London,
England
As
Europe’s richest city and one of the world’s
key financial centers, London is home to more than 500
foreign banks and most of Fortune’s Global 500 companies.
Financial and business services, manufacturing, tourism
and high-tech companies dominate the economy of England’s
dynamic capital. While business has been concentrated
in “The City’s” one-square mile of territory
for centuries, organizations are increasingly moving outward
to the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf or to light-industry
parks throughout Greater London. |
Facts
to Know Before You Go |
Currency: Pound Sterling
Exchange
money at an airport within the U.S. or in England
once you arrive. Airports and many tourist attractions
house various exchange booths such as Thomas Cooke,
but for the best rate, use an ATM or get cash back
on purchases. Although the European Euro is not
widely used, it is possible to spend the Euro at
the airport and some retailers in town. |
Transportation:
Public
Transportation: With the Underground,
or “tube” as locals call it, and an
extensive railway and bus system, public transportation
is an excellent way to navigate London. While the
tube does run from Heathrow to central London via
the Picadilly line, the trip will take about an
hour and a half. Fortunately, the Heathrow
Express offers high-speed non-stop service to
London’s Paddington station. The cost: £14.50.
The time it saves: An hour and fifteen minutes.
For £16, passengers can also speed their way
from London’s Victoria Station to Gatwick
in 30 minutes on the Gatwick
Express.
Taxi
Cab: In London, you have black cabs and
mini-cabs. “Black cabs” can be any color
but all reflect the iconic shape of a historic London
cab and offer metered service. A trip from Heathrow
to central London will cost somewhere between £40
and £55. From Gatwick, expect to pay £50
to £65.
Minicabs, which may come in any shape, make or model,
are not metered, so negotiate a price before setting
out. While mincabs aren’t licensed to pick
up passengers at the airport, they can be arranged
for airport drop-off. A typical fare from Central
London to Heathrow is around £25; Gatwick
£35. You can save a bundle, but make sure
you have directions because drivers rarely know
their way. |
Information:
Both
the Financial
Times (daily) and The
Economist (weekly) are global business
papers with extensive UK editions featuring local
business news.
The
Times and Daily
Telegraph are both mainstream dailies that
include daily business sections. On Sundays, look
for The Sunday Times and The Sunday
Telegraph.
Nearly a dozen other papers such as The Daily
Mail, The Guardian and The Evening
Standard, cover some business news. |
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For
more on travel in the capital, see our guide to the Best
of London.
Ready to book a trip now?
Click here for exclusive savings. |
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 Only a fifteen minute walk from the heart of the West
End, but far away from tourist crowds, this modern hotel
is ideally located for the business traveler. Although
there are few shopping or dining options in the immediate
neighborhood, the City Café, the hotel’s
on-site restaurant serves modern European cuisine and
its bar, the stylish Millbank Lounge, is a popular night
spot. Inside, rooms are sleek and modern with a Scandinavian
mix of beech wood, soft pastels and clean lines. A haven
for a working holiday, each room comes with a flat-screen
TV, CD player, DVD player, access to a complimentary
CD and DVD library, free high-speed Internet access
and direct dial phones.
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 On
the day it opened in 1931, The Dorchester was hailed
as the most modern and luxurious hotel in London—and
it still is. Triple-glazed windows, many overlooking
Hyde Park, shut out the noise of the city while large
bedrooms are furnished with antiques in grand English
country-house style. While décor and service
have been restored to the remarkable standards of the
hotel’s famous past, it’s the high-tech
amenities you’ll appreciate. Each room includes
high-speed wireless Internet, a computer, DVD player,
scanner, printer and even an e-butler for tech support.
Modeled on an old Spanish palace, The Grill serves
traditional British cuisine.
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 In the heart of Canary Wharf, London’s major new
financial center, the hotel’s skyscraper surroundings
will make you feel like you’re in Los Angeles.
Only the incredible views of the City of London remind
you where you are. Designed for a corporate clientele,
the property is stark but functional. Rooms are large,
with pale wood flooring and simple American walnut furniture.
Each is equipped with every imaginable bit of technology:
a flat-screen television, high-speed Internet access,
CD player, play station and a laptop safe. The restaurant, Quadrato offers agreeably authentic Northern Italian cuisine.
