London (Fodor's 2012) - Fodor's [65]
SAFETY
This entire posh region is quite safe but beware of pickpockets in shopping areas.
NEAREST PUBLIC RESTROOMS
Most old-style public restrooms have been replaced by futuristic “autoloos”—podlike booths on street corners that usually cost £1 to use. If you’re not brave enough to trust the push-button locks (and plenty of locals don’t), try Peter Jones or Harvey Nicks department stores, which have several large, clean restrooms that are free to use. You could also try asking for the “loo” in any pub, but be prepared for short shrift if you’re not a paying customer. The old advice about asking in any pub doesn’t hold true. Pub owners in London can be notoriously mean to noncustomers who ask to use their bathrooms.
A GOOD RUN
The short circuit around the Thames between Chelsea Bridge and Albert Bridge is a pleasant 1½-mi run. From Chelsea Bridge run west along Chelsea Embankment. The wooded park on the other side is Battersea Park, with its Peace Pagoda in the middle. Turn left across the river on the Albert Bridge. Then turn left into Battersea Park and run along the cinder path beside the river. Now the view is of Chelsea. There are good public bathrooms and drinking fountains in the park. Emerge from the park and turn left across Chelsea Bridge back to the starting point.
HISTORIC PLAQUES
As you wander these neighborhoods (and elsewhere in London), you’ll see lots of small blue, circular plaques on the sides and facades of buildings, describing which famous, infamous, or obscure but brilliant person once lived there. The first was placed outside Lord Byron’s birthplace (now no more) by the Royal Society of Arts. There are around 700 blue plaques, erected by different bodies—you may even find some green ones that originated from Westminster City Council—but English Heritage now maintains the responsibility, and if you want to find out the latest, check the Web site | www.english-heritage.org.uk.
KENSINGTON AND CHELSEA
Chelsea was settled before the Domesday Book and was already fashionable when two of Henry VIII’s wives lived there. On the North side of the Thames, over from trendier but less well-heeled Battersea, are the impressive lawns of Wren’s Royal Hospital. Walking along the Embankment, notice the Albert Bridge, a candy-color Victorian confection of a suspension bridge. The bridge, shimmering with thousands of lights, its reflection sparkling on the river, is one of London’s great romantic views. Cheyne Walk, a lovely street dating back to the 18th century, has Chelsea Physic Garden and Carlyle’s House, with all their arty and historic associations. The blue plaques commemorating important residents along here are amazing.
Nearby is a famous London shopping street, the King’s Road (Charles II’s private way from St. James’s to Fulham). Leave time in your retail therapy schedule to stop at the relocated Saatchi Gallery, or explore the tiny Georgian lanes of pastel-color houses that veer off the King’s Road to the north—especially Jubilee Place and Burnsall Street, leading to the hidden “village square” of Chelsea Green. On Saturday there’s an excellent farmers’ market up from the Saatchi Gallery selling artisanal cheese and chocolates, local oysters, and organic meats, plus stalls serving international food.
Kensington laid its first royal stake when King William III, fed up with the vapors of the Thames, bought a country place there in 1689 and converted it into Kensington Palace. Its Orangery is diagonally across the park, with the opulent Kensington Palace Gardens running behind it. Londoners call this street Billionaires’ Row. Notice that there is no electric street lighting down here; it is still lighted exclusively by old Victorian gas lamps. Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, added the jewel in the borough’s crown when he turned the profits of the Great Exhibition of 1851 into South Kensington’s metropolis of museums: Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), the Science Museum, and the Natural History Museum. His namesakes in