Memories of first day-trips to London?

[Hollis]

My first trip was around 1974/75 around 5/6 years old - coming up from the West Country with a primary school mate & his parents... All i can remember is that toy museum that used to exist near Goodge Street.

Another trip with mum and grandparents around 1976/77 - Grandad taking me and my brother around - getting far too knackered and not really enjoying it.. Not going in Madame Tussaurd's cause it was too expensive... hanging around Parliament Square looking at Big Ben.

Early 80s with family as young teenager... visiting the Barbican... parents being outraged at price of food in the cafe.

I also remember my dad taking me to the IWM and being amazed at how relaxed everyone was as my dad said the tube went under the Thames.

Finally, my first trip to London by myself when I was going for Uni interviews in 1986... managed to get conned out of money my some guy saying he needed a taxi to an airport and would send me it back when he got home.

 

[friendofdorothy]

Mum and me stayed at the convent of her aunt who was a nun in the sisters of the poor child jesus. They run a school in Finchley so I had the run of an entirely empty school . It was very lonely.

My dad and brother had to stay somewhere else and had fun.

 

[mx wcfc]

Late 60s, I was maybe 4 or 5. My Dad took me up to London on the train, which was a treat in itself (and probably my first train ride too) We went to the Natural History museum and/or the Science Museum. It became a regular "birthday treat" thing.

I grew up not far from London. By the time I went to Uni in London I had been to most of the touristy places. I was surprised when the student union ran open top bus tours of the "sights" for freshers. It was a bit of an eye opener that many of my new friends had never been to London before.

 

[DotCommunist]

loads as a kid because my uncle lived in ilford, but not central. First proper daytrip with the boys was straight to camden for bongs and clothes, as it fucking well should be. Rite of passage. We drank at this place with an interior modelled after the Titty Twister in Dusk Till Dawn and I got a beanie with a big weed leaf on it.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

I was born and bought up in Clerkenwell, so every time I went out of the front door I was having a day out in London.

 

[rubbershoes]

Coming up on the train towards Waterloo there was a terraced house somewhere near Clapham/Earlsfield that had an old car on the chimney pot. Something tiny like an MG midget

I saw this numerous times in the 70s and have never met anyone else who remembers it.

Often our trips to London were to see the dentist, then on to an Italian restaurant for spaghetti and end up in the Harrods food hall to buy apricots in white chocolate

 

[klang]

Late 90s. Got mugged in the sh bush underpass 2 hours after landing at Heathrow.

 

[marty21]

Came up on a school trip when I was about 15 , we went to see a Shakespeare play (I think it was A Winter's Tale" ) We were allowed to explore on our own for a few hours so a group of us went drinking (we weren't in school uniform) went to a few places in Soho , including a Topless bar (iirc) where they charged a fortune for beer . That's all I can remember about the trip . Would have been in the spring of 81 possibly.

I came back in 1989 and never left.

 

[Steel Icarus]

Came with my grandparents, aged about 9. Did the touristy stuff, Buck House, Trafalgar Square, Westminster. Seem to recall looking at the Crown Jewels through a very small window in a building, presumably the Tower of London.

The only memento of the trip is a photo (which I can't find right now) of my grandparents in front of the Houses of Parliament taken just as a little bin wagon drove by behind them, completely obscuring the thing. My grandpa wrote "Fine view of a metropolitan dust cart" on the back which I found very funny.

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

I grew up in Croydon, but like most Sarf Londoners didn't spend much time north of the river. I did a French exchange when I was about 15 and when the French kid came over that was the first time I saw 'the sights'.

 

[Silas Loom]

We visited my grandparents in Golders Green quite often, but when I was about eight we borrowed their flat while they were on holiday to Spain, so that we could see actual central London sights. I was absolutely blown away by the surrealist and cubist paintings in the Tate gallery (it was all in Millbank in those days), and though I grew out of Dali soon enough, I still have a massive print in my living room of this Picasso which transfixed me for ages and I bought a postcard of from the shop.



I don’t recall much else other than how exciting the trains and buses were.

And the Picasso is now somewhere in Tate Modern’s vaults. After all, they have video installations and challenging lithographs by 90s chancers to display.

 

[quimcunx]

Too far away for a day trip. When I was 11 we came for a weekend. Stayed at the Cumberland hotel near marble arch. A previous guest had left some lingerie. I tried on a bra. Had McDonald's. The milk shake was weird and thick. Madam tussauds was quite enjoyable. There was a mock up of Christie's kitchen with a torso in a cupboard. Went in some shops on Oxford Street I expect.

 

[A380]

Born in Fulham and grew up in Harlesden so always in the belly of the great wen. Later after moving a bit when Ken Livingstone made kids fares on the tube free I had to find 10 p or maybe 20p to pay the return fare from Croxley to where the GLC started for a day in London.

 

[Elpenor]

Grew up in Sidcup then Orpington so trips to London were the science museum or imperial war museum or the maritime museum on a Sunday (they were free then) and a baked potato or slice of cake in the cafe afterwards. After they started charging for them it became the occasional half term treat with mum and dad. Haven’t done a lot of the main tourist sites eg the cathedrals and now I don’t live anywhere near London doubt I will tbh

 

[Sasaferrato]

My father and me went on a camping trip in 1963, we spent a day in London.

We were living on Harris at the time, indeed the majority of my childhood had been in the Islands. I'd been in Inverness and Glasgow, but London was truly something else.

I saw a painting in the National Gallery, which has been my favourite painting ever since. A print of it is on the wall behind me.