 This modern hotel is situated at the crossroads of Park Lane, Piccadilly and Hyde Park Corner. Following a late 2006 makeover (to the tune of more than $110 million), 150 guest rooms and Neoclassical suites are more vibrant than ever in linen and damask. Two hundred ninety-seven additional rooms have also debuted, along with new health facilities and an Elemis Spa that opened in April 2007. One of the final touches of the pricey refurbishment, readied as of as of June 2007, are 60 elegant designer suites (The London Suite, The Cinema Suite, The Wellington Suite, etc.) that reflect London’s fashionable lifestyle. Luxury suites feature drawing rooms and butler service. The penthouse, a.k.a. The Palace, has a large drawing room, a master bedroom with marbled bath facilities, and a private entrance with a lobby. The Club on the dedicated seventh floor has 46 bedrooms and suites, private registration, shower room facilities and a lounge with separate meeting space. Particularly favored by business people, the purpose-built Video Conferencing Suite is ideal for top business meetings; the business centre boasts four private meeting rooms. Informal meals may be taken in the Coffee House or the Observatory Lounge. The eponymous Theo Randall adds culinary flair to one of the best hotels places in London.
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 Located on the edge of Covent Garden, where the West
End meets the City, this property has equal appeal to
the theater-going tourist and the high-powered business
executive. The Edwardian building was once home to The
Morning Post, but while the building’s exterior
features have been retained, interior design has been
transformed to mix contemporary simplicity and classic
English style. The result is unassuming but luxurious.
Technology, however, isn’t understated with direct
dial fax and phone lines, wireless high-speed Internet
and CD players in every room. Three on-site restaurants—Axis, Indigo and Cinnamon Bar—and a world-class fitness center
mean you won’t have to leave the hotel. But being
in the heart of town, of course you’ll want to.
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HOTEL SPECIALS
Marriott London Grosvenor Square Hotel
Right on the corner of impressive Grosvenor Square and bustling Duke Street, and a stone’s throw from the American Embassy, this London Marriott is a popular choice with international travelers. Official Site- Marriott London Grosvenor Square . Book Online and Save. |
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 Deep
in banking territory, just near the Bank of England and
Mansion House, this is one of the many serious restaurants
in an area of London which hitherto has offered very little
by way of gastronomic seriousness. It’s pitched
itself just right: at the front, there’s a noisy
brasserie where young traders come to down the bubbly
and eat off a menu of robust dishes like grilled lobster
or blackened wood pigeon. At the back, there’s a
smaller, more expensive restaurant where heavier deals
can be done in relative privacy. The menu here offers
more complex cooking, as in seared foie gras with sweet and sour endive tart tatin, bitter chocolate and balsamic vinaigrette. |
 So what is the long-awaited restaurant from the great chef, Alain Ducasse, like? Well, the 80-seat room, designed by Patrick Jouin, is beautiful—a soothing, sophisticated space with light wood panels and natural materials in varying shades of tan and cream. The walls are decorated with silk green and yellow buttons, the tables are a lesson in luxurious settings and there's a private dining area for six, set apart with sparkly fiber optic strands. The menu offers a range of the maestro's signature dishes, though “reinterpreted with a modern touch” for London. Seasonal, fresh British and French ingredients are used to good effect by executive chef Jocelyn Herland who comes from Alain Ducasse at Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris. Expect the likes of duck foie gras with mango and a dolce forte sauce, sea scallops and baby vegetables served cold in a gelée for starters. Ducasse devotees will recognise breast of Landes chicken with a rich Albufera sauce and seasonal vegetables cooked in a pot (£10 supplement). Other mains include a chicken and crayfish fricassée on the £35 lunch menu, and elsewhere, rich venison cooked in a cocotte with a red wine sauce. Desserts are the high point of the meal: rum baba or chocolate and raspberry “star.” It's all beautifully cooked and presented, but there should be more excitement in this restaurant's cooking, particularly at these prices. The wine list is very good, but also comes at a price. Set 3-course lunch £35; à la carte lunch 2 courses £55, 3 courses £75; à la carte dinner 3 courses £75, 4 courses £95; 7-course Tasting Menu £115. |
 With the opening of his new restaurant in the august surroundings
of Claridge’s hotel, Gordon Ramsay has earned his reputation as one
of Britain’s great chefs. The restaurant’s
décor has been transformed: the glorious Art Deco
room has been made over and is now a more likeable shape
and size, with various private rooms reducing the overall
awkward proportions of the space. But what people come
for is the food which is sensibly priced, making it one
of the great bargains of London dining. The wine list
is suitable, but the service is impeccable. |
 The Greenhouse is tucked away in Mayfair and reached through a delightful plant-filled courtyard. The interior is rich without being overwhelming, its neutral colors complemented by dark burgundy armchairs and richly-colored fabric. The staff, too, lives up to the reputation. And the food? It’s topnotch with seasonal ingredients used with huge skill and respect. Take dishes like Limousin veal sweetbread with wild garlic caramel and glazed leek or cep risotto with razor clams, mussels and shellfish sauce in the starter section. Choose from main courses like Dover sole meunière with truffle celery and celeriac rémoulade (for two), or fillet of beef. This is inventive, extravagant cooking, beautifully presented. The wine list is notable with some very heavy hitters as well. Altogether, this spot belongs in the top end of London's dining scene. But the good news is that the set lunch is a notable value. Set 2-course lunch £25, 3 courses £29. Set meal 3 courses £60, tasting menu £75. |
