Recommend me a lively area to stay in London

chipperhead said:
I'm visiting London with my girlfriend in August and looking for a lively area to stay in. Not bothered about nightclubs but bars, cafe's and nice places to eat.
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
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As @Sirrel Squirrel suggested, you can't do much better than Soho. There are loads of interesting bars and restaurants around there. Then you've got Chinatown which borders it [hope you like Chinese food]. Very lively and lots of variety. You've got Piccadilly and Leicester Square very close by. If you want some decent Belgian/Dutch beer head to De Hems or The Lowlander. You can go a little further to Green Park/Hyde Park Corner but that's much more upmarket and mostly hotels, some nice bars therein though. I have to say I found the poster quite amusing who suggested you go to Welling because there are some good pizza chain restaurants and a Wetherspoons :p

Soho is basically where it's at. Unfortunately the red light district is a shadow of its former self. Most of the strip clubs have been shut down now and there are a few sex shops but that's it. Even if you're not really into that kind of thing it used to be an eye-opener walking around the place but it's nothing like it used to be. It was basically, as far as I understand it, sanitised by the Tories.

As for Covent Garden, I've always found it a bit meh. Very touristy and I can never work out the hell why. It's got some OK bars and the market which sells overpriced tat and that's it.
 
If you're a bit more 'down to Earth' i.e. don't want to go to Hard Rock Cafe, check out Camden, Old Street, Brick Lane.
 
As a pre teen I used to get taken to London for easter where my mum's auntie was married to a man who was a live in manager of a hotel in Mada vale(sp)
It was just another city to me coming from Glasgow. One year Bros were staying in the hotel and groups of girls hanging about outside, I must have been 8?
 
robfosters said:
You should come to my hometown Welling.

our high street is great. We’ve got loads of cafes, Pizza Hut, Domino’s, papa johns, KFC, McD’s, loads of Indian and kebab houses, and two Wetherspoons. It’s great.
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Try it if you wish, the H.Q. of the BNP was there at one time, but as someone who spent 19 months living in Anthony Avenue, Welling, the best parts of it are Bellegrove Road heading west until Shooters Hill Road, keep going, cross the Sun in the Sands roundabout, across Blackheath, into Deptford, and eventually you’ll pass The Elephant and Castle and get into London proper.
You have arrived at your destination.
 
Lysander said:
As for Covent Garden, I've always found it a bit meh. Very touristy and I can never work out the hell why. It's got some OK bars and the market which sells overpriced tat and that's it.
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I've always just liked wandering that area generally seeing life go by then heading on to St James's Park - dunno why there is just an ambience to it I don't find anywhere else (outside of London).
 
Everything shuts early around convent garden, that part of London at weekends as far as i remember 11pm is back to hotel. Lots of theatre Specials in restaurants if things are back up and running.
 
Efour said:
Everything shuts early around convent garden, that part of London at weekends as far as i remember 11pm is back to hotel. Lots of theatre Specials in restaurants if things are back up and running.
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That's absolutely fine, afternoon drinking into the early evening is more me nowadays.
 
Rroff said:
I've always just liked wandering that area generally seeing life go by then heading on to St James's Park - dunno why there is just an ambience to it I don't find anywhere else (outside of London).
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I love people watching and Covent Garden is great for that, as are both Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square which are just a few minutes walk away.
 
Jean-F said:
Try it if you wish, the H.Q. of the BNP was there at one time, but as someone who spent 19 months living in Anthony Avenue, Welling, the best parts of it are Bellegrove Road heading west until Shooters Hill Road, keep going, cross the Sun in the Sands roundabout, across Blackheath, into Deptford, and eventually you’ll pass The Elephant and Castle and get into London proper.
You have arrived at your destination.
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he lives there so you don’t need to ask him to try it :D.
Whats your views on sidcup, thats where im from.
 
Bassmansam said:
he lives there so you don’t need to ask him to try it :D.
Whats your views on sidcup, thats where im from.
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I wasn’t asking @robfosters to try it, he was suggesting that people try his home town, Welling, so having lived there for a mercifully short time, I just gave my opinion of the place, saying try it if you wish.
I lived there in the early eighties, so for all I know it’s now the garden spot of north Kent.
I don’t know much about Sidcup, other than that’s where I bought my wife’s present car, at the Peugeot dealer there.
It looks like a quietly affluent north Kent area to me, nice houses etc., maybe scampi in a basket pubs at Sunday lunchtimes, I don’t really know, but it gives me that vague impression.
I went to a 25th anniversary party there in the nineties, and quite a few of the guys there were like replica Harry Enfield loadsamoney plasterers and carpenters types, but that’s no reflection on Sidcup, they were once prevalent here in Bermondsey too.
 
Jean-F said:
I wasn’t asking @robfosters to try it, he was suggesting that people try his home town, Welling, so having lived there for a mercifully short time, I just gave my opinion of the place, saying try it if you wish.
I lived there in the early eighties, so for all I know it’s now the garden spot of north Kent.
I don’t know much about Sidcup, other than that’s where I bought my wife’s present car, at the Peugeot dealer there.
It looks like a quietly affluent north Kent area to me, nice houses etc., maybe scampi in a basket pubs at Sunday lunchtimes, I don’t really know, but it gives me that vague impression.
I went to a 25th anniversary party there in the nineties, and quite a few of the guys there were like replica Harry Enfield loadsamoney plasterers and carpenters types, but that’s no reflection on Sidcup, they were once prevalent here in Bermondsey too.
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ah yes i see what you meant now. Yea sidcups full of those tradesman types lol, my dads one of them.
 
The mimi hotel in Soho is good if you are literally wanting a room (the cheapest room is ridiculously tiny, but if you're like me then sometimes all you want is a room, nothing big or major)

Assembly Hotel is also pretty good value, again small and simple but comfortable and in a awesome location.

The Seas Containers is where we try to stay if we want a nice break, on the river and easy to walk to most places.
 
I actually miss my nights in the city. I've not been for close to 2 years now and prior to that I was down there most weeks, often staying down. Looking forward to heading back into town and though I would hate to live there, getting to head in for a couple of days and head back is perfect.
 
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