Underneath The Lovely London Sky

“There’s lots of treasures to be found, underneath the lovely London Sky.”
- "(Underneath the) Lovely London Sky", from Mary Poppins Returns

Hi friends, as I shared last week, I just went on the loveliest English vacation. This week, I’m talking  all about the city of London - the city I’ve been dreaming about since I was a little girl.

​A Short History

London is the capital of the United Kingdom and is over 2000 years old. The city was first populated by the Romans, it has burned down, and survived bombings during two world wars. It makes my small U.S. city seem very young and boring. 
    
​London is absolutely a perfect city, old and new harmonize together, there is so much culture, they have a great food scene and easy to navigate public transportation.

These Types of People Would Love London 

Not sure if London is a city for you to visit? Here is a silly little list I put together about the types of people I think would love the city.
​
Literature lovers (specifically Dickens fans, P.L. Travers fans, Sherlock Holmes fans, and Paddington Bear lovers.)
People who love the arts
Theater lovers
Royalcore girls
Retired people who want an easy place to travel to
Pluviophiles (lovers of rain)
Fans of English Royalty
Shakespeare scholars
Those people who are randomly obsessed with the Tudors (no judgment, I’m with you)
Tea lovers
People looking to be inspired
Swifties
Regency Era young women looking for rich husbands
Gardeners
People who read too many World War Two novels
Foodies
People who want to live in an English drama
History lovers
Shoppers
Architecture lovers

If any of these categories sound like you, then London may be a city for you to visit! 

​My Time in London

My parents and I spend a week in London, with two days out of the city. We saw a lot, but I still feel like we could have seen so much more!

​Day 1

Our first day in London was rainy - how perfectly glorious! I was pretty exhausted from our flight, but we headed out anyway to explore the city. 
    
​We had pastry, and some much needed caffeine at an adorable Italian cafe in the South Kensington area, and I found myself falling in love with the way they serve tea out of little tea pots. Here in America, I hate ordering tea at cafes or restaurants because they typically just give you a cup of hot water with a tea bag on the side - some places don’t even give you milk unless you ask. But in England, they give you a little teapot with the tea already steeping, a little pitcher of milk, and sometimes, sugar cubes. Why can’t America get with the program?

​Anyways, I digress. 

Lemon Meringue Tart - the lemon curd in this tart was perfect and the choice to have the meringue crispy instead of soft was great.

Pistachio Lobster Tail - flaky Italian style pastry, filled with pistachio cream. Pistachio is one of my favorite flavors and I love how this is more of an option in Europe.

The first of many itty bitty tea pots. I got an English Breakfast blend because I was feeling basic.

We spent most of the day wandering around the South Kensington Borough, we popped into a cute little church that felt right out of Northanger Abbey, and wandered all around Hyde Park.

Hyde park was one of my favorite places we visited our whole trip! So many trees and beautiful gardens, Kensington Palace (where Queen Victoria grew up, and the official residence of William and Kate), and the Princess Diana memorial. ​

The Princess Diana Memorial

Kensington Palace

Also in Hyde Park is the famous Peter Pan statue. This statute was actually commissioned by J.M. Barrie himself, it’s so beautiful and anyone who is a fan of the book Dust by Kara Swanson knows this statue's significance in that book, which only adds to the fangirling.

​Day 2

Our second day in London was a Sunday, our big plan for the day was to go to The Tower of London. This old prison/palace is now a museum as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I have to admit some parts were super busy, but it was really neat to be able to wander through this old fortress. Every nook and cranny is filled with centuries old history, seeing where kings slept, where queens were executed, and where a polar bear once swam was both exciting and amazing. 

I personally loved learning a little bit more about the prisoners who were held there, and the executions. This may seem weird or morbid to you, but I have done a lot of research on King Henry VIII and his separation from the Catholic church, so this was fascinating to me.
    
​After our time at the tower of London (you can really spend a whole day there), we got a little afternoon pick-me-up at a chain cafe called Paul. I got a really delicious mocha and an apple tart. We also shared a ham and cheese baguette sandwich

Since we were done at The Tower and had dinner reservations much later, we decided to wander around the area of London we were in. 
    
​Because it was Sunday, the city was surprisingly quiet. We strolled through Leadenhall Market which is a beautiful food market that inspired Diagon Alley in Harry Potter, and is also the location where they shot the Leaky Cauldron exterior in the Harry Potter films.

Anyone who knows me really well knows that for years and years my favorite thing to study in history, and to read novels about has been World War Two. So many of these novels are set in the city of London during the Blitz (for those who don’t know, this was a period of time when the Nazi forces bombed the city of London at night), this trip was my first time being close to this historical event (a great book about this by the way is The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin).

