Brick Lane
Brick Lane is a street in east London, best known for its row of Indian Restaurants. When you ask where to go for Indian food in London, the classic answer is always Brick Lane. There are certainly many Indian restaurants to choose from, but also many pushers standing on the streets trying to woo you into their restaurant. Whether one restaurant is actually better than any other is debatable. In fact, we’re not really of the opinion that Brick Lane is the best place to get Indian food in the city, anyway.
But Brick Lane is so much more than that. If you walk the entirety of it, you will find a whole smattering of awesome, cool, independently owned restaurants, cafes, stores, and dives. We’d recommend checking out Kinkao for Thai food (read our review here), one of the two bagel shops, or Cereal Killer Café (read our review here) to take you back to your youth. On Sundays, there is also a large street market with tons of vendors.
There’s also a ton of awesome street art around these parts, so get your cameras ready as you stroll.
Spitalfields
Spitalfields is an area in east London, best known for Spitalfields market (see our London Markets page here). Every day, dozens of vendors set up in the market and sell unique, beautiful, independently crafted goods from clothing to jewelry and greeting cards to art. Additionally, there are a ton of street food vendors as well, with offerings from around the globe. Outside of the market and in the surrounding area, there are also brick and mortar restaurants, salons, cafes, bars, shops and the area is lively seven days a week from morning until night. We would highly recommend spending a few hours strolling around here and Brick Lane.
Southbank
The Southbank is a massive entertainment and arts district located on the south side of the Thames. Westminster all the attractions that the Westminster area has to offer are right across the bridge, making the two neighborhoods a perfect thing to combine.
The Southbank is home to a number of performance halls and galleries, including the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Festival Hall, the Hayward gallery, and BFI Southbank. The London Eye is also in the neighborhood.
On any given day, there are tons of events, street food vendors, street performances, and crowds walking around the area and hanging out. There are also dozens of eateries ranging from casual cafes to fine dining restaurants, some offering a river view. This is one neighborhood you don’t want to miss.
Fleet Street
Beginning in the 18th century until quite recently (when Reuters became one of the last publishers to move away), Fleet Street was the center of newspaper journalism and printing in the UK and is one of the most famous streets in London. Today, the area is much quieter than it used to be, but there are still a number of churches, bars, and eateries to see if you find yourself in the area. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is the most well-known of the pubs as Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and a number of other writers are said to have frequented the establishment.