London (Part 5)

Day 5 : Monument –Eastcheap – Fifteen – Tate Britain – Leicester Square

• Monument (Tube: The Monument) – When I was doing my research, I saw some amazing photos taken inside the Monument on Flickr and thought I must go there. So the reason for my visit had nothing to do with its history really. You have to pay £3 for admission, since no drink is allowed inside the tower, I had to leave my husband with my cup of coffee as I walked up by myself! It is a very narrow tower which can only fit for two thin persons at a step. So if there are lots of people visiting, you will have to keep walking instead of blocking the traffic. Be warned, it is 33-stories high. I think I reached the top within 15 mins. and luckily there weren’t too many people as it was still early. The 360-degree views of London really worth the walk. Photographs also indeed looked great inside the Monument. It was a £3 well-spent!

  

  [ Swirling stairs inside Monument ]

  
  

  

  [ View from top of Monument ]

  
• We continued to walk along the alleyways in Eastcheap; it was a good walk to see the true old London architecture such as the St Mary-At-Hill and All Hallows-by-the-Tower. The latter is a really old church with interesting decoration inside. Make sure you visit the crypt too. We finished our walk at Tower Hill tube around an hour later and made our way to lunch.

  

  [ Eastcheap ]

• Lunch at Fifteen (Tube: Old Street Station exit 1) – I love the naked chef Jamie Oliver. Some people in the UK may have a different view about him but I think it’s great that he has done so much to change how we view food and the lifestyles of modern families and kids. By showing my support, we visited his restaurant.
  Fifteen is located in a doggy area in Hackney. As soon as you step out of the tube station, you can almost feel the different vibe here. Interestingly half of the people eating there were Asian and probably tourists. The decoration of the restaurant is modern and the atmosphere is quite casual. For my starter, I had sardine wrapped with Prosciutto which was tasty and it was better than my main course, seafood risotto. My husband enjoyed his beef carpaccio with plums for starter and home-made gnocchi for main. Portions were generous even for my main which was supposedly a starter size! It was a shame that my risotto was really salty, the flavour was nice though but just way too salty – I could really taste the sea but probably the dead sea! All in all, even though service wasn’t great still I would come back again if I had the chance as the food was delicious.
• V&A Museum of Childhood (Tube: Bethnal Green) – The 2-storey building was the reason why I wanted to visit here. It’s very interesting and old-looking. My favourite exhibits probably were the ‘flamboyant’ doll houses because they were a bit spooky. There were lots of kids in there and all seemed to be enjoying the activities they were doing there. 

  

  [ V&A Museum of Childhood ]

• Tate Britain (Tube: Pimilco) – After we had seen the new exhibitions, we took the boat to get across to Tate Modern as it would bring us back close to Leicester Square. 

  

  [ Exhibit in Tate Britain ]

• Shopping in Primark – I did say that I was disappointed with the high street shops but you can always get a thing or two in Primark as they are just so cheap! I bought three cardigans and I think each was around £10 only. 
• Duke of York’s Theatre – This was our last night in London and I had booked us tickets to see Ghost Stories. It had really good reviews on-line. The three ghost stories were simple but combining with the effect, it was actually quite scary especially it was staged in an old theatre.
• For a pre-theatre dinner, try the Mediterranean restaurant, Terroirs on 5 William IV Street.