When you think of London, your mind likely automatically brings up images of Big Ben, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, and other tourist attractions, but when you study abroad, you have the chance to dig much deeper into the city’s many layers.
Here are 10 reasons that you might fall in love with London that are perhaps a bit less expected.
1. LONDON IS A POP CULTURE PLAYGROUND.
If you love pop culture, you’ll have fun tracking down the TARDIS in Earl’s Court for your personal Doctor Who moment or posing for the classic Abbey Road photo like The Beatles. London is packed with locations that have defined film, TV, and music. You can explore Soho’s record stores where legendary artists like David Bowie once flicked through albums or pop down to Brixton to visit his house which is now a memorial. Spend time in Borough Market sampling all the food just like Bridget Jones, and then head up to King’s Cross Station to find Platform 9 ¾ of Harry Potter fame. Marvel fans should visit Greenwich, where parts of Thor: The Dark World were filmed. The Electric Ballroom in Camden is a spot where Amy Winehouse and many other stars once performed. You’ll recognize Regent Street from Mary Poppins and Love Actually. Every snippet of London has a story to tell, a little slice of history—ancient and more recent—hidden beneath.
2. LONDON’S QUIRKY MARKETS ARE FULL OF TREASURES.
You can find just about anything in London, especially if you spend time roaming through its many markets. There’s nothing quite like the sound of Cockney vendors shouting their deals from their stalls on a Sunday morning in Columbia Road Flower Market or flipping through racks of edgy vintage or punk clothes in Camden Market. Brick Lane Market is full of handmade jewelry, retro treasures, and indie art, not to mention it’s a street food heaven where you can sample tastes from across the globe. If you’ve already had lunch at Borough Market (see point one), head to nearby Maltby Street Market for another delicious meal. Colorful Portobello Market is known for its antiques, vintage clothes, and plenty more. You’ll find a mix of everything in Greenwich Market, and Brixton Market is a great place to taste some international cuisines. There are plenty of others spread across the city; apart from plenty of culture, excitement, and photo ops, you never know what you might discover!
3. LONDON HAS LOTS OF GREEN SPACES TO ENJOY.
You might not expect it in one of the world’s biggest and busiest capital cities, but London is one of the greenest cities in the world with 40% of its space dedicated to parks and gardens. In fact, in 2019, London was officially declared the world’s first National Park City. There are eight royal parks: Richmond Park, Bushy Park, Regents Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Greenwich Park, St. James’s Park, and Green Park. Other big spaces like Hampstead Heath, Holland Park, Kew Gardens, Wimbledon Common, and Wandsworth Common are worth a visit too. And there are plenty of smaller green spaces. For example, there’s the peaceful Postman’s Park in central London, the indoor rooftop garden at Sky Garden, St. Luke’s park in Chelsea, Phoenix Garden, the Kensington Roof Gardens, Kyoto Gardens, St. Dunstan in the East - the WWII bombed out Christopher Wren-designed chapel now overtaken by trees and greenery, Fulham Palace Garden, and the Chelsea Physic Garden to name just a few more!
4. LONDON IS A FOODIE’S WONDERLAND.
Tossing its outdated reputation for bland food aside, London has, in the past few decades, experienced a food revolution. It’s not just fish and chips and afternoon tea anymore. London’s food scene is incredibly diverse. Name a country and it’s likely you’ll be able to find food from that country somewhere in London. There’s innovative street food, quirky pop-up restaurants, food markets, tapas bars, and more. Head to Brixton for flavors from the Caribbean. In East London, enjoy Turkish and halal foods. In Whitechapel, seek out Indian and Pakistani meals. In Borough Market, you’ll find everything from sustainable Cypriot street food to Persian family recipes to Taiwanese specialties. In Chinatown, a plate of dumplings will cost less than £10. In Camden Market, you’ll find everything from Asian buns to British pies to Venezuelan arepas. You’ll find Japanese sushi bars, hygge-inspired Scandinavian cafes for cinnamon buns and rye bread, foods from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in Camberwell, and Lithuanian in Leyton. You can feast on Canadian poutine in Covent Garden, Ugandan spinach groundnut stew in Seven Sisters, and South African braai in Farringdon. If you are feeling homesick, there are even restaurants that serve up some good old American favorites.
