weekend. If you really can’t switch off from work – even for an hour – there’s free Wi-Fi so you can catch up on emails while you listen.
southbankcentre.co.uk
Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
Tube Waterloo
Ace Hotel
Royal Festival Hall
Running since 1979, this topical, constantly changing show is held at the picturesque Canal Café, right in the middle of Little Venice, and runs Thursday to Sunday. The line-up changes on a regular basis, but the format stays the same – a funny series of skits, song parodies, impressions and sketches performed by two women and two men, hooked around breaking news stories. Although only an hour long, each show is so jam-packed with gags and songs it feels like a full evening’s entertainment. A fun way to catch up on the week’s current affairs.
canalcafetheatre.com
Delamere Terrace, Little Venice, W2 6ND
Tube Warwick Avenue
London is constantly evolving; a hub of change and a leading light in all that is new and cutting edge, and the buildings in the city reflect this innovation. If you are interested in the look of our capital city, take a quick spin around the NLA exhibition to stay on top of the latest plans for the city’s skyline (it’s do-able in less than half an hour). You can’t miss the huge, shiny, 3D map that dominates the ultra-modern gallery, highlighting new and proposed buildings and giving you a picture of how familiar streets might look in a few years. Let your fingers glide over high-tech screens and display tables to highlight what’s new for your neighbourhood.
newlondonarchitecture.org
The Building Centre, 26 Store St, WC1E 7BT
Tube Goodge Street
Photographers’ Gallery, Soho
Breathtaking snaps, often with a political edge.
Estorick Collection, Highbury & Islington
Italian modern art with a pretty garden café.
Whitechapel Gallery
An egalitarian, contemporary collection of art. Don’t miss the video installations.
Stolen Space Gallery, Brick Lane
Browse the art and perhaps make a wise investment in works by contemporary, underground artists.
House of Illustration, King’s Cross
Their whirlwind, illustrator-led, 20-minute tour (times vary) of their current exhibition is brilliant and helps you get the most from the show.
South London Gallery, Camberwell
Thoughtful shows from contemporary artists and a wonderful café.
Hayward Gallery, Southbank
Exhibitions by major artists. An hour of world-class innovation that will inspire and delight.
St Paul’s Cathedral
Indulge in their two sumptuous Bill Viola videos.
The Serpentine Gallery, Hyde Park
Major exhibitions from the likes of Marina Abramović and Yoko Ono.
Lazarides Rathbone, Fitzrovia
Cutting-edge urban art.
The Hunterian, Holborn
Tuesday lunchtime lecture with gruesome-yet-fascinating stories from medical history.
Wellcome Collection, Bloomsbury
Scientists discuss their latest experiments and research at the Packed Lunch talks.
Open Data Institute, Hoxton
20-minute tech and online communication lectures on a Friday.
Guildhall Library, City
Afternoon talks about the absorbing history of London – around eight free events per month.
The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square
Free lunchtime talks of 30–45 minutes on Mondays and Tuesdays that uncover the history of their paintings.
The National Army Museum, Battersea
Head to the formal surroundings of the Army and Navy Club for free, fortnightly military history lunchtime talks.
Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly
Monthly, free, Monday lunchtime lecture that offers a deeper insight into their exhibitions.
The British Museum, Bloomsbury
Learn more about ancient objects at the Tuesday– Saturday, 45-minute, lunchtime gallery talk.
National Portrait Gallery, Trafalgar Square
Fascinating, funny and insightful, try the daily Portrait of the Day chats.
Wallace Collection, Marylebone
Wednesdays mean Brief Encounter talks; a 20-minute lecture focused on one of the gallery’s objects.
The BFI Mediatheque is a cosy place to while away an hour on a winter’s day. You’ll be given a pair of headphones and shown to a booth, then left to pick a film, TV programme or documentary to watch from their huge archive. You can choose an episode of Sherlock or Absolutely Fabulous, but why not embrace the moment and choose something more esoteric? Perhaps watch a three-minute short of music hall performer Billy Merson skipping around with a lyre, Princess Diana presenting the 1989 British Fashion Awards, home hints from 1926 (including how to turn your dog into a burglar alarm), or Kenneth Williams declaiming and showing us around his London.
whatson.bfi.org.uk
Belvedere Road, South Bank, SE1 8XT
Tube Waterloo
East London is home to swathes of emerging artists and raw talent, and on the first Thursday of every month, many of those artists open their studios and spaces to the public, with over 150 venues holding shows, talks and workshops. You’ve only got an hour? Fine, take in a selection of smaller shows that are within stepping distance of each other, or spend the whole hour at one larger exhibition. The galleries are open late, so you might even squeeze in a quick post-work drink before you set off on your cultural tour of East London.
whitechapelgallery.org/first-thursdays
Tube Aldgate
Rough Trade East is a vast, airy, high-ceilinged warehouse packed with music, words and pictures in every format imaginable. Brand new vinyl imports and old classics sit in racks waiting to be flicked through; track down something on your wants list, or browse for new sounds. Elsewhere there are obscure CDs and artfully curated books to browse. Take a look at the staff selections for quick tips as to what will be the next big thing, or sip a cup of Monmouth coffee in the café at the front.
roughtrade.com
Dray Walk, Old Truman Brewery,
91 Brick Lane, E1 6QL
Overground Shoreditch High Street
The St Bride Foundation is tucked away behind the St Bride’s Church on Fleet Street. It’s primarily an arts space and educational centre, but at lunchtimes it hosts Lunchbox Theatre, a 45-minute play or musical – anything from political satire to (abridged) Shakespeare classics. Indulge in some non-work-related drama with your sandwiches on your lap and be back at your desk, refreshed and inspired, within the hour.
sbf.org.uk
Blackfriars