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Another thing you should expect to do if you’re visiting London is walk. I always seem to walk miles & miles - which I think is a combination of indecisiveness, wondering what’s round the corner, and fairly frequently getting minorly lost. Second piece of advice therefore is always carry a good map.

You should also try to get off the beaten track a little. A few less known diversions are

• the London Silver Vaults;
• Hatton Garden - London’s diamond & jewellery quarter;
• Petticoat Lane Sunday Markets; or
• Aspley House - The ‘ town house’ of the Dukes of Wellington, housing the Wellington Collection.

I didn’t do all that today! I did have a wander around Petticoat Markets which have a good east end London feel but not being the shopping type not of much interest except to soak up the atmosphere.

I also visited the Natural History Museum. Again I’m not actually a huge fan of stuffed animals and the like but even if you only visit to take in the architecture of the building - both old and new - its well worth a visit and won’t cost you a penny. At the moment the skating rink and Christmas Market takes up the East Lawn and has quite a winter atmosphere. Of course, if you can manage it, don’t visit on a weekend, it’s packed…

The other ‘hidden secret’ I visited today was Apsley House. £5.30 for non-members - but if you’re not an English Heritage (EH) member do think about joining as it’ll pay for itself within a few site visits and they are definitely worth supporting. And if you’re into this type of thing you can take in whatever EH sites there are where-ever you happen to be travelling to for free (or multiple visits to sites around where you live).

Just the art and historic collections - The Wellington Collection - housed at Apsley House are pretty mind boggling I must say…

Photo: Earth Hall, Natural History Museum, London. Dec 2007.