Wednesday, April 08, 2020
Were this a normal year, London's tourist season would be about to hit its stride. The weather's improved, Easter weekend is approaching and then it's full tilt towards a busy spring and summer. But this is not a normal year.
A good way to remind yourself what April 2020 might have been like is to read the latest edition of London Planner, the capital's free official monthly tourist guide. Normally it's easy to pick one up from a tourist information office, hotel, airport or major station, given the magazine has a nationwide circulation of 100,000. April's edition has a dazzling pink blossom cover, and lists the tourist experiences we might have been enjoying right now had they not all been cancelled since it went to print.
Those printed copies never materialised, alas, but the digital version was uploaded as normal on Thursday 19th March... and is still there. You can download it for free here, as a wistful reminder of how things might have been, although be warned it's a big file because London Planner is a glossy 108 page magazine. Alternatively a digital swipe-through version is available, should that be less of a resource hog.
Each edition of London Planner includes a fair chunk of editorial - this month chocolate, gaming and kimonos. But the majority of the content is listings, be that of galleries to visit, plays to see or tourist-friendly dining. First up is always the Top 10 Free Attractions, followed by numerous pages of sightseeing possibilities, most of which stay the same each month.
So I wondered how many of London Planner's official tourist list I'd been to, and when I last visited. You could wonder the same.
Top 10 Free Attractions (by visitor numbers)
| 2019 | British Museum |
| 2019 | Tate Modern |
| 2019 | National Gallery |
| 2019 | Natural History Museum |
| 2020 | Southbank Centre |
| 2019 | V&A |
| 2019 | Science Museum |
| 2019 | Somerset House |
| 2019 | National Maritime Museum |
| 2019 | Royal Academy of Arts |
Unsurprisingly I've been to all of these, and if you're a culturally-engaged Londoner you probably have too. Most I've been to loads of times, the exception being the Royal Academy of Arts on Piccadilly because most of its exhibitions aren't free. I'm not quite sure why it's on the list. As it happens I visited the entire top 10 last year, but the Southbank Centre is the only one I also managed to fit in earlier this year before everything closed down.
Sightseeing
| 2019 | British Library | | 2007 | London Zoo |
| 2010 | Buckingham Palace | | 1980 | Madame Tussauds |
| 2020 | Changing The Guard | | 2016 | The Monument |
| never | Chelsea Physic Garden | | 2020 | The O2 |
| 2018 | Cutty Sark | | 2019 | Old Royal Naval College |
| 2015 | Dr Johnson's House | | 2009 | 18 Stafford Terrace |
| 2018 | Ham House and Gardens | | 2009 | Royal Mews |
| 2008 | HMS Belfast | | 2011 | Royal Observatory |
| 2019 | Houses of Parliament | | never | Sea Life London |
| 2019 | Jewel Tower | | never | Spencer House |
| 2019 | Kensington Palace | | 2018 | St Martin In The Fields |
| never | Kew Palace | | 2018 | St Paul's Cathedral |
| 2019 | Kew Gardens | | 2019 | Tower Bridge |
| never | Kidzania London | | 2015 | Tower of London |
| never | London Bridge Experience | | never | Up At The O2 |
| 1980 | London Dungeon | | 2016 | View From The Shard |
| 2015 | London Eye | | never | Warner Bros Studio Tour |
| 2018 | London Mithraeum | | 2008 | Westminster Abbey |
These are the other 36 London sights worth seeing, according to the editorial team at London Planner. I've been to half of them in the last five years, which isn't bad. I used to go to the Royal Observatory a lot before they introduced an admission price. Amongst those I haven't been to for a while are London Zoo and Westminster Abbey because they're quite pricey. Two of the real tourist big hitters - Madame Tussauds and the London Dungeon - I haven't been to since I was a child (and have absolutely no urge to revisit).
The intriguing ones are the eight I've never visited. I should have gone to the Chelsea Physic Garden by now, sorry. Ditto Kew Palace, except that's inside Kew Gardens and always seems to be closed for the winter when I go. Kidzania is for kids and the London Bridge Experience for big kids, or at least that's the prejudice that's kept me away. Sea Life London costs £37 for tanks of fish, for heavens sake. Up At The O2 is almost as expensive, and offers worse views than the Dangleway. Spencer House has never really registered on my radar (it offers guided tours Sundays only). And the Warner Brothers Studio Tour isn't even in London, so should instead be in this next list...
Out of Town
| 2015 | Hampton Court |
| 1990 | Holyrood House |
| 2018 | Stonehenge |
| never | Warwick Castle |
| 1991 | Windsor Castle |
Here's confirmation that the London Planner is aimed at tourists - a short selection of long distance trips to tempt the wallet. Hampton Court is of course the odd one out, being inside London, so should be on the previous list (instead of Harry Potter). Of the other four I've only been to Stonehenge recently, and Warwick Castle never.
Museums
| 2016 | Bank of England Museum | | 2011 | Museum of Freemasonry |
| 2002 | Body Worlds | | 2020 | Museum of London |
| 2005 | Churchill War Rooms | | 2019 | Museum of London Docklands |
| 2019 | Design Museum | | 2017 | National Army Museum |
| 2020 | Household Cavalry Museum | | 2009 | Old Operating Theatre |
| 2020 | Imperial War Museum | | 2020 | Postal Museum |
| 2019 | Leighton House Museum | | 2018 | RAF Museum |
| 2019 | London Transport Museum | | never | The Vault |
| 2018 | Museum of Childhood | | | |
London Planner boasts a slim list of museums likely to appeal to a tourist audience. Four I went to last year and four this, which is pretty good for a lockdown year. For Body Worlds I'm counting a trip to the exhibition at the Truman Brewery in 2002, because I have no intention of going to the latest Trocadero version. It's probably about time I went back to the Churchill War Rooms. The only one I haven't been to is The Vault, which it turns out is a collection of rock memorabilia at the Hard Rock Cafe which totally explains the omission.
I doubt we'll be seeing a May edition of London Planner, either online or in print. I wouldn't like to bet on when it'll next return. But it's never too early to be planning your next London day out, preferably somewhere you've never been before.
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