Day 2 : SOHO – Hampstead – Highgate – Broadway Market – Primrose Hill
- Brunch in SOHO - Our friend took us to one of his favourite café in SOHO – Milk Bar (Tube: Piccadilly Circus/Leicester Square). I think they are owned by Aussies. The food was very good even though I didn’t have an appetite. I had scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on ciabbata toasts and my husband had bircher muesli and fruit which was really delicious and healthy! My Macchiato was too strong for me though. There were only a few tables in Milk Bar. Everyone was very quiet, the streets were deserted on Saturday morning. It was a very difference feel comparing to busy HK on weekends.
- 2 Willow Road, Hampstead – “This unique Modernist home was designed by architect Ernö Goldfinger in 1939 for himself and his family. With surprising design details that were ground-breaking at the time and still feel fresh today, the house also contains the Goldfingers' impressive collection of modern art, intriguing personal possessions and innovative furniture”.
We took a bus from SOHO to Hampstead and it was refreshing travelling on the bus instead. The property is a 2-storey building situated in a really quiet street. You would easily walk pass if not because of the sign. Unfortunately, we were ten minutes late for the 12:30pm guided tour and the next tour was full so we had to give this a miss.
[ Hampstead Heath ] 
[ Couple fishing in Hampstead Heath ] 
- High Gate Cemetery – we walked to our next destination via Hampstead Heath. It was a nice walk and we had so much space around us. We walked through a lake with an old couple fishing and feeding the ducks and passed the hill. With our friend’s phone navigation, we managed to arrive the cemetery 15 mins. before the next guided tour in the cemetery.
I had been to High Gate Cemetery before and liked it very much. It was interesting to know the meanings of the statues and the tomb stones and it’s a nice hourly walk around the woods. It’s the rest place of a lot of famous people such as the philosopher, Karl Marx and Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian dissident turned critic murdered by poisoning in London. The cemetery is atmospheric and I enjoyed learning the history from tour guides.
We had a very good guide this time and he’s knowledgeable and funny. We were also taken inside two mausoleums which I didn’t see before. It was a bit spooky cos’ it was a very narrow room full of old coffins. Even though our friend has lived in London for years, he had never been to the cemetery so it’s nice for me as an ‘outsider’ to show him the ‘secret places’ in London.
[ Highgate Cemetery - West Gate] 
[ The Mausoleums ] 
- Highgate Cemetery West Cemetery tour:
On Weekdays at 2pm (please book by telephone 10am-5pm Mondays to Fridays only)
On Weekends hourly from 11am - until 4pm (no advance booking)
Tickets (cash only): £7 per adult
- Highgate Cemetery West Cemetery tour:
- Afternoon Tea at High Tea of Highgate (50 Highgate High Street; 11am – 5pm, close on Mon) – Very close to the cemetery. High Tea of Highgate specialises in typically English home-made cakes and scones.
- Broadway Market (Tube: Bethnal Green) - We walked through the canals to the Market after a short ride on the bus from Highgate. The apartments alongside the canal were really stylish so the walk was nice. As we got closer to the market, I noticed that people dressed more stylishly. Broadway Market is very popular with stylish young adults on weekends. It is definitely the place to see and to be seen. Along the market is full of trendy bars and cafes packed with people. The market itself is full of delicious food stalls. I bought a box of ‘vegetable ribbon salad’ and ate in the park nearby. I wish we could spend more time here but our friend had to rush to Borough Market and get groceries for dinner!
Click here for the Broadway Market Guide.
[ Nice apartments along the canal ] - Here’s another tip for those will be eating out for dinner – Try the Greek/Mediterranean restaurant, Lemonia on 89 Regents Park Road in Primrose Hill and afterwards lie on the hill and watch the stars. It’s a very romantic place.
Day 3 – East London
- Brick Lane - Day 3 was a Sunday. I always love going to the markets in London. I had a few treasures which I have been keeping for years that I got from Petticoat Lane. I used to like Camden Stables Market, Petticoat Lane and the renowned Portobello Market in Nottinghill. They are still great but I like to discover new market and for this trip, I visited Broadway Market and Columbia Road Market the first time! Both were good but size-wise not as big.
We took the bus to Brick Lane and walked through windy alleyways and reached the Old Spitalfields Market which was ‘unrecognisable’. It’s been gentrified! I think I would prefer the old market but then there were lots of good stalls in this modern market. We didn’t get much time to walk around but we sneaked back after lunch!
We walked to the SundayUp Market & Backyard Market (Tube: Aldgate East). The food stalls looked very good. It was a nice day out to walk around. Then we walked to Columbia Road Market (Tube: Hoxton; 15 mins. walk from SundayUp Market). There are lots of cool shops alongside the market stalls such as Ryantown, Lapin & Me, Treacle and Bob & Blossom. This market only opens on Sunday and it looks a bit like our flower market in Hong Kong. I bought some home decoration from a small shop called Shelf.
[ Cafe in Brick Lane ]
At Columbia Road Market, seek out the small yard-market around the back of Ezra Street for more goodies and vintage bric-a-brac. They have some great 50s enamelware in pretty pastels from £6.
[ Columbia Flower Market ] - Shoreditch - We probably finished walking around at 1-ish and was on our way to Albion Caff (2-4 Boundary Street) in Shoreditch but the café was fully packed. So we tried the restaurant, Boundary on the rooftop. Not surprisingly we couldn’t get a table on a busy Sunday as our friend didn’t book for a table! We were quite disappointed as both of us are foodies and both the café and the restaurant have good reviews!
We ended up having a Sunday roast in a fancy gastropub nearby. The pub was modern and trendy but food was mediocre. It wasn’t cheap neither. After lunch, we went back to the Old Spitalfields Market.
[ Albion on Boundary Street ] 
[ Sunday roast]
- In the evening, we joined the Jack the Ripper Tour with London Walks (No need to book. Just meet the guide outside the exit of Tower Hill Tube at 7:30pm). Prior to visiting London, we saw a documentary about the case on TV and was fascinated to see the murder location and hear more about the details. So you can imagine we were really looking forward to the tour. At 7:30pm, there was a big crowd waiting outside the Tower Hill tube station so we had to split into two groups. One led by a woman and another led by the famous Jack the Ripper book writer/investigator who we saw on TV. Don’t ask me why but we chose to follow the female guide cos’ it’s a smaller group and I thought they would be giving the same information. After all, we wanted to hear another expert’s perspective as we already saw the other guy on TV. It was a big mistake. The tour was more like a history tour, didn’t give much about the events or the suspects. It was personal and literally a bit boring. So it was really a disappointment. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see sites in relation to the murders and walking in windy alleyways in Whitechapel. The tour finished at around 9:30pm, so we went home and ordered pizza in. It was a wicked pizza, ironically probably the best meal I had in London up to that moment.
[ The Ripper's territory ] - For those who’s eating out, try Princi (135 Wardour Street) in Leicester Square. They were voted Best Cheap Eat in 2009 by Time Out.
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