London is one of those cities in the world that will always elude history, cosmopolitan, and vibrancy. In fact, it is so iconic that it has four UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which will be mentioned below a few times. In a bustling city with millions of tourists flocking around to visit London each year, you can see it is a city that is pretty big. A local mentioned to me you would need to take some weeks off to truly explore a lot of London. There are so many streets and roads to navigate around the city, after all. So, I streamlined what is worth to explore.
Here are 8 streets/roads that I recommend you check out if you’re planning to visit London or are currently in London:
1. Brompton Road
Brompton Road is located part of Knightsbridge, a residential and retail district in London. When I was in London with my family, we actually accidentally found this road by accident as we were just wandering around.
Brompton Road is known for having Harrods, which is one of the known luxurious department stores in England. It is also lined with 5-star hotels and restaurants, along with other shops. We’ve seen some cafes and bakeries; they even have a Prada Caffe. If you go next to Brompton Road towards Elizabeth Street, you’ll also see Belgravia, a district in Central London, where a lot of pretty Georgian architecture buildings stand out; those are apartments and townhouses.
2. King’s Road
King’s Road is a street that goes through Chelsea and Fulham, districts in west London. The reason it was named King’s Road was because it used to be a private road that King Charles II used to travel to Kew, a district in London. Eventually the street opened up for the public and it became a place for entertainment and for shopping, as it is in this modern day. King’s Road has 300+ boutiques and several restaurants, becoming one of London’s top locations for shopping. You can find some ideas of what to check out there here on their website.
3. Parliament Street
You might’ve heard of this because of Parliament Square! It is home to Parliament Square, which if you don’t know what that is: it’s an area that has some of the most important architectural buildings, symbolic of democracy. Some of those buildings are Westminster Abbey, a protestant church that has been the location for monarchs and royal weddings, and Big Ben (also known as Elizabeth Tower), the iconic clock tower known as a British cultural icon. Within the squares, you would come across twelve statues that represent political figures, including Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, and David Lloyd George.
4. Tower Hill
Tower Hill connects you to the Tower of London, a historic castle that is on the north bank of River Thames. It has been such a prominence to English history with monarchs having spent time there from the 14th to 17th century. Tower of London is home to the Crown Jewels of England, an exhibit that I highly recommend you go into as you’ll see some of the crowns (bedazzled by real diamonds, silver, gold, and other gems).
Tower of London is reported to supposedly be haunted as it was known for their tortures, including the arrest and execution of Anne Boleyn for accusations against her for adultery and plotting against the king; she was the queen of England once and married to Henry VIII.
Along Tower Hill, you could also find the Tower Millennium Pier. In here, this is where people line up to catch their ferries to ride along the River Thames. If you don’t have a package to go on a ferry with your tour company (like BigBus), you can find a ferry to ride using Uber Boat, yes Uber does boats here, and book through their site. You can also book a dining cruise or sightseeing cruise from CityExperiences.
5. Victoria Street
Victoria Street or also known as Queen Victoria Street in London has several notable buildings, with headquarters and historical sites. It is also the closest street to take if you’re coming from the Victoria Coach Station. You can find some restaurants and shops here.
What’s also discoverable here is Little Ben, a statue almost like Big Ben but much smaller. Not far from this view is the Victoria Palace Theatre, a performing arts theatre that hosts shows; you won’t miss this building if you see the golden ballerina on top of the building, representing Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. Victoria Street also connects you to minutes away from Westminster Cathedral, a Catholic church that began to be built in 1895 and completed in 1903.
6. Elizabeth Street
As I mentioned earlier in this post, Elizabeth Street can lead you to Belgravia, a district in London known for its richer demographic. The buildings here are Georgian architecture inspired, from apartments to townhouses. Along this street are lined with aesthetically pretty window displays that showcase the plenty of boutiques and restaurants. We ate at Sicily restaurant here and I highly recommend that for a great dining experience.
7. Buckingham Palace Road
From the sound of this road, this is the road that connects you to Buckingham Palace, yes the royal residence and the headquarters for the United Kingdom monarch. You can’t go inside the palace from the front entrance (it’s guarded for good reason), but they do offer some tours so you can see state rooms and the garden. I didn’t do the tour, but I admired the outside of the palace and the Victoria Memorial, a monument for Queen Victoria.
You can also walk to the Kings Gallery, a place that is known for changing exhibits, and inside there is also a good merchandise shop where you can buy some gorgeous royal tea sets and quality gift-worthy items.
8. Borough High Street
This is the street that connects to the London Bridge. You can walk around on the London Bridge and admire the views that overlooks the River Thames with the view of the vivid Tower Bridge and get a glimpse of the tallest skyscraper in London called The Shard. There are some restaurants here and if you want some coffee or tea, you should go to the Roasting Plant Coffee Shop. They have a tasty selection of freshly brewed drinks and food; a good place with seating for a coffee break.
How you can travel around
With so many streets in London, you can expect to do a lot of walking!!!! However, there are two ways I recommend you can do to get to another area of London faster and less strenuous.
The first way is to book with a hop-on and hop-off bus tour company, especially as a tourist, you may want to be with other tourists alike. There are plenty to use in London, but we specifically used BigBus. The second way is to use the Underground train station, also called as the Tube. It may be intimidating for those who aren’t advanced in trains, but their train system is pretty easy to follow along. You can find travel information all the Tube lines including maps, timetables, and fares on their website.
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