Things to do in London when you're not dead

Update: Great suggestions coming in, please keep them coming. I'll keep this post at the top for a while so if you're looking for anything else, scroll down.

Update: Thanks for all the suggestions. Brilliant!

So we're just thinking about our now annual big day out to the smoke. Last year it was easy, we had Fletcher to see. This year, it's not so obvious. There's the Turner Prize Retrospective, but what else?

Friday 14th December would be a good day to pop 'round to nick all our Macs because that's the day we're closing down and clearing off. If anyone has any suggestions for what would be good to do in Londinium on that day, please let me know. Big things, little things. Places to eat, places to avoid. All and any suggestions gratefully received.

Comments

[davidthedesigner]

Well, I'd take the opportunity to do something that you wouldn't otherwise do - and to learn about something new in the process. Try building the day around Paul Taylor's 'Nature Live' event at the Natural History Museum - 'Marvellous Moths of Madagascar' (http://network.nature.com/london/events/2007/12/14/3278 ).

Read the description and look up Johann Bartholomew Adam Beringer before you dismiss the idea entirely.

[davidthedesigner]

And, actually, you'd be sadly disappointed if you came all the way to London to see the Turner Prize Retrospective - it's just over the water from you in Liverpool.

[davidthedesigner]

Ah, I see, maybe it's not in Liverpool after all - it's just being 'hosted' by Tate Liverpool.

(I must remember that next time I throw a party - I'll try 'hosting' it in someone else's house.)

[Richard]

Thanks David, welcome back. I'll take at look at the NHM, we were talking about that today but only in a general kind of way, didn't know about the moths.

[juliette]

if you have never been, you should visit the Sir John Soane's Museum, just off Holborn, in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

[Mat]

If you're here on a Sunday, go to Greenwich, get some Sunday lunch in The Gipsy Moth pub - right behind the burnt Cutty Sark, then head around the corner to a small shop called Flying Duck Enterprises selling good vintage bits 'n' bobs. (I don't work there).

[Mat]

Oh, and get to Greenwich by getting the DLR to Island Gardens on the Isle Of Dogs, then walk under the Thames in the Greenwich Tunnel. Victorian construction par example.

[Christopher Murphy]

I have a suggestion: Open your away day to others. (I can just hear that suggestion crashing and burning!)

There are a host of like-minded, passionate (about design) designers in N. Ireland who'd put their hands in their pockets for a couple of days away - R+R - in the big smoke. Never mind the fact that it would be a great time there might be some valuable, business-like, opportunities to be had.

Just a thought.

Or, perhaps a non-partisan designers away from home day? We gather like-minded people, match make with our friends in London and we have a from-the-ground-up, unofficial, organised-by-us-all design conference in the galleries, studios and pubs of London.

That would:

1. be great fun; and

2. (I can almost 110% guarantee you) ensure a truly unusual and inspirational 'things to do when you're not dead' experience.

[Ian Fermor]

Shipley Books - Charing Cross Road

www.artbook.co.uk/

Take money!

[Richard]

Ahhh, money. The one thing I don't have. But thanks anyway Ian.

[Tony]

Invader has a free exhibition of his Rubicks cube pictures at the Lazardes Gallery on Greek Street that's worth seeing. I've also been assured that the Shibboleth crack at the Tate and the "Pop Art Is" exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery on Britannia Street are also excellent.

[Vicki Brown]

YES! I second Juliette, Sir John Soane's Museum is a fantastic amazing place. Make sure you ask to see the Hogarths (they're kind of hidden in the wall panelling). The staff are brilliant there too, really knowledgeable and helpful. And I know it's a bit obvious but the V&A I always find really inspiring. There's a whole cabinet of cake slices.

[Ben]

Go to the exhibition of war posters at the Imperial War Museum. An obvious one, but a classic.

http://london.iwm.org.uk/server/show/conEvent.1884

[Bibbi Forsman]

Have a coffee at the smallest and best coffeeplace at Monmouth Str, close to Covent Garden, self imported selected coffee, best coffee experience I've ever had. Can't remember the name of the place, but it's just half a block from the triangular square.