Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Fiona Whitty entertains two teenagers in London while sticking to a budget
My task was huge…keeping two hard-to-please teens happy in London for a weekend without breaking the bank. I needn’t have worried. There are plenty of great-value or free adventures – and loads of photo opportunities for the all-important social media feeds – meaning we could splurge on one or two biggies.
The first trick for my stay with daughter Rosie and her friend Abbe, both 15, was finding a hotel in a prime location that didn’t sink the boat money-wise.
Ticking both these boxes was The Bailey’s Hotel in South Kensington, where a smart Victorian red brick façade welcomed us with streams of twinkling lights as we stepped out of Gloucester Road Underground Station.
Inside it had a glamorous Agatha Christie-esque feel, with a huge foyer flower display, photos of London through the ages donning the soft sage and grey walls, polished wood panels and a sweeping staircase – but it was surprisingly child-friendly too.
While mine were too old to take advantage of the ‘under-11s can stay for free’ policy, the concierge bounded up to us and asked if we’d like advice on activities nearby.
Our spacious luxury family room contained two double beds with huge headboards that the girls loved sinking back into, while breakfast provided us with plenty of hot and cold buffet favourites and fresh tea and coffee brought to the table.
A whopping £7million has been ploughed into a Let’s Do London campaign to promote the city post-lockdown so we were keen to get out and explore.
And even for someone like me who’s lived in or around it for nearly 30 years, England’s proud capital is always springing new surprises.
We hopped on the Tube and zoomed over to 20 Fenchurch Street – nicknamed the Walkie Talkie because of its peculiar top-heavy design.
One of London’s trailblazing skyscrapers, its stunning top-floor Sky Garden is free to visit. Set in a vast atrium of glass panels, it is packed with trees and foliage – hence its name (book in advance at skygarden.london).
Visitors can wander right round and even on to a terrace for incredible 360-degree views of London, including over Tower Bridge and St Paul’s Cathedral. Which was perfect picture matter for my teens’ all-important Snapchat posts.
Afterwards we caught a bus to Shoreditch, a hip East End area that’s home to markets, galleries, cafes and BOXPARK, a collection of repurposed shipping containers once dubbed the world’s first pop-up shopping mall (boxpark.co. uk/shoreditch).
Launched ahead of London 2012 with the aim of luring Olympic visitors, BOXPARK used to house the likes of Calvin Klein and Nike
but now hosts independent traders, such as Sugar+Style with its collection of cute clothes, sunglasses and jewellery.
We also tried some gyoza and katsu dishes from Japanese eaterie Rainbo, one of several street food stalls on the upper level.
Staying east, we trained it to Royal Victoria Station to board the Emirates Air Line cable car – a recent Instagram star – over the Thames to Greenwich for yet more sublime views (adult £4, child £2 for contactless pay-at-the-gate tickets, emiratesairline.co.uk).
At the other side we had a mooch around the Icon Outlet shopping centre inside the O2 – great for cut-price Adidas, Nike and Ted Baker – then headed outside for the chance to view London from yet another vantage point.
Up At The O2 takes visitors on a
Visitors can wander on to a terrace for incredible 360º views of London
walk over the top of the famous white dome. Originally built for the new millennium, it is 365 metres (1,197ft) in diameter for the days of the year, is 52 metres (170ft) high for weeks and has 12 yellow support towers sticking out – one for each month or each hour of the clock ( from £32pp, theo2.co.uk).
The climb is steep in parts – you’re harnessed up so you can attach yourself to a support – but it’s worth it for the incredible panorama at the top. As we arrived the sun was setting behind clouds casting a copper glow over the skyline – an amazing sight.
Next day we Tubed it over to Waterloo to visit Draughts, a café which stocks more than 800 board games. You can browse the shelves and help yourself to games or ask staff to select for you, like we did.
Our favourite was the daft Soundiculous, where players have to act out words purely with noises (pay £6pp to play games for up to three hours, draughtslondon.com). Later we climbed up inside Tower Bridge and crossed the covered walkway over the Thames, which includes a nerve-testing glass panel in the floor (adult £10.60, child £5.30, towerbridge.org.uk).
We’d certainly enjoyed amazing views of London from several angles. But the city’s crammed full of unique places to eat too.
For delightful Florenceinspired food in a cool setting we tried the newlyopened Ave Mario in Covent Garden. Its retro-interior of blackand-white stripes, neon lights, giant mirrors, red suede booths and shelf-loads of spirit bottles is a lovely fusion of brightness and fun (bigmammagroup.com).
Our waiter Michael B fixed the girls up with off-the-menu raspberry and strawberry virgin mojitos – great for pictures – while the three of us shared cushiony-crusted pizzas including Eden’s Garden with kale and chilli and Asking For Truffle with black truffle, garlic cream and mushroom carpaccio.
For more quirky decor, fantastic food and great service we also visited 1947 London, an upmarket Indian near Soho (1947london.com).
Housed underground with pumping music and statement lighting, it has a cool nightclubstyle vibe with added splashes of shimmery coppers, lush velour furnishings and a flower wall begging you to photograph.
Its show-stopping food gave us even more sauce for the Snapchat. The signature coconut prawns came in a playful moulded coconut shell and the butter chicken arrived in a mug.
Spring lamb masala, bite-sized mini poppadoms and samosa chaat served with pomegranate seeds completed our delicious feast, most of which had been recommended by our lovely waiter, Uday.
Back at the hotel we gave in to the delicious aromas coming from the Bugis Street Brasserie.
Named after one of Singapore’s busiest shopping and foodie streets, it serves fine South Asian food with a modern flourish, like the king prawn and okra – a signature dish – and Malaysian chicken curry that we tried. As eclectic as
London itself.
The climb is steep in parts but it’s worth it for the incredible panorama