4 days in London

London was a birthday trip that my boyfriend and I ventured on. I had my eye on about 20 different galleries before we went down on the train but I also would have felt guilty making it into an arty trip. We got off the train at lunchtime and headed to our airbnb in the Vauxhall area. The building was called Imperial Court which used to be home to the NAAFI (The Navy, Army and Air Forces Institute). The front of the building seemed quite traditional but out or window there was a courtyard with very uniform style windows.

Once we had dropped our bag, we set off and saw Parliament, Buckingham Palace, followed by Liberty which was amazing, I’ve been twice before and the building is timeless and so iconic. This took us up to early tea time and we headed to Burger and Lobster, a recommendation from my friend. Really nice place with a nice aesthetic. We had calamari, burgers and chips and pornstar martinis!

The next day we arose early and the first stop was the Tate modern. On a class trip in April of this year we visited Madrid and saw the Caxia Forum, a former powerhouse renovated by architects Herzog and de Meuron, the same team who restored the Tate. The building is insane, the high ceilings and industrial atmosphere. The 10th floor views were pretty sweet too. It has an underground passage to get to the separate parts of the building as well as a sweeping staircase curving round and created out of concrete.

Once the Tate had been seen we headed to Box Park where the shipping containers that have been converted into shops. We saw some of the small shops such as Decorum and Deceim. In college we had a shipping container project proposal to use them in an innovative way for housing, it is amazing what they can do and how cool they look. We saw Brick Lane and ended up at a market we didn't know the name of. Lastly we went down to Tower Bridge, it was quite busy as it is a fairly touristy area but amazing to see. We had an Indian buffet for dinner and caught the last of the World Cup game in a pub.

Day 3 started at bag egg for breakfast, pancakes and bacon and maple syrup! We went to the Barbican which is something I wanted to see before I left! It is almost brutalist architecture in an appealing 50s way with the curved rough concrete walls and layers. The lighting and tiles all around is captivating. The ceiling has big square indents and the exhibition we saw was on 2 levels, the second floor being a lot lower ceilings than the first. It consisted of black and white photography which was thought provoking.

We then sauntered up to Marylebone High Street and stopped at the Conran Shop one of my favourite shops in London, then went to Natural Kitchen for a cup of tea and a few other shops up the street such as White Company and Fresh Skincare etc. Then made a quick stop at the Adidas shop for some comfies.

The last day we dropped our bag at the station and walked up towards Camden, getting lost in a new flat development. We came across these gas towers that had been converted into this mirrored grass patch, the one next to this had a round block of flats built inside. Then we made it to Camden market and got more calamari. We got a tube to Kensington and saw the palace then had a sit down before making our way back to the station. 4 days complete.