DK Travel : London

A city of infinite colour and variety, London is both richly historic, tracing its roots back over 2000 years, and unceasingly modern, at the forefront of fashion, music and the arts. There is a fantastic amount to interest and entertain the visitor here: a selection of the best of the best is explored here.

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Tom's Kitchen

Just off the Kings Road in Chelsea this fabulously informal restaurant is a great place for breakfast, lunch, dinner and an amazing brunch at the weekend.

Worth a visit - booking is probably recommended for busier times.
Upstream, Downstream from Hungerford Bridge

The twin pedestrian bridges flanking the Hungerford railway bridge offer wonderful vistas of the Palace of Westminster, St Pauls Cathedral, and the City of London. Particularly in the early morning and evening, the Thames evokes London's trading and commercial traditions. I love it.
Val Taro

Val Taro is a n Italian restaurant half way between Trafalgar and Leicester Square. It has a wine bar downstairs and main restaurant on the ground floor. Although it is quite old fashioned, it is friendly, welcoming, never too busy and serves huge bowls of excellent pasta for £7.00.
Viking Sunday Tatton Park

Great day out for all the family. A chance to see how the Vikings really lived, through living history recreations (5th August 2007). Based at the Old Hall in Tatton Park is where you will find the Vikings. The grass is covered with groups of Vikings enjoying their day to day lives from cooking to sword play. So much to see and do and best of all it's free! You only pay park entry for parking. If you have had your fill of the Vikings head up to the Mansion House where you will find the gardens, resaurant, shops and a display of horsedrawn coaches. There's also a childrens play area and a farm. All this is set in a beautiful landscape, take a picnic and take full advantage of one of Britains best gems.
Wahaca

New(ish) kid on the block this is Mexican food done good. Its a stylish restaurant which has made what can be a greasy cuisine, fresh, tasty and a little bit sexy. The staff are mixed, I've had the same waiter twice who has been a little bit surly but I'm putting it down to language barriers rather than unfriendliness! Its well worth the visit and you may need to queue.
Walthamstow Street Market

It is the longest street market in Europe, being over a mile long.

You can find any kind of products from fruits to electronics and clothing... Throughout the market you can hear the street vendors selling their products; "Pound a bowl!!"

Walthamstow market may not have the hipness of Portobello or the coolness of Camden, but if you want to experience the real multi-ethnic London then head East!Trains from Liverpool st in 15 mins. By tube, take Victoria line
Wellcome Collection

The Wellcome Collection is a small, eclectic, imaginative, humane, humorous exhibition of objects related, sometimes in the loosest sense, to medicine. It is WONDERFUL.

Henry Wellcome was a turn-of-the century collector of objects related to medicine. His interests were broad and this new exhibition space presents highlights of his collection in a way that is humane, humorous, and informative. Although small and relatively unspectacular, it is imaginative and interesting and very definitely worth a visit.

The Wellcome Collection is divided into two broad sections – a permanent exhibition of Wellcome’s collection of artefacts, and temporary exhibitions of matters medical. Both exhibitions cleverly mix scientific and artistic displays. On the day I visited, the temporary exhibition was devoted to “the heart”, with an array of real hearts in aspic (including a recently-acquired human heart) and a no-holds-barred film of a heart operation in amongst love poetry and Valentines cards.

The permanent collection of “medical” artefacts really caught my interest. The first exhibit you come across is of three similarly-sized chairs in a row – a seventeenth-century Chinese “torture chair” (with blades where cushions might be), a nineteenth century birthing chair, and a nineteenth century dentist’s chair. Excellent.

The body of the permanent collection is based on large thematic display cases – “seeking help”, “end of life”, “understanding the body” …. . These cases contain an incredibly diverse range of objects – I particularly liked the winged and top-hatted figure to ward off malevolent spirits from the Nicabar Islands, the good-luck anulets from the First World War (saints for the Russians, a shell and a jewel for the Japanese, a black cat and the king for the British), and a surprisingly-tiny shrunken human head from Papua New Guinea. There is also a quirky collection of paintings with a medical theme (including a copy of a Russian icon).

While the Wellcome Collection does not have the heavy-hitting stars of the British Museum (just down the road) it is well-annotated and organised, has plenty of stools and space, and has a pleasant café and bookstore attached. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is accessible and interesting and definitely worth a visit.
Wicked

WICKED the spectacular, multi award-winning stage adaptation, with music & lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman tells the incredible untold story of an unlikely friendship between two girls who first meet as Sorcery Students at Shiz University: the blonde and very popular Glinda and a misunderstood green girl, Elphaba.
Yo sushi

One of the many branches in London this fantastic modern sushi bar has a conveyor belt with a wide variety of sushi plates and other japanese specialities going round in front of you. Each plate is colour coded and corresponds to costs.

Sushi chefs work away busily in the centre of the conveyor belt topping up the fresh plates.

A great expereince.
Zipangu

Great little sushi bar in Soho