Craig Cross's Blog, page 12

London blog: No.15 heritage bus

Have you ever seen one of those No.15 heritage buses they keep running for the bus spotters? I'm on one from the Tower of London to Trafalgar Square today. You don't even realise that it's a vintage bus at first. You look around for the big-yellow Oyster reader to beep your card down and it's not there, and then a conductor comes along and says take a seat, sir (he actually called me sir), and he says he'll come round and give you a ticket later. Back in my youth we had to pay 10p to travel...

London blog: No.11 -- London's cheapest sightseeing bus

London sightseeing buses (the open-top ones with a guide at the front) are ridiculously expensive these days. A family of four can easily blow the best part of 100 quid on a two-hour ride. So if you don't fancy the idea of spending a small fortune on a sightseeing bus, but you still want to go on a sightseeing bus, then the No.11 bus is for you. The No.11 is just a normal everyday bus that happens to drive past all the London landmarks. And because it's a normal bus you can just pay a normal...

London blog: Sky Garden

Imagine a greenhouse at the top of a skyscraper. Or a bunch of flowers sticking out the top of The Shard. That's basically what this is. It's like the Palm House at Kew -- lifted five hundred feet into the sky. The great thing about the Sky Garden is that it's totally free. The Shard will cost you close to thirty quid to look out over London, but they let you up here for nothing. Obviously it's not quite as easy as that (nothing ever is) because you still have to apply for a ticket...

London blog: The Shard

I hate heights but I'm going to brave this one, just for you. If I die then I'm blaming you. If The Shard falls down with me in it, then it's all your fault. Obviously I'm not scared. I'm a man, so I don't get scared. Rather, I'm simply concerned about the relative tensile strengths of the various building materials when subjected to the swirling and billowing winds at such extreme heights. And that is totally understandable when you consider that I'm about to be standing on top of it. I am...

London blog: Speakers' Corner

If you want to hear some speeches in Hyde Park then the best time to come is Sunday lunchtime. The speakers can turn up any time they like, but whenever I've come during the week it's just all joggers and cyclists and litter and pigeons. They all work during the week, you see, so political rallies are reserved for the weekend over here. That's how we like to do things in England. In a civilised nation like ours the anarchists and agitators speak for a few hours at the weekend, and then can...

London blog: Houses of Parliament -- Summer Opening

I love this place. I even love the politicians inside it (well, most of them). If you come to London and don't go to the Summer Opening at the Houses of Parliament then you're basically nuts. It will have been a wasted trip. It's like going to Rome and not seeing the Vatican. Or going to Amsterdam and not getting stoned. A tour of this place will make your holiday. This is the one you'll be talking about for months afterwards. They open it up to the public every summer when the MPs have...

London blog: London Film Museum

They need to rename the London Film Museum because the only film it covers is James Bond. The first time I came here I thought they might have the Tin Man's heart in a glass jar, or Willie Wonka's golden ticket, or some famous props and costumes from the golden days of Hollywood, but there's nothing like that. It's just a few rooms full of James Bond vehicles. It starts off with a piddly little collection of scripts and storyboards, before descending into a big garage full of boy's toys....

London blog: Covent Garden

Covent Garden used to be a big fruit and vegetable market. If you wanted some fish you'd go to Billingsgate. If you wanted some meat you'd go to Smithfield. If you wanted a carrot you'd come here. For three hundred years this went on, but then the 1970s came along and that was the end of that. The surrounding businesses got sick of all the early morning traffic clogging up the streets and forced it to move out. No more trampled cabbage on the floor. No more stacks and pallets of potatoes...

London blog: Thames Clippers

Some days you just want to sit in a boat until the river runs dry... have it keep floating until there's nothing left to float on. That's why God invented these Thames Clippers. These boats have got the longest routes in London: from Putney all the way up to North Greenwich and O2 Arena. But here's a word of warning: they're not sightseeing boats. They don't have a top deck full of open-air seats, and there's no live commentary onboard either. They are basically aimed at commuters rather...

London blog: Cable Car across the Thames

I don't like heights. My problem with heights is this: they are always too high. Before you try and ride the cable car take a walk along the river and stare up at it for a second. You get quite a nice view of industrial London by The O2. You can see the factories and cranes and big ships across the water, the Thames Barrier, the red wire mesh of the ArcelorMittal Orbit by the Olympic Stadium... but check out that cable car! I really want you to appreciate how high it is before you ride it....