London for The Time Travellers: a Friday-to-Monday weekend
Two thousand years in layers, and a pint in every one.
History and architecture, read in the right order. Medieval on Saturday, modernism on Sunday, a guide who knows the gossip, and a drink where the plotters drank.
Friday: Roman London and a plotters' pub
- London Mithraeum
A third-century Roman temple rebuilt under an office block; free, but book. The dim light and the chanting recording are oddly convincing.
- Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese
Rebuilt after the Great Fire in 1667 and still lit by low lamps; Johnson and Dickens drank here, and the pie is plain and good.
Saturday: Towers and taverns
- Tower of London
Arrive at opening, join a Yeoman Warder tour, then see the Crown Jewels before the queue builds. Allow three hours.
- The George Inn
The last galleried coaching inn in London, owned by the National Trust. Eat in the dim bar or the courtyard when it is dry.
- Southwark Cathedral
A free Gothic church older than the bridge beside it, with a Shakespeare memorial window and a calm that carries.
Sunday: Whitehall and a war room
- Churchill War Rooms
The concrete bunker where the Cabinet met, the maps still pinned and the paint pens still on the desk. Take the audio guide.
- The Red Lion
A Victorian pub across from Downing Street, where MPs are called back by a division bell; the pies are dependable.
- Choral Evensong at Westminster Abbey
Free to attend; join the queue at the west door. You sit in the quire, beneath a thousand years of coronations, and hear it sung.
Monday: The museum of the world
- The British Museum
Free and enormous: pick three rooms, such as the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon marbles and the Sutton Hoo helmet, and ignore the rest.
- The Lamb
A Victorian pub with etched-glass snob screens and a quiet back room, a short walk from the museum. The pie and a half pint suit.