Hakkasan
8 Hanway Pl.
020-7907-1888
Tottenham Court Road Tube
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15/20
£££££ |
 When
Hakkasan burst on the scene, it broke all the rules. Here
was a basement venue in a less than attractive back alley,
serving Chinese cooking that shook London’s mainly
conservative Chinese tastebuds. Its instant success has
not diminished, partly due to the genius of owner Alan
Yau who has the golden touch with restaurants. It’s
stylish with a dark, sexy interior of all black furniture
and a line of black wooden frames to divide the dining
area from the kitchen. Low-level lighting and cool music
bring couples to a place usually reserved for suited business
types. Prices are a little high, but you can always find
the same buzz at Ling Ling, the restaurant’s incredibly
trendy cocktail bar. |
Kai
65 S. Audley St.
020-7493-8988
Bond Street/Marble Arch Tube
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15/20
£££££ |
 Original, exciting and innovative are just some of the adjectives that come up when people talk about Kai. And if you want Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, a dish that includes the likes of shellfish, abalone, sharks’ fin, dried scallops, sea cucumber and Chinese mushrooms (it comes with gold), you must order five days in advance and pay £108 for the experience. But even the more modest dishes pack a great punch with the taste buds. Go for The Drunken Phoenix on the Scented Tree, which is roasted whole chicken marinated in an infusion of cinnamon bark and Chinese wine or scallops, fresh lily bulb and asparagus with a 16-ingredient chilli sauce. Stir-fried black pepper Buccleuch beef with Chinese croissant is an appealing mixture; venison meatballs are cooked with oyster sauce and caramelised pine nuts to give a sweet finish. The venue is glossy, the international clientele equally as polished; the service is terrific; the wine list trawls the world and includes some great French numbers from Château Margaux and Château Petrus, all of which are not greedily marked up. All in all, this is a top, and unusual, dining experience. Set 3-course lunch is £24. |
 There
is an element of style and sophistication as you glide
through the bar and into this elegant dining room with
windows overlooking the Thames and the floodlit Tower
Bridge. The theme is Anglo-French, with the best from
both sides of the Channel like Dover sole and Chateaubriand with
béarnaise. Inspiration creeps in from further afield
in dishes like Umbrian truffle & wild mushroom risotto. Tables
are rather too tightly packed for some and service is
brisk to the point of indifference. The same cannot be
said for the sommeliers, whose knowledge and enthusiasm
can be infectious. Choose carefully, either from the full
or abridged wine list. |
 Pétrus
closed its doors on St. James’s Street and reopened
in The
Berkeley hotel. By far the most reasonable way to
sample the exceptional cooking is to go to the restaurant
for lunch and eat from the daily lunch menu. The set-price
menu may include choices such as pressed terrine of foie
gras, potato fondant and sautéed five-spice salmon
and truffle dressing; and an extremely tasty ravioli of
Ardennes frogs’ legs, sautéed with garlic
and parsley, lemon confit, foie gras and port cream. To
round off the meal, select a coffee and bonbon from the
silver coffee trolley. |
 This is corporate dining spelt large. It's a huge, light space on the 4th floor of a glass building with two bars and two restaurants divided by a central open-view kitchen. The Bar & Grill is the relaxed side; the restaurant (which seats 100) is where the fund managers gather to carve up the financial world while seated in their Saarinen tulip chairs. It's all quite designed. Chef Tim Tolley worked with Jean-Georges Vongerichten in New York and London. His menus are attractive; his cooking very good indeed. Starters might include foie gras roulade with strawberries and basil, which he carries off with panache, or six of the best oysters. Mains include crab-stuffed Dover sole with a delicate pea sauce, Barbary duck with fresh cherries and cucumber salad, and top game in season. Desserts follow the modern French mould, perhaps a Valrhona chocolate fondant with coconut sorbet or peach “soup” with Champagne sorbet. The wine list is notable. Service is slick. If Plateau looks familiar, think back to the film Batman Begins; a section of it was filmed in this dramatic restaurant. Set 3-course dinner Fri.-Sat. £35, 4 courses £40. Tasting menu £52, with wines at each course £83 (whole table). |
 Zaika
opened with a blast of hype hard to justify, but it
has passed the test of time and is now one of London’s
top Indian restaurants. After moving from Fulham to
Kensington, the restaurant took on a more sophisticated
air with a high-ceilinged room overlooking Kensington
Gardens. Service is equally sophisticated, its expertise
extending to proper handling of wines from the short,
intelligent list. A sensibly short menu includes the
acclaimed speciality—tandoori home-smoked salmon
with mustard and dill. Notable, too, is lamb biryani
cooked in a pot sealed with crisp, perfectly browned
pastry. Save room for coffee; it’s the real thing.
