Top 10 Places in London to Eat and Shop Till You Drop

While UK has made a Brexit out of the EU, you should be making an entrance (or Brentrance, if you will) into the country to make the best of the fallen Pound. Whether it’s your first time into the Great Britain (although some Brits think it’s not so great anymore) or you’re revisiting the good old times when you’re hardly ever sober during your undergraduate studies, check out the following 10 places in London for a sterling good time. This time though, you don’t quite have to pinch your little purse.

SHOPPING

1. Borough Market

Located next to London Bridge train station, Borough Market is one of the oldest markets in London hawking an all-encompassing range of foodstuff from meat and cheese to wholesale products and artisanal pastries. Mondays and Tuesdays are limited market days (not all stalls open), while Wednesdays to Saturdays are full market days (everything is open for business). It is closed every Sunday.

2. Hamleys

If it’s a family holiday in which you’re dragging the kids in tow, then you do not want them to be missing this. Hamleys is the oldest and most renowned retailer for toys that spans an astounding seven floors. Your children can have a field day with train sets, Star Wars action figures, nerf guns and remote controlled choppers. They are most definitely going to thank you for it, although you’d probably have a field day of your own extracting them (or yourself, if you are an overgrown kid) from the shop.

3. Selfridges

Few departmental stores in the world can proudly say that they have transcended shopping to become a cultural symbol. Selfridges is one of them; operating a total of four outlets at Oxford Street, Trafford Center, Exchange Square and Bullring, you would probably need to make more than one visit to comb the high end wonderland that houses brands such as Givenchy, Gucci, Tom Ford, Alexander McQueen, Michael Kors and Ted Baker, and more. But a chic sophisticated lifestyle is really what they’re selling, and this lifestyle has just become a little more affordable.

4. Oxford Street

Selfridges is not the only shopper’s paradise on Oxford Street. As a matter of fact, Oxford Street is the shopping paradise and Selfridges is just one of the 300 retailers situated there. With the depreciated Pound, we’re pretty sure you’ll be opening the flood gates on the likes of Topshop, Gap, Fossil, Doc Marts, Adidas and Zara. And we haven’t even begun to cover them all. Oxford Street is reputedly the busiest shopping street in all of Europe and traffic can get out of hand. Don’t be part of the casualties who shop till they literally drop. You’ve been warned.

DINING

5. Camden Town

Music, beers, good food. And more beers. That’s what you can expect to get when you step foot into Camden Town, an inner city district of London lined with pubs, bars and a hodgepodge of delectable eats. Before you hit the bottles, take care to explore the area because you could be uncovering some fancy Italian, Cuban or Japanese cuisines that won’t break the bank. When you finally do hit the bottles, there’s a good chance you’ll be surrounded by sulking Brits nursing mugs because of their disastrous votes. Try not to let that affect the holiday spirits.

6.  Fish & Chips

We made it clear that we would gladly stuff ourselves with supreme fish and chipsany time, any day. So when we went about investigating the best fish and chips in London, some of the names that came up more frequently than the rest are Golden Union Fish Bar, Golden Hind and The Fish Club. Diners swear by their excellent crisp, beer batter and freshness which appear to have catapulted the recipes to the gold standard

7. Soho

The West End might present itself as the centre of nightlife thrills and dealings of a more debaucherous nature, but we’re guessing nothing is going to stand in your way if you’re hell bent on a crazy night out. But first, you should really fill your tummy because Soho also houses some of the best restaurants London has to table.

There is a good mix of cuisines at both upmarket and budget levels; if you’re in the mood for something East Asian, you have Bó Drake for a round of barbequed Korean delights. If you’re in the mood for something heavier and more exquisite, there is the marriage of burgers and lobsters at, well, Burgers and Lobsters. There is something for everyone.

ENTERTAINMENT

8. Buckingham Palace

Anyone can sip English tea and praise the Queen, but you would truly admire her lifestyle after you tour her palace that’s royally adorned with gold, porcelain and famous paintings everywhere you turn. This year, the Queen celebrates her 90th birthday and what better time to pop by to check out an exhibition of her finest outfits worn over the course of her long life? Buckingham Palace tour tickets are priced at about S$37 per adult and S$21 per child. The palace tour only starts in September. In Spring and Summer, you can witness the changing of the guards in the morning.

9. Football stadiums

Other than supreme fish and chips, we also mentioned in Part 1 that we aren’t going to escape any of the scintillating English Premier League (EPL) action. Given the increase in price of Mio TV’s EPL package and the depreciation of the Pound, it probably makes more sense (and cents) now to just book a ticket to London to soak in the live atmosphere of the stadiums. London is home to The Wembley, the national stadium that traditionally hosts the FA Cup final every year. Other major stadiums include Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge and Tottenham Hotspur’s White Hart Lane. Premier League match day tickets will set you back at an average of £30, or S$54.

10. Harry Potter Studio

For about S$120, you can watch one of the greatest film adaptations of a fantasy series come to life. We don’t care if you’re a Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherine at heart, or a muggle, wizard or someone who must not be named; Warner Brother’s Harry Potter studio brings you on a magical tour of the film set where you can have fun at the Great Hall, Professor Dumbledore’s office, Diagon Alley and Gryffindor’s common room. Being able to immerse one’s self beyond the paperbacks and big screens has got to be the ultimate Harry Potter fan’s dream come true. Be sure to make bookings about a month in advance as they tend to be sold out fast – there’s no spell to help you if you are late.

This article first appeared on GoBear.com.