London
Leaving Sydney Sunday 23 August · back to LA from London Sunday 30 · Jane & Johnny
Booked
Waiting to hear
Not booked yet
No booking needed
The week
Sunday 23
getting there
SYD
9:30am
LAX
6:10am
UA842 · lands the same morning · confirmation GP50SG
6:10am
Layover at LAX
About nine hours. Johnny joins you here for the next flight.
LAX
3:35pm
LHR
10:10am
UA923 · lands Monday morning · confirmation GN36HM
Overnight
on the plane
Monday 24
arriving
10:10am
Land at Heathrow
Terminal 2
11:00am
Car to the hotel
Heathrow T2
Rosewood
Addison Lee · driver meets us underneath the International Arrivals sign · booking 119898
Midday
Check in at the Rosewood
I've requested an early check-in at midday — waiting to hear
5:45pm
Dinner at Dishoom
King's Cross · 5 Stable Street
Jane
— Rosewood London, 252 High Holborn
Johnny
— The Hoxton, 199–206 High Holborn
Tuesday 25
Kensington
Afternoon
Victoria & Albert Museum
Free · the Cast Courts, and lunch in the 1868 refreshment rooms
Evening
Boisdale of Belgravia
Dinner and live music — a tribute to Billie Holiday's 1956 Carnegie Hall concert · dinner from 5pm, music at 9pm
Jane
— Rosewood London
Johnny
— The Hoxton
Wednesday 26
Bankside
11:00am
Borough Market, then the river walk
Southwark Cathedral, Clink Street, the Golden Hinde, Shakespeare's Globe
2:00pm
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare's Globe
Evening
Simpson's in the Strand
The Grand Divan, opened 1828 · ten minutes' walk
Jane
— Rosewood London
Johnny
— The Hoxton
Thursday 27
Mayfair
1:30pm
Afternoon tea at Claridge's
The Foyer & Reading Room · 51 Brook Street
Late afternoon
Johnny leaves for the festival
Jane
— Rosewood London
Johnny
— at Big Church Festival
Friday 28
on your own
Daytime open — see the ideas below
Evening
How the Other Half Loves
The Old Vic, The Cut · the Alan Ayckbourn comedy
Jane
— Rosewood London
Johnny
— at Big Church Festival
Saturday 29
on your own
Daytime open — see the ideas below
Evening
The Phantom of the Opera
His Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket · ten minutes away
Jane
— Rosewood London
Johnny
— at Big Church Festival
Sunday 30
home
8:30am
Check out
8:45am
Car to the airport
Rosewood
Heathrow T2
Addison Lee · be in the lobby at 8:45 · booking 119965
LHR
1:05pm
LAX
4:10pm
UA935 · lands the same afternoon · confirmation L1MVWG
Museums, houses and walks
Somerset House and the Courtauld
Manet, Van Gogh, Cézanne · eight minutes' walk
Two Temple Place
A lavish Victorian mansion on the Embankment, free
The Painted Hall, Greenwich
By riverboat from Blackfriars
Sir John Soane's Museum
Lincoln's Inn Fields, free, six minutes' walk
The Wallace Collection
Free, and a lovely courtyard restaurant
The Postal Museum
Including the little Mail Rail train
Restaurants
Rules
, Covent Garden
London's oldest restaurant, 1798
Brasserie Zédel
A grand art deco dining room off Piccadilly
The Wolseley
and
The Delaunay
Grand cafés, good for lunch
Looked into
The Proms
Sold out for our nights — we tried the box office too
London Symphony Orchestra
Not playing while we're there
Kew Gardens
Beautiful, but a full day and a long way out
Notting Hill and Portobello
Carnival takes over the whole area that weekend
Natural History Museum
School holidays — it'll be heaving
Tate Modern
Swapped for the Globe and the river walk
Updated 5 August