Low-cost Icelandic airline Play is celebrating the end of summer with a flight sale to the UK and Europe starting at just $129.
15.08.2023 - 13:11 / nationalgeographic.com / Winston Churchill / London
Standing on a strip-lit London Underground platform, I’m staring at the billboards across the tracks. Primary colours jump out above grimy rails. To the left is a placard for cheap holidays in the sun, to the right a poster for new West End play Diana’s Fortune. But the adverts are strangely vague when it comes to details. Holidays where, exactly? And why no mention of which theatre is staging the play?
“They’re all fake ads,” says my Hidden London guide, Pat Dennis, with a laugh, pointing out posters for fictitious estate agents and non-existent clothing brands. We’re deep in Charing Cross Underground station, at the heart of the capital’s transport network, but if we were hoping to hop on the next train we’d be in for a wait. “This platform has been out of service since 1999,” he says. “It was part of the Jubilee Line. Now it’s used for films, TV shows and music videos. We’ve had Matt Damon and Daniel Craig down here, Paddington, Madonna, Dua Lipa — you name them.”
The bogus ads, it transpires, help avoid any awkward issues over product placement. They also add to the discombobulation of entering a secret underworld. When Pat greets our group in the station’s ticket hall, we’re surrounded by a jostle of commuters and free newspapers. Then we step through an anonymous metal door and everything becomes real but unreal, with empty escalators, silent corridors and the far-off rumble of trains on other lines.
Over the following hour and a quarter, we get a full overview of this deserted wing of the station. We’re given the history of Charing Cross itself. We’re shown footage from Skyfall where James Bond slides down the same escalators we’ve just descended. We’re even taken into the cavernous dark of the ventilation shafts and construction tunnels, at one point spying through a grille, 007-style, on travellers waiting for a Northern Line train. It all feels fascinatingly clandestine.
This, of course, is very much the intention. Organised by the London Transport Museum, which funnels profits from tickets into its educational arm, these behind-the-scenes tours are run by Hidden London in eight different Tube stations. The visits make the most of the fact that multiple areas of certain stations are now disused, for reasons varying from low passenger numbers to rerouted lines.
“All the stations we visit have their own selling points,” says Pat, explaining that tours are scheduled for different stations at different times each year, to keep demand high. Many of these tours touch on the Second World War, when the tunnels doubled as air-raid shelters. Clapham South, for example, has more than a mile of deep-level passageways, while Down Street — which Winston Churchill used as a secret wartime bunker — was
Low-cost Icelandic airline Play is celebrating the end of summer with a flight sale to the UK and Europe starting at just $129.
Watching The Pillowmanat Duke of York’s Theatre in London last night was, hands down, the most intense live theater performance I’ve ever experienced. Part of it, I’m sure, was because my husband and I were sitting second row center and were so transported into the show, it was hard to remember it was, in fact, a show.
Passengers have been left stranded at airports across Europe after the UK's air traffic control experienced technical difficulties on Monday.
Having journeyed through London with my excited five-year-old by my side this summer, I've realized that the UK's bustling capital, often imagined as a playground for adults, holds numerous hidden treasures for the younger ones. If your child dreams of Peppa Pig adventures and majestic palaces like mine, London will transform those vivid fantasies into cherished memories. Beyond the iconic landmarks they recognize from beloved cartoons, the city offers unique and often overlooked experiences tailored just for children. Here are the best activities for kids in London.
As autumn collections go, it’s looking pretty spectacular. On September 12, the Peninsula opens its doors in London for the first time. The position is superb - overlooking Hyde Park corner, close to Buckingham Palace. Architect Peter Marino has opted for a calm and considered approach in the 190 rooms and suites; they are as large and well-designed as you'd hope from their price tag, from £1,300 a night.
London is an expensive city to visit and one that’s large and sometimes difficult to navigate. But, it's also packed with fascinating historic sights, bags of culture, world-class museums, parks and wide-open spaces with excellent playgrounds, and plenty of things to occupy kids of all ages.
Museums are among the most visited locations around the world, with the world top’s 100 art museums attracting 71 million visitors in 2021 — a 31 percent rise from the year before. They’re also lucrative as museums contribute annually an estimated $50 billion to the U.S. economy alone.
For centuries thousands of pilgrims a year have made the journey to Bethany Beyond The Jordan, a site on the east bank of the Jordan River which Christians believe to be the exact spot where Jesus was baptised.
Last year, Skift debuted its Future of Lodging Forum in New York City – focused on what Skift has called The Great Merging of how we live, work, and travel. This year, we are bringing this event and a wide cross-section of hospitality leaders together in London on March 29th, 2023.
Rural and outdoor destinations are contending with slower growth rates compared to their pandemic boom as big cities become competitive again and Americans travel internationally.
Standing under the iron ribcage of London’s St Pancras station, it’s impossible not to feel a thrill as Eurostar trains whisk passengers away from the city and under the sea. In just two-and-a-half hours, travellers can step out into the French capital, where one of the greatest railway journeys truly begins.
This year, Skift Future of Lodging Forum will be held at the 5-star, super-boutique hotel: The Londoner. We plan to welcome 250+ attendees and hospitality leaders to this luxury destination set on the iconic Leicester Square on March 29.