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Travel blog by Travels of Adam (Hipster Blog) – Travels of Adam (Hipster Blog) – Travel & Lifestyle Hipster Blog
Look at all this almost live-blogging I’m doing… writing things within days of actually doing them. It’s all a part of my “back to blogging” theme of the year. Read on for my latest adventure…
Last weekend I went to London for a bit of a city break holiday. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise, but London is one of my favorite cities and it’s hard to be away for too long at a time. Plus, it’s been several months since I saw a musical and I was itching for some high-quality production, big ballads and strong, English acting. (We saw Wicked, if you’re wondering…)
This trip to London, however, was a bit different from my previous visits. Normally I try to stay away from the city center and usually opt for the more hipster-friendly areas. This time, though, because I knew I’d be trying to find some cheap tickets for a West End show, I figured I’d give the London Soho neighborhood a try.
From what I understood before visiting, Soho has been the traditionally touristic spot of central London for a while. There are more than a few hotels in the area, the nightlife is pretty legendary and it’s also convenient to many of London’s most popular tourist attractions.
A bonus for me: it’s the historic “gayborhood” of London where many gay bars are located (mostly along Old Compton Street). But, to be honest, I think a lot of London’s modern gay life has moved further out (to the east and to the south), but Soho is still Soho and will likely always be a safe, gay place in London. So I felt it was time to explore it a bit more.
I was also curious to see Soho in a bit more detail because I recently read the book, The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst. It’s a fictional story of a young gay man’s life living in London before the AIDS crisis. I actually identified a lot with the story—plus there were some seriously sexy scenes (erotic fiction is pretty cool, who knew?!).
But what was immediately apparent from the novel were the locations and places mentioned—many of them famously in London Soho and some, even ones I recognized. And, as I’ve written before, traveling to places found in pop culture always makes for more meaningful trips.
And so I landed in London Soho for a few different reasons. In typical “bad tourist” fashion, my travel planning, however, was pretty dismal. I booked my easyJet flight just a week before, the hotel—a day before and then I didn’t even start to look up things to do until I was already sitting in my hotel’s lobby waiting for check-in. #oops
Regardless, my long weekend in London was a success. Keeping myself pretty local to Soho, I was able to discover more than I thought there actually was. As it turns out, London Soho is pretty damn fun.
Check out my photo essay below (all from my @travelsofadam Instagram) with details on what to do and see in London Soho at the end…
From Oxford Street to Trafalgar Square, the area is no doubt full of tourists. But that doesn’t mean the streets in between should be ignored. Oftentimes, it’s just a matter of knowing where to go and which restaurants are a bit more authentic or “local.”
The Soho neighborhood has a storied past. I know it was once the seedier part of London, full of neon signs and sex shops, underground clubs and drug dealers. These days, the area’s cleaned up quite a bit—perhaps it’s lost a lot of it’s edge, but there’s still plenty of cool left in this part of town. I’m not a Soho expert, but on my weekend trip, these were the clear highlights:
I first discovered this thrift, vintage shop back in Shoreditch, but their Soho location had quite a few good finds, too. Beyond Retro (8-59 Great Marlborough Street, London W1F 7JY) is definitely a shop worth checking out and it’s only a short walk away from the high street shops over on Oxford Street.
Books, books, books! I’m not 100% sure why, but London’s Soho neighborhood seems to have close ties to the literary world. There are several bookstores but the biggest is Foyle’s (107 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0DT). With just a handful of locations across the UK, the Charing Cross bookstore has an awesome collection of books. It’s one of my favorite independent shops in the area.
I’ve been to London countless times and done a fair bit of shopping on Oxford Street (looking at you Topman), but I’d never made it inside The Photographer’s Gallery before (16-18 Ramillies Street, London W1F 7LW).
The gallery space was impressive and though the exhibition I saw (see below) wasn’t my favorite, I still managed to spend over an hour at the free museum. Read more: Human Rights Human Wrongs Photo Exhibition on at The Photographer’s Gallery
I first found this café, Flat Planet (39 Great Marlborough Street Soho, London W1F 7JG) recommended on a list of London cafés with wifi, but when we first visited, I was happily surprised that they offered a pretty amazing menu of flatbread pizzas.
Even more amazing was to find that many were in the Middle Eastern style, with my favorite spice/flavor: za’atar. Downstairs was a more laid-back environment with many people on their laptops typing away, but there was also a piano against a large mirror—an attractive workspace.
Somewhat unfortunately, currywurst has become an international trend. In Soho, Herman ze German (33 Old Compton Street, London W1D 5JP) serves up the German specialty along with other German food & drink products (think: beer).
It’s expensive, but hey – they have some of my favorite hipstery things from Germany (looking at you Fritz Kola). I had a schnitzel sandwich which wasn’t really schnitzel (the meat wasn’t pounded quite as thin as usual) but it was still tasty.
Dishoom (12 Upper St. Martin’s Lane, London WC2H 9FB) is a popular Indian restaurant styled as a “Bombay café” with a handful of locations across London. Reservations are usually necessary but we stumbled in on a weekday afternoon at the Covent Garden spot and had no problem getting a table.
The food was delicious and surprisingly affordable. Plus the waiters were cute and super friendly. Highly recommended!
It wouldn’t be a weekend in Soho if there wasn’t a late night of dancing to pop music in a sweaty Soho club. G-A-Y (30 Old Compton Street, London W1D 4UR) is a bit of an institution in Soho and it’s quickly climbed up my list of favorite gay clubs in Europe!
Yummy. We walked into Muriel’s Kitchen (36 – 38 Old Compton Street London W1D 4TT) because we saw a crowd and rightfully assumed it would be a decent brunch option. Our meals were pretty good (the blueberry pancakes—delicious) and the fresh fruit juices were just what we needed on a Sunday morning. It’s a good restaurant option for Soho with decent food, great prices and a cool atmosphere.
So, so gay ❤ Old Compton Street in Soho is pretty much the heart of “gay Soho.” The Caffê Nero (43 Frith St London W1V 5TE) on the street corner with Frith Street is pretty much the heart of gay life in Soho. The coffee is good and the sidewalk tables are prime people-watching locations.
There are a lot of different shows in Soho and the West End worth checking out, so much so that it can be overwhelming to find which ones to go to. Many of them are London staples that have been around for years and all the half-price ticket booths around Leicester Square make it difficult to decide.
But Miss Saigon at the Prince Edward Theatre (28 Old Compton Street, London W1D 4HS) is one of those that should definitely make your list West End theater list. The music is fun and engaging, the set design is incredible (really!) and the story has all the dramatic and comedic elements that make it a story worth seeing again and again.
Read: Review of Miss Saigon (2014)
And finally…my favorite reason for hanging out in London Soho has got to be the Chinatown. London’s Chinatown is situated between Wardour and Lisle Streets, mostly along Gerrard Street, not far from Piccadilly Circus.
During the day, the area can be pretty lively—lots of colors and strange scents. Shop windows are filled with foreign foods. But my favorite time to visit is after a West End show when the restaurants are starting to close, but they’ll always let you in for one last meal.
If you’re looking for a cheap and easy place to stay in London Soho, I stayed at the Z Hotel. Billed as an “urban hotel,” expect the rooms to be very small (especially if you’re two people) but the prices are tough to beat. The Z Hotel in Soho was incredibly convenient—steps way from Old Compton Street, Chinatown and no more than a five minute walk to the museums at Trafalgar Square.
What lacked in room amenities was certainly made up for in convenience. And to keep guests happy, the hotel offers a pretty generous supply of free wine and cheese every night in their café. Plus, there’s that rooftop view…
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