London is a cosmopolitan city full of fantastic places that we all want to explore but do you know the other unusual places to visit in London. This article is all about exploring those hidden places in London.

In London, there are Parks, palaces, museums… the list is endless and surely nobody come back home from a trip to the British capital without having visited the Parliament, Buckingham Palace or Westminster Abbey. It also seems essential to walk through the rooms of the National Gallery or tour the British Museum in search of the remains of the Parthenon that it keeps behind its doors.

But beyond these unique places, there are countless corners like the Brompton cemetery or Neal’s Yard that tourists hardly pass through and that undoubtedly deserve to be visited. They do not have the grandeur of St. Paul’s Cathedral nor do they offer the views of the London Eye, but I will say these are equally important places if you want to get the whole of London.

Brompton Cemetery and other unusual places to visit in London

To discover these unusual places to visit in London, I will show you these almost secret corners, so take note if you want to discover another less touristy but equally interesting London.

One new change

This shopping center is located opposite Saint Paul’s Cathedral. However, despite its good location very few people decide to climb up to their terrace. From the top floor, you can enjoy one of the best views of the cathedral and some of the skyscrapers that make up the City of London. Extending a little view, you can even appreciate the famous London Eye. Privileged views for free of cost!

Tate modern, seventh floor

The British Museum of Modern Art is one of my favorite in London. How many hours have I spent wandering through its galleries and corridors, leaving me surprised by giant spiders, geometric faces Picassos or traveling to the world of dreams through the landscapes of Dalí. This is the third most visited museum in the world! Such is the deployment that few tourists reach the seventh and top floor: the cafeteria. This is one of the most unusual places to visit in London that remain almost empty. For me it was a pleasure to rest and regain strength, admiring the views from its glass wall with the Thames and Sant Paul at my feet.

The standard stuff of peter pan in the gardens of Kensington

As w cannot go in search of his grave, Peter Pan has a place of reverence. His statue is in Kensington Park, near the door of Lancaster Gate. This bronze statue was secretly erected at night for the May Morning of 1912 and stands on a pedestal symbolizing Peter Pan playing a small wind instrument. The writer James Mathew Barrie, lived near Kensington Gardens, at 100 Bayswater Road and perhaps that is the reason for the location of the London Peter Pan monument. It was JM Barrie himself who commissioned the famous sculptor George Frampton statue. They say that the result was not what the writer expected, but the sculpture continues in its place, giving that part of Kensington Gardens a certain air of “Neverland”.

Urban art

A very interesting way to visit this city is through the art found in its streets. A less touristy but no less enriching London. These kinds of unusual places to visit in London have true urban canvases that discover the city from another perspective. You can tour it with the help of Street Art London or Alternative London that organize tours where specialized guides will help you to discover the neighborhoods full of works. And if you dare, you can also do some Graffiti Workshop where you will learn from the street artists the techniques and materials they use to intervene in the streets.

Bloomsbury Square

From my first trip to London, I remember especially Bloomsbury Square. Near the British Museum is the place where I would eat often. It is a plaza with gardens in the neighborhood of the same name where writers such as Virginia Wolf have resided. It was built in the seventeenth century. It is surrounded by Victorian houses and a large neoclassical building headquarters of different offices. From the Holborn metro station (Central and Piccadilly lines) you can reach the British by crossing it diagonally. More than tourists, it is a place for students or workers from nearby companies to make a quick meal or a short break.

Millennium Bridge

This is one of the most popular points of the British capital due to the beautiful contrast of the modern bridge with the classical cathedral of Sant Paul. There are hundreds of tourists who tread this catwalk every day, but few realize that the gum stuck on the pavement of the bridge are mini canvases, with small landscapes, messages and characters painted on them.

This curious Street Art is the work of the artist Ben Wilson, who since 1998 has been painting the chewing gums stuck on the London asphalt. He does not hide to create his art, because what he does is not illegal since he paints the garbage of the pavement and not the streets of the city. Ben started painting gum from his neighborhood Muswell Hill but little by little he has been “decorating” the rest of the streets of London and even those of other European cities.

Brick Lane

Brick Lane is another unusual places to visit in London known as the most hipster area, strolling through its lively streets we can find gastronomy of all kinds, vintage markets of the most varied and a street atmosphere that comes alive on Sunday. Its well-known market takes on a life of its own the streets are a hotbed of people. Near the famous street, you will find a market named the Spitalfields Market where you found everything. This is one of those markets that you come out completely in love with. If you are thinking of a future trip to London, skip one of the familiar routes and take a stroll down Brick Lane to enjoy its markets, its street art and its atmosphere.

Neal’s yard

I really like to stroll in the big cities, visit its “back room” or simply verify that the fame of great avenues or spectacular monuments, although well deserved does not mean less familiar corners and full of charm.