5. LONDON IS A GREAT PLACE FOR BOOK LOVERS.
With more than 800 bookshops and 325 public libraries including the British Library, book lovers won’t be stuck for choice. Our favorite is beautiful Daunt in Marylebone (and they have several other smaller branches around the city). Daunt’s shelves are mainly arranged by area of the world—not just travel guides but lots of great fiction organized by setting. It’s a great place to go if you’re looking for a way to dive deeper into a particular area or culture. Stanfords in Covent Garden is also a travel enthusiast’s dream selling maps and globes among its shelves full of books. One of the biggest bookshops is the iconic Foyles on Charing Cross Road. Nearby Cecil Court is a quirky alley full of antiquarian shops with lots of books among other curiosities. Don’t miss London Review Bookshop in Bloomsbury where many authors lived and worked. It’s located in Bloomsbury which is famous for its literary connections to the Bloomsbury Group and a bust of Virginia Woolf in Tavistock Square. London is, of course, also home to the Sherlock Holmes Museum and Baker Street, known for its connections to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective. For something a little different, pop into Word in the Water, a bookshop on a canal boat near Granary Square. Most nights, you can find readings, author events, storytelling, and signings, and key an eye open for the London Literature Festival at Southbank Centre.
6. LONDON HAS ART WHERE YOU’D LEAST EXPECT IT.
London has some incredible, world-class museums, but art is not simply confined to these spaces. Immerse yourself in street art with a walk through the Leake Street Graffiti Tunnel or wander through parts of East London where the walls are quite simply like an outdoor mural gallery. You might challenge yourself to an impromptu scavenger hunt to find the hidden “Seven Noses of Soho.” For a different sort of art experience, head to the immersive art experience Frameless in Marble Arch. In Trafalgar Square, the Fourth Plinth in one corner of the square hosts an artwork that is changed every two years. For a very quirky art experience, visit God’s Own Junkyard hidden down in Walthamstow. This is a dazzling wonderland of neon art filled with vibrant signs and installations by Chris Bracey. For something more classical, visit the Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College which is a stunning masterpiece of Baroque art and has been dubbed “the Sistine Chapel of the UK.” For a real offbeat adventure, southwest London’s Eel Pie Island is a wonderfully bohemian artist community, which occasionally hosts open studios events, as do other art studios across the city.
7. LONDON HAS SOME OF THE QUIRKIEST MUSEUMS.
Some of the more well-known London museums are the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, The British Museum, The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Museum of London, and The Design Museum. But there are 192 museums in total and so many others to visit here too. The Hunterian Museum is home to bizarre medical oddities. The Museum of Brands will take you on a nostalgic trip through decades of packaging. The House of Dreams Museums is an artist’s home transformed into a scrapbook of memories. In Viktor Wind Museum of Curiosities, you can see celebrity hair and taxidermy unicorns. The Clink Prison Museum is interactive with creepy soundscapes on the site of a real medieval jail. The Old Operating Theatre Museum has a herb garret with medicinal plans and you’ll get a look into the gruesome practices of Victorian surgery. The Fan Museum exhibits fans from across centuries and cultures. Denis Severs’ House is a time capsule of 18th-century life. Among so many others, there’s also the Cartoon Museum, The Hungarian Museum, The Museum of Freemasonry, The Postal Museum, The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, Sir John Soane’s Museum, and the Leighton House Museum with its incredible tiled Arab Hall.
8. LONDON IS A HUB FOR GLOBAL CELEBRATIONS.
As a city of 9 million people where 300+ languages are spoken, London’s diversity means plenty of celebrating! From Notting Hill Carnival—Europe’s largest street festival celebrating Caribbean culture, to the Chinese New Year parade in Chinatown, there’s always something happening. You’ll spot Diwali lights at the end of October and can head into areas like Southall where the local Indian community’s festivities will be in full swing. During Pride month, the LGBTQ+ community and allies flood the streets for one of Europe’s most colorful parades. There are also smaller festivals like London’s Eid in the Square, or Japan Matsuri that nod to the city’s multicultural population and their traditions. In June, Carnaval del Pueblo is Europe’s largest outdoor Latin American festival in Camberwell. The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival happens in June at the Royal Albert Docks. There’s an African Street Style festival in Shoreditch in July. August brings the London Halal Food Festival to Wapping. There are 197 festivals every year in London, so watch Time Out and other local sources for dates and details.
London will surprise you every day in some way or another. It’s a city with something for everyone, a space you can carve out as your own, and pursue whatever subject interests you most. Other topics that could have been added to this list are theater, music, history, architecture, the variety of subcultures, and so much more. Each neighborhood is different, and you’ll need a lifetime to see everything, but studying abroad will give you a taste of what it’s like to get below the surface and see the more authentic side of one of the greatest cities in the world.