​So, because of this nerdy interest of mine, I was really excited to visit St. Dunstan-in-the-east. This is a church that was bombed during the Blitz, and instead of restoring it, it was turned into a city garden. It is an absolutely stunning place, full of quiet - almost like a secret garden right in the center of a busy metropolis.

For dinner, we had intended on getting Sunday Roast, but unfortunately we made our reservations for the wrong day, so we had to randomly wander around to find a pub that was still serving food (a lot of pubs only serve food till a certain hour, and many places close early on Sunday.) We finally ended up at a cozy pub near the Thames where we all got steak and ale pie (which is a food I love to make at home), I got mine with mashed potatoes and broccoli. I also tried British lemonade for the first time, British lemonade isn’t like American lemonade, it’s more like a fizzy lemon soda - I love it.

After dinner, we got to see the sunset over the Thames, and that was the end of day 2.

Day 3

​Our third day in London was probably the most touristy of all the days, our first stop of the day was Buckingham Palace, there were crowds of people literally everywhere to watch the changing of the guard, so we left quickly.

Then we took the short walk to the houses of Parliament to see Westminster Abbey and Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben). Again, it was super crowded, but did you even go to London if you didn’t see Buckingham Palace and Big Ben? I don’t think so. 

Of course, there isn’t a ton to do at these attractions, just see it and take a picture, so the rest of our day was dedicated to one of my favorite things, museums. 
    
Personally, my most anticipated museum of the trip was the National Portrait Gallery, this isn’t a museum a ton of people talk about, and I think that isn’t fair to this amazing gallery. For one, it’s free, but it also houses some of the most famous paintings of all time. 
    
The thing that is really unique about the gallery is that it isn’t the artists who are particularly famous, but the subjects of the paintings. The Gallery houses portraits of famous people in English History, many of the paintings are ones you may have seen in your history books. The National Portrait Gallery houses royals, writers, scientists, and other great people.
    
Some of my personal favorite paintings were the portrait of Anne Boelyn, the Queen Elizabeth I paintings, Shakespeare, Queen Victoria, and the Bronte's.

My favorite though was the Bronte's. This portrait of the three sisters was painted by their brother Branwell when he was a teenage, it is considered unfinished. It was discovered after the death of the sisters. It was discovered in a cupboard by Charlotte's husband's second wife. If you look closely, you can see that the painting had been folded up, and you can also notice that at one point in the painting process Branwell had painted himself in, but for some unknown reason, painted himself out.

This gallery also owns the only verified portrait of Jane Austen (the unfinished front facing watercolor painted by her sister Cassandra), but it was on loan at the time of my visit.

After the gallery, we went to Chinatown where I got bao for lunch. Shortly after that, we got ice cream from a chocolate cafe called Hotel Chocolat, the ice cream was cacao flavored and you could get a variety of different sauces on top!

Our main destination for the day was the British Museum. I have to be honest, I was kind of disappointed with this museum. It was flooded full of people, so many people you could hardly see the artifacts, and the actual artifacts didn’t really thrill me, though my parents each found something that amazed them, the Rosetta Stone, and The Parthenon. I do think though, that I would like this museum a lot better if it weren’t for the crowds.

For dinner, we went to Dishoom, the main restaurant I wanted to go to while in London. England is surprisingly known for its Indian food, and I had heard that Dishoom was the best. They have a notoriously long wait, but the staff at the Kensington Location were super friendly, and the food was really good. 

Our next day in England wasn’t spent in London, but Oxford, so I’m going to save that for a later (and more in depth) blog post.

Day 4

We decided that our fourth day in London would be a quiet day, where we could just sleep in and relax. We went to Harrods Department store to wander around and get some snacks. It is a huge store with the biggest food hall in England. ​

The only thing I bought was this tin of Summer Earl Grey Tea, which is an earl grey with strawberry.

We bought some snacks from the food hall, and ate them in Hyde Park, here is everything I had.

First, an Olive Breadstick. Though it is simple, (just bread and olives), this breadstick was delicious.

Next I had a truffle and mushroom cheese croissant, which I forgot to take a picture of. It was really good, but it would have been better if it was heated up a little bit.

Finally, this adorable little pistachio and cherry cake. What can I say about it? It was perfect.

We didn’t do much during the day because we had big plans for the evening. We made a stop at Platform 9 ¾ but that wasn’t the main attraction.

 I got all dressed up because we were going to the Globe!!
    
One of the things I love about having a bookish blog is that you guys understand me in ways many other people don’t. Going to this show at The Globe was one of the most amazing things ever. The thing about you guys is that most of you probably know what The Globe is without me telling you, but of course, I am going to tell you anyway.
    