Thus in London, a few steps from the “piazza” of the Convent Garden is Neal Street, with its houses of vivid colors and that still preserve on the facades the old loading and unloading mechanisms for the stores that once housed. In Neal’s Yard, the lovers of the ecological will find a rustic style cheese shop and other very original establishments with one hundred percent natural products.

Museum of the old orphan

At number 9A of St Thomas’ Street in London and right next to the impressive and pyramidal building of The Shard are a door and a narrow spiral staircase that lead to a small wooden door and access to the top of the tower of the church of San Tomás … There the time is stopped and it shows us the place where the oldest operating room in the United Kingdom was (perfectly conserved), in operation long before the invention of the anesthesia. That’s the reason there are a lot of herbs since the medicines used were manufactured there. Here you can have a trip to the darkest and cruel side of medicine 200 years ago, right next to the most modern building in Europe.

Islington

This London neighborhood was originally a seaside resort, but at the end of the 18th century the wealthy classes began to leave the neighborhood and the area began to degrade. It is during the twentieth century that Islington regains its former splendor and regains its bourgeois yet somewhat decadent air.

With an incredible atmosphere, its main artery is Upper street, a shopping street full of shops, pubs, restaurants and up to ten theaters.

The church of Saint Mary and the Canonbury Tower or remains of an old medieval mansion are some of the attractive and unusual places to visit in London we can visit in the neighborhood, although our favorite place for a nice walk is, the New River channel at the end of Duncan Street.

Route of the blue plates

London is infinite, wonderful and always surprising. You can walk in there different ways. Here I propose a fun way to explore it, trying to discover the BLUE PLATES. The Blue Plaques are commemorative and are installed on the facades of houses where certain people have been born, have lived or worked and have distinguished themselves by some activity they did during their life. This was devised by the Royal Society of Arts in 1866 and then continued by managing the English Heritage. Here you have a link where you can find a list of the places where the “Blue Plaques” are located. For example, It will be fun to see the place where Napoleon III was living in this beautiful city!!!

Columbia road market

Flowers, hipsters, flowers, vintage shops, flowers, bagel stalls, flowers, Victorian houses … And I said flowers? Yes, what characterizes the Columbia Road Market is once a week the whole street is transformed filling street vendors with the same product: flowers of all shapes, colors and sizes imaginable. Located in the hipster-modern neighborhood of Shoreditch, these attractive and unusual places to visit in London has been gaining fame for years, although it is still unknown to many people. And that despite having been held no less than since the mid-eighteenth century! This is an authentic explosion of colors and life that has become one of my favorite spots.

Winchester Palace

One of my favorite activities, when I have visited London is to visit the South Bank and be surprised by the new corners that I am encountering. Very close to the replica of the Galleon “Golden Hinde” of the famous pirate and Sir Francis Drake, in one of the streets parallel to the river, we find the remains of the Winchester palace, which was the center of power and residence of the bishops of that diocese built in the eleventh century. It was a show of medieval splendor and remained in use until the seventeenth century when it was transformed into houses and warehouses. In 1814 it was destroyed by a fire, leaving standing the ruins that we see today, which were part of the great hall. I advise you to visit the nearby pub with a terrace facing the river and enjoy a good pint of Cider or Beer.

Borough market

Borough market is example of most unusual places to visit in London. Like a good lover of the kitchen, we wanted to know this ancient market since they have more than 1000 years. Nowadays it has become a gourmet market where you can find products from all over England as well as find some international food stalls.

It is located under the arches of an elevated train track, south of the London Bridge so after crossing this iconic bridge we can reach it in a short walk and regain strength with any of the delicacies that are sold there.

The temple church

For me, this church created for the Knights Templar back in the twelfth century is a special corner surrounded by magic and mystery. Although Dan Brown made it popular in the Da Vinci Code, it is still a pleasure to visit her because she is not part of the usual tourist circuit. It is located in the inner courtyard of elegant buildings and it is hard to find access is an open passage in a Norman-style house on Fleet Street. Inside, built in the image of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, there are recumbent statues of Knights Templar, funerary monuments and enigmatic tombs as everything that surrounds the Temple.

Cemetery of Brompton

This quiet and little visited London cemetery is located between the neighborhoods of Chelsea and Kensington. The Brompton Cemetery is the only royal cemetery in London and stands out as the best Victorian cemetery in the country. As a curiosity to say that Beatrix Potter went to this place to walk and the names of his characters came from the graves he found in the graves. Today you can cross strolling or even biking while you meet one of the squirrels that live in the trees of the place.

Wrapping up with

For me, those were the most unusual places to visit in London. If London is in your chart to visit… I hope you will take a look of Brompton Cemetery and other hidden places which still offer you to explore a very amazing experience of them.