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The 39 Steps
The Criterion Theatre
218-223 Piccadilly
Piccadilly Circus
087-0060-2313
Piccadilly Circus Tube
www.love39steps.com
 A fast-paced, comic adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 film of the same name (which was itself based on a 1915 novel by John Buchan), this production brings cinematic spectacle to the stage in a myriad of surprising, delightful ways. A mere four actors play over 150 roles, and seemingly impossible feats such as a plane crash, a high-speed chase atop a moving train and the scaling of Forth Bridge are staged to exciting and dramatic effect. The winner of several awards for Best New Comedy, this show is not to be missed.
Brick
Lane
Brick Lane/Cheshire St
020-7377-8963
Shoreditch Tube
www.visitbricklane.com
 Don’t
miss this Bangladeshi enclave in the East End. A historic
market by day, this vibrant street serves some the capital’s
best Asian food in the evening and is home to a hopping
bar scene at night. Shop for fabric, antiques, food
and electronics, then enjoy a flaming dish at the Famous
Curry Bazaar before downing designer cocktails at The
Vibe bar or at the happening 93 Feet East. Keep your
eye out for popular festivals that rival the world-famous
Notting Hill carnival.
British
Museum
Great Russell St.
020-7636-1555
Tottenham Court Rd./Goodge St./Russell Sq. Tube
www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
 In
1753, the British Museum became the world’s first
public museum. After a massive refurbishment in the
1990s, the museum added a dramatic new exhibition space
in the Great Court and launched its way into the twenty-first
century. There are so many treasures—the Elgin
Marbles, Egyptian mummies, the Portland Vase, relics from the Sutton
Hoo ship burial, the glorious Lindisfarne gospels—it
is impossible to see them all in one visit. The best
way to explore the museum is to pick up a map in the
front hall and choose one or two particular galleries.
And then go back for more.
Match
EC1
45-47 Clerkenwell Rd
020-7250-4002
Farringdon Tube
www.matchbar.com
 Clerkenwell is home to some of London’s most intense
clubs and trendiest bars. The original Matchbar, like
its two local spin-offs, will have you buzzing as bartenders
fling their shakers and bust moves straight out of the
movie "Cocktail." The trick is to mix and match: try Match
original cocktails like the Mexican Widow (Arette blanco tequila shaken with orange, blood orange marmalade, lime juice and a dash of grenadine) or the Space Gin Smash (Tanqueray gin shaken with muddled grapes, elderflower, fresh mint, lemon and apple juices). If you can't find something
you're looking for, just head down the road to find
a dozen of the city’s coolest bars.
The
Original London Walks
020-7624-3978
www.walks.com
 Whether a BBC broadcaster, eminent archaeologist or
professional actor leads your tour, you are guaranteed
to be shown the secret side of London by one of the most
engaging guides in town. Two-hour tours are offered
seven days a week and reveal the hidden worlds of literary
greats like Shakespeare, Dickens and Oscar Wilde or
other legendary Londoners like Jack the Ripper or The
Beatles. Not here for history? Check out one of their
more modern themes like the making of Notting Hill the
movie or even join them for a pint of Guinness on a
traditional pub crawl. No need to book, just grab a
schedule and turn up at the designated hour. |
Ready to book a trip now?
Click here for exclusive savings. |
Going to Great Britain? Check out our Guide. |
(Updated: 06/20/08 HC)
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