u3a

Tunbridge Wells

TW u3a London Explorers Walks

Dicken's walk - through Covent Garden, Lincoln Inn Fields and the Dickens Museum
Christmas Markets - Royal Exchange, Lombard St, Leadenhall Market and South Bank.
Seven Dials and UCL Museums - includes free visits to Petrie and Grant Museums
Kings Cross and Granary Square - includes visit to the London Canal Museum
Walkie-Talkie building and Bank Museum - includes a visit to the Sky Garden

Other walks were:

  • British Library, the free manuscript collection, a brief look at St Pancras Hotel and Station, and the Foundling Museum. 
  • Chiswick House and Garden and Hogarth's House.
  • The Design Museum.  High St Kensington and walk around Kensington. 
  • Tate Modern - lunch at Doggets Pub on Blackfriars Bridge and visit to Benjamin Franklin's house in Craven St.   
  • ​Brixton by train, changing at Orpington. Coffee at Ritzy Cinema café, walk to Black Cultural Archives via Electric Avenue - Lunch at Trinity Arms and walk through Brixton Market to see the David Bowie Memorial. 

London Explorers 4 have done the following walks

  • V & A Museum.  -  Has different exhibitions on at different time
  • Guildhall - guided tour (good for winter months) 
  • Thames walks and dockland 
  • Embankment Bridges & Southwark Cathedral
  • Regents Park  
  • High Street Kensington & Designer Museum - covers products, industrial, graphics & fashion
  • Old Operating Theatre - situated in the Attic of St Thomas Church.  Close to London Bridge station, there are 52 steps up a spiral staircase
  • Royal Albert Hall  - offering inside story of the Hall, beautiful building.
  • Theatre's & Tour at Drury Lane Theatre.  - Opened in 1663, has 2 Royal boxes. Tour takes you behind the scenes
  • Greenwich,  Queen Anne & Observatory  -  House of the Greenwich Mean Time 
  • National Maritime Museum - Free, so much there you need to time limit visit 
  • 12. Church of St Magnus the Martyr, Church of St Andrew, Tour at Tower Lifeboat station. 
  • War Cabinet & Wallace Collection.  - war cabinet is a secret wartime bunker, expensive but can get 2 for 1 with train ticket. Wallace collection - 18 century painting, furniture, porcelain & Old Masters paintings, free
  • Aspley House (Duke of Wellington's home).   Easy spend  1 1/2hours there and very interesting.  After lunch went to Wellington  Arch and went up to the top, there is a lift for those who don't want to climb the steps.  Good views from the top.
  • Holy Trinity Church Sloane Square.  Amazing Arts and Crafts. Well worth a visit.  Also, Chelsea Physic Garden,  Incredible gardens so much there to see, again well worth the visit.  We had lunch at the Physic Gardens which was ok, food good but small portions.
  • National Trust - 2 Willow Road. Hampstead Heath. Modernist 1939's house.  Very different for a NT house.  Not overly interesting.  2nd visit to NT Fenton House still in Hampstead Heath, excellent, and beautiful gardens. 
  • Museum of London, well worth a visit, you could spend all day there but we had 1 1/2 hours and its free, also, had coffee there.  In the afternoon we  visited the small museum of the City of London Police.  Close to the 1st museum so not to much walking. 
  • Visited a beautiful basilica style church St Peter's in Clerkenwell Rd, also went to the Postal Museum, taking the train ride through the tunnels underground.
  • The Italian gardens in Kensington Park, beautiful park.  Also, went to St Mary's Abbot Church. After lunch went to Sambourne House home of Linley Sambourne Punch illustrator. Very interesting home and well worth a visit with guide.

London Explorers 6 have done the following walks

  • ​Camden lock to Little Venice. 
  • Temple of Mithras, Ragged School Museum. 
  • Changing of the Guard, Household Cavalry Museum and the Jewel Tower. 

London Explorers 5 have visited

Tour of the Globe Theatre. Lunch in the Globe cafe.

Walk from Charing Cross along Embankment to Parliament Square. Visit to Supreme Court. Walk through St James’ and Green Parks. Visit to the Wellington Arch. Lunch in the Supreme Court cafe

Private (free) tour of the Guildhall galleries preceded by walk around the city including St Mary Aldermanbury and St Mary le Bow. Lunch at St Paul’s Cathedral crypt café

Tower Bridge and St Catherine’s Dock. Pub lunch near Tower Bridge. Visit City Hall in the morning,

Docklands Museum preceded by a walk around the Canary Wharf area. Lunch at Wetherspoons next to museum

Chelsea Physic Garden and the Royal Hospital Chelsea. Lunch in Chelsea Physic Garden Cafe

St Pancras Station/Kings Cross/Regents Canal walk

Apsley House and a walk around St James. Picnic lunch in Green Park

British Library, free collection, and the Foundling Museum. Lunch at the Skinners Arms, Judd St.

The Sky Garden and the Bank of England Museum

Walk through Victoria Embankment Gardens from Embankment to Temple. Visit exhibition at Two Temple Place. Lunch in their cafe followed by a walk around Inner and Middle Temple and a visit to Temple Church

Southwark Cathedral and Tate Modern. Lunch in Southwark Cathedral 

Kew Gardens. Lunch in their cafe.

Greenwich (river trip) and visit to the Royal Observatory

Hampstead Heath and Kenwood House

London Bridge to Rotherhithe – river walk and visit to Brunel Museum. Lunch at the Mayflower Inn, Rotherhithe

Chislehurst Caves followed by pub lunch

Postal Museum, plus a walk from Kings Cross

Two Temple Place Lunch at the Edgar Wallace pub, Essex St, Middle Temple. Visit to St Clement Danes church

The Jewish Museum. Walk around Camden Lock, including a Banksy. Lunch at the Ice Wharf pub Camden Lock

London Silver Vaults and John Soane Museum, lunch at the Knights Templar pub Carey St/Chancery Lane

Highgate Cemetery via Waterlow Park

A walk around Bermondsey. The Glass Blowing Factory, Bermondsey St.  The Fashion and Textile Museum (Peru exhibition).  Lunch at Franco Manca, Bermondsey St.

Holland Park. No 9-bus Charing Cross to Knightsbridge via Piccadilly. Visit to the Leighton House Museum. The Tower House. Holland Park including the Kyoto Garden. Lunch in Holland Park Cafe.

The Wallace Collection. A walk around Marylebone. Lunch in Wallace Collection atrium cafe.