Soho is home to Europe’s largest Chinatown, which developed in the 1970s. Earlier generations of London’s Chinese population had centred around the docks of Limehouse.
Do visit this bustling food market where top London chefs come to buy their ingredients. If you don’t find it here, where will you? Open from Thursday to Saturday, but come early to avoid the crowds! Read more.
The temporary exhibitions are always worth a look, no more so than the current Maps exhibition. Reasonably good for free wifi, but can be patchy. Love the quirky gift shop.
Much of the collection was inherited from the Museum of Patents (est 1858) and includes early locomotives such as Stephenson’s Rocket and Puffing Billy, and the first jet engine.
From 1235 until 1835, the monarch’s personal zoo was kept at the Tower, and it included many exotic animals given as presents by other monarchs, including polar bears, leopards and elephants.
The museum is located in the former Royal Bethlem Hospital for the mentally ill (from where the term ‘bedlam’ comes). The iconic guns at the front are 15 inch naval cannon, both used in action in WW2.
Since the reign of Henry VIII visitors have come to the White Tower, the central keep of the Tower of London, to admire the weapons and armour displayed here by the Royal Armouries.