 

[ddraig]

Early to mid 80's with Gran ,aunties and cousins
Remember a proper punk puking on the tube in middle of the afternoon, the lots and lots of different people and leaving my camera (with lots of pictures from the day) in smiths Paddington as was distracted by a specrtum or other computer

 

[Artaxerxes]

Sometime around the 90s we walked past the Swiss clock and a man got punched and fell on the floor next to us, everyone drew away and he sat there spitting blood on the floor.

Mum drew us away along with everyone else bit for a moment everything seemed to stop and I remember him looking down at the blood spatter from his face before the crowd pressed against us as and we had to move away.

 

[smmudge]

Early to mid 90s. I don't remember what we were going for, general touristy stuff, but i remember my dad on the train pointing out a building that had been bombed by the IRA, like a high rise. Not sure how accurate that memory is!!

 

[smmudge]

Sorry dp bad connection!

 

[May Kasahara]

Came up on a school trip when I was about 15 , we went to see a Shakespeare play (I think it was A Winter's Tale" ) We were allowed to explore on our own for a few hours so a group of us went drinking (we weren't in school uniform) went to a few places in Soho , including a Topless bar (iirc) where they charged a fortune for beer . That's all I can remember about the trip . Would have been in the spring of 81 possibly.

I came back in 1989 and never left.

Ah, the school trips of yore

Like Kevbad the Bad, I grew up in sarf London and we were skint, so while most days were a day trip of sorts I haven't really done the sights as such e.g. spent pretty much every dry day running around Greenwich Park but have never been inside the Observatory.

When my dad was home from the ship, he used to take us 'up west' for a Chinese meal and the cinema

The first time I ever went inside Westminster Abbey was aged about 19, with my then-boyfriend who pointed out his family crest on the wall, the posh twat.

 

[klang]

Ah, the school trips of yore

Like Kevbad the Bad, I grew up in sarf London and we were skint, so while most days were a day trip of sorts I haven't really done the sights as such e.g. spent pretty much every dry day running around Greenwich Park but have never been inside the Observatory.

When my dad was home from the ship, he used to take us 'up west' for a Chinese meal and the cinema

The first time I ever went inside Westminster Abbey was aged about 19, with my then-boyfriend who pointed out his family crest on the wall, the posh twat.

Was he the one with the dreads?

 

[Puddy_Tat]

another one who grew up in london (a bit further out than lewisham / catford) so don't really have memories of a 'big day out' or holiday sort of thing, and travelling to london every day on the train was something dad did for work, so it wasn't that big a deal.

first trips to / through central london would probably have been before i can remember them (parents never had a car) going to visit grandparent in ealing (so train to charing cross then the district line) or other grandparents in reading (probably change at waterloo, although we did sometimes cross to paddington by bus or bakerloo line)

some of these may have involved a little bit of sightseeing at ground level - i remember being taken along downing street (this would have been in the 1970s when the security consisted of a copper on the doorstep)

don't think we did anything touristy (as in paying to go somewhere) or eating out in central london. did various school trips from primary school including the tower, and some of the museums, and maybe a theatre thing once or twice. (some of these involved a coach, some we got herded to the nearest railway station and went up on the train.)

got taken to the royal tournament at earls court (or was it olympia?) a few times - dad was keen on all things military. we also did the commercial motor show once or twice (again, think it was earls court) in the days when it was open to the public rather than trade only.

greenwich park was a cheap day out in school holidays.

 

[May Kasahara]

Was he the one with the dreads?

Why do you ask?

 

[MickiQ]

I was about 20 and came down from Crewe with some mates, we had a gawp through the gates of Buck House, went round the Tower and admired the bling before finding a pub to drink in where we were stunned that beer cost more than £1 a pint.
We then got some tickets for a play (a comedy not some big production musical) and then drank some more before making our way back to Euston. We probably looked like a bunch of hick country boys overawed by the lights of the big city which was precisely what we were.

 

[klang]

Why do you ask?

Because i remember a photo from the teen thread and i thought he looked a bit like me at the same age...

 

[blairsh]

Wembley in 1993 was the first time i think. Arsenal fans weren't very nice.

Next one after that was probably going Tate Modern in 2000. Hazy train rides, expensive pints, people with fairy wings on micro scooters.

 

[mango5]

I was born and brought up in W1 so most of the sights were in my psyche since the beginning. I still go into the area at least twice a week and in recent years have started doing tours of the sights for colleagues passing through London.

 

[Saffy]

First time I can remember going to London was to the old Middlesex hospital and having a ball in the Princess May children's ward. I don't think it was supposed to be fun but for a 5/6 year old it was ace. We went to the toy museum near there and I got a whistle which sounded like a bird.
Also went to the Spaghetti House which I thought was the best thing ever.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I was born and brought up in W1

i guess it reflects a suburban upbringing, but i remember being faintly surprised when i first found out that people actually lived in central london (other than the prime minister and the queen that is) - at an early age, i'd thought it was just shops / offices...

 

[oryx]

I remember going with my dad in 1970 as a kid, and going to Trafalgar Square and being scared of the pigeons! Then we went to Marylebone Station to get the train to High Wycombe to stay with my uncle and aunt and see my new-ish baby cousin. I seem to remember we jumped on a slowly moving train with our big suitcase.

Over thirty years later, when I'd lived in London for some time, I went to the Tower of London with my sister's family. We went in a big hall where there is heraldic regalia including coats and headdresses for horses, lined up on the wall. It suddenly came back to me that Dad and I had been to the Tower and seen the same things back in 1970, and the memory had been buried. It was strange, and quite moving as it was not long after our dad had died.

We did a day on a coach in the mid-70s and a trip with school which involved going to the Dada and Surrealism exhibition at the Hayward. I still remember the furry cup (though didn't know its meaning back then ).

I loved visiting London (apart from Madame Tussaud's) and can't remember if I wanted to live there one day - probably didn't think about it TBH.