The Globe was built in the 1500’s as a theater for Lord Chamberlain’s players, the acting company which William Shakespeare wrote for. The open air theater eventually burned down, but in the 90’s it was rebuilt and now holds performances and tours. 
    
We had the amazing opportunity to see a Shakespeare play at The Globe, and what may have been even more exciting to me is that my favorite Shakespeare play ever was the one that was playing. That play is of course, the timeless comedy - Much Ado About Nothing. 
    
At The Globe the seats are all surrounding the stage not in front of the stage, in front of the stage there is only standing room, the floor tickets are really cheap, but of course, you have to stand for a three hour long show. We had balcony seats, and they were great! 
    
The show itself was phenomenal, the company brought so much personality to the classic enemies to lovers story of Beatrice and Benedick, it was hilarious, heart wrenching, and everything Shakespeare intended it to be. If you go to London, go to the Globe!

The next day was my day in the city of Bath, and Janeites rejoice, that will be a whole separate blog post, I could talk about it for such a long time, so it must wait.

Day 5

This was our last day in London, it was bittersweet that’s for sure. We did so much and had such a wonderful day, possibly my favorite London day but it was also the last day.

Our main plan for this day was one of my favorite things, period, afternoon tea. I am an afternoon tea nerd, I love this event, I love it’s history and all the carefully prepared elements. So to go to afternoon tea in England, was an absolute dream come true.
    
​We made reservations for the Orangery at Kensington Palace. This is a restaurant in Hyde Park that overlooks Kensington Palace. The restaurant itself is actually in a building that used to be the potting shed for the Palace.

The afternoon tea was great, let me tell you everything that was on the tower and that I ate.
    
There wasn’t a huge tea selection, but honestly, that might be better, I had an earl grey (shockingly my first of the trip, other than ones made myself at the hotel room), and since there were free refills, I also had a pot of assam.
    
Afternoon tea, in case you didn’t know, was supposedly invented by Anna, Duchess of Bedford, as a way to tide herself over in the time between breakfast and supper. Whether or not Anna actually was the first to do this is uncertain, but the trend took off during the Victorian era as a popular event for ladies. Like many things, there is a proper way to do afternoon tea, it must of course, consist of tea, savories (usually sandwiches), scones with jam and cream, and sweets. And please, for the love of afternoon tea, do not stick your pinky up!!
    
The Orangery’s afternoon tea’s savory course consisted of, a small egg mayo sandwich in a mini brioche bun, a ham cheese, and tomato finger sandwich, a cucumber sandwich, a pea, mint, and edamame quiche, and a smoked trout mini bagel.
    
The scones served with the afternoon tea were my favorite part of the tea, they were traditional English scones (quite unlike American scones, but we can get into that at another time) with clotted cream and blackberry jam.
    
Then finally, we had the sweets, there was a raspberry profiterole, a lavender eclair (my least favorite of the sweets), a chocolate orange thing, and a small slice of Victoria sponge (my favorite.)

After afternoon tea, we decided to tour Kensington Palace, and I’m so glad we did. If you didn’t know, my favorite historical era is the Victorian Era, and I have had a long time admiration for Queen Victoria as well. Kensington Palace happens to be the place where she grew up, and much of the museum is dedicated to perhaps the most influential woman of all time. There is no way to deny the influence Victoria had on culture and the life we all still live today, even in America (we have her to thank for white wedding gowns and the way we celebrate Christmas). I loved wandering around this important palace.

A nerdy side note - Queen Victoria is one of my heroes, I won't lie, and I was thrilled to see this dress that belonged to her. It is very small, and on a bit of research I found that she was the same height as me.

Later on in the day, we visited Selfridges Department store which was like any other big city department store, though I did get a rose lemonade there (you know how much I love my floral lemonades!)

For dinner, we went to a pub in the Westminster Borough of London. The pub is called The Rose and Crown and is over 400 years old. I had really great fish and chips while enjoying the cozy pub ambiance. ​

After eating we realized we were only a few minutes walk away from Buckingham Palace, so we stopped by. The crowds had receded and we were able to get a good view of the King’s residence. The perfect way to end our time in London.

I hope you enjoyed this little overview/guide to London! What piece of my trip sounds most interesting or exciting to you? 
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Be sure to check out my YouTube channel where I am uploading vlogs and other videos about my trip, and if you aren’t already, please subscribe to the blog so that you can keep up with what I’m writing. Next week is all about Oxford (fantasy literature locations, dark academia vibes, and so much history), and you don’t want to miss that!

Belle Thomas

​Belle is the writer and dreamer behind An Old Fashioned Girl. She is passionate about reminding girls of their identity in Christ, classic books, history, Louisa May Alcott, and earl grey tea.