The Guide

The Guide (logo and link)

The Guide

A new(ish) project from Hidden London


Sèvres vases and covers at the Wallace Collection
Sèvres vases and covers at the Wallace Collection

The aim of Hidden London: The Guide is to introduce the more adven­turous London explorer to a selection of inter­esting places to visit and attrac­tive or curious sights to see, all of which avoid the well-worn paths to tourist hotspots like the world-famous galleries, the great cathe­drals, the London Eye, Big Ben and Madame Tussauds.

Each listed attrac­tion has some kind of story behind it – and a short article inter­weaves this back­ground with a descrip­tion of the present-day character of the place, accom­pa­nied by an enlight­ening photo­graph or two.

At the bottom of each page you’ll find detailed infor­ma­tion to help you plan a visit to the place in question. If you click the picture at the top right of any page in The Guide an area map will open in a new window or tab.

This section of the popular and long estab­lished Hidden London website is in its infancy, but as it grows it will feature a wide variety of attrac­tions all across Greater London, including:

  • publicly acces­sible buildings (historic houses, former indus­trial buildings, museums, galleries, arts spaces, perfor­mance venues, places of worship, etc.)
  • historic shops and markets, pubs, cafés and the like
  • parks, gardens and other open spaces
  • sculp­tures and curiosi­ties situated in or visible from the public domain
  • some paired attrac­tions located close to each other
  • recurring special events of a distinc­tive character (whether regularly timetabled or not)

A small propor­tion of the featured places are not regularly open to the public but can be viewed on special occasions (such as London Open House weekend) or by appoint­ment, or are available for hire.

For almost everyone who knows London well, some of the attrac­tions featured in this website may not be ‘hidden’ at all – but these will differ according to the parts and aspects of London with which the site user is espe­cially familiar.

To suggest an attrac­tion for inclusion in The Guide, please use the form on the Contact page.


Attractions by area

[wpcol_1half id=”” class=”” style=“”]

West and North-west
Ace Café, North Circular Road
Ben Uri Gallery, St John’s Wood
Carlyle’s House, Chelsea
Hogarth’s House, Chiswick
Hoover Building, Perivale
Kempton Steam Museum, Feltham
Leighton House, Holland Park
Normansfield Theatre, Teddington / Hampton Wick

North and North-east
Arnos Grove station
Estorick Collection, Canonbury
Fenton House, Hampstead
Forty Hall, Enfield
Keats House, Hampstead
Myddelton House Gardens, Enfield
Walthamstow Village
William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow

East
Constable’s Dues Ceremony, Tower of London
Geffrye Museum, Hoxton
Redbridge Museum, Ilford
Sutton House, Homerton

South-east
Caledonian Market, Bermondsey
Cutty Sark, Greenwich
Fan Museum, Greenwich
Painted Hall, Greenwich

South
Bethlem Museum, Beckenham
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Horniman Museum, Forest Hill
Nunhead Cemetery
Wimbledon Windmill Museum

[wpcol_1half_end id=”” class=”” style=“”][wpcol_1half id=”” class=”” style=“”][/wpcol_1half]

Central
All Saints church, Margaret Street
Camley Street Natural Park, King’s Cross / St Pancras
Charles II’s statue in Soho Square
Cornhill Devils, City
Denmark Street, Charing Cross Road
Florence Nightingale Museum, St Thomas’ Hospital, Lambeth
Fox of St James’s
Golden Boy of Pye Corner, Smithfield
Grant Museum, Gower Street
James Smith, New Oxford Street
Jewel Tower, Westminster
John Betjeman’s statue at St Pancras
Lamb and Flag, Covent Garden
Leadenhall Market, City
Lock & Co., St James’s
Panyer Boy, St Paul’s
Petrie Museum, Bloomsbury
‘Roman’ Bath, Strand Lane
Royal Academy of Music Museum, Marylebone Road
St Olave Hart Street, City
South Bank Lion, Westminster Bridge
Twinings, Strand
Wallace Collection, Marylebone
Wellcome Collection, Euston

[wpcol_1half_end id=”” class=”” style